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

Does anyone know what this keyboard adapter is for?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7530768047 I asked the seller what the gray pigtail was for and how you would use this with a 16500, and as usualfrom an eBay seller, got no reply. I have several of these, and when I opened them up they are completely passive with no connections between the PS2 and HIL connectors. The pigtail plugs into a 10 pin RJ style on the back, and the other three connectors run over to it.

21 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Kfest reports

by news＠computercollector.com

People are posting to A2central.com, as in past years. Wishing I could be there! http://www.a2central.com/article.php?story=20050719192547804 ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: http://www.snarc.net Also see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/ Where did PDAs come from? http://www.snarc.net/pda/pda-treatise.htm *** Tell your friends about the (free!) Computer Collector Newsletter - 770 readers and no spam / Publishes every Monday / Write for us! - Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all - W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news at computercollector.com

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

RS/6000 lock and key

by mbileau＠crsrecycle.com

Anyone want (cost of shipping) a lock and key (with panel) from a powerstation 530 (I'm guessing- it's still at work). Also from a smaller one, think its a 7012. We dissasemble them at work and I saved these after the thread on these locks and keys. Thanks, Marc

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Need contact information for dkdkk

by vcf＠siconic.com

Would someone please give me the e-mail address of dkdkk? I need to have it out with him. I'm tired of him sucking up everything on eBay like a fucking black hole. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 1 month

30
79
0 0

Olivetti M30 L1

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi For those in Italy, there is an Olivetti M30 L1 up on the Italian ebay. This is one of the machines that Olivetti put a Z8001 into. The problem is that he states, " No Shipping ". It is one of the rarer machines since it was designed to handle business projects. It is suppose to be a multi user machine as well. I'd love to have it but I don't think I can justify a trip to Italy to pick it up. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Power and the RA82

by mamcfadden＠cmh.edu

I once had a chance to walk through my neighbor's basement in an old log cabin summer house where he had lots of knob and tube wiring right about head height. He was in the process of figuring out which circuits were connected to it and how to replace it. The nails were set into the edge of the 2 X 6 floor joists. It was scary since the floor joists were only 6 feet off of the concrete floor that had been added over the original dirt and rock. I've got poor peripheral vision and I was afraid of sticking my head up against the wires. I think it's gone now. Mike

21 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Morrow MD-11 distro diskettes needed

by staylor＠smedley.mrynet.com

I've just discovered that my MD-11 system won't boot due to some kind of corruption, and I don't have boot diskettes or the distro. CP/M V3.0 Loader Copyright (C) 1982, Digital Research CPMLDR error: failed to read CPM3.SYS I had just completed a backup (or so I thought) using fullback, but when powered down and started up again today the above message is the result. Does anyone have the distribution diskettes for the MD-11 that I could arrange to get copies of or teledisk images of? Or possibly even just a boot diskette/image for the MD-11? Tried my MD3 and MD2 diskettes already, but as expected they don't boot the MD-11. I'd love to chat with others who have MD-11's as well. :) Please CC me directly, as I don't subscribe--only read the list via the web. Regards, -scott

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

local demolition of SAGE building

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf at siconic.com> > >On Tue, 19 Jul 2005, 'Computer Collector Newsletter' wrote: > >> Before we say the reporter was wrong, consider this: of course the main SAGE >> computers in the 1950s used vacuum tubes, but isn't it likely that the >> later, remote facilities (like the one in this story) used transistors? > >No. > >;) > >Plain and simple, this reporter did not do their homework. > Hi You forget, they write stories. You can say anything that you like in a story. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Whitechapel CG-200

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk > >> >> On Mon, 2005-07-18 at 17:28 -0700, Vintage Computer Festival wrote: >> > On Mon, 18 Jul 2005, Jules Richardson wrote: > >Having now managed to see said pictures, I wonder if the CPU is on the >daughterboard. In particular, could the PGA package be something like a >32032? The other 2 'intersting' chips on said board might be an MMU and >FPU or something. > >> Hmm, the vinegar trick should probably go in the FAQ (along with the >> fact that it tends to remove ink on ceramic chips - found that one out >> the hard way once!) > >I find citric acid more pleasant to use than vinegar, and just as effective. > >-tony > Hi Tony The vinegar has the advantage that it will evaporate over time while the citric acid requires good cleaning. Of course, even with the vinegar, the salts created by neutralizing the alkali from the battery needs to be removed so citric acid may not have any an issues. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Intel Intelec 8 development system on auction

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

5218532758 Intelec 8 8080 development system on ePay, but looks nice.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

DQ656 manual?

by brad＠heeltoe.com

Does anyone have a manual for a Dilog DQ656? It's a QBUS disk controller, and I believe it's ESDI and does MSCP. I just discovered I have one, but I have no manual and can't find anything on the web. Also, I think I found a small cache of Emulex UC07's for $75 each. I think there are 3 left. I ordered one. If anyone else finds that an attractive price let me know. I'm happy to be the fool who rushes in. -brad

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Epson EX-1 office computer

by vcf＠siconic.com

Here's an oddity: Epson EX-1 accounting computer circa 1977. They make a lot of rather lame claims (first this, first that, etc.) but interesting none the less. http://www.epson.co.jp/e/company/milestones_09_EX_1.htm Check out the PDF for a larger photo. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Does anyone know what this keyboard adapter is for?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

My 16500B has a connector on the front for an optional keyboard and it looks like the pigtail on that box would plug into it. -- If you look closely, the connector on the front is a "two dot" HPIL connector, which would plug into the "HIL" connector on the adapter, not onto the pigtail. All I can imagine is this plugs onto some later style HP keyboard with a 10 pin RJ connector (Frank and I saw a kb like this at a flea market a week ago) then you plug an HIL cable into that.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Compaticard IV - The evil non-existance software

by slazer＠gmail.com

I recently came across a MicroSolutions, Inc CompaticCard IV that I need to install but I do not have the disks to install it. Does anyone have the software for it that can give me a copy so I can finally install this card? I don't know if it matters or not but I'm running MS DOS 6.2 on the computer I'm trying to install it on.

21 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Dilog DQ3153 board

by cheri-post＠web.de

Hello Max, the first number (3) indicates that this controller has a S-handles, so its primarly conceived for VAXen. but it'll work in most PDP-11 as well, as it's Q-22. The S-handles might cause a problem for most PDP 11 backplanes. Sometimes though, it's possible to remove it. Regards, Pierre > Hello, > > I have a DQ3153 board. Am I right in that its a TMSCP SCSI board for a > qbus system? > Is it of any use for a PDP11 or is it just for Qbus Vaxen? > > _________________________________________________________________________ Mit der Gruppen-SMS von WEB.DE FreeMail k?nnen Sie eine SMS an alle Freunde gleichzeitig schicken: http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021179

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Power and the RA82(actually aluminum wiring)

by mamcfadden＠cmh.edu

In the late 70's my apartment/townhouse in Hazelwood/St. Louis had aluminum wiring. Both out electric dryer and TV acted erratically. We were watching TV one night and we saw sparks around the electric outlet. Since there were 3 electrical engineers living there out came the insulated screwdriver, pliers, and VOM. We took off the cover plate and you could see the charred stud. We applied a temporary fix until the apartment owner had an electrician come repair it and he attached a copper pigtail to each wire before reconnecting it to the electric receptacle. We asked about this and the electrician explained that the copper wouldn't expand, contract, and oxidize under the screw on the receptacle. Being it was the 1970's of course we had a TV, VCR, stereo, and a green Lava lamp plugged into that socket. I think we had shag carpet and a bean bag chair also. Mike

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Disk platter identification

by djg＠drs-c4i.com

Its to large to be a DF32 (10"x1/4"), 32k. Probably an RF08, 256k. DF32 picture at http://www.pdp8.net/dfds32/pics/df32diskorig.shtml?small. The later DF32's got rid of the optical sensor for disk rotation so may not have a band around the outside. They switched to a one shot off the data. Not sure what the RF08's did.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PSU schematic of the PDP-11/05 (11/10) needed

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Hi Ed, I did not download it (17M) but perhaps the first file here http://www.classiccmp.org/bitsavers/pdf/dec/pdp11/1105/ has a drawing of the PSU. - Henk, PA8PDP. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org To: cctech at classiccmp.org Sent: 15-7-2005 18:51 Subject: PSU schematic of the PDP-11/05 (11/10) needed Hi All, I have a PDP-11/05 (11/10) in a 5.25" box version which I'm putting together. It's going to be equipped with 8Kb of core and a RX02 floppy interface. When powering up, led's come on, but there is not much action to get. Look like the -15V of the PSU is not working properly. The PSU is a different one compared to the well known bricks used in BA11 boxes. This one delivers +5V, +15V and -15V and is labelled 5409728. Anybody have a schematic of this PSU by any chance? Thanks, Ed

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Old MacOS NetTrek game?

by mbonazzoli＠intellitec.com

Are you still looking for the NetTrek game for Mac SE's? I think I have it. I have an old SE with NetTrek still loaded. Great game. I used to play it on the network at the computer company I worked for back in 1987. Let me know. -Matthew

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Epson EX-1 office computer

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf at siconic.com> > > >Here's an oddity: > >Epson EX-1 accounting computer circa 1977. They make a lot of rather lame >claims (first this, first that, etc.) but interesting none the less. > >http://www.epson.co.jp/e/company/milestones_09_EX_1.htm > >Check out the PDF for a larger photo. Hi I have an interesting Epson printer that was made around 1975 or so. It is a belt type line printer. It comes with a double set of uppercase print heads. It has a junper option to do lower case but I've never located any lower case printer heads for it. I've only ever seen one of these. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Tandy 1000 SX w/monitor & keyboard available

by bill＠timeguy.com

Anyone interested? Location is Lincoln Nebraska. It'll probably get recycled if I don't hear from anyone in a day or two.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Working? MicroVax 3600 free for the taking, imminent disposal

