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

by healyzh＠avanthar.com

I really want to see this set produced, especially for the ?Ada Lovelace? and ?Admiral Hopper? portions of the set. https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/f39b… https://ideas.lego.com/projects/3bf5b46c-6c87-4a2d-a2e1-d31ed0e2739e Zane

4 years, 2 months

20
30
0 0

External SCSI Drives on DEC2000 AXP

by g4ajq1＠gmail.com

I am trying to format a couple of SCSI drives on the Alpha.? They are connected using the external cable and are mounted in an Open Storage Systems (OSS) box. The drives were working when removed from a PC. SRM shows only one of them coming up as DKA200.? I have set the two drive ID switches to 2 and 3. Lack of info is hampering me, I have gleaned form various sources that the following command should work: >>>t scsi format a 2 0 which just returns >>>OK immediately, without doing anything. VMS allows me to ini the disk, but then when I try to mount it, I get an operator services message saying it is offline, please mount volume in _$3$dka200: Anybody with experience here? cheers, Nigel -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591 nw.johnson at ieee.org

4 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

cctech Digest, Vol 87, Issue 3

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Power Supplies, due to their Weight, are placed at the bottom of Racks (prevent tip overs ? weight distribution). https://avitech.com.au/?page_id=366 The PDP-11/70 Maintenance and Installation Manual (EK-11070-MM-002) explains that the basic PDP-11/70 system components are located in a double cabinet as shown in Figure 1-1 of that manual. https://i0.wp.com/avitech.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/major-assemblie… greg > Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2021 19:28:01 -0800 > From: Marc Howard <cramcram at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Need picture of power supply mounted in 11/40 cabinet > > Hi, > > I've got an 11/40 I'm going to start working on. Problem is that there are > two power supplies (H742 and H7420) that came with it but neither was > mounted in the rack. > > Could someone post/send/etc. photos of how the power supply mounts in the > rack? Also how is the power cabling routed (I think I'm missing this part)? > > Thanks, > > Marc Howard

4 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Disk cartridge storage racks

by Flash688＠flying-disk.com

I am in need of some disk cartridge storage racks. The kinds I am looking for are the ones used for front-loading cartridges (IBM 2315, DEC RK05, etc.) as well as the ones for top-loading cartridges (IBM 5440, DEC RL02, etc.). They were typically made of welded wire, and stored the cartridges on edge. I could use either the free-standing ones that sit on a shelf, or the ones that were designed to go in a Wrightline cabinet. I am in northwest Oregon and am willing to drive anywhere in the neighboring states to pick them up, or pay for packing and shipping. Thanks, Alan Frisbie

4 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Testers with Alpha or DECstation hardware with framebuffers?

by abs＠absd.org

I've been trying to fixup NetBSD to build usable X servers from up to date Xorg for Alpha and MIPS based DECstations, and wondered if anyone on list had any machines to hand on which they might be willing to test? There is a full distribution (individual set files and bootable ISO image) in http://sync.absd.org/xwsfb/ - the README from that directory is included below. If anything is non obvious, or it would help to have test images in a different format, just let me know Thanks David xwsfb - v1.2 This contains wsfb Xorg builds for NetBSD/pmax and NetBSD/alpha from 2021-12-03 sources Changes from stock NetBSD tree: - Add WSDISPLAYIO_GET_FBINFO to dev/tc TURBOchannel display adaptors - Enable building Xwsfb X server for pmax - Switch alpha from Xorg 1.10 to 1.20 (plus tweaked bsd_ev56 from 1.10) - (diffs in xwsfb.diff) Things to test: - Any and all framebuffers, TURBOchannel (and also PCI on alpha) - Confirm if keyboard mapping is correct (and does console match x11) - Does uxterm work on alpha pmax issues: - uxterm and LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 in general do not work - Escape does not work on gxemul console (not a regression from stock) To install and test pmax in gxemul - Install gxemul :) - eg pkgsrc/emulators/gxemul - Create a 2GB disk image: dd if=/dev/zero of=pmax.img bs=1m count=2048 - Run: gxemul -X -M 256 -e 3max -d pmax.img -d b:NetBSD-9.99.92-pmax.iso - Follow prompts to install - At the end - select 'Add a user' and make sure it is added to wheel - Exit and halt - Run: gxemul -X -M 256 -e 3max -d pmax.img (wait ~forever for fontcache) - Login as root, edit /etc/X11/ctwm/system.ctwmrc and change "uxterm" to "xterm" - Run: startx - Optionally: (if user is in wheel group), enable xdm=YES in /etc/rc.conf To upgrade an existing NetBSD-9.99.92 install - Ensure you have the following from this location (where arch is alpha or pmax) - ${arch}/binary/kernel/netbsd-GENERIC.gz - ${arch}/binary/sets/xbase.tgz - ${arch}/binary/sets/xcomp.tgz - ${arch}/binary/sets/xetc.tgz - ${arch}/binary/sets/xfont.tgz - ${arch}/binary/sets/xserver.tgz - Copy /netbsd to /onetbsd, then extract netbsd-GENERIC.gz as /netbsd - Wipe /usr/X11R7 then extract x*tgz from / - For pmax only: edit /etc/X11/ctwm/system.ctwmrc & change "uxterm" to "xterm" - Run: startx - Optionally: (if user is in wheel group), enable xdm=YES in /etc/rc.conf

4 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Women of Computing

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Can we please return to discussions of actual classic computers, before our long-suffering list host shuts the list down _again_ for this sort of argument, this time perhaps forever? Thank you. Noel

4 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Source for DEC TC01 (and similar) bulbs?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Anyone sitting on a pile of these or know where to find some? These were originally Dialco 507-3917 or Drake 11-507 based on what was installed in mine. 24V, 40mA, white. A total of 23 bulbs were dead on my TC01's panel. I've installed a pile of electrically/physically compatible bulbs that I happened to have, but they're yellow/orange and have a different visual design (the yellow lens sticks out 1/8" or so, whereas the orginals were flush). I'm honestly fine with using them but it'd be nice to have something that looks original. And a small progress update: Found that the IOT decode for READ STATUS B wasn't working, which is done on the W103 decoder at E/F19. With that resolved the diagnostics are behaving much more rationally. This took me much too long to trace down, but I learned a lot about how the controller works and found a fun (but ultimately harmless) bug in the Basic Exerciser diagnostic that threw me off for a couple of days... The Search Scope loop diagnostic shows block numbers going by in both directions so a lot of the drive and controller are working, but there's some glitchiness in bits 2, 5, 8, and 11 of the data so I need to trace that down; I hope it's not the tape head. - Josh

4 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

alt.folklore.computers... Altair Bob

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

A very, very long time ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth (or at least the computer rooms) there was a guy on usenet who called himself "Altair Bob" and offered to buy Altair computers. This was back when they weren't worth all that much (mid to late 1980s). He must have bought a dozen or so (as I remember). Does anybody know who he really was and what became of his (what I'm assuming was a) collection? Just idle curiosity brought on by a recent discussion of collections being destroyed by widows. Bill S. -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

4 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

pdp8/L restoration time, part 1: switches

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

I've decided it's time to fix my second pdp8/L. First one is missing (I think it's at the bottom of the closet) so I'll work on this one for awhile. First problem: Testing the lamps and switches. If the switches don't work or the lamps are out it's not going to be easy to troubleshoot. Currently I'm missing 5 of the plastic switches, and I have 2-3 switches with a broken pivot. Since I was going to need new plastic switch covers I fired up the 3d printer, downloaded the STL file for making them (thank you for putting that up!) and ran off a few for testing. It helps a lot to set the bridge angle value to 60% or so, that allows a nice solid bridge for the two "teeth" that engage the rocker switch. Also don't bother with PLA: The plastic pivots are too weak and break pretty quickly. Use PETG, which requires higher heat (240 instead of 200 at the head and 70 instead of 60 at the base) but it is more than strong enough for the pivots to go in without issues. Testing the switches I found that one of the data/address switches was reading high ohmage (20) when closed in the down direction and two of the data entry (spring loaded) switches were intermittent. Sprayed in a bit of Deoxit, and they now switch cleanly and without bounce. That would probably have driven me crazy if I tried to test with that. Next step: Check out the power supply..... C

4 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Datapoint 2200 on ebay

by osi.superboard＠gmail.com

In my opinion, the Datapoint 2200 on ebay seems to be a 1100 Cassette Terminal. There are two theories - It is a true 1108, as the silver machine label indicates. This 1100 versions showed up in 1974 as described by the LCFGROUP and have been a variant to the 2200 with less memory , using most of the 2200 parts, except the power supply at the back. This has been re-designed. The Datapoint 2200 on ebay is most likely a 1100. But it has the 2200 logo at the front, how can this be ? Ken Whitehead may have the answer for that: StaTuesday 17th July 2012 Ken Whitehead (USA) Other comments re: confusing the 1100/2200/5500/6600 may have arisen >from the fact that all of the enclosures for these models started life with 2200 molded into the plastic bezel. The 1100, 5500 and 6600 models had a separate logo that was applied over the existing 2200 logo. Since double-stick foam tapes were used, over time the tape let loose and the ?new? logo fell off. We had a few customer complaints re: the instant downgrading of their computers when this happened! Alas, we know that for all of those that complained, many more didn?t, giving possible rise to the confusion of what the machine actually was. - My second theory is, it is one of the 1100 terminals, that have been upgraded to a 2200, yes that was possible. The Dataform_1100_Brochure_1974 says: System Expandability. The 1100 user need not fear an application outgrowing an 1100's capabi lit ies. If additional data input locations are required, the 1100 can be upgraded to a Datapoint 2200 DATASHARE System. Seems this was offered along the introduction of the 1100, about 3 years after market introduction of the 2200.With this upgrade came extra 8kb more memory (2 more RAM boards) and a new front cover or removal of the 1100 logo plate ? In any case it is not a Datapoint 2200 as advertised. A real 2200 looks like this: http://datapoint.vintagecomputers.square7.ch/index.html Anyone with another good explanation ? Thomas Sun Nov 28 13:27:20 CST 2021 Previous message: Micro Technology Board Info Next message: Datapoint 2200 on ebay Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] Noticed a Datapoint 2200 on ebay.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/275043446827 They're asking $48,000 I want one...but not for that price! :) Previous message: Micro Technology Board Info Next message: Datapoint 2200 on ebay Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] More information about the cctalk mailing list

4 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

What happened to control-data.info and controlfreaks.org?

by jim＠deitygraveyard.com

Is anybody able to access these sites? I just get redirected to Google. Jim

4 years, 2 months

11
16
0 0

Looking for someone in London (UK) to read 2 9 track tapes

by cclist＠sydex.com

Hey list, I received a note today from a fellow in London who has 2 9-track tapes that he'd like read. Brands are CDC and BASF, so media shedding should not be a problem. Dates are '92 and '93, so likely 1600 or 6259. The tape seal on one (the other has no seal) is IBM-style, which may be the system that produced the tapes. Any takers? Let me know if so, I'll put you in contact and you can take things from there. All the best, --Chuck

4 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

PDP-11/70 Boards

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Sotomayor > I don't unfortunately have any light masks Dave Bridgham and I were manoeuvreing to be able to produce clones of the one you loaned me (he has access to a computer-controlled milling machine at his maker-space or whatever the name is for them now, and we bought a good-sized sheet of the required plastic to be able to crank them out) when I came down with COVID early in the pendemic, and in the aftermath (I came down with long-haul post-COVID Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) itgot put on hold. The loaner, and a micrometer to measure it, are still siting on the table in my family room, next to my desktop. If anybody needs some, I can probably try finishing the drawing, and get it to Dave, so we can resume that project. Noel

4 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/70 Boards

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ed Cross > I'm currently restoring a PDP-11/70 system and need the following > boards to complete the CPU: FP11-C >From your mention of the FP11-C, I gather your -11/70 has a KB11-C (later) CPU, not the KB11-B CPU of the earlier PDP-11/70's (prior to 1976 - the difference between the two was whether they took the optional FP11-B or FP11-C FPP). Not that it makes a big difference in your case; the 4 cache cards are the same in both. There used to be a seller on eBait (on the mid-East Coast - Baltimore, IIRC) who was selling -11/70 CPU cards (I bought a whole spare set from him) but alas he seems to have gone away (or sold them all; a quick search, both on eBait, and in my email, didn't turm him up; I can institute a deeper search if need be). >From the blog of someone who got a KB11-A working, you'll really need KM11 cards; dunno if Guy Steele still has those clones he was selling. There are definitely some versions of Unix which will run fine on -11/70's without the FP11 (e.g. V6). The system binary is different for the with/without versions, though: in the assembler code which saves the state of one process before switching to another, there is code like: stfps (r1)+ which will probably get an illegal instruction trap in kernel mode on a machine with no FP11, and is therefore conditionally assembled (depending on if the particular machine the system is being built for has an FP11). Perhaps the later BSD versions look for the FP11 on startup, and adjust their behaviour appropriately, but I'm not familiar with them. V6 as distributed contains system binary for an -11/40, which will run on _any_ -11 UNIX will run on, and can be used to build appropriate system binary. (Diversion: I've never found out whether the KB11-B and KB11-C of the -11/70 used/could use the same backplane or not. By examining the prints for the boards of the FP11-B and FP11-C, and seeing on which pins they exchanged signals, and what signals they exchanged with the rest of the CPU, and on which pins, it should be possible to work it out. Ditto for the M8133 ROM and ROM Control of the KB11-B, replaced with the M8123 in the KB11-C.) (Interesting factoid: the M8123 is the only card shared between any variant of the -11/45 and -11/70: both the KB11-C and KB11-D use it. Of course, I think we're still missing a wirelist for the -11/70 backplane, of any variant; and the ECO history. There appears to have been at least one poorly documented upgrade; see here: http://gunkies.org/wiki/MK11_memory_system#CSR_Access for more.) Noel

4 years, 3 months

9
13
0 0

Looking for tips debugging DEC TC01 controller

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hey all -- I picked up a TC01 in trade (for a TC08) a couple of weeks back and this past weekend I got it hooked up and powered up with my PDP-8/I + TU55 transport. I've been debugging it and have solved a couple of issues but the current one has me stumped and I'm looking for advice, hoping I overlooked something obvious. At this point the PDP-8/I can talk to the TC01 and use it to control the TU55 without issue. I've mostly been using MAINDEC-08-D3BB to exercise the hardware (see: http://svn.so-much-stuff.com/svn/trunk/pdp8/src/dec/maindec-08-d3b/maindec-…) and issuing FWD/BACK commands via the "Basic Motion" routine the tape runs >from one end of the tape to the other, stopping at the endzones correctly. The tape comes up to speed properly, the COUNTER register increments, and in general the various status lights on the panel do what I expect them to do. The root symptom I'm seeing now is that DECtape operations (like SEARCH) don't complete, and I've traced this back to the MK BLK MK signal not getting asserted. This signal is generated by a large AND gate (see p. 112 of http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/dectape/tc01/DEC-08-I2AB-D_TC01_…). This gate ANDs together a pile of signals from the WINDOW register and the counter, looking for a specific bit pattern on the mark tracks; this AND gate is never satisfied because the WINDOW register's MSB (W1) is stuck low. On the scope it's a completely flat line, no glitches or anything noticeable. Despite my best efforts I cannot figure out why this is. Here's what I've looked at and what I've discovered thus far: 1) The inputs to the W1 flip-flop (pins U (clock) and V (data) look to be correct -- U is identical to the TP1 signal being passed to all the other flip-flops in the chain, and V is identical to the data coming out of W2 -- levels all look fine. 2) The outputs of W1 (pins T and S) are not being pulled up or down by anything external. I've gone so far as to completely disconnect T and S >from the backplane (with some tape over the card fingers) and the outputs are still a flat line. 3) The output of pin T goes to -3V when 0->WINDOW is de-asserted (when tape is in motion), returns to 0V when 0->WINDOW is asserted after the tape stops. (S is the inverse of this, as expected.) (As an aside, the schematic drawing suggests that 0->WINDOW ought to be a pulse given the arrow symbol; this does not appear to be the case. Other flip flops in the chain seem to behave properly, regardless...) 4) The backplane connection to the R203 flip-chip that the W1 flip-flop is on is fine. I've beeped this out and there's no significant resistance between the backplane pins and the connection to the card in the slot. 5) W1 is not affected by the state of the two other flip flops on the R203 (also tested by disconnecting all pins other than power/gnd and pins R/S/T/U/V with tape). 6) Swapping in a different, working R203 shows no change in behavior. 6) Sometimes, randomly, W1 starts working. Last night I noticed that the solder side of R203 was rubbing against the top of the "flip chip" packages on the R107 next to it and even though those shouldn't be conductive, I stuck a piece of cardstock between the two. W1 started working! I tested things for about a half hour in this state (interrupts were still not occurring, much to my annoyance) and this morning I powered it up and it was still working. Pulled the cardstock out and W1 stopped working; this would seem to causation. Put the cardstock back in... still won't work. Backplane connections all test out fine (see (4) above). Put the R203 on an extender (to completely avoid interference with neighboring cards) and still no go. Possibly the insertion of the cardstock flexed the board or the connection with the backplane slot ever so slightly to make things work but if so I've been unable to replicate it. All of this still sounds like a bad connection somewhere (backplane, cold solder joint, broken trace) but the evidence seems to be against it (checked, double-checked, triple-checked backplane, swapped R203s around, etc...) Anyone have suggestions? I'm going to start looking at things on the board itself (which is going to be a pain given how things are currently arranged in the chassis) but curious if I've missed anything here... - Josh

4 years, 3 months

2
2
0 0

Datapoint 2200 on ebay

by sieler＠allegro.com

Noticed a Datapoint 2200 on ebay.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/275043446827 They're asking $48,000 I want one...but not for that price! :)

4 years, 3 months

5
4
0 0

PDP-11/70 Boards

by edcross＠gmail.com

Dear list, I'm currently restoring a PDP-11/70 system and need the following boards to complete the CPU: FP11-C slots: M8127 M8128 M8129 Cache slots: M8142 M8143 M8144 M8145 Any help finding these is appreciated. Thanks.

4 years, 3 months

6
7
0 0

3483 + LCD

by ben＠huntsmans.net

Hi guys- Anyone on here have any experience using an IBM 3483 terminal with an LCD? I have an IBM 15" LCD I am hooking up to it, but parts of the image are below and above the viewable area of the display, and the characters look all garbled or like they're missing some lines. Auto-adjust makes it all visible for a short second, and then it pops back to the way it was. I'd seen at least one other mention of this on the internet, but was wondering if anyone knew of any specific LCD's that are known to work with the 3483. Thanks in advance! -Ben

4 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Interesting emulex manuals. Keep, scan, or junk?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Have some original Emulex manuals. Need space do people want them or trash? tc0551001 TC05 controller manual. I have Rev C, bitsavers has F pd9951002 I have Rev A Bitsavers site has rev D px9951902 Diagnostic distribution kit I have Rev E and H sc0351001 SC03/B1 technical manual. Bitsavers doesn't have sc0251001 SC02/A RP02/03 manual Rev H Bitsavers doesn't have I'll scan the SC03/B1 and SC02/A manuals, but does anyone want the rest? C

4 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

What happened to control-data.info and controlfreaks.org?

by petermallan＠gmail.com

On 11/81/21,. Andrew Warkentin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccomp.org> wrote: >> What happened? Looking back at my emails, the list was operating normally >> until September 3. Then it just stopped. There were normal discussions >> going on. There was no flood of spam. As far as I can tell, nothing occured >> that would trigger a rage quit. >> >> Is the software and documentation that was on the site at least archived >> elsewhere? Has anybody downloaded it and can maybe upload to archive.org? >> >> Mike >> > I downloaded some of the software and documentation from there a long > time ago and still have it, although I didn't actually scrape the > entire site. I can upload what I've got to archive.org. > > The disk image kit of NOS 2.8.7 with CYBIS has been mirrored at > <https://codex.sjzoppi.com/doku.php?id=utilities:start> and most of > the documentation for it is available from the Wayback Machine at > < http://web.archive.org/web/20210421202420/http://www.control-data.info/Cybi… > I have a working version of NOS 2.8.1, but I would like to be able to add software that is not included as part of the system that I downloaded from controlfreaks.org about 18 months ago. An example might be the ALGOL68 compiler. (I stress 'might be', as I haven't checked if that is on my system already. I just know there is 'some good stuff' that I want and which I don't have.) I have had a look on archive.org, but I can't find anything that looks like CDC NOS software tapes. A big part of my difficulty is likely to be that I don't have a list of what was available on controlfreaks.org in order to be able to do a detailed search. I did search archive.org for controlfreaks.org, but all I get is Controlfreaks.orgAuthorized Users Only This site is for the research into historic systems and software made by Control Data Corporation. If you think you can contribute, email to ControlfreaksAdmin <https://web.archive.org/web/20210421192919/mailto:thunter0512 at gmail.com> to request a username/password for access to this site. All the content is over in the TWiki <https://web.archive.org/web/20210421192919/http://www.controlfreaks.org/twi…> . When I click on the TWiki link, I get {ScriptUrlPath}/view/TWiki/TWikiRegistration which is not much use. Does anyone have a list of the CDC software that was available from controlfreaks.org? Cheers Peter Allan