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

(sorry if this is a dupe, I had my 'from' address set wrong before) A digital MicroVax 3600 and its requisite heap of media has recently been trashed by the physics department at Drexel University. It is sitting in the hallway of the 7th floor of Disque Hall (building 12) at 3141 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. (Thats through the glass doors which are facing the gardens/walkways which are in the remains of 31st street, to the right toward market street once inside, then up the elevators to the 7th floor) The machine is intact, and according to someone I asked, it powered up and worked fine when tested 3 months ago. The machine includes an enormous pile of backup tapes, both spool and cartridge type. (the MicroVax 3600 has the RA-82 and TK-70 drives needed to read both types of media installed) The machine is the size of a narrow but tall washing-machine, and probably weighs around 300 pounds. Bring a Van or Minivan with the seats taken out! Also, the closest parking spaces are on the other side of chestnut street, (the nice little lot in front of disque has a gate blocking entry now...) I may be able to assist in moving the machine, depending on my class schedule. Also available is a large pile of Tape backups and spool backups from 1987 through 1991 at least. According to someone I asked, they contain experimental data from experiments run during that time. I know the tapes are compatible with any Video 8 videocassete recorder (which some camcorders use). I would take the machine myself, but I don't have the means to transport it and I don't have the space to store it. According to someone I asked, the machine is scheduled for disposal sometime later this week, so get it QUICK! If you need assistance moving the machine or dealing with Drexel security, email me at jzg22 @t drexel d0t edu (@t = @, d0t = .) Jonathan Gevaryahu lord_nightmare @t users d0t sf d0t net jzg22 @t drexel d0t edu P.S. Al Kossow: I'm sorry I never got back to you in february about the votrax manual, my life's been pretty hectic over the last 6 months. I'll email you later this week.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Working? MicroVax 3600 free for the taking, imminent disposal

by Jonathan.Zvi.Gevaryahu＠drexel.edu

A digital MicroVax 3600 and its requisite heap of media has recently been trashed by the physics department at Drexel University. It is sitting in the hallway of the 7th floor of Disque Hall (building 12) at 3141 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. (Thats through the glass doors which are facing the gardens/walkways which are in the remains of 31st street, to the right toward market street once inside, then up the elevators to the 7th floor) The machine is intact, and according to someone I asked, it powered up and worked fine when tested 3 months ago. The machine includes an enormous pile of backup tapes, both spool and cartridge type. (the MicroVax 3600 has the RA-82 and TK-70 drives needed to read both types of media installed) The machine is the size of a narrow but tall washing-machine, and probably weighs around 300 pounds. Bring a Van or Minivan with the seats taken out! Also, the closest parking spaces are on the other side of chestnut street, (the nice little lot in front of disque has a gate blocking entry now...) I may be able to assist in moving the machine, depending on my class schedule. Also available is a large pile of Tape backups and spool backups from 1987 through 1991 at least. According to someone I asked, they contain experimental data from experiments run during that time. I know the tapes are compatible with any Video 8 videocassete recorder (which some camcorders use). I would take the machine myself, but I don't have the means to transport it and I don't have the space to store it. According to someone I asked, the machine is scheduled for disposal sometime later this week, so get it QUICK! If you need assistance moving the machine or dealing with Drexel security, email me at jzg22 @t drexel d0t edu (@t = @, d0t = .) Jonathan Gevaryahu lord_nightmare @t users d0t sf d0t net jzg22 @t drexel d0t edu P.S. Al Kossow: I'm sorry I never got back to you in february about the votrax manual, my life's been pretty hectic over the last 6 months. I'll email you later this week.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Odd FDC problem (Compupro)

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Jules, >I probably won't be at Bletchley until this weekend, but we got a >Compupro 8/16 a few weeks ago with a *lot* of documentation. I could >have a flick through that assuming nobody's taken it home with them... Thanks - I do have the technical manual for the 8086/8087 CPU board, the DISK1A (FDC) and the Interfacer 4 (I/O) - I could use information on the RAM16, Selector Channel and DISK2 - the latter two are for the HD system which I have pulled at the moment. Info on the RAM16 would be especially useful. If you happen to have a listing for the 8086 boot, that would be REALLY helpful. >> The odd thing is that if you put a disk (any disk) in the drive, it immediately stops >> selecting it - it's as if getting the index pulses from the disk prevents the FDC from >> proceeding ... > >If you're seeing different behaviour occasionally, then this can't be >it, but I remember our machine did something very similar to this if the >drive cabling was back to front; the drive LED would pulse but then as >soon as a disk was put in it'd do nothing. What do you mean by "back to front" - do you mean the connector reversed? When I first connected the drives, I put the connector on backwards, which resulted on both drives coming ON permanently (grounded selects). >> Sometimes, usually after taking a board out to check something, it will actually try >> and boot from the disk - If you put Disk-2 of the Compupro CP/M 86 distribution in the >> drive, you can hear it boot, it seeks a bit and obviously reads a track or two - after >> the first seek, you can see the RTS+DTR lights come on on all three serial ports, which >> suggests that it has come up enough to init the serial ports ... but I do not get any >> output on any of the three ports. > >Are the disks known to be good? It does sound like a faulty connection >though - does moving the boards around to different slots make any >difference? I'm pretty sure the disks are go - I've tried most of the slots, as well as cleaning the sockets and connectors, as well as reseating and cleaning up any socketed IC's that look at all suspect. When I first put the system together, it would try to boot fairly consistantly, but while trying to figure out why the console was not working, I had several boards in and out, and all of a sudden it stopped accessing the drive when there is a disk inserted (but still showing the correct attempted accesses when the disk is out). I thought for a while that I had fried something, but later, after a bit more shuffling, it began working again ... but 90+% of the time it does not select the drive if a diskette is is inserted. Time to pull out the extender cards and scope. If any one has any ideas as to what would cause this: The system selects the drive at approx. 1 second intervals when attempting to boot with no disk inserted (this is exactly as described in the docs), but never loads the head and stops selecting the drive for as long as any diskette is inserted. Please let me know - I really can't think of a possible cause which makes it tough to figure out where to start! Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Odd FDC problem (Compupro)

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, I've got a Compupro 8086 based S-100 system which has been on the "to do list" for a while, and yesterday I finally got the CPU reference manual which was the missing piece ... I've "almost" got it working, according to the docs, it should flash the drive select light about once/second with no disk in the drive, as it tries to read --- this it does. The odd thing is that if you put a disk (any disk) in the drive, it immediately stops selecting it - it's as if getting the index pulses from the disk prevents the FDC from proceeding ... Sometimes, usually after taking a board out to check something, it will actually try and boot from the disk - If you put Disk-2 of the Compupro CP/M 86 distribution in the drive, you can hear it boot, it seeks a bit and obviously reads a track or two - after the first seek, you can see the RTS+DTR lights come on on all three serial ports, which suggests that it has come up enough to init the serial ports ... but I do not get any output on any of the three ports. I have the FDC configured to use User port 7 of the Interfacer-4 which is how it is configured (standard Compupro setup). (anyone familier with Compupro have any experience with this?) But my main problem, is that most of the time, putting a disk in causes the FDC to stop selecting the drive - it resumes selecting once the disk is removed, however it does not access the drive while the disk is in - since this is a 765 based controller, you can see the background polling as a dim glow of the select led. Anyone have any ideas what would make an FDC behave like this? Since it does get further infrequently, I believe it is not a component failure ... most likely a dirty socket or connection - but for the life of me I cannot figure out what would make an FDC stop trying to access a disk only when it is getting index pulses. Btw, I have checked the drives on another machine and they appear to work fine. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

MindSet Pc Graphics computer 80186 cpu

by fzrfast＠bellsouth.net

Does anyone know of complete Mindset Pc system including TimeArts Lumena paint package that ran on that computer? Early 1980's stuff. Jim Cox

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Mac ROM Image?

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: Does anyone have a Mac Iifx ROM image that they can send me? I have a IIci image for Basilisk II from my machine but I wanted to play with the fx version too while I'm on travel. I only thought of this now, so I won't be able to buy an fx on eBay to get the ROMs in time for this trip. Please contact me off-list. Thanks. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

KDJ11 eproms / M7554-PB conversion?

by brad＠heeltoe.com

Hi, Does anyone have direct experience replacing the eproms in a M7554-PB? The top layer says "CPU KDJ11-D". It's s-box and is labeled M7554-PB. The eproms are 27C256's. I want to replace them with 23-261E5 and 23-262E5 images (16k, or 27C128) to turn the board into (hopefully) a PDP-11/53. I managed to erase two 27C128's and burn them this morning but I discovered that the instructions I found on the web http://users.safeaccess.com/engdahl/KDJ11.htm don't match my board (very nice instructions, none the less - thanks!) I may just try it and see what happens, or reprogram the 27C256's with the image doubled, just for fun. -brad

21 years, 1 month

5
6
0 0

Trade SGI Octane for SGI O2?

by florit＠gmail.com

Hi; I've got a working SGI Octane, 250 mhz (I think) with 256MB ram (I think), and a 4GB hard disk. I got it as a gift from a friend, and its a nice addition to my SGI collection (SGI Indy and an Indygo that I actually used during my undergrad years at Florida International University). However, the one I really want is an SGI O2. Would there be anyone in the South Florida area (I'm in Miami and willing to drive) that would be willing to trade a working Octane for a working O2? I'll ship if you're interested but you'd have to put up for the shipping cost of the Octane (heavy 25kg computer). Kind regards, Louis PS: I did the LED lightbar hack so it glows a cool amber when on.I have additional light bars if you want to use the original lamps or prefer a different color. More details here http://www.k-huhn.com/octane_mod/ -- Louis Florit AIM: lflorit MSN:louis_florit at hotmail.com Y!: indygolunaria

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Charles Simonyi to marry Martha Stewart?

by vcf＠siconic.com

I read this in the Globe* tabloid tonight whilst standing in line at the grocery store, so take this with a dash of pepper and some cumin perhaps, but the story is that Charles Simonyi of Xerox PARC and Microsoft fame is supposedly marrying Martha Stewart**. I've met Mr. Simonyi and, if true, I can say she couldn't have picked a nicer guy ;) * a tabloid in the US is generally considered a gossip rag ** for those who may not know, Martha Stewart is the reigning media queen of home decorating and crap like that. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 1 month

6
6
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave04a at dunfield.com> >bytes on track" values which are quite different - within a few 100 bytes, but >you can make them all come out much closer by adjusting the gap length. Hi Dave You have to remember that 100 bytes are easily within the variation in speeds of the drives. As was mentioned, the gaps between the sector headers and the data need to be long enough to take up the relock time of the pll's. The gaps between sectors need to take up this time, along with the worst case speed difference on different drives. The last gap is just filled to the index. It also needs to be big enough to take up any speed differences. When I did a format for my NC4000 board, it seems like I got most of my information from looking at the format code on my PC. I did worst case calculations for the gaps between sectors and used the same values for the gaps between sector headers and data as the PC used. These were relatively fixed for the different densities. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Heath ET-3400 Trainer Simulator SW

by phillipmilks＠netzero.com

Sometime back, a company offered simulaton SW for the ET-3400 at this site : http://www.pilgrimworks.com/trainer.htm. It has been discontinued. I would like to find a copy of the program and docs. If anyone has a copy that they would part with or copy, please respond. TIA