4 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Re: IBM transistor replacements

by alsilisk＠icloud.com

Thank you all for your responses and the leads you have given,??Responses to some of your questions and some more questions:?"Have you checked/measured whether they're actually faulty?"?Yes I have, in the picture I have provided on the bottom there are the ends of 3 transistor leads. This was one that fell off as I removed the card and by far the worst corroded, so despite the fact that the rest still work. I need to replace this one.?"?I would suspect that these transistors are pre-drivers for the power transistors and may not be super critical to get an exact replacement."?Would an NPN or PNP with the same HFE suffice, or do I need to know more? Forgive me but I am a complete idiot when it comes to this kind of circuit design and their tolerances.?"Did you get manuals with the printer?? If so it should have ALDs (schematics)."Unfortunately not, and nor can I find any online.?"The 3286 printers and 3277 terminals where infamous for intermittent problems"Excellent, glad I bought something that will provide the true IBM experience.?Thank you,?Al?

4 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

IBM transistor replacements

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Al - The Texas Instruments (TI) 139 is likely a 2N139 PNP (BJT) transistor, capable of high speed switching (in that era). The 2N139 was originally an RCA transistor (tall cylinder) found in RCA and GE transistor radios (455 kHz IF section). The TI versions were low profile metal case, TO-33 case (8.5 to 9.5mm diameter) greg == From: Al <alsilisk at icloud.com> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: IBM transistor replacements Dear all, A while ago I received an IBM 3286 printer, annoyingly some of the transistors in the printer section have been corroded. What I am having trouble with is reading the part codes and finding a modern equivalent of them. One has a Ti logo and two sets of numbers (attached). Does anybody know which numbers are the part numbers and if they are IBM house numbered? Photos of the Ti transistors and card assembly: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JTnsWS4A8NrYJNFsqK2ejOeqqJNjoF1w?us… Thanks in advance, Al

4 years, 3 months

4
3
0 0

Micro Technology Board Info

by g-wright＠att.net

Have this board here, but can't find any Info on it. Says Neptune board on the silkscreen, tag say model MSD138 T devDates are about 1990 to 1992. https://www.dropbox.com/s/uu8x7bc5a08jw90/IMG_2200.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/e8z542sdnusjpqa/IMG_2201.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/xql6w5zhiismbel/IMG_2199.jpg?dl=0 - Jerry

4 years, 3 months

3
4
0 0

IBM transistor replacements

by alsilisk＠icloud.com

Dear all, A while ago I received an IBM 3286 printer, annoyingly some of the transistors in the printer section have been corroded. What I am having trouble with is reading the part codes and finding a modern equivalent of them. There are two types. One has a Ti logo and two sets of numbers (attached). Does anybody know which numbers are the part numbers and if they are IBM house numbered? Photos of the Ti transistors and card assembly: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JTnsWS4A8NrYJNFsqK2ejOeqqJNjoF1w?us… The other is an IBM transistor with what appears to be a 3 digit part code; for which I have been pointed to a list of house numbering and equivalents on the 1401 website. I was told the list is much older and I fear it might be out of date. However there is an entry for the part codes on my IBM transistors. Should I trust the list for replacements? http://ibm-1401.info/BobEricksonIBM-Transistor-Substitution.html Thanks in advance, Al

4 years, 3 months

7
6
0 0

K12MIT on PDP-12

by cc＠informatik.uni-stuttgart.de

So, with the help of you here, I was able to create OS/8 LINCtapes and to run SerialDisk. Everything runs very fine. Now comes the next thing: I want to have K12MIT, and it is no problem to compile or load the program. *But*: When I start K12MIT I don't get the prompt. I see the welcome message, and it correctly identifies the machine as a PDP-12, but that's it. As I've found out it apparently overwrites its code, the processor is looping around address 3600-3620. Examining the memory reveals that the code at 3600 has been overwritten with junk. So it's clear that it won't run anymore. What happens? Was anyone else able to run K12MIT on a PDP-12? BTW the same binary runs fine on a PDP-8, be it a real machine or SIMH. Christian

4 years, 3 months

3
9
0 0

Jim Warren has passed away

by cliendo＠gmail.com

https://web.stanford.edu/~allison/JimWarren.html For those who do not know about Jim Warren Jim Warren's wiki page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Warren_(computer_specialist)

4 years, 3 months

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The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

by mjkerpan＠kerpan.com

The recent discussion of the sudden disappearance of DtCyber and the various classic CDC software to run on it from the Internet has got me thinking about just how precarious so much of computer history is in. So much of what's out there online (and in person) today is at risk just vanishing if whoever maintains the archive either loses interest (lots of projects over the years succumb to this) , or rage quits (see the expungement of DtCyber and Controlfreaks from the internet), or ends up dying without having made proper arrangements (See the sad fate of the Living Computer Museum, which was killed by its new owners as soon as COVID gave them an excuse to do so) What are we, as a community, to do to fix this and make sure that our history stays peserved and isn't one bad day away from vanishing. Mike

4 years, 3 months

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Extra books

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

Hi, I find myself with some extra books (acquired as part of an auction) that I don't have any interest in keeping. As such, they are available to move to a home that will appreciate them more than mine will. - CBASIC Simplified - Jeffrey R. Weber - 0-938862-10-3 - Mastering CP/M - Alan R. Miller - 0-89588-068-7 - Osborne CP/M User Guide Second Edition - Thom Hogan - 0-931988-82-9 - The Programmer's CP/M Handbook - Andy Johnson-Laird - 0-88134-103-7 - Understanding Pascal - George Ledin Jr. - 0-88248-149-1 - Turbo Pascal Reference Manual from Borland - Pascal With Style - Henry F. Ledgard / John F. Hueras / Paul A. Nagin - 0-8104-5124-7 - Pascal User Manual and Report Second Edition - Kathleen Jensen / Miklaus Wirth - 0-387-90144-2 / 3-540-90144-2 - Invitation to Pascal - Hary Katzan Jr. - 089433-103-5 - Oh! Pascal! - Doug Cooper / Michael Clancy - 0-393-95205-3 - Pascal Programs for Scientists and Engineers - Alan R. Miller - 0-89588-058-X - Mastering Turbo Pascal 5.5 Third Edition - Tom Swan - 0-672-48450-1 I'm mostly asking for postage and handling for book(s). If you want to tip your waiter, that's appreciated too. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

4 years, 3 months

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For Sale, Seattle area: Data General MV/7800 + drives, docs

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I'm doing a bit of cleanup to free up some space and I'd like to try to find a new home for my MV/7800. It's a really cool system that I just haven't had time to spend a lot of time with, and unfortunately it seems unlikely I will anytime soon. The power supply in the CPU has been repaired. There are two large 5236 drives (I believe they have 14" platters, and they weigh about 150lbs apiece) as well, unfortunately I do not have the cabling for them but I don't think it'll be too hard to recreate it. The system appears to be complete with CPU, memory, and disk/tape controllers but apart from getting the power supply going I haven't done anything else to restore it. If anyone's interested, drop me a line. I'd much prefer local pickup but I could be convinced to put this stuff on a pallet if you want to arrange freighting. Thanks, Josh

4 years, 3 months

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The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

by commodorejohn＠gmail.com

> On 2021-11-21 9:45 a.m., Adam Thornton via cctalk wrote: >> On 11/19/21 9:33 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote: >> >> And what happens when you wake up one morning to find archive.org is >> gone, too? >> >> > Fundamentally, eventually we're all going to be indistinguishable > mass-components inside the supermassive black hole that used to be the > Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies anyway. > > Smoke 'em while you got 'em. Yeah, I had a long, hard think about this while the Caldor Fire was looking like it was about to come knocking on my doorstep this fall and I was trying to prep myself for a short-notice evacuation and decide what I could and couldn't take (read: leave stowed in the trunk of the car for the next couple weeks.) Ultimately, while I'd *like* what I have and enjoy to pass on to someone else once I get busy decomposing, in the long run it's all dust, so I'm not gonna worry myself too much over it.

4 years, 3 months

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Anyone want … Creo Brisque badges

by aperry＠snowmoose.com

Hey, A few years ago I did a rescue of a couple Creo Brisque RS/6000s. They didn?t seem to have any Creo software on them, so I removed the Creo badges from them, reinstalled AIX on them, and passed them on. Anyone here want the badges? If so, send an address and I will drop them in the mail and send them your way. alan

4 years, 3 months

3
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PDT11/150 supported in RT11 5.7?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

I spent the other day adjusting and getting my RX02's and the PDT11/150 working in tip top shape. They run fine, but I was wondering: I didn't see the PD.SYS driver on my RT11 5.5 and 5.7 releases. Does anyone know if Dec dropped support sometime after 5.1? C Next project: Put the pdp8/L back together. Or maybe the 11/05. Current working systems: 11/83 with RL02,RX02,TK70, 380mb CDC Esdi,DELQA 11/24 with RL02,RX02 controllers PDT11/150 with both drives running VT52 with repaired power supplies Stuff to work on: Decsystem20/20 LS120 (not an LA/120) pdp11/05 Pair of Pdp8/L's 11/23 system in a BA11-S Plessey/Diablo drives 2 Perq 1's 2 Perq2's Big assed Microvax

4 years, 3 months

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Pictures: Early IC Package with Rolled Legs

by lists＠glitchwrks.com

I figured this would probably be of interest to some people here, too: https://imgur.com/a/TCrIxEH I've had this NS DM8200D 4-bit comparator for a while, after posting some pictures of it to Twitter, Evil Mad Scientist Labs offered to take super macro photos of it for me. It's just a comparator, but the DIP package is a very early "gold sandwich" style carrier. What really makes the packaging unique is that the legs are rolled into a tubular shape, rather than being the usual stamped/coined construction modern ICs use! Thanks, Jonathan

4 years, 3 months

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Passing of Jay Last

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I read with sadness an obituary in the New York Times of the passing of *Jay Last*, he being one of the ?traitorous eight? infamy, if you wish to look at it that way. We in CCTalk owe him and others a great deal as they helped create the Silicon Valley from which early small computers evolved. Happy computing, well sort of! Murray ?

4 years, 3 months

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Siemens RM200 little endian firmware

by plamenspam＠afterpeople.com

Hello, Does anyone have a copy of Siemens RM200 ARC firmware? It has been used to switch from SINIX(big endian) to Linux or Windows (little endian). Best regards, Plamen

4 years, 3 months

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The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

by athornton＠gmail.com

> On 11/19/21 9:33 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote: > > And what happens when you wake up one morning to find archive.org is > gone, too? > > Fundamentally, eventually we're all going to be indistinguishable mass-components inside the supermassive black hole that used to be the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies anyway. Smoke 'em while you got 'em. Adam

4 years, 3 months

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HP 2000 TSB and FORTRAN

by dlwfanservice＠sbcglobal.net

Like many, I used an HP 2000 TSB system in high school to first learn about programming. Wanting to learn more than just BASIC, I soon discovered there was a program on the system that let you write and run FORTRAN programs. All these years later I can't remember anything more than that and haven't seen anything more on it since then until recently. While clearing out my storage space I came across an old binder with a photocopy of a manual. Looking though it I soon realized it was from my high school computer class and described the system for running FORTRAN. So now I have a name at least and a copy of a manual, but haven't yet found anything more and hope that someone here might be able to shine some light and supply more about it. The manual says it was known as OSMI 2000 FORTRAN and was a "series of programs written in the BASIC language which run short FORTRAN programs" on an HP 2000 BASIC system. Anyone heard of this before? Thanks. David Williams www.trailingedge.com

4 years, 3 months

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PDP-11 Diagnostic Program Listings Micro Fiche Scans

by ioerg.hoppe＠gmail.com

Hi Friends, Micro fiche scans of the PDP-11 XXDP listings are online now: http://files.retrocmp.com/fichescanner/bitsavers/pdf/dec/pdp11/microfiche/D… You can insert this into your bitsaver mirror tree with $ cd <your-bitsavers-mirror-root> $ wget --recursive --level 0 --no-host-directories --cut-dirs 2 --no-parent -R index.htm?* http://files.retrocmp.com/fichescanner/bitsavers/ You need about 130 GB space for 1600+ listings. A Win10 version of wget is at http://files.retrocmp.com/wget-1.21.2-win32.zip In 2016 I posted a batch of listings, which was archived at http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/microfiche/ftp.j-hoppe.de/... These were repacked and included in the above distribution. So despite I'm very pleased to see my name on bitsavers: Please discard the "ftp.j-hoppe.de" directory now ! For each listing there are 3 files: - a "gray" pdf in archive quality. - a highly compressed "bw" pdf, about 10x smaller. - an ASCII *.dat with context and title strip data, prepared for database import. The pdfs contain pictures of their fiches as title pages. The quality of the fiches is everything between "brilliant" and "awful" DEC made every possible error while preparating them, the list is endless. My favorite bug: Title strips glued to the wrong fiche (corrected here). I even tried OCR but the results where poor. "ocrmypdf" (= "tesseract + pdf") seems a good tool, but the fiches are too problematic for a fully automatic run. You have to dive into tesseracts training procedures. See https://hub.docker.com/r/jbarlow83/ocrmypdf/ Some project links: http://www.retrocmp.com/projects/scanning-micro-fiches https://youtu.be/X22gr5THBRA https://hackaday.com/2021/09/17/automatic-microfiche-scanner-digitizes-docs/ By the way: This project ate up lots of (physical and personal) resources. I'll will scan other document sets in the future, maybe begging for a donation then. Enjoy! Joerg

4 years, 3 months

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The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Adrian Stoness > [M?]iror everything guys make copies and stash > From: Paul Koning > The web can make things perpetual if they are stored redundantly ... > But anything centralized is just as vulnerable as any centralized copy > ever was, whether from risk of fire or flood, or abandonment. I've been thinking about this issue for a while (although I tend to have a long scope, e.g. looking forward to a time when everyone currently on this list is dead; so I think things like 'failed states' need to be a concern too), and I think history has a key lesson for us. I've been reading up on the history of the Greek cities after the Pelponnesian War, down through the War of the Successors (the Diadochi) after Alexander the Great died. One book I read said that the only surviving source for many major periods in this stretch was Diodorus (a Greek historian from Syracuse in the first century BC); he wrote a history of the world in 40 volumes, only 15 of which survive today complete. The sad thing is that there _was_ a complete set in the library at Constantinope, as late as 1453 (and we know what happened then). So it survived the best part of 2K years, and was then lost; the parts that _did_ survive, did so because there were copies in other libraries. So the lesson is clear: we need to _replicate_ stuff, in a geographically and nationally distributed way. The mirroring of Bitsavers is _very_ good news. However, even in the class of stuff that it focuses on, e.g. old manufacturer documentation, some things don't make it in there, but do exist in other online repositories (e.g. Manx's collections). So one thing we need to do is come up with something like Bitsavers, but with more curatorial work-sharing. Al has done an _incredible_ job, for which we are all deeply in his debt - but it would be good to come up with some way to help him. (E.g. I've been adding links to online versions of manuals, in articles on older DEC stuff I'm doing the CHWiki, and I often find things which aren't in Bitsavers. But sending Al an email saying 'hey, xxx is {here}, you might want to upload it' is just putting all the load on him.) Getting all this stuff into the replicated, mirrored system is a key priority. > And in the case of digital data the added complication is the loss of > the necessary technology. Multiple independent copies will of course help with this (very real) problem. The mirrors will likely be using different hardware, and will turn it over at different times. We could definitely use more mirrors, though - and geographically distributed: it looks like there are current (non-US) ones in the UK, and in Germany - more would be good. New Zealand? Australia? Maybe Japan and India? Individual volunteers aren't really what we need ('when everyone currently on this list is dead'); it needs to be institutions. > The Long Now Foundation has done some good thinking about this; some > others have as well. Jerry Saltzer thought about this, especially the 'generations of hardware', and 'software formats' (e.g old Word docuents) issues. See: "Technology, Networks, and the Library of the Year 2000" http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/inria/inria.pdf (particularly Section 4.3 "Persistence"), and also: "Fault-Tolerance in Very Large Archival Systems" http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/fault-tol/fault-tolerance.pdf > I'd say more of us need to be more paranoid about mirroring stuff. Yes. Don't just use a link, copy stuff down to a place _you_ control. (I.e. not Google Drive. Nothing against Google, but their business might go somewhere different, like Geocities, etc.) I have a large collection of down-loaded stuff. Already I've run into cases where stuff has gone offline, and without my local copy... Noel

4 years, 3 months

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FTGH: FH disk drives (and one HH) - Toronto

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Hi, Located in Toronto Canada, for shipping cost only: - 3 x Hitachi DK516-15 - 2 x Computer Memories Inc (CMI) 6426-S - Microscience HH-1060 (half height; marked bad) - Tandon TM-502 Unknown working condition, but have been stored well. First come, first served, etc. --Toby

4 years, 3 months

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SCSI2SD for HVD?

by jon＠jonworld.com

Hey everyone! Has anyone been able to use a SCSI2SD setup where HVD is required? I know by default that isn't supported, but given we can get custom kits to solder, we could just change out one of the controller chips (optimistically?) Cheers! -- -Jon +44 7792 149029

4 years, 3 months

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Anyone out there with a working Victor 9000 (US only)?

by david4602＠gmail.com

On 10/1/21 1:00 PM, Chuck Guzis<cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > Got a small batch (8) of Victor 9000 floppies, MSDOS ca. 1985. I > really don't want to write a decoder for such a small batch--I've got > other things on the burner right now. Anyone want to take a crack at > transferring the data? (Funds available). > > --Chuck I don't have a Victor (looked for one for a while, and man, are they heavy) because I have a couple of large-ish batch of disks here as well. I read them and have "triangular," Chuck Peddle-esque images, but not sure how to get something like mtools to understand a triangular image. So I understand the motivation to just Kermit the files over to something more sane. :-) - David

4 years, 3 months

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Getting files from HP 3000 tapes (was: Re: HP 2000 TSB and FORTRAN)

by sieler＠allegro.com

Ed writes: ?If? we? ever? ?get? a? way? to? read? tapes? ? for? the? 2000 and? 3000? Well, we can "read" tapes for the HP 3000, and restore the files from HP 3000 backup tapes ... via Allegro Consultant's "ROSETTA STORE" product (of which I'm the primary author). I'm happy to restore some files for fellow collectors/enthusiasts (as time/energy permits) for free. The problem breaks down into two parts: 1. reading the tape Although Rosetta can read from a physical tape drive, that capability hasn't been tested for a decade (because of loss of hardware). Every user we know of uses Rosetta to restore files from tape images. There are a number of formats of tape images ... quite a number. Rosetta understands many tape image formats, including: AWS / HET STORE-to-disk SIMH Stromasys tape image Tapecopy format (Data Conversion Resources) (Oddly, I think it doesn't understand Allegro's own proprietary tape image format, which records a lot more information than others (e.g., read-retry information).) If you need an HP 3000 'STORE' tape recovered, and it's in a different format, let me know. 2. extracting files from the tape image Rosetta can read Classic HP 3000 STORE tapes (aka "CM STORE") of various versions, and MPE/iX STORE tapes (aka "NM STORE") of various versions (although 'interleave' has been tested only very lightly). By "read" I mean that it extracts the desired files, converts some (with some controls), and creates either a hierarchical directory structure matching the original, or a flattened one. What about IMAGE databases? On some platforms (Linux, HP-UX, Windows (?)), IMAGE databases can be converted to Eloquence databases (Eloquence is a product of Marxmeier software). On all platforms, IMAGE databases can be converted to .csv or .xml files. It can also handle SLT tapes, and provide some information on a few other kinds of tapes one might see from an HP 3000 (e.g., dump tapes, Serial Disc images), SPOOK tapes. Rosetta runs on Mac, Linux, HP-UX, and Windows. The HP-UX version can read older versions of ORBiT's Online Backup tapes (before they changed the tape record header format) TL;DR Ed: for the 3000, it's essentially a solved problem, and has been for over 20 years! Note: I also have a utility to restore files from (older?) Burroughs mainframe (e.g., B6700) backup tapes.