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

TI-990 recently posted to this list

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Don't know if anyone else pursued it.... I emailed the guy and received about 6 very nice pictures of the TI990, disk drives, and peripherals he has. In a word, it's simply a gorgeous system. Looks to be mint condition. One six foot rack with the TI990 cpu and programmers front panel, and four "dishwasher style" disk drive units with media. The terminals are TI as well and perfectly retro. Even the racks are original TI racks. All said, a very very nice machine. However, he seemed a little too key to inform me that he knew the system cost $250,000.00 USD years ago. My suspicion is he thinks he can get at least 100K for it ;) Not to mention, I believe the system is located in the middle east but I'm waiting on confirmation from him on that. I wont be actively trying to obtain this system, just felt like asking about it :> Jay West

21 years, 1 month

7
8
0 0

TI-990 recently posted to this list

by aek＠bitsavers.org

This system is NOT going to be cheap to ship. DS-50's are Century Data top loading washing machine drives, same size and weight as CDC 9762's. Roughly 300 lbs each. I would be doubtful the system has had the heads locked either.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

9 track tapes on Ebay.

by list＠saracom.com

Hopefully I am not not violating the terms here. I have two 9 track tapes for sale on Ebay. From the label they appear to have Fortran versions 4.5A and 4.5A. I assume and it could be for a Vax VMS system. Anyway, opening bid is $10 plus actuall shipping. That is basically below what my time is worth to box them up and take them to a post office. I am parsing my collection a little and found them. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5220653722&rd=1&sspagena… Thanks Max

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Need contact information for dkdkk

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Lyle Bickley" <lbickley at bickleywest.com> ---snip--- >Didn't Jay request that this thread be dropped? I'm tired of having to delete >all dkdkk related messages... Sorry, I hadn't got that far into the mail. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Dilog DQ3153 board

by list＠saracom.com

Hello, I have a DQ3153 board. Am I right in that its a TMSCP SCSI board for a qbus system? Is it of any use for a PDP11 or is it just for Qbus Vaxen?

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Need contact information for dkdkk

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf at siconic.com> > >On Fri, 15 Jul 2005, Glen Goodwin wrote: > >> Okay, so what do you hope to accomplish? Do you really think >> you can convince him -- or bully him -- into *not* buying >> whatever he wants at whatever price he's willing to pay??? > >Maybe. Maybe it'll be useful just to vent at him. Maybe it'll be useful >to let him know he's pissing off half the community with his stupid bids. > >-- Hi Is it possible that he is a fictitious person used by many venders as a shill bidder? Maybe he is bidding for some museum as well?? One used to be able to get things like the name of the person and where they lived from the ebay register but they have quite doing that. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

DEC M9700 board and cable?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Anybody know what this is? It's a single width board with an ~ 5 foot cable attached. The other end of the cable has a DB-25M connector. The only markings on the board are "FLIP CHIP" and "cable connector 5010295B M9700". Joe

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

VME SCSI

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Though, I'm a bit worried about time... I want it for a machine I'm going to be exhibiting at VCF/Midwest and that's only 2 weeks away now... shipping to/from Canada might take too long, and I don't have that much to spend on getting this working. -- Before anyone else wastes their time, Mr Finnegan is willing to pay FIFTEEN whole American Dollars for the board. Next time, just SAY how much you're willing to spend before I waste my time looking for one.

21 years, 1 month

4
4
0 0

AVAL Programmers?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Does anyone here know anything about this brand programmer? I picked up an AVAL plugin for programming BiPolar PROMs. Joe

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Lots of kit needs a good home - quick

by classiccmp＠knm.yi.org

Hi Guys, I've got a lot of stuff in storage at my parents' office, but they have to move this weekend and I've been told they're not moving all my stuff, so it has to go. Unfortunatly, I'm now living on the other side of the atlantic, so I can't take it with me, so this is a call to everyone on the list to find homes for things :&) I'd much rather it go to someone who'll give it a good home than just put it on ebay or such. Some of it has sentimental value - I'm sure you know how it goes. Anyway - Fred's already arranging to pick up most of the DEC stuff, but there's a lot more. Take a look at a list and photos at http://pkl.net/~matt/stuff/forsale/ Like I said - it's all got to go by Sunday (although I might be able to hold onto stuff until tuesday/wednesday). I'll be back in the UK on Thursday, but there'll be someone around all week if you want to pick stuff up. Unfortunatly, I'm not sure I can handle shipping much of this. Please drop me a line if you want anything (and if you wanna make a contribution to my moving fund, that would be most appreciated). Or you can probably find me on irc.freenode.net #classiccmp as Matt --Matt London

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

YARC Transputer & Motorola boards on ebay

by RMeenaks＠OLF.COM

Bernd et al, Total of 6 boards: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5220594983 Cheers, Ram

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

...still looking for MS-Fortran for ANY DOS puter

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

are you the site administrator or something??? An offer to buy or trade would not have been ruled out. The COBOL compiler I mentioned was bought dopey person, with manuals, for 5 bucks. I mentioned the Borland Museum because I like passing on a hot tip once in a while, ummm like yourself (who isnt aware of e donkey?). But I dont feel the need to issue ultimatums. --- cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org <holger.veit at ais.fraunhofer.de> wrote: > Chris M wrote: > > >I may have posted this request...plea...on cctech some > >time ago. I've been looking for an early Microsoft > >Fortran compiler for eons. Vanilla DOS version would > >be fine, but for something exotic like the Tandy 2000 > >or Zenith Z-100 would be exquisite. I was fortunate to > >obtain, oo, MS-COBOL recently, and to my amazement I > >managed to WinImage the disks. Version 2.0 or > >something. > > If any of you weren't aware, the earliest versions of > >Turbo Pascal and Turbo C are available for download on > >the Borland Museum. > > > >__________________________________________________ > >Do You Yahoo!? > >Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > >http://mail.yahoo.com > > > > > Hi, I guess with anonymous "Chris M" with a throw-away yahoo address not > many people have many > trust in handing out copies of software to you. This software is > admittedly obsolete by far, but > is still copyrighted by Microsoft. What Borland does with their obsolete > software is their personal > preference, and is not transferable to other companies. > > Personal suggestion: look into emule/edonkey P2P networks for a key [Dos > Application], and don't tell > anyone what you might see, and never ask here again. > > Holger __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Apple ][ parts $5 sale!

by anheier＠owt.com

I need to clear out some space. I have Apple ][ super serial and I/O controller cards (with cables). I also have a Duodisk floppy drive and a Disk II floppy drive and a WICO command control joystick. $5 each + shipping, untested. Thanks! Norm

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Altair successes

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: After a few weeks of tinkering with my 8800b I think I've finally got it working satisfactorily (except for some bad RAM which was the subject of a prior email). I've got an EPROM programmed with the Turnkey Monitor, EPROM programming software for the SSM P1B board, and the driver software for the SSM V1B video board. Except for the RAM, everything works. The only thing I have to track down is why the video is displaying only black-on-white. Otherwise, I have to replace two switches on the front panel with flat-blade ones. Now I have to improve on the monitor so I can load something useful into memory :-) Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: FDC Gap Length? > From: Dave Dunfield <dave04a at dunfield.com> > Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 11:10:39 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Hi Jules, > >>On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 07:28 -0400, Dave Dunfield wrote: >>> If no calculation is possible, can anyone point me at a more complete table of >>> suggested GPLs? The NEC table has some large holes, for example 9x512 and 10x512 >>> are missing. >> >>In case it's useful, I've got the following in the Torch Manta SCSI- >>floppy controller documentation (amongst others): >> >>512 byte sectors (5.25" or 3.5" media): >> >> FM recording, 4 sectors/track, gap3 size is 175 bytes of FFh. >> FM recording, 5 sectors/track, gap3 size is 31 bytes of FFh. >> MFM recording, 9 sectors/track, gap3 size is 66 bytes of 4Eh. >> >>1024 byte sectors (5.25" or 3.5" media): >> >> FM recording, 2 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of FFh. >> MFM recording, 4 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of 4Eh. >> MFM recording, 5 sectors/track, gap3 size is 66 bytes of 4Eh. >> >>512 byte sectors (8" media): >> >> FM recording, 7 sectors/track, gap3 size is 149 bytes of FFh. >> FM recording, 8 sectors/track, gap3 size is 62 bytes of FFh. >> MFM recording, 14 sectors/track, gap3 size is 120 bytes of 4Eh. >> MFM recording, 15 sectors/track, gap3 size is 73 bytes of 4Eh. >> MFM recording, 16 sectors/track, gap3 size is 33 bytes of 4Eh. >> >>1024 byte sectors (8" media): >> >> FM recording, 3 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of FFh. >> FM recording, 4 sectors/track, gap3 size is 157 bytes of FFh. >> MFM recording, 7 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of 4Eh. >> MFM recording, 8 sectors/track, gap3 size is 128 bytes of 4Eh. >> >> >>can't remember what controller IC the board uses now though - I'm >>reasonably sure it's not a 765. > >Thanks - I'm not sure this helps me, as the numbers given are different >than the NEC table. Here's what I have: The numbers you program into the 765 are not in bytes. Those are counter values (usually a up counter) so that putting in 255 means 1, the however the count values are prescaled such that in some cases putting in 254 does not yeild 2 of something but 4 or even 8 [(0-n) * base]. Example are HLT (head load time) and HUT (head unload time) and even they are affected by what the 8/4 mhz clock supplied. Byte counts like the gaps are similar. So a gap length if FBh might really be 4*16 gap bytes. One note: those counters have different prescale values for FM then MFM. Hope this helps and I'm really testing 25 year old memory from my NEC apps engineeing days. >Clearly the 200/255 are the maximum values. I have tried working the numbers >without these entries, and still cannot come up with a calculation. > >As you can see the gap sizes differ quite a bit from the ones that you have >documented - with the 765, this is only one of several gaps, and the controller >does not provide complete access to the raw format like a 179x controller >would. No it does not in the fullest sense. The WD and NEC designs are programtically as different as night and day. The level of internal automation is higher for the NEC but doing that takes control from the programmer. NEC used to have a part (upD371) that was like the 1771 in that it required a fair amount of processer attention at the per byte level to affect transfers especially formatting. Where the 765 family all the programmer supplies for formatting is the initial command and then the sector header info (CHRN) on a per sector IO. The result is smaller format buffer at the expense of limited format options. IE:the general layout of a track is allways the same save for gaps and sector lengths. >I assume the gap sizes need to decrease for formats which have an extra >sector (or two) over the NEC table, however I do not know by how much ... >Any additional table entries, or information on how to calculate this would >be much appreciated. Correct and the information provided may help in deciding what those counters corospond to. >>The Manta docs only talk about gaps 1-4, however I know some of my Acorn >>docs reference a gap5 which sits between the gap4 at the end of the last >>sector on the track and the index marker - I have no idea what that's >>supposed to do as it's listed as being 0 bytes long in the Acorn >>examples! > >Normally the last gap is filled from the end of the last sector until >the physical index mark occurs. The 765 appears to do this automatically >as part of the "Format Track" command. For a controller like the 179x, >you need to keep providing filler bytes until the physical end of track. There are two cases of gap 4, gap 4A(index mark) and gap 4B(EOT to index). I've seen gap 4b refered to as gap 5. In the nominal IBM gap 4A is index gap and 4B is the end of track filler gap. FYI: gap 4 it not optional on 765 and excluded in 7265. Functionally its use is been abused and sometimes not included (1771/1791 it's optional). Yes for the fill to EOT. The INDEX signal is important to the 765 for start of track, end of track and read fail. Allison