4 years, 3 months

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Smecc hp 2000 enclosed in glass being used as a backdrop for phx business journal cio of the year award. [PDF]Back to the Futuremedia.bizj.us/view/archive/phoenix/pdf/CIOs 2012 Final.pdf

by couryhouse＠aol.com

http://media.bizj.us/view/archive/phoenix/pdf/CIOs%202012%20Final.pdf Sent from the all new AOL app for Android

4 years, 3 months

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Ken Gielow passed away

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Ken Gielow sold his Z80DIS (Z80 disassembler) for CP/M 80 as shareware ($20) thru his Butler, PA firm (SLR Systems), until the end of the 1980s. I left Slippery Rock (just north of Butler) in the summer 1983 (about time of release). ? Info World, October 24, 1983 Software Review by Steve Mann https://books.google.com/books?id=rS8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA41&dq=Z80DIS&s… greg == Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2021 17:23:06 -0800 From: Stan Sieler <sieler at allegro.com> To: "General Discussion: On/Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Ken Gielow passed away Last week, Ken Gielow passed away. He was the author of the Z80DIS disassembler, which was both interactive and used a form of "artificial intelligence" to cleverly disassemble Z80 code.

4 years, 3 months

1
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IEEE-488 on the PDP-11

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

In my pile of DEC computer stuff I have a DEC qbus IBV11 IEEE-488 controller board (M7954) with cable (BN11-A) that connects to the GPIB bus. It would be interesting to try this out, but I don't have the DEC 'Instrument Bus Subroutines' that work under RT-11.? Does anyone have this package?? Or know where it can be found? Doug

4 years, 3 months

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Tektronix 4051/4052/4054 GPIB IEEE-488 Flash Drive

by mmcgraw74＠gmail.com

I saw the recent posts on IEEE-488 on the PDP-11, and Christian's post on his Commodore GPIB floppy drive connection to the Tektronix 4051. I have been working for a couple of years on a GPIB/IEEE-488 Flash Drive for the Tektronix 4051, 4052 and 4054 computers, and am getting close to completion. My Tektronix 4050 GPIB Flash Drive emulates the Tektronix 4924 Tape Drive, which is supported by all the 4050 computers using secondary GPIB addresses for commands. This allows the flash drive to be used without needing an option ROM Pack. In particular, 4051 ROM Packs are not compatible with the 4052/4054 ROM Packs as the 4051 used a Motorola 6800 CPU and the 4052/4054 used a Tektronix custom 16-bit bit-slice CPU in order to improve performance 10x and double the memory capacity from 32KB to 64KB. The 4050 GPIB Flash Drive design uses an Arduino directly connected to my custom interface PCB with the GPIB connector, and a micro SD Flash board. I picked the 644-Narrow Arduino board by Pandauino as it has the Atmega644 processor which has twice the flash and RAM as the Arduino Nano and also has 5V I/O which can interface without buffers to the Tektronix 4050 GPIB port. The current code takes 40912 bytes of flash and 2798 bytes of RAM (more than the Nano) and supports PRINT, INPUT, READ, WRITE, OLD, SAVE, BOLD, and BSAVE. These commands have been tested on my 4052 and 4054A and my software development partner's 4051 computer. The flash drive also adds two secondary address commands not supported by the 4924: HEADER and CD. We are using the Arduino FAT32 library which supports long filenames, and create the filename to match the Tektronix tape file header format which includes a file number, file type (ASCII, BINARY, NEW or LAST), data type (PROGRAM or DATA) and the file size. We also take advantage of the extra spaces in that format to insert the file name as a comment - like the Tektronix 4050 BASIC program to add comments to the file header. The CD command is for changing the directory in the microSD card, and allows multiple different Tektronix 4050 DC300 tapes that I have recovered and posted on my github repository: https://github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4051-4052-4054-Program-Files to be stored in separate directories - while maintaining the original tape file numbers. More info and photos in my project thread on vcfed.org: https://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum/genres/other/64990-tektronix-405x-gpib-fl… Monty McGraw

4 years, 3 months

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Manual, Amiga, Broadcast Titler 2

by ethan＠757.org

Anyone have the manual for the Amiga software Broadcast Titler 2? If so, can I scan it and return it to you? Thanks - Ethan -- : Ethan O'Toole

4 years, 3 months

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HP 3056DL - looking for system tape image

by ce.murillosanchez＠gmail.com

Hello everyone; The HP 3056DL was a datalogger consisting of an HP3421 and an HP85B; I bought one many years ago and that's how I got my HP85B and one of my HP3421's. I never restored the tape drive since I had an HP9121 floppy drive available early on (I still have it but it is in need of repair). The 3056DL? came with the manual, but without the tape containing the datalogging software.? Now that I am a happy owner of an EBTKS board, I am looking for an image of the original system tape for the 3056DL.? Does anybody have it by chance? Regards, Carlos.

4 years, 3 months

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Apple cube cleaning

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> rom: Paul Koning > WD-40 is a good solvent to use for adhesives stuck to plastic. It's > unlikely to hurt the plastic but it will soften the glue. My go-to solvent for non-ionized glue residues (use water for ionized) on all sorts of materials has been, for many years, mineral spirits (US name; 'white spirit', in the UK): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_spirit It scores highly on both i) 'doesn't harm underlying material' and ii) 'softens residues' axes. (I've mostly used it on books, to remove stickers, but my experience should transfer to use on computers.) > As always, check on a hidden part of the case to make sure the > particular plastic doesn't object to the stuff you're using. Sage, and important, advice for _any_ removal method. Noel

4 years, 3 months

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0
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Apple cube cleaning

by jacob＠dahl-pind.dk

I got a Apple cube here as part of a larger haul, at some point someone placed a bit of tape on the clear polycarbonate case, the tape is long gone but the yellow glue remains. Am unsure about the hardness of it, if I could use sugar cubes to rub it off, anyone knows a scratch free way to get it off ? Regards -- Jacob Dahl Pind | telefisk.org | fidonet 2:230/38.8

4 years, 3 months

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HP 2000 TSB and FORTRAN

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Like many, I used an HP 2000 TSB system in high school to first learn about programming. Wanting to learn more than just BASIC, I soon discovered there was a program on the system that let you write and run FORTRAN programs. All these years later I can't remember anything more than that and haven't seen anything more on it since then until recently. While clearing out my storage space I came across an old binder with a photocopy of a manual. Looking though it I soon realized it was from my high school computer class and described the system for running FORTRAN. So now I have a name at least and a copy of a manual, but haven't yet found anything more and hope that someone here might be able to shine some light and supply more about it. The manual says it was known as OSMI 2000 FORTRAN and was a "series of programs written in the BASIC language which run short FORTRAN programs" on an HP 2000 BASIC system. Anyone heard of this before? Thanks. David Williams www.trailingedge.com

4 years, 3 months

1
0
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Intel 4004 turns 50

by healyzh＠avanthar.com

It looks like the Intel 4004 turned 50 yesterday. Zane

4 years, 3 months

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Ken Gielow passed away

by sieler＠allegro.com

Last week, Ken Gielow passed away. He was the author of the Z80DIS disassembler, which was both interactive and used a form of "artificial intelligence" to cleverly disassemble Z80 code.

4 years, 3 months

1
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Free DEC stuff clarifications

by danieldsnyder＠gmail.com

I have numerous requests for pickup. What is the most fair way dealing with this? First come first serve? I need to have removed by Christmas. >From memory, I can state what is in the photos. 1 - Alphaserver DS20E 1 - Alphaserver DS20 1 - Alphaserver 1000 1 - Alphaserver 1000A 2 - Compaq XP1000 1 - Alphaserver 1200 1 - Alphaserver 400 4 - non functional Decserver 700's ( bad ps) 2 - Decstation 500 2 - Alpha PC workstation TZ series tape inits BA 350 series drive racks I also have VMS CD media and maybe True64 Call me at 7-2-4-9-9-1-6-9-8-3

4 years, 3 months

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I-4004

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

Did the 4004 chip start our interest in microcomputing? It is 50 today. Classic computing begins earlier but for the masses, if they could be called that in the early seventies, this was it. I hesitate in calling it the first microprocessor as pc'ers will object. Happy computing all. Murray ?

4 years, 3 months

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COGNOS box

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Hi all Trying to get rid of some boxes of ephemera, including this one: https://imgur.com/a/dm1vR Note that the software media is not included. Location: Toronto Canada --Toby

4 years, 3 months

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Does anybody have documentation or know about the OKI IF800/300 a.k.a. Sumicom System 830

by pleasefixmybrick＠gmail.com

? It certainly didn't have market penetration in USA! I did once have, and implemented in XenoCopy, a sample disk from an Okidata if800 model 20, which seemed to be the same as a BMC if800 model 20 (if one more alternate name might help you find information). I hadn't heard the Sumicom badging. ? I also had a disk for Oki (don't know if same model) with the Microsoft Stand-Alone BASIC, instead of CP/M. ? Unfortunately, the model 20 was a different architecture all together. I have begun looking into Japanese museums. Maybe there is more documentation and data in its country of origin.

4 years, 3 months

2
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Old Xerox stuff? 820, 860

by Anders.Gustafsson＠pedago.fi

We were cleaning the basement yesterday and I came across some Xerox stuff from the 1980's. For the 860 there are program listings and disk format documentation. For the 820 I have BIOS listings and service manuals for the monitor they used. Ny company happened to work with RX here in Finland and I wrote routines to convert from X860 to WordPerfect. Also from the typewriters. -- Med v?nlig h?lsning Anders Gustafsson, ingenj?r anders.gustafsson at pedago.fi | Support +358 18 12060 | Direkt +358 9 315 45 121 | Mobil +358 40506 7099 Pedago interaktiv ab, Nygatan 7 B , AX-22100 MARIEHAMN, ?LAND, FINLAND

4 years, 3 months

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Fw: Re: Does anybody have documentation or know about the OKI IF800/300 a.k.a. Sumicom System 830

by wpointon＠earthlink.net

? -----Forwarded Message----- From: xcvb Sent: Nov 12, 2021 9:18 PM To: Fred Cisin , General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Does anybody have documentation or know about the OKI IF800/300 a.k.a. Sumicom System 830 ? very quiet today on here -----Original Message----- From: Fred Cisin , General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Sent: Nov 11, 2021 1:25 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Does anybody have documentation or know about the OKI IF800/300 a.k.a. Sumicom System 830 ? On Thu, 11 Nov 2021, pleasefixthisbrick via cctech wrote: > I seem to have the only one in America, and I am trying to find documentation > on it.? I have already backed up ROM's and it's custom CP/M build.?? I am > looking for in depth documentation that I can reference to get this machine > functioning and accessible online.? Hoping to set up a BBS on it. ? It certainly didn't have market penetration in USA! I did once have, and implemented in XenoCopy, a sample disk from an Okidata if800 model 20, which seemed to be the same as a BMC if800 model 20 (if one more alternate name might help you find information). I hadn't heard the Sumicom badging. ? I also had a disk for Oki (don't know if same model) with the Microsoft Stand-Alone BASIC, instead of CP/M. ? -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com ? ? ?