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by GOOI＠oce.nl

> As you can see the gap sizes differ quite a bit from the ones that you > have documented - with the 765, this is only one of several gaps, and > the controller does not provide complete access to the raw format like > a 179x controller would. Yes, the 179x controllers have the Read Track and Write Track command. I can remember that from the time I wrote my own "DOS" for the 6800-based machine with a homebrew floppy controller based on the 1793 IIRC (1981). You put *all* data in RAM (sector data, gap data, ID mark, sync fields and what more, and then issue the Write Track command. That's how I got my 5.25" floppies formatted. Make sure that you have slack (extra gap bytes at the end ot the "track" in RAM, because depending on rotation fluctuations the last gap is not a constant number of bytes. > I assume the gap sizes need to decrease for formats which have an extra > sector (or two) over the NEC table, however I do not know by how much > ... Any additional table entries, or information on how to calculate > his would be much appreciated. If you do not have the 179x data sheet, aks me. Only then I will go up to the attick and start searching for it. Otherwise, I will not go there because, believe me, it *hot* there, afetr two weeks of more than 25"C! > Normally the last gap is filled from the end of the last sector until > the physical index mark occurs. The 765 appears to do this automatically > as part of the "Format Track" command. For a controller like the 179x, > you need to keep providing filler bytes until the physical end of > track. Correct :~) I found out the hard way, after I "upgraded" the software from single to double density ... I used polling software to see when DRQ is asserted and then write the data byte. With double density, the max time allowed before a data byte *must* be written, is too short for whatever clever constructed polling loop (in assembler of course). So I "improved" the hardware to generate an interrupt on DRQ and I could format floppies in double density. But after some time when I tried to format a floppy the whole system hung. I got more interrupts than anticipated, and that was because of the extra bytes wanted by the FDC. It works sometimes, but that is just because of the tolerances of the rotation speed. Now in the year 2005, I am probably going to desing a floppy controller interface for the Core and I/O Board set, but that's an other story :~) greetz, - Henk, PA8PDP.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Jules, >On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 07:28 -0400, Dave Dunfield wrote: >> If no calculation is possible, can anyone point me at a more complete table of >> suggested GPLs? The NEC table has some large holes, for example 9x512 and 10x512 >> are missing. > >In case it's useful, I've got the following in the Torch Manta SCSI- >floppy controller documentation (amongst others): > >512 byte sectors (5.25" or 3.5" media): > > FM recording, 4 sectors/track, gap3 size is 175 bytes of FFh. > FM recording, 5 sectors/track, gap3 size is 31 bytes of FFh. > MFM recording, 9 sectors/track, gap3 size is 66 bytes of 4Eh. > >1024 byte sectors (5.25" or 3.5" media): > > FM recording, 2 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of FFh. > MFM recording, 4 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of 4Eh. > MFM recording, 5 sectors/track, gap3 size is 66 bytes of 4Eh. > >512 byte sectors (8" media): > > FM recording, 7 sectors/track, gap3 size is 149 bytes of FFh. > FM recording, 8 sectors/track, gap3 size is 62 bytes of FFh. > MFM recording, 14 sectors/track, gap3 size is 120 bytes of 4Eh. > MFM recording, 15 sectors/track, gap3 size is 73 bytes of 4Eh. > MFM recording, 16 sectors/track, gap3 size is 33 bytes of 4Eh. > >1024 byte sectors (8" media): > > FM recording, 3 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of FFh. > FM recording, 4 sectors/track, gap3 size is 157 bytes of FFh. > MFM recording, 7 sectors/track, gap3 size is 255 bytes of 4Eh. > MFM recording, 8 sectors/track, gap3 size is 128 bytes of 4Eh. > > >can't remember what controller IC the board uses now though - I'm >reasonably sure it's not a 765. Thanks - I'm not sure this helps me, as the numbers given are different than the NEC table. Here's what I have: (Sector-size sectors/track GPL1 GPL2 - all numbers are in decimal) GPL1 = gap-length when reading/writing GPL2 = gap=length when formatting 8" FM: 128 26 7 27 256 15 14 42 512 8 27 58 1024 4 71 138 2048 2 200 255 4096 1 200 255 8" MFM: 256 26 14 36 512 15 27 84 1024 8 53 116 2048 4 153 255 4096 2 200 255 8192 1 200 255 5" FM: 128 18 7 9 128 16 16 25 256 8 24 48 512 4 70 135 1024 2 200 255 2048 1 200 255 5" MFM 256 18 10 12 256 16 32 50 512 8 42 80 1024 4 128 240 2048 2 200 255 4096 1 200 255 Clearly the 200/255 are the maximum values. I have tried working the numbers without these entries, and still cannot come up with a calculation. As you can see the gap sizes differ quite a bit from the ones that you have documented - with the 765, this is only one of several gaps, and the controller does not provide complete access to the raw format like a 179x controller would. I assume the gap sizes need to decrease for formats which have an extra sector (or two) over the NEC table, however I do not know by how much ... Any additional table entries, or information on how to calculate this would be much appreciated. >The Manta docs only talk about gaps 1-4, however I know some of my Acorn >docs reference a gap5 which sits between the gap4 at the end of the last >sector on the track and the index marker - I have no idea what that's >supposed to do as it's listed as being 0 bytes long in the Acorn >examples! Normally the last gap is filled from the end of the last sector until the physical index mark occurs. The 765 appears to do this automatically as part of the "Format Track" command. For a controller like the 179x, you need to keep providing filler bytes until the physical end of track. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Tim, >Part of the calculation is the time it takes the data separator to re-sync >after each gap. Now, a "true" 765 doesn't have a data separator so maybe >they leave this out. It's also true that this number ought to be nearly >constant depending on sector sizes. I would assume this is covered by the minimum requirement that Allison was talking about... Right now I am just trying to find the correct gap sizes for formatting. Then I will have to worry about the gap size for writing (which is different, as you obviously don't want to carry through to the beginning of the next sector). >Do you have the Intel 8272 data sheet? (This was Intel's part number >for their 765 clone. It may not just be a clone but the exact same >mask...). IIRC there are more details/examples/math in the 8272 data >sheet, including some recommendations for data separators and the good/bad >of different types. I do have the Intel data sheet and application notes, however they do not provide any additional information on selecting the Gap size - just the same "magic table" that NEC provides. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: FDC Gap Length? > From: Dave Dunfield <dave04a at dunfield.com> > Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 07:28:45 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Hi Allison, > >>Is there a calculation, NO. Unless your formatting your own, then >>it's use biggest gaps that allow sector data and a resonable end gap >>on off speed drives. Most of the time you have to know how >>that disk was formatted originally to arrive at the correct values. >>Fortunatly there is a fair amount of wiggle room if you do not run >>too close (too close is below) to minimums. > >I know how the disk was originally formatted to the extent that I know >the sector size and the number of sectors on the track. > >I had assumed that it worked the way you described ... my problem is that >I cannot make sense of the values in the NEC supplied table. Effectively there are two sets. FM and MFM and the chip works differently for both. It's tied to FM allowing for gaps as short as 8bytes and MFM 16bytes. The length of gaps are related to mode FM having more flux transistions than MFM per bit and that most analog PLLs have a minimum number of transistions (time) they need to aquire. Obviously the gaps are made as long as possible allowing for the sectors containing data. Since sector length is variable gaps will be. FYI: due to waste longer sectors can end up with very long gaps. >Using the IBM System 3740 (FM) and System 34 (MFM) disk format specifications, >I tried working the NEC tables backward to get the "number of available bytes >on a track" which they started with. I worked it through for both 8" and 5.25" >drives in each format type, and the problem is that the results are not >consistant. Using a given drive type and encoding method, for each sector size, >number of sectors/track, and format GPL values in the NEC table, I get a "total >bytes on track" values which are quite different - within a few 100 bytes, but >you can make them all come out much closer by adjusting the gap length. > >In other words, I want to do a calculation something like: > > Total number of bytes assumed to be available on the track > - track overhead > - (#sectors * per-sector overhead) [not including gap] > - (#sectors * data bytes/sector) > / #sectors > = actual sector gap length (for format) > >However the values from the NEC table do not fit such a calculation, because >for each sector-size/number-of-sectors in the NEC table, you work out a "total >number of bytes assumbed to be available on the track" which is only within a >few 100 of the value worked out for other sector-size/number-of-sectors >combinations at the same drive type and encoding method. Yep thats true. >For example, if you begin with a "total number of bytes assumed to be available >on the track" which you worked out from 512 byte sectors, and reverse the >calculation for 1024 byte sectors, the gap length you arrive at is different >from the one in the NEC table. Another way to look at it is that by tweaking the >sector GPL, you can always get a "total number of bytes" which is within >number-of-sectors/track" of the "optimim value" you were aiming for, however the >values in the NEC table often result in "total number of bytes" values which are >a couple of 100 away from each other. Also you need the ECMA/ISO {ECMA-70} spec for formatting. They are somewhat different. The problem is that somewher in the gap there will be a splice point and there need to be enough gap bytes written after write is enabled to insure the new sector is roughly in the smae place as the old one. >Unfortunately the 765 based FDC in the PC is very limiting, and does not allow me >to read the raw format information, nor can I determine the GPL that was used on >the original disk - the only other option is to calculate a suitable GPL based on >the format information. The 765 does have a read diagnostic but it's not like the 1771/1791 read track that tried to read every byte including gaps. >If no calculation is possible, can anyone point me at a more complete table of >suggested GPLs? The NEC table has some large holes, for example 9x512 and 10x512 >are missing. They are missing because the table was written before the advent of 5.25 1.2 mb and 3.5" floppies and the 765A really doesn't do the 10x512 (it will read but format is not possible). The latter if done with 765A ends up truncating the gap4 badly if the drive is 2% fast. The later 7265 chip does it and you need the spc for that. The PC varient of the FDC is a cell based on the 765/7265 so unless there's a raw 765 on the board you can see you need to read between the line of the spec for THAT chip. There are subtle variations in the 765 look alikes and Tim and I encounted some of them while doing Fcopy. The test for 765/7265 is can it recalibrate more than 77 tracks. The 765 will only recalibate a maximum of 77 tracks, the 7265 can do up to 255. The other differnce is the 7265 does not write gap 4a/4b at all. Gap 4a coincides with index and gap 4b is the gap written after all sectors are formatted to the end of the track (index). Allison