4 years, 3 months

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Does anybody have documentation or know about the OKI IF800/300 a.k.a. Sumicom System 830

by wpointon＠earthlink.net

very quiet today on here -----Original Message----- From: Fred Cisin , General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Sent: Nov 11, 2021 1:25 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Does anybody have documentation or know about the OKI IF800/300 a.k.a. Sumicom System 830 ? On Thu, 11 Nov 2021, pleasefixthisbrick via cctech wrote: > I seem to have the only one in America, and I am trying to find documentation > on it.? I have already backed up ROM's and it's custom CP/M build.?? I am > looking for in depth documentation that I can reference to get this machine > functioning and accessible online.? Hoping to set up a BBS on it. ? It certainly didn't have market penetration in USA! I did once have, and implemented in XenoCopy, a sample disk from an Okidata if800 model 20, which seemed to be the same as a BMC if800 model 20 (if one more alternate name might help you find information). I hadn't heard the Sumicom badging. ? I also had a disk for Oki (don't know if same model) with the Microsoft Stand-Alone BASIC, instead of CP/M. ? -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com ?

4 years, 3 months

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Free DEC stuff, local pickup only

by danieldsnyder＠gmail.com

The remains of my DEC computer lab. Need to have removed by christmas https://photos.app.goo.gl/b7QL7fNY14WJ7TPDA Contact me at danieldsnyder-----at----gmail-----.----com Located in western PA near Pittsburgh

4 years, 3 months

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Does anybody have documentation or know about the OKI IF800/300 a.k.a. Sumicom System 830

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

On Thu, 11 Nov 2021, pleasefixthisbrick via cctech wrote: > I seem to have the only one in America, and I am trying to find documentation > on it.? I have already backed up ROM's and it's custom CP/M build.?? I am > looking for in depth documentation that I can reference to get this machine > functioning and accessible online.? Hoping to set up a BBS on it. It certainly didn't have market penetration in USA! I did once have, and implemented in XenoCopy, a sample disk from an Okidata if800 model 20, which seemed to be the same as a BMC if800 model 20 (if one more alternate name might help you find information). I hadn't heard the Sumicom badging. I also had a disk for Oki (don't know if same model) with the Microsoft Stand-Alone BASIC, instead of CP/M. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

4 years, 3 months

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Electronika MC 0511

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I just received my UKNC from what was Czechoslovakia. Made in 1990 it was dirty but otherwise in good shape. I need to install an alternate power supply as the Soviet one requires 220volts and has a wierd plug. Anyone know where one can find a disk interface for this machine? I have such for several other vintage systems, which use CF cards, as with my Atari 8-bits and Atari ST. I gather there was a floppyface for the thing but that it is pretty rare. Any help would be appreciated. RSX11 awaits this micro-PDP compatible. Best, Jeff

4 years, 3 months

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Overclocked TI Silent 703 at 1200 bauds?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Please excuse the hijack: I have two Silent 700's, I think the 745 models with acoustic coupler and 110/300 baud rocker switch. One I have fixed and it works great (well, at least as far as that silvery thermal printout goes). Unfortunately one has three bad keys and at least one missing column on the printhead (yes, the head itself is bad). Does anyone have a junker >from which I can buy three keyswitches and a printhead? :) thanks Charles

4 years, 3 months

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Overclocked TI Silent 703 at 1200 bauds?

by curiousmarc3＠gmail.com

I recently acquired a TI Silent 703 on ePay and just fired up. It worked right away. But I expected it to work at 300 bauds as advertised, and to my surprise, it clocked at a the head turning speed of 1200 bauds! Did they hot-rod it later in its product life? It says MODEL 703 at the back, part no. 2310503-0010. I did not open it up yet. Is this a hardware mod? Is there an internal switch that can toggle it between 300 and 1200? Marc

4 years, 3 months

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LINCtape images

by cc＠informatik.uni-stuttgart.de

Short question: How do I transfer LINCtape images back to tape on a PDP-12? Ideally there is some binary program to load via papertape to format a tape and recreate it with data transfer over the console serial line. Christian

4 years, 3 months

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TI-99/4a Monitor power cord

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

I have a TI monitor that has a power cord that is becoming sticky and gummy and I'm looking at what to do with it. I figure the best solution is to probably see about replacing it with a new one. Has anyone ever looked at this monitor and the cord connection? Have any info on it? How difficult it might be to replace it? I haven't been able to find any doc or anything searching online but may just not be using the right keywords. Any other suggestions on dealing with the cord besides replacing it? Wrap it in something I suppose... Thanks in advance. David Williams www.trailingedge.com (http://www.trailingedge.com)

4 years, 3 months

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memory assignment jumpers MM8EJ

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I am unable to confirm for sure the memory assignment process for I know without a doubt how to set their page assignments. I can guess but that's dangerous and inefficient. I want to test an unknown core stack, so I need to know which RAM space I am testing. I have a PDP 8e core stack with the following: H121 8x12 core G233E G111C Anyone know the process of assigning the RAM space on the boards? Bill

4 years, 3 months

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Zorba owners/Help diagnosing display issues

by ben＠listenfaster.com

Hello from Seattle everyone, I'm new to the list. I recently bought a Zorba on Ebay, which was my first machine as a kid back in 1985, dialing into BBSs and learning assembly and basic. I put a lot of hours in on this machine and was very excited to acquire one, even though the sale was 'as is'. I have some issues to address, beginning with perhaps a faulty component on the video board driving the crt. While I'm an experienced programmer and have some rudimentary skills with electronics, I'm going to be in bootcamp troubleshooting this board. I have some help in my network of friends, but wanted to throw this out to the list. Are there any Zorba owners who would be willing to trade notes/advice with me on their experiences troubleshooting hardware issues (or anyone else out there, for that matter :) )? Have you used the composite video out to feed another monitor? Detail on my first issue: the display appears to need the kind of stabilization I _thought_ the horizontal and vertical hold adjustments would provide, but it's not entirely stable. I have tried the composite out, feeding it to a cheap composite->HDMI adapter, but that signal looks like a blank screen in need of vert/horiz hold adjusting. Before I go much further, I was hoping someone out there might be able to verify their use of the composite out to an external display. I haven't found any detail on what that signal should look like, other than it's 'composite' - maybe someone with more expertise can tell me what assumptions I can make about a composite signal. Thanks for reading that long message - and glad to be a new member of the list. Ben

4 years, 3 months

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8" disk drive questions...

by deramp5113＠yahoo.com

Here?s a demo video of a Pertec 5.25? drive that has dual index sensors so you can simply flip a standard disk over and use both sides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UCcONLTsuQ&t=32s Mike

4 years, 3 months

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DEQNA cab kit wiring

by g4ajq1＠gmail.com

Does anybody have a wiring diagram?? I have one with two broken wires! Or a photo of the BERG connector as long as the colour code is consistent :-) Thanks in advance, Nigel -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591 nw.johnson at ieee.org

4 years, 3 months

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SQ703/6 conversion and a little fun

by g4ajq1＠gmail.com

A few months ago, thanks to help from several people here, I converted an SQ703 TMSCP controller to SQ706 MSCP. I had problems trying to use it on the vax due to the complexity of mapping Q-Bus registers under ODT, so put off trying until I got the LSI-11/73 going. Now I have a problem: It seems to run and recognise the controller as SQ706 according to the on-board diagnostics, however it insists saying it is at 777450, the TMSCP address.? Trying to change it gives me an out-of-bounds message. OK, I thought, I will just use it there. Put it in to a running RT11 system and it shows up at 772150 and clashes with an existing controller! It seems that one of the PALs is maybe setting up the address! Anybody else tried this? cheers, Nigel Here's the fun:? https://www(dot)bbc(dot)com/news/entertainment-arts-59089596 Maybe our vax computers will become popular once again! -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591 nw.johnson at ieee.org

4 years, 3 months

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8" disk drive questions...

by cclist＠sydex.com

Just as a follow up, I grabbed one of the Memorex "flippies" out of my files: https://i.imgur.com/3VnrazS.jpg --Chuck

4 years, 3 months

2
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Terminal Emulator for Android

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

I would like to use my tablet, Samsung Tab E model SM-T560NU, to connect to my VAX and Linux computers.? There seem to be a large number of 'Apps' out there.? What is a good one to use? The VAX doesn't have SSH only insecure TELNET.? Another can of worms, SSH on the Vax? Doug

4 years, 4 months

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Mystery 1702A(?) EPROM Programmer

by deramp5113＠yahoo.com

It might be the Mikra-D MD-2040 1702 programmer. Similar to the MD-2044 on my website but a parallel data interface (e.g., manual switches and lights) instead of a serial RS-232 interface. The 2040 is briefly mentioned in the .pdf file here: https://deramp.com/downloads/eprom_p...kra-d/md-2044/ Mike

4 years, 4 months

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Old Apple II game manuals and the Internet Archive

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

While clear out storage spaces I have come across binders of photocopies of lots of old Apple II game manuals. I've checked online for those that have been scanned already and will toss those. Before I toss the rest which I haven't found online, I'd like to scan them and upload to the Internet Archive to save them. Most of these are one page with a few 2-4 pages. What I'm wondering about is the best way to upload them after scanning. Do each individually, which adds a lot of entries to my small upload page (which I suppose isn't a big deal) or zip them up and upload the one file and make sure the metadata is properly set to identify each manual in the zip. Or some other method? Suggestions? Thanks, David Williams www.trailingedge.com (http://www.trailingedge.com)