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: FDC Gap Length? > From: shoppa_classiccmp at trailing-edge.com (Tim Shoppa) > Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 08:25:30 -0400 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >> the gap length you arrive at is different from the one in the NEC table >> [for different sector sizes] > >Part of the calculation is the time it takes the data separator to re-sync >after each gap. Now, a "true" 765 doesn't have a data separator so maybe >they leave this out. It's also true that this number ought to be nearly >constant depending on sector sizes. The base 765 expected there would be some form of external data seperator either digital or PLL. In 1981 none of the FDC chips had data speration as it was pushing the amount of variable hardware on the chip. In later years that was integrated into the chip. The gap will not be the same for all sector sizes as it's it serves the function of filling the space between sectors. The gaps are those bytes that are accounted for in the raw and formated disk space. >Do you have the Intel 8272 data sheet? (This was Intel's part number >for their 765 clone. It may not just be a clone but the exact same >mask...). IIRC there are more details/examples/math in the 8272 data >sheet, including some recommendations for data separators and the good/bad >of different types. Intel is a licensed mask. Their data sheet is not any more informative than NEC full data sheet and user manual, it may be easier to find 20+ years later. The IBM softsector floppy disk specification is the origin point for the whole show. I may add that the later chips are 765B or 7265 and Intel never did those. The differnce on those are coupled to gaps 4a and 4b and the index gaps. Those came into being with the 3.5" floppy. Allison

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Allison, >Is there a calculation, NO. Unless your formatting your own, then >it's use biggest gaps that allow sector data and a resonable end gap >on off speed drives. Most of the time you have to know how >that disk was formatted originally to arrive at the correct values. >Fortunatly there is a fair amount of wiggle room if you do not run >too close (too close is below) to minimums. I know how the disk was originally formatted to the extent that I know the sector size and the number of sectors on the track. I had assumed that it worked the way you described ... my problem is that I cannot make sense of the values in the NEC supplied table. Using the IBM System 3740 (FM) and System 34 (MFM) disk format specifications, I tried working the NEC tables backward to get the "number of available bytes on a track" which they started with. I worked it through for both 8" and 5.25" drives in each format type, and the problem is that the results are not consistant. Using a given drive type and encoding method, for each sector size, number of sectors/track, and format GPL values in the NEC table, I get a "total bytes on track" values which are quite different - within a few 100 bytes, but you can make them all come out much closer by adjusting the gap length. In other words, I want to do a calculation something like: Total number of bytes assumed to be available on the track - track overhead - (#sectors * per-sector overhead) [not including gap] - (#sectors * data bytes/sector) / #sectors = actual sector gap length (for format) However the values from the NEC table do not fit such a calculation, because for each sector-size/number-of-sectors in the NEC table, you work out a "total number of bytes assumbed to be available on the track" which is only within a few 100 of the value worked out for other sector-size/number-of-sectors combinations at the same drive type and encoding method. For example, if you begin with a "total number of bytes assumed to be available on the track" which you worked out from 512 byte sectors, and reverse the calculation for 1024 byte sectors, the gap length you arrive at is different >from the one in the NEC table. Another way to look at it is that by tweaking the sector GPL, you can always get a "total number of bytes" which is within number-of-sectors/track" of the "optimim value" you were aiming for, however the values in the NEC table often result in "total number of bytes" values which are a couple of 100 away from each other. Unfortunately the 765 based FDC in the PC is very limiting, and does not allow me to read the raw format information, nor can I determine the GPL that was used on the original disk - the only other option is to calculate a suitable GPL based on the format information. If no calculation is possible, can anyone point me at a more complete table of suggested GPLs? The NEC table has some large holes, for example 9x512 and 10x512 are missing. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

FREE to a good home -- Amiga books and manuals

by blkline＠attglobal.net

Hi gang. First off, let me say that this is my first post to this list. I have followed some of the classic computing USENET lists but find the SPAM content to be too high anymore. I was only recently introduced to the classic computing website but I have really enjoyed lurking and reading about the many machines you are all working on. It's really been a joy to follow this list. My thanks to the gentleman I met at Dayton who pointed me here. I don't remember your name, but you were in the upper lot and had some DECpacks sitting near your pickup. They attracted me like a moth to a flame! Anyways, I've always enjoyed classic computers and I have a particular interest in DEC PDP-11s. I cut my teeth on RSTS/E running on a PDP-11/34a and while my laptop runs rings around my 11/34a, I find the visceral pleasures of blinking lights and clacking drive heads totally lacking in the new machines. I'm a ham operator who also appreciates the warm glow of tube equipment, but that's another story... The point of this post is that I have in my posession the following books: The AmigaDOS Manual (Commodore-Amiga, Inc.) Advanced Amiga BASIC (Tom R Halfhill and Charles Brannon) Mastering AmigaDOS (Jeffrey Stanton and Dan Pinal) and the best of the lot: An Amiga binder with the owner's manuals: Introduction to Amiga Flow ... Idea Processor for the Amiga Computer Amiga Basic I'd like to send them to someone who would appreciate them. Any takers? Barry

21 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

Distribution disks for RSX-11M???

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I picked up a pile of 8" floppy disks recent and I finally got around to looking them today and found some distribution disks for something. Some of the GenRad circuit board test stations used DEC computers as controllers and these disk came from GenRad. The box says "GRnet Release 3.0.2 (for RSX-11M 3.2)". I'm not sure if these are distribution disks for RSX-11M or only for some kind of software that runs under RSX-11M. Anyone know anything about this? There are five disks in the set and they're still new and unused and sealed in plastic. Joe

21 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

My apology to the list

by jrice54＠blackcube.org

I sent my last reply to that other thread before reading Jay's request to kill the thread. My bad. James -- www.blackcube.org The Texas State Home for Wayward and Orphaned Computers

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

SASI vs. SCSI

by unibus＠gmail.com

> I almost hate to ask the obvious, but does something have specifications > for the SASI protocol? That would go a long way to answering some of > the questions. Try http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/shugart as there are controllers in there. Also some information in the '1984 Storage Management Products Handbook' Western Digital. Board WD1002-SMD. Regards, Garry

21 years, 1 month

1
1
0 0

Need contact information for dkdkk

by phil＠ultimate.com

Tim Shoppa wrote: > The most frustration comes when I decide to "look back" and see how > nothing that I did made any difference in the end. Oh well, it was > fun at the time. Tim, As someone who worked on DEC-10's, for DEC (on FORTRAN-10/20), then using DEC-20's, your work on helping to save PDP-10 software alone qualifies you for sainthood in my book (and I imagine many others' as well)! I have my own little corner of the 20th century I've tried to save (www.gull-wing.net). Its it's own reward... Well, that at the e-mails I get on occasion saying someone thinks the web site is awsome... (In other words, I think your work is awsome!) phil

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

S100 RAM replacements - 2147's on Godbout boards

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

The 2147 us a 4kx1 part with speeds ranging from 70ns (in 1982) to as fast as 45ns. In later years they got down to 25ns. In the time frame they appeared in S100 boards ram was either slow (greater than 250ns) or fast (sud 70ns) with the costs to go with it. To build a 200ns board you needed ram faster than 200ns to allow for propagation delays in the interface and decode logic. So the 2147 was a choice. I may add they ate current like mad when selected around 160ma @5v and in standby it dropped to 20ma so board layout was had to be very good. Allison > >Subject: RE: S100 RAM replacements - 2147's on Godbout boards > From: "Richard A. Cini" <rcini at optonline.net> > Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 20:26:28 -0400 > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >JDR listed it as 55nS which I thought was incredibly fast for an S100 >system where 200nS was more common. It is indeed a 4kx1 chip according >to the product listing. > >Rich > >-----Original Message----- >From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org >[mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Barry Watzman >Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2005 1:19 PM >To: cctech at classiccmp.org >Subject: S100 RAM replacements - 2147's on Godbout boards > > > >The 2147 was a mainframe cache static memory chip. It is extremely >fast, I think in the 35 nSec range, and uses less power than most of the >static memory chips more commonly used in S-100 systems, although being >a static memory chip, it is not "low power" by any stretch of the >imagination. > >My recollection is that it's a 4kx1 chip with the same pinout as the TI >4044 and almost all of the other 4kx1 static memory chips, and that you >can actually substitute or mix 4044's and 2147's (the 4044's are nothing >like as fast, but in a 2 to 4 MHz S-100 system, you only need 150 to 250 >nSec). However, please check this out, as it's possible that the 2147 >was 1kx4 instead of 4kx1. > >I don't know why no one else used this chip, but it is a fantastic >static memory chip. > >

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

S100 RAM replacements - 2147's on Godbout boards

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

The 2147 was a mainframe cache static memory chip. It is extremely fast, I think in the 35 nSec range, and uses less power than most of the static memory chips more commonly used in S-100 systems, although being a static memory chip, it is not "low power" by any stretch of the imagination. My recollection is that it's a 4kx1 chip with the same pinout as the TI 4044 and almost all of the other 4kx1 static memory chips, and that you can actually substitute or mix 4044's and 2147's (the 4044's are nothing like as fast, but in a 2 to 4 MHz S-100 system, you only need 150 to 250 nSec). However, please check this out, as it's possible that the 2147 was 1kx4 instead of 4kx1. I don't know why no one else used this chip, but it is a fantastic static memory chip.

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

S100 RAM replacements

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I decided to run a memory test on some boards I have and I found a bad chip. It's on a CompuPro RAM14 and the chip is a MM2147J. None of my other 16k boards has this chip (VG boards; contain 2114s but the boards have "BAD" labels on them so I've never plugged them in). The chip does not have a speed marking that I can see and I don't have a copy of the RAM14 manual although it might be similar to the Godbout EconoRam IV which uses the 40144/mm5257 chips. Can anyone help me with a suitable cross for this chip...and a source? My usual haunts don't show stock on this number. Thanks. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

21 years, 1 month

4
4
0 0

Newsbreak: NPR: -.retrobox.-

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

When I was at J.D. Edwards (R.I.P.), Retrobox handled reselling the company's old computers. They offered employees a "special price," but it was hardly a deal. >From what I know, Retrobox deals mainly with PC hardware from large corporate accounts and resells it at a fairly high price. Bob <Original Message> Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 01:23:39 -0500 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Newsbreak: NPR: -.retrobox.- <snip> 1997?!? I'm really surprised to not have heard of them before now. I checked on their website... I've been by their place dozens if not hundreds of times in the past 7 years (not that I'd expect a large sign saying "Turn Left for Old Computers". I'd love to hear what people find, but, again, from their web pages, it looked like they a) don't know much about non-PC equipment (look at the Sun systems for sale), and b) think the stuff's made of solid gold. -ethan <snip>

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: FDC Gap Length? > From: Dave Dunfield <dave04a at dunfield.com> > Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2005 13:55:05 -0400 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Hi Guys, > >I've been doing a bit more work on my replacement for TeleDisk, and I have >it working quite nicely, however I do have one area that I could some help >with... > >The 765 FDC requires two "Gap Length" values, one for formatting (total gap >between sectors), and one for writing... I have been unable to find any >information about calculating these values from arbitrary sectors/track, >encoding and transfer rate. All of the documents I have found simply give a >table of suggested values for common disk formats, but give no hint as to >how to calculate them for uncommon or arbritary formats. (for example, the >fairly common 9x512 format is not included in the table). > >Currently, I am using the values from the table, and some "guesses" for >values for some other formats which I have tried, however I do not know >how to derive the correct value for these items. A couple hours on Google >turned up numerous articals, ALL of which either: > a) use a single fixed value > b) use the NEC table > c) call then "magic" numbers > or > d) say they can't provide more information on how to select GPL due to > lack of information. > >With the 765, I cannot determine the gap length used on the original >disk, so the best I can do is to try and determine a suitable gap length >when formatting based on the # sectors, sector size, encoding method, >transfer rate and drive type.... > >Can anyone provide any clues? > >Regards, >Dave The total number of bytes, gaps plus data, must not exceed the total number of possible byts on the media at nominal rotation speed. When formatting the last gap is longer than the track so that you write gap until you see index to fill out the track. For reading there is a minimum number of bytes for the gap and if memory serves 16 (decimal) is it for DD and 10 for SD. These are not optimum for writing however. For writing you need to insure there are enough gap bytes in a gap to assure the minimum needed for PLL data seperators to aquire and track after the splice point. The splice point is the location on media when after reading sector-n and finding that sector n is next then switching to write. The result is always a discontinuity in the mid gap area from switching in the erase head and beginning the first gap byte written. Is there a calculation, NO. Unless your formatting your own, then it's use biggest gaps that allow sector data and a resonable end gap on off speed drives. Most of the time you have to know how that disk was formatted originally to arrive at the correct values. Fortunatly there is a fair amount of wiggle room if you do not run too close (too close is below) to minimums. A good example of that is the RX50 (10sectors 512bytes on 5,25 floppy) as the 765A can read it but barely (not really) formats that correctly, to format that with non WD you need upD7265. hope that helps some. Allison

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FDC Gap Length?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, I've been doing a bit more work on my replacement for TeleDisk, and I have it working quite nicely, however I do have one area that I could some help with... The 765 FDC requires two "Gap Length" values, one for formatting (total gap between sectors), and one for writing... I have been unable to find any information about calculating these values from arbitrary sectors/track, encoding and transfer rate. All of the documents I have found simply give a table of suggested values for common disk formats, but give no hint as to how to calculate them for uncommon or arbritary formats. (for example, the fairly common 9x512 format is not included in the table). Currently, I am using the values from the table, and some "guesses" for values for some other formats which I have tried, however I do not know how to derive the correct value for these items. A couple hours on Google turned up numerous articals, ALL of which either: a) use a single fixed value b) use the NEC table c) call then "magic" numbers or d) say they can't provide more information on how to select GPL due to lack of information. With the 765, I cannot determine the gap length used on the original disk, so the best I can do is to try and determine a suitable gap length when formatting based on the # sectors, sector size, encoding method, transfer rate and drive type.... Can anyone provide any clues? Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

More DEC Boot ROM Questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 16 2005, 10:45, Joe R. wrote: > Jay's questions about the DEC Boot Roms prompted me to go dig out some > boxs of Boot ROMs that I got from Thom. I checked the list but I can't find > any of these listed. Does anyone know what they're for? One box has just > one and it's marked 23-060E4-00. I think I've come across that but I can't remember where. Sorry! > the next box has four PROMs and they're > marked 23034E2-00, 23-033E2-00, 23032E2 and 23-061E2-00. They're > all 24 pin .6 inch wide PROMs. Those aren't boot ROMs, they're the terminal board ROMs for a VT105 or VT125. Replace the 061 with 031 and you'd have a VT100 set. > The next box has two 16 pin .3 inch wide PROMs with the numbers LM8513 > 990A9 and LM8514 767A9 on them. Those are DEC numbers NOT a commercail > number even though they sound like commercail PNs. I don't know what 990 is but 767 is the "DU" boot for a UDA50. > The last box has some markings on it (but they may not be right!). The > markings are water damaged and hard to read but I can read "M8317 bootup > module" so it appears to be for the PDP-8A. It has two .3 inch wide 16 pin > PROMs in it. They're marked 469A2 and 465A2 and both are also marked 8005 > (date code?). Could be. DEC were still making 8As in 1980. Bear in mind that DEC used ROMs, EPROMS, and PROMs for lots of things other than boot code. Smaller ones, in particular, crop up all over some older boards as logic decoders and the like. The lists on my website don't include those, because the lists were mostly built up as I came across boot ROMs in systems. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Free: Mark-Sense card reader

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

Free in Washington DC area, local pickup only: A Mountain Computer mark-sense card reader. Has a DB-25 on the back and a bunch of dipswitches. The DB-25 is RS-232. Model 1100A. Has a small hopper, rubber roller feed etc. Maybe it could be refurbed into a punch card reader. No idea if it works or not. E-mail me at "shoppa at trailing-edge.com" if interested. Tim.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Free DEC SCSI parts

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

Available, will ship if you pay (approx $10 inside US for USPS priority mail): DEC VS3100-type SCSI cable. Length about 1 foot, has the funky VS3100 68-pin SCSI connector on one end, and a "normal" Centronics 50-pin SCSI-1 style connector on the other. DEC RRD46-AB-A02 SCSI CD-ROM reader. Oh, now that I look, that cable is more like 24" or 30" long, and says "BC09J-03". If interested, E-mail me at my non-list address, "shoppa at trailing-edge.com". Will give priority to anyone willing to do a local pickup (outside Washington DC) but will ship for $10 if nobody is willing to pick up. Tim.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

M9312 boot rom ID help?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

786A9 no clue 788A9 no clue 787A9 no clue please dump these when you get a chance. are you shure they aren't 768A9 et al ? they don't appear in the list at www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECPROMs 23-751A9 is the RL01/02 DL Boot ROM

21 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Anything on Bigboard II?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>I have what I think is the complete documentation set for the Ferguson >BigBoard. I don't know if it's the Bigboard II. My board has >'Ferguson' etched right into the board. It's all in paper, schematics >and the manual, and if nobody else has it, I could generate a copy >and/or scan it in. I too have an original Bigboard, and complete documentation set (also paper), however I don't think this will be all that useful to the OP, as the BB2 is quite a bit different. To identify which BB you have: BB1: - Large 4x8 array of 4116 RAMs - EPROMS are in a row going across (side to side) the board - Video is hardwired (no 6845 CRT controller) - Reads "The Furguson" in large letters, somewhat centered on the board, about 1/4 from one end. - No prototypeing area BB2: - Single 1x8 row of 4164 RAMs - EPROMS are in a row going down the side (at the edge) - Contains 6845 CTR controller - Reads "BIGBOARD II" along one edge. - Has a prototyping area at one end. There's lots of other differences, but these are the most visible ones. I have a photo of my BB1 on my site (look under "non S100 - CP/M"). Unfortunately I don't have information on the BB2 except for advertisements and articals published in Micro Cornucopia. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

M9312 boot rom ID help?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 15 2005, 19:39, Lyle Bickley wrote: > On Friday 15 July 2005 19:24, Jay West wrote: > > They will get dumped at some point in the not too distant future. I'll get > > you copies. So, does anyone know a reasonable source of blanks for these > > proms? > > > > Jay > > The boot PROMs are 82S131 and the console PROM is 82S137. Check an IC Master > to find "compatible" critters. There's a list of equivalents in the text at http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECPROMs/pinouts though it may not be a complete list. Note that "compatible" or "equivalent" for PROMs means "read compatible". Different manufacturers did not all use the same programming algorithms. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Anything on Bigboard II?

by aaron＠ndwsfc.org.au

Hello, all. As a recent purchaser of the Ferguson Bigboard II, I find that it's without any kind of documentation. Is there anything available anywhere for this? >From reading back issues of EA and ETI here in Australia, this was first released here in November of 1983, by (the now defunct, I believe) Ritronics (aka Rod Irving Electronics) of Melbourne. The board is marked with "(c)1982 J. Ferguson" and makes no mention of Digital Research Computers, or Cal-Tex. I've read that the BB II was the basis for the Xerox 820, but the schematics that I've been able to locate for the 820 are nothing like what's on the BB II. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this. Aaron (from the land downunder)

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Plain Old Crazy

by leeedavison＠yahoo.co.uk

> Actually, this is a somewhat uncommon German Apple ][ clone. > I'm not sure how common/rare it is in Germany, but Hans would > know. Certainly not $8K,or even $750. Maybe a couple hundred. I remember the ITT being more common than the real Apple at the time. Had three of them at school. Lee. . ___________________________________________________________ How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos http://uk.photos.yahoo.com

21 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

goodnight, OS/2

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

So- does this mean that you can no longer download the fixpaks? I have copies, but if IBM is going to get rid of them, I'll keep 2.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

M9312 boot rom ID help?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I have a few boot roms in a 9312 bootstrap terminator that I can't identify. The manual lists most boot roms, but these particular ones are not listed in the manual I have. Anyone know? 760A9 - PR - PC05 (this one I could find in the docs) 786A9 no clue 788A9 no clue 787A9 no clue I'm hoping one of them is an RL02 rom :\ Jay West

21 years, 1 month

2
3
0 0

DEC Slides???