4 years, 4 months

2
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SQ703/6 conversion and a little fun

by g4ajq1＠gmail.com

A few months ago, thanks to help from several people here, I converted an SQ703 TMSCP controller to SQ706 MSCP. I had problems trying to use it on the vax due to the complexity of mapping Q-Bus registers under ODT, so put off trying until I got the LSI-11/73 going. Now I have a problem: It seems to run and recognise the controller as SQ706 according to the on-board diagnostics, however it insists saying it is at 777450, the TMSCP address.? Trying to change it gives me an out-of-bounds message. OK, I thought, I will just use it there. Put it in to a running RT11 system and it shows up at 772150 and clashes with an existing controller! It seems that one of the PALs is maybe setting up the address! Anybody else tried this? cheers, Nigel Here's the fun:? https://www(dot)bbc(dot)com/news/entertainment-arts-59089596 Maybe our vax computers will become popular once again! -- Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept! Skype: TILBURY2591 nw.johnson at ieee.org

4 years, 4 months

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8" disk drive questions...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

I'm working with the developer of the Applesauce disk imaging tool in order to iron out some issues with 8" disk support. I'm using a Qumetrak 842 disk drive that's got support for both double and single-sided media. This means that it's equipped with two index hole sensors, slightly offset from one another. It's my understanding that single-sided media has the index hole in one spot on the jacket, and double-sided media has one in a slightly different location. The issue at hand is some NIB Dysan double-sided 8" media I have - the disks have index holes in the jacket in both locations. Is this typical, or do I have some weird "special" disks on my hands? The Applesauce author posits that the combination of the dual-sensor drive and the dual-hole media wouldn't typically find themselves together. Is this accurate? If it's not, how would a system contemporary with the media have handled the two index holes? Thanks! g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

4 years, 4 months

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ISO: GE Terminet 300 knowledge

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hey all -- I picked up a GE Terminet 300 which appears to be mostly functional, but is in need of alignment -- it's printing fairly smudged garbage with a few recognizable characters intermixed. Character positioning (horizontal) seems to be fairly irregular, for the characters that print clearly. The unit has suffered some knocks in its life and it's clear the photocell board has come slightly loose, which I'm sure is not unrelated, so I'm studying the service docs to get a better idea what's going on. There's an alignment gauge which I could reproduce if I had any idea what it's specs are. The service docs are a bit vague and the photocell assembly is a bit difficult to see, buried beneath the print band on the left hand side. Anyone out there have any experience with these? Any wisdom to impart here? Also, anyone have any spare print fingers? My print band's missing one (a "9") and I suppose it wouldn't be a terrible idea to have a few extras just in case... Thanks, - Josh

4 years, 4 months

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Mystery 1702A(?) EPROM Programmer

by lists＠glitchwrks.com

Does anyone recognize this EPROM programmer: https://imgur.com/a/GcmefTl It appears to be for 1702A EPROMs. Working on cleaning it up and figuring it out! Thanks, Jonathan

4 years, 4 months

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Tape Belts, was: FTGH: FH disk drives (and one HH) - Toronto + Scotch DC 300XL tapes

by lists＠glitchwrks.com

The belts are more or less all failing at this point, even on the newer multi-gigabyte QICs. I finally had to stop extracting the good ones from newer tapes, boiling, and reusing because that was not reliable anymore. Seems everyone is using these nowadays: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08536J6Y5 Thanks, Jonathan ??????? Original Message ??????? On Saturday, October 30th, 2021 at 22:30, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Toby, will those 300XL tapes move the tape if you turn the capstan?? I > > got my drive working but when I tried to see if the tapes would read, > > the rubber band that moves the tape just shattered due to age. > > Try turning the wheel with your finger and see if it moves the tape, if > > it does i would like them. > > Cheers, > > Nigel > > On 2021-10-30 10:28 p.m., Toby Thain via cctalk wrote: > > > On 2021-10-30 1:14 p.m., Toby Thain via cctalk wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > Located in Toronto Canada, for shipping cost only: > > > > > > - 3 x Hitachi DK516-15 > > > - 2 x Computer Memories Inc (CMI) 6426-S > > > - Microscience HH-1060 (half height; marked bad) > > > - Tandon TM-502 > > > > > > Unknown working condition, but have been stored well. > > > > > > First come, first served, etc. > > > > > > --Toby > > > > Also: 2 x Scotch DC 300XL tape cartridges, good condition. > > > > --Toby

4 years, 4 months

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PDT-150 miniminc floppies wanted.

by scott451＠gmail.com

I have a PDT-150 with a box of blank 8? floppies. Is there someone in this group who can image miniminc BASIC and a system disk onto floppies? Preferably in the Bay Area ?

4 years, 4 months

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Sun-2 and Sun-3 mice (eBay)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > AFAIK, the posts are there so you don't plug your mouse into a phone > jack or a modem port. There are cutouts on the back of the Sun3 > keyboard to admit that connector. > My Sun 2/120 server has an RJ mouse connector next to the RJ keyboard connector on the back of the chassis. My Sun 2/50 desktop client has a DA-15 keyboard connector on the back and has the mouse plugged into the keyboard. I have a black Mouse Systems mouse with a Sun sticker on the front. P/N 900783-002/01. Maybe for a Sun-1? -- Michael Thompson

4 years, 4 months

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Sun-2 and Sun-3 mice (eBay)

by bear＠typewritten.org

https://www.ebay.com/sch/xi_jinping/m.html?item=334195034340&hash=item4dcf9… Hadn't realized before that there were Sun-2 mice which weren't black (were white/beige). I know some folks are looking. No connection with the seller, apart from having bought one of them already. ok bear.

4 years, 4 months

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Vt131 4 sale in St.Louis

by dillera＠dillernet.com

https://www.estatesales.net/marketplace/items/579642 <https://www.estatesales.net/marketplace/items/579642> ADM-3a. Some interesting stuff to be sure. too bad it too far from me. -andy > On Oct 26, 2021, at 2:59 PM, Wayne S via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > VT 131 for sale at auction in St. Louis. It?s local pick up only which means they won?t ship. > Some other interesting stuff too. > I have no affiliation to the seller. > > > https://www.estatesales.net/marketplace/items/579633 > > Sent from my iPhone >

4 years, 4 months

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Programming Bipolar PROMs (Tom Hunter)

by mark＠markesystems.com

From: Tom Hunter <ccth6600 at gmail.com> Subject: Programming Bipolar PROMs > The part is an Intersil IM5600CP, but these were also made by others, for > example Signetics and Philips made the 82S23 and TI and NTE made the > faster > SN74S188N. Some vendors still sell these parts and there are even a few on > Ebay. > > How do I program these PROMs? I found one somewhat obscure description of > the algorithm in the NTE datasheet, but I suspect that each manufacturer > had (somewhat) different algorithms. I built a project using Russian clones of the 74188, and ended up building a programmer for them. The programming process is slow (over a minute to program 32 bytes), draws quite a bit of power (the chip is uncomfortably warm afterwards), and it took a while to work out the programming algorithm. Also, as Tom Hunter mentioned, the programming process isn't perfect - about 5% don't program correctly; I don't know if this is my algorithm or the fact that the clones aren't so good. However, once programmed, they seem to work just fine. I bought the Russian devices off eBay for cheap - I think they were about $0.20 apiece, so I got a hundred of them, which I've been slowly nibbling away at as my little product sells. I still have several dozen left; if you'd like you could send me the hex file (or listing - it's only 32 bytes, which I could type in), and I could program a couple for you. I'm not sure I could recommend building your own programmer. It's obviously possible, and there are hand-operated versions floating around on the internet (really hand-operated: set a rotary switch for the bit and five address switches, turn on the power, and push a button for 1-1/2 seconds; repeat for every "1" bit in the PROM), but you'd need more than just the Arduino. You need eight high-side drivers that will handle an amp apiece, plus another driver to switch the power supply voltage between 5 and 13.5 volts, as well as writing a program to implement the algorithm. (actually, it's slow enough that you could get by using relays for all the higher voltage switching.) I don't believe that any modern programmer handles these - if the Data I/O does, then that's probably your only option. ~~ Mark Moulding

4 years, 4 months

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Maybe - re- DMX11

by bobsmithofd＠gmail.com

I left in 79, I designed the AUtodin II mode 1A//Mode VI line usints. Those were synchronous comms interfaces for Bisync.ADCCP/ etc connections while CSS did the Mode 1 I think it was Asynch interface line unit. I suspect DMX is the commercial version of that Autodin II Asynch design, using the KMX/COMMIOP cpu and a dedicated unibus system unit set to support the lineunits BUT I could be wrong maybe DMX was something completely different but it seems to tickle my memory. bb

4 years, 4 months

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Linux and the 'clssic' computing world

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

To my knowledge the Linux kernel was released to the public 30 years ago around this time. My dear friend swears by it and will never go back to Windows even though WIN 11 is much more secure than previous Windows versions. Prior to Linux there were other much-earlier operating systems for 8-bit and 16-bit machines we classic computer users could use. For emulators now we have a choice but do they work better in Linux or Windows? Happy computing. Murray ?