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Anybody want to take a stab at identifing these various DEC slides? <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/DEC%20Slides/>. I know this one is from an 11/44 <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/DEC%20Slides/P7150101.JPG>. Warning: Big Files! They're completely unedited and uncropped. Joe

21 years, 1 month

3
4
0 0

Solid State Music V1B question

by Richard.Cini＠wachovia.com

The 1N4742 is a 1w part which at 12 volts is well within the amperage ratings of a 7812. That's the way I'm going to go. Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 8:55 AM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Solid State Music V1B question > >Subject: Solid State Music V1B question > From: "Cini, Richard" <Richard.Cini at wachovia.com> > Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:39:42 -0400 > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >All: > > > > I'm playing around with the SSM V1B video board in my Altair, >and I have a question about errata and board modifications, specifically >with regards to the +12v power supply. > > > >I have three boards. One is "condition unknown" and two are working. The >+12v regulated supply consists of a small-value series resistor, a zener >diode and a cap. One of the boards has a 100 ohm, 1/4w resistor which is >charred and when operated, continues to smell. The other working board has a >220 ohm resistor and the same zener diode and appears to work fine with no >smell. The manual specifies a 100 ohm resistor and a 1N4742 diode. > > > >The "condition unknown" board has a 7812 regulator soldered to the pads >replacing the resistor and the diode. From what I can tell from the >schematic, the +12v is used only for the character generator chip. When >turned on, I get a display full of well-formed garbage, which is probably >just that it's displaying the random data in buffer memory. > > > >Does anyone have a view on what the best kind of repair might be? > > > > Thanks. > Rich, The best fix is the three terminal regulator. The resistor and zener diode works well but the correct value of resistor is dependent on the raw 12+ volt power on the S100 buss. Since I've seen that bus run from barely 15V (marginal for three terminal regulator) to as high as 22V the right resistor varies greatly. I'd speculate (I don't know which character rom) on the required 12V power needs that the 100ohm is plainly too low and maybe 220 is right. If the resistor is too low the Zener diode will overheat and if too high the regulation is poor. Zener diodes have power ratings like many parts and if exceeded they fail. Using a three terminal regulator eliminates a lot of guessing. Allison

21 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Solid State Music V1B question

by Richard.Cini＠wachovia.com

All: I'm playing around with the SSM V1B video board in my Altair, and I have a question about errata and board modifications, specifically with regards to the +12v power supply. I have three boards. One is "condition unknown" and two are working. The +12v regulated supply consists of a small-value series resistor, a zener diode and a cap. One of the boards has a 100 ohm, 1/4w resistor which is charred and when operated, continues to smell. The other working board has a 220 ohm resistor and the same zener diode and appears to work fine with no smell. The manual specifies a 100 ohm resistor and a 1N4742 diode. The "condition unknown" board has a 7812 regulator soldered to the pads replacing the resistor and the diode. From what I can tell from the schematic, the +12v is used only for the character generator chip. When turned on, I get a display full of well-formed garbage, which is probably just that it's displaying the random data in buffer memory. Does anyone have a view on what the best kind of repair might be? Thanks. Rich

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

FREE for S&H, UOM BASIC Volume 10 Document

by ICS＠Core.com

FREE for S&H, University of Michigan, 1" thick Volume 10 on BASIC, dated 1971. It documents how to program BASIC from their terminals running from a IBM 360 model 67. ,George ICS at Core.com

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FREE for S&H, 1983 vintage HP250 Sales Brochures

by ICS＠Core.com

FREE for S&H, 6 lbs. of 1983 vintage HP250 and a few HP1000 Sales Brochures. George, ICS at Core.com

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Pro-Log "System 2" OS?

by ken＠seefried.com

Does anyone have any information about Pro-Logs "System 2" operating system for STD-Bus machines? I've got a i286-based Pro-Log 7892-03 CPU that has a rom labled "SYSTEM 2<cr>MODEL 60 BIOS", and a 7171B-02 system support card with a rom labled "SYSTEM 2<cr>ROMDISK H". Google hasn't been very helpful, other than to indicate that it existed. Ken

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Update on HHC Basics

by zmerch＠30below.com

Well, I have good news and I have good news... (and just a little bad news)... I have now erased a bajangle of eproms, I have quite a few Basics burned and lots of spare blank carts, so they'll hit the mail soon. I have tomorrow off, so I'll prolly pack/address/ship then. If not, definitely over the weekend. Tuesday nite was going to be my "Pack'em up nite" but the wifeypoo got a line on a good job, so it was transformed into "Rewrite the Resume nite."[1] Wednesdays are a PITA for me (to work at 7:30am, get out at 8:30 pm or later) so I rarely feel like doing anything after work. Of course, my LCD monitor "went blank" Tuesday nite, so I had to figure out the cause of that last nite... I was a grumpy dude by 11:00 pm. ;-) Turns out the LCD monitor died... :-( I grabbed my wife's monitor and am using that temporarily until I can get a new one in. I did test a basic cart in my HHC, and it seems to work fine, *except* I think my RAM's a bit wonky, as once I create a program, then exit BASIC, it thinks I have 2 bytes of free memory left. Weird. It might also be a limitation as to *which slot* the chip goes into - I didn't diddle with that. Or... I don't believe that the internal batteries are functioning, so it might be a power problem causing the wonkeyness... Anyway, the Basic itself comes up and it takes immediate commands just fine, and I've entered in 2-3 line programs that run fine until you exit basic, then it thinks there's no free memory left. Like I said, weird. Anyway, I'll send out individual emails tomorrow with the status of each order, but I wanted to let everyone know I didn't forget 'em! ;-) Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger [1] After a 10-year hiatus from the workforce, it was quite a job! -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger | Anarchy doesn't scale well. -- Me zmerch at 30below.com. | SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers

21 years, 1 month

6
13
0 0

Solid State Music V1B question

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Richard You most likely won't have any troubles but it is recommended to have a 1uF to 10uF cap at the input lead. These things can oscillate in the 100KHz to 1MHz range. I remember trouble shooting a burn-in board that was running about 20 amperes and going on and off at about 900 KHz. I was surprised that they'd not gotten a visit from the FCC. I guess the antenna was not that effective. I didn't have a radio handy to try but I suspect it would have been noticeable at close range. ( the voltage was 15Volts with about 100 regulators ) Dwight >From: "Cini, Richard" <Richard.Cini at wachovia.com> > >Dwight: > > Thanks. I will add the back-biased diode. Should I also add a small >filter at the inout of the regulator or is that not needed since the >distance between the source point (buss connector) is fairly close to the >regulator? > >Rich > >-----Original Message----- >From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] >On Behalf Of Dwight K. Elvey >Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 1:07 PM >To: cctalk at classiccmp.org >Subject: Re: Solid State Music V1B question > >Hi > The typical rail voltage is around 18 volts some place. This >should be on the order of 1/3 watt someplace for the resistor. >The 1/4W resistor is way too small. I'd tend to think that >you might be better with the 220 ohm resistor. The diode of >1W is a maximum of 83 ma. I'd suspect that you only need about >1/10 that much to get reasonable regulation. Even at 15V >input, a 1.8K would be enough. One would need to figure >how much current the video chip needed, before selecting the >right value resistor. > Since you have one board with a three terminal regulator, >you might add a 10 ohm resistor to the input lead of the >regulator to work as a temporary current sensor. The regulator >draws some current but it is usually small. Add about 50% >to this value and then add 8ma for the diode. From this >you should be able to calculate a reasonable dropping >resistor. Figure a minimum supply of about 15 volts and then >figure the wattage with the 22 volt level. > Or, as was suggested, go to a 3 terminal regulator for all. >I've seen a number of negative regulators fail, when used >under minimum load. I suspect this is actually caused >by back current when the supply is turned off. Any filtering >capacitors after the regulator may hold longer than the >input filter capacitors. This causes significant back current. >When using a 3 terminal regulators under a minimum load, as >you'll be doing, I suggest that you add a 1N4001, back biased, >from the input to the output lead ( for a positive regulator, >band on the input lead ). > When working for a company doing embedded machines, we saw >this problem and we had no more returns after adding the >diode. >Dwight > > >>From: "Cini, Richard" <Richard.Cini at wachovia.com> >> >>All: >> >> >> >> I'm playing around with the SSM V1B video board in my Altair, >>and I have a question about errata and board modifications, specifically >>with regards to the +12v power supply. >> >> >> >>I have three boards. One is "condition unknown" and two are working. The >>+12v regulated supply consists of a small-value series resistor, a zener >>diode and a cap. One of the boards has a 100 ohm, 1/4w resistor which is >>charred and when operated, continues to smell. The other working board has >a >>220 ohm resistor and the same zener diode and appears to work fine with no >>smell. The manual specifies a 100 ohm resistor and a 1N4742 diode. >> >> >> >>The "condition unknown" board has a 7812 regulator soldered to the pads >>replacing the resistor and the diode. From what I can tell from the >>schematic, the +12v is used only for the character generator chip. When >>turned on, I get a display full of well-formed garbage, which is probably >>just that it's displaying the random data in buffer memory. >> >> >> >>Does anyone have a view on what the best kind of repair might be? >> >> >> >> Thanks. >> >> >> >>Rich >> >> >> >> > >

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Solid State Music V1B question

by Richard.Cini＠wachovia.com

Dwight: Thanks. I will add the back-biased diode. Should I also add a small filter at the inout of the regulator or is that not needed since the distance between the source point (buss connector) is fairly close to the regulator? Rich -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Dwight K. Elvey Sent: Friday, July 15, 2005 1:07 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Solid State Music V1B question Hi The typical rail voltage is around 18 volts some place. This should be on the order of 1/3 watt someplace for the resistor. The 1/4W resistor is way too small. I'd tend to think that you might be better with the 220 ohm resistor. The diode of 1W is a maximum of 83 ma. I'd suspect that you only need about 1/10 that much to get reasonable regulation. Even at 15V input, a 1.8K would be enough. One would need to figure how much current the video chip needed, before selecting the right value resistor. Since you have one board with a three terminal regulator, you might add a 10 ohm resistor to the input lead of the regulator to work as a temporary current sensor. The regulator draws some current but it is usually small. Add about 50% to this value and then add 8ma for the diode. From this you should be able to calculate a reasonable dropping resistor. Figure a minimum supply of about 15 volts and then figure the wattage with the 22 volt level. Or, as was suggested, go to a 3 terminal regulator for all. I've seen a number of negative regulators fail, when used under minimum load. I suspect this is actually caused by back current when the supply is turned off. Any filtering capacitors after the regulator may hold longer than the input filter capacitors. This causes significant back current. When using a 3 terminal regulators under a minimum load, as you'll be doing, I suggest that you add a 1N4001, back biased, >from the input to the output lead ( for a positive regulator, band on the input lead ). When working for a company doing embedded machines, we saw this problem and we had no more returns after adding the diode. Dwight >From: "Cini, Richard" <Richard.Cini at wachovia.com> > >All: > > > > I'm playing around with the SSM V1B video board in my Altair, >and I have a question about errata and board modifications, specifically >with regards to the +12v power supply. > > > >I have three boards. One is "condition unknown" and two are working. The >+12v regulated supply consists of a small-value series resistor, a zener >diode and a cap. One of the boards has a 100 ohm, 1/4w resistor which is >charred and when operated, continues to smell. The other working board has a >220 ohm resistor and the same zener diode and appears to work fine with no >smell. The manual specifies a 100 ohm resistor and a 1N4742 diode. > > > >The "condition unknown" board has a 7812 regulator soldered to the pads >replacing the resistor and the diode. From what I can tell from the >schematic, the +12v is used only for the character generator chip. When >turned on, I get a display full of well-formed garbage, which is probably >just that it's displaying the random data in buffer memory. > > > >Does anyone have a view on what the best kind of repair might be? > > > > Thanks. > > > >Rich > > > >

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Solid State Music V1B question

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi The typical rail voltage is around 18 volts some place. This should be on the order of 1/3 watt someplace for the resistor. The 1/4W resistor is way too small. I'd tend to think that you might be better with the 220 ohm resistor. The diode of 1W is a maximum of 83 ma. I'd suspect that you only need about 1/10 that much to get reasonable regulation. Even at 15V input, a 1.8K would be enough. One would need to figure how much current the video chip needed, before selecting the right value resistor. Since you have one board with a three terminal regulator, you might add a 10 ohm resistor to the input lead of the regulator to work as a temporary current sensor. The regulator draws some current but it is usually small. Add about 50% to this value and then add 8ma for the diode. From this you should be able to calculate a reasonable dropping resistor. Figure a minimum supply of about 15 volts and then figure the wattage with the 22 volt level. Or, as was suggested, go to a 3 terminal regulator for all. I've seen a number of negative regulators fail, when used under minimum load. I suspect this is actually caused by back current when the supply is turned off. Any filtering capacitors after the regulator may hold longer than the input filter capacitors. This causes significant back current. When using a 3 terminal regulators under a minimum load, as you'll be doing, I suggest that you add a 1N4001, back biased, >from the input to the output lead ( for a positive regulator, band on the input lead ). When working for a company doing embedded machines, we saw this problem and we had no more returns after adding the diode. Dwight >From: "Cini, Richard" <Richard.Cini at wachovia.com> > >All: > > > > I'm playing around with the SSM V1B video board in my Altair, >and I have a question about errata and board modifications, specifically >with regards to the +12v power supply. > > > >I have three boards. One is "condition unknown" and two are working. The >+12v regulated supply consists of a small-value series resistor, a zener >diode and a cap. One of the boards has a 100 ohm, 1/4w resistor which is >charred and when operated, continues to smell. The other working board has a >220 ohm resistor and the same zener diode and appears to work fine with no >smell. The manual specifies a 100 ohm resistor and a 1N4742 diode. > > > >The "condition unknown" board has a 7812 regulator soldered to the pads >replacing the resistor and the diode. From what I can tell from the >schematic, the +12v is used only for the character generator chip. When >turned on, I get a display full of well-formed garbage, which is probably >just that it's displaying the random data in buffer memory. > > > >Does anyone have a view on what the best kind of repair might be? > > > > Thanks. > > > >Rich > > > >

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Goodnight, OS/2...

by news＠computercollector.com

http://www-306.ibm.com/fcgi-bin/common/ssi/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&a ppname=Demonstration&htmlfid=897/ENUS905-163 Or for minimalists: http://tinyurl.com/acbp2 ----------------------------------------- Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: http://www.snarc.net Also see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/ Where did PDAs come from? http://www.snarc.net/pda/pda-treatise.htm *** Tell your friends about the (free!) Computer Collector Newsletter - 760 readers and no spam / Publishes every Monday / Write for us! - Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all - W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news at computercollector.com

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Solid State Music V1B question

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Solid State Music V1B question > From: "Cini, Richard" <Richard.Cini at wachovia.com> > Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:39:42 -0400 > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >All: > > > > I'm playing around with the SSM V1B video board in my Altair, >and I have a question about errata and board modifications, specifically >with regards to the +12v power supply. > > > >I have three boards. One is "condition unknown" and two are working. The >+12v regulated supply consists of a small-value series resistor, a zener >diode and a cap. One of the boards has a 100 ohm, 1/4w resistor which is >charred and when operated, continues to smell. The other working board has a >220 ohm resistor and the same zener diode and appears to work fine with no >smell. The manual specifies a 100 ohm resistor and a 1N4742 diode. > > > >The "condition unknown" board has a 7812 regulator soldered to the pads >replacing the resistor and the diode. From what I can tell from the >schematic, the +12v is used only for the character generator chip. When >turned on, I get a display full of well-formed garbage, which is probably >just that it's displaying the random data in buffer memory. > > > >Does anyone have a view on what the best kind of repair might be? > > > > Thanks. > Rich, The best fix is the three terminal regulator. The resistor and zener diode works well but the correct value of resistor is dependent on the raw 12+ volt power on the S100 buss. Since I've seen that bus run from barely 15V (marginal for three terminal regulator) to as high as 22V the right resistor varies greatly. I'd speculate (I don't know which character rom) on the required 12V power needs that the 100ohm is plainly too low and maybe 220 is right. If the resistor is too low the Zener diode will overheat and if too high the regulation is poor. Zener diodes have power ratings like many parts and if exceeded they fail. Using a three terminal regulator eliminates a lot of guessing. Allison

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

...still looking for MS-Fortran for ANY DOS puter

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

I may have posted this request...plea...on cctech some time ago. I've been looking for an early Microsoft Fortran compiler for eons. Vanilla DOS version would be fine, but for something exotic like the Tandy 2000 or Zenith Z-100 would be exquisite. I was fortunate to obtain, oo, MS-COBOL recently, and to my amazement I managed to WinImage the disks. Version 2.0 or something. If any of you weren't aware, the earliest versions of Turbo Pascal and Turbo C are available for download on the Borland Museum. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Tape punch

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I'd posted here a while ago looking for info on a Tally 420PR tape punch -- I just put three different 420 manuals up at http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/tally

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Rescued: Data General Nova Boards

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> D-10632-01 Data Channel Linc Tape, CO3000N Option 008 Jay West is probably the only person on the planet that would have a use for that. Tom Jennings is nearby, and may want the other boards.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Motorola MC6800 design kit

by swtpc6800＠comcast.net

I am looking for a good picture of the 1975 Motorola MC6800 design package. This has the MC6800 IC family mounted in foam covered with plastic.. (The MC6800, MC6810, MC6820, MC6850, and MIKBUG ROM.) This came with data books but I just want a picture of the chips on the card. One of these was sold on eBay a year or so ago and someone on this list got it. Michael Holley www.swtpc.com/mholley

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

IDE hard drive on original IBM AT?

by marvin＠rain.org

I haven't tried using an IDE drive with a real IBM AT, but I suspect it will not be plug and play! The original BIOS supports 15 predefined drive types and I don't remember any user defined settings. You might try something like "Disk Manager" or other such utilities. IIRC, they can allow larger than the 32 MB partition sizes and I *think* will allow settings other than what IBM provided. > I have two "true-blue" IBM ATs, both the early motherboard revision. > I have the following questions: > > - Is it possible to use an IDE hard drive instead of MFM? I have > tried several different drive/controller combos, and nothing works so > far :-( . The drives are small ( < 100 MB), so it's not a geometry > issue (at least, I don't think so :-) )

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Open-ended Apple "collection" on eBay

by cb＠mythtech.net

>Yep, one of my local recyclers is like that. I think they assume that >anyone who appears to be knowledgeable about what they have is >immediately going to take their junk and make a fortune selling it. Tell >them that it's worthless in financial terms and they think you're lying; >tell them that you absolutely will not sell it on and they still think >you're lying. I haven't figured out a way of dealing with that class of >people yet :-( Bring your SO along, pretend to spot the item and say "Oh look honey, this is just like the <insert item here> we were using when we met". Then have your SO say "Oh, we simply MUST buy it" Then offer the guy 50% of what you really are willing to pay for it. Watch the dollar signs roll in his eyes as you haggle your way up to the amount you were willing to pay. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 1 month

5
5
0 0

Open-ended Apple "collection" on eBay

by James＠jdfogg.com

> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5217360547& category=51046&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1 > > Somewhat interesting. It's basically a computer recycler > that has decided to dump it's entire collection of Apple > stuff, including Lisa's, ]['s, and it seems a lot of recent > stuff like iMac, G3's, etc. > > Located in "Northeast USA". Shipping is $750. Yeah, I