4 years, 4 months

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Looking for manual for MDB MLSI-LP11

by g4ajq1＠gmail.com

Does anybody have any sources other than bitsavers and vcf? cheers, Nigel

4 years, 4 months

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Dec DMX11--What was it?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Anyone know about the Dec DMX11? It was apparently a 64 serial line Mux that plugged into pdp11 Unibus systems and had a fair amount of both intelligence and insanity on board. Reason is I'm looking into some old documentation about late 1970's Tote systems for Asian race tracks and the system they were building was beyond astronomical in terms of insanity. (As in an 8 way pdp11/70 system cluster, with 11/04's running these DMX11's to hundreds of terminals)

4 years, 4 months

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: FTGH Various DLT and 4mm DAT Drives - Midlands UK

by james＠attfield.co.uk

============================================================================ ===================== Message: 1 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> Subject: Re: FTGH Various DLT and 4mm DAT Drives - Midlands UK On Fri, 22 Oct 2021 at 06:38, James Attfield via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > I?m having a general clear out and the following are free for the collection rather than they go in the skip/dumpster. You haven't said where you are. Message: 2 From: Grant Taylor <cctalk at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net> Subject: Re: FTGH Various DLT and 4mm DAT Drives - Midlands UK On 10/22/21 3:41 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: > You haven't said where you are. Per the subject, Midlands UK. I don't know how big of an area that is, but I do know that it's way out of the way for me to go pick up. ============================================================================ ===================== Apologies if I did not make it clear, I am located about 12 miles SSW of Birmingham, United Kingdom. My 3W location is tilt.custom.glitz I have also checked and tested the following: Apple Powermac G4/768Mb/74Gb OSX 10.4 Apple Powermac G4 Mirror Door Dual 867MHz CPU/1.75Gb/74Gb OSX 10.5 Both in very good condition and running very nicely with OSX installed, working DVD and Ethernet. Both are lovely machines, not keen to do FTGH but would entertain reasonable offers to get them a good and loving home. Also available but as yet untested (working when racked) a Dell Prolinea 575e and an HP Vectra VE. The Dell has what you might term a proper FDC. Those who are into FDD transfers will know what I mean. Both of these are FTGH. Sorry for those who are outside of the UK, I know how it feels. Having said that, I would trade all of this (including the Powermacs) for a working Cromemco Z2D or CS3 chassis. I would even consider a Cromemco System-1 chassis. James

4 years, 4 months

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Looking for info on memory

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Nigel Johnson Ham > an 11/23 will not work without bank zero memory It depends on what you mean by 'work'. If you mean 'ODT does not operate correctly', or 'the CPU won't run', I can assure you that neither of those is correct. Here is a recorded log from a session earlier today on a system here next to my desktop: it contains a KDF11-A (in slot 1Left of a Q-Q backplane) and a console DLV11-J (in slot 1Right), and no other cards: ^@^@ 000000 @777560/000000 @777564/000000 777566/000000 777570/? @777640/177777 777 @/000777 @777640G Cmd: 177640 @^@^@ As you can see, ODT is working,and the console registers are all responding OK. The thing at the bottom is that hack of putting a small program in the PARs (UIPAR0, in this case). The "Cmd:" prompt is where I told my console program to send a 'break' down the serial line to the -11, stopping the CPU. (The 'run' light had been on, after the "777640G".) (Note: The PAR hack doesn't work in J-11 CPUs; they won't do instruction fetches from PARs.) To confirm that I'm not BSing you, can someone else on the list please do this on their KDF11-A, and confirm that it produces the results I show about? Thanks. > All I get is output of 173000 and the no ability to input. If that's with just a non-LSI11 CPU card and the console serial line, the machine has a problem. As you can see above (the "777560/", etc were my type-in), you should be able to talk to ODT on a KDF11 (and I tried a KDJ11 yesterday, it worked too). (I don't recall if the LSI-11 types _anything_ when started with no working memory at 0; if anyone wants to know, I can fairly easily try it, I have a bunch of working LDI-11's, both quad and dual cards). Noel

4 years, 4 months

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Looking for info on memory

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Nigel Johnson > I will wait with bated breath! First things first; did you get either/both CPU's running ODT OK in a system containing just i) the CPU card and ii) the console serial interface? Noel

4 years, 4 months

3
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Atari ST documents

by van.snyder＠sbcglobal.net

I sold my Atari ST some time ago. Today, I found some old documents relating to it. Not from Atari. 1. Zubair Z-Ram 3-D/4MEG add-on memory board (plugs into the glue socket). 2. Atari CHKDISK3 Documentation (April 22, 1990) 3. Atari GEMDOS Reference Manual (April 4, 1986) 4. Weirdly, the circuit diagrams for the IBM AT 5.25" double-sided diskette drive in the same folder. 5. Quick reference sheet for microEmacs. They're yours for the price of a PDF shipping label for a 14oz 10"x12" envelope. Van Snyder van.snyder at sbcglobal.net 1.

4 years, 4 months

1
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FTGH Various DLT and 4mm DAT Drives - Midlands UK

by james.attfield＠icloud.com

I?m having a general clear out and the following are free for the collection rather than they go in the skip/dumpster. Most if not all were working when put away but I can?t offer any guarantees. Preference will be given to anyone who will take all of them. Photos are available if required, if I get time to ge a drive on line and can erase tapes quite a few will be available as well. - Compaq 20/40GB in chassis - HP Surestore DLT40 in chassis (20/40GB?) - Digital DLT in chassis (35/70GB) - Compaq 35/70GB in chassis - DLT 35/70GB in chassis (same drive as in the Digital chassis) - DLT 35/70GB bare drive (same drive as in Digital chassis) - 4mm DAT in chassis (probably 4/8GB) - 4mm DAT, 5.25? spacers, no chassis, (probably 4/8GB) - 4mm DAT, 5.25? spacers, no chassis, (probably 4/8GB) - 4mm DAT, no spacers, no chassis, (probably 4/8GB) They won?t be around long so with apologies, if you have any interest, please don?t delay. Let me kow here then we can take comms off line. Sorry, can?t ship. ? James --- Credentials Loves Cromemco, loves Unix, loves DeSmet C. Hand built an original IMSAI 8080, Nascom I and II, resurrected a TU-ART from the dead, owned one of the first EXIDY Sorcerers in the UK, ran Byte Shop/Computerland (Birmingham).

4 years, 4 months

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Power supply power-up and power-down sequencing: how did it work?

by stepleton＠gmail.com

Hi cctalk, I asked this question over on vcfed, but in the spirit of knowing more (and avoiding silly, costly mistakes) I thought I'd ask again here. I hope this is okay --- I think there must be a lot of community expertise to draw from, and not everyone is in the same forums. After seeing CuriousMarc's horror film about the killer transistor that zapped the guts of his HP9825T, I've been working for some time on a solid-state DC power supply monitor device that will chop all power to logic if there's ever any excursion above or below critical voltage thresholds on any power supply channel. I've been pretty successful in the development so far and have a gizmo that accomplishes the basic goal, even if it's not going to win any industrial design awards. It's not a crowbar circuit: each voltage channel passes through a substantial driver IC that can switch the power right off. My device can detect and react to anomalies very quickly. But then you browse through old DRAM datasheets and see warnings like these: "Vbb must be applied prior to Vcc and Vdd. Vbb must also be the last power supply switched off." "Forward biasing this supply [that is, Vbb] with respect to Vss will destroy the memory device." And so even though my device is fast, it's possible that when it's slamming the doors shut, there's a split second where -5V is off and +12V is still on, or even the chance of a Vbb-Vss forward-bias "blip", who knows? Of course you can measure whether this is happening, but it's difficult to know how meaningful that will be: maybe a computer that loads the voltage rails differently will have different behaviour, and remember, the case you really care about is when a power supply behaves abnormally! System characterisation is hard... Anyway, my question is: what did hardware designers in the '70s do to satisfy specified power supply requirements for the chips they were using? The conversation so far on vcfed has two remarks: one observing that a lot of folks just didn't worry about it, and one pointing out an anti Vbb>Vss gimmick in the PSU for the Nascom kit computer involving a ladder of protective diodes between each of the rails: (-12V) ---->|---- (-5V) ---->|---- (0V) ---->|---- (+5V) ---->|---- (+12V) I noticed a similar pattern in a few other PSU schematics, but usually only for the negative channels. Were there any other common tricks? How serious was the danger of getting it wrong? How fast could you fry your DRAM if you did? Thanks for any insight, --Tom

4 years, 4 months

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Looking for info on memory

by g4ajq1＠gmail.com

I am trying to bring up an 11/23 system in a BA23 box, and the only memory i have is an obscure Plessey one. The only identification is the p/n 705920 with dash-100 in white ink. By counting the chips I make it 4MB, but it does not respond. Since it takes the full 22-bit memory space I can't see how any jumpers would change its accessibility. Does anybody have a manual? any help appreciated, Nigel Johnson

4 years, 4 months

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Looking for info on memory

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

A couple of comments on a number of things touched on in this thread: > From: Nigel Johnson Ham > Ah, well there you see the end of my technical knowledge. My observation is that since varying QBUS PDP-11 CPU's can be swapped in and out (unlike UNIBUS PDP-11's, where the CPU's backplane and front panel are not interchangeable between models), and QBUS machines were therefore often upgraded over their lifetime by switching in a CPU, when starting out with a new machine, one should _always_ start by working out what kind of QBUS backplane one has, and going from there. The BA23 is the one that's part Q/CD and part Q/Q. > No, I don't know if the CPU is good (it is a dual-width KDF11-A btw), > ... > I do have an 11/73 dual width board arriving tomorrow > ... > it is crashing into ODT and not accepting input from the console, which > I remember was a symptom of no bank 0 memory. That's true of all LSI-11's (and it threw me for a while when we first ran across it), but KDF11-A's and KDJ11-A's work fine with _no_ working memory in the machine: i.e. just a CPU board and a console will work fine (as in, ODT works, and one can examine what few registers are on the bus). (I had previously fried the KDF11-A; just tried the KDJ11-A. Probably the KDF11-B and KDJ11-B work too, but I'm toolazy to try them at the moment.) So if a machine with _just_ a CPU and console doesn't work, you've got a problem; but it shouldn't be too hard to find it, with only two boards. > From: Joshua Rice >> "many boards designed for Q/CD slots (such as PMI cards) do not avoid >> the QBUS pins on the CD connectors which contain 'hazardous' (to TTL >> circuitry) voltages." I should note that that text is somewhat questionable; I recently checked the list of PMI pins, and I didn't see any that conflicted with 12V pins on Q/Q slots. But definitely plugging a PMI card into a Q/Q slot will damage it: MicroNote 28 says "MSV11-J MODULES CAN[NOT] BE PLACED IN A Q/Q BACKPLANE SLOT. IF THIS IS ATTEMPTED PERMANENT DAMAGE WILL BE DONE TO THE BOARDS". > From: Jerry Weiss > I don't believe ODT is dependent on working memory. On LSI-11's, it us. Location 0 must respond to a read cycle, or the CPU will spin trying to read it, _before_ ODT will start. Noel

4 years, 4 months

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FTGH (-Shipping): Assorted 9 track tape media

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Hi, I'd like to find homes for: 22 x 11" reels 5 x 9" 2 x 7" Most rated up to 6250bpi, a handful to 3200bpi. Some CONTROL DATA branded, rest mixed brands. All in decent condition. Located: Toronto Canada, will post for cost of shipping by Canada Post (reimbursed PayPal). First come, first served, etc. --Toby

4 years, 4 months

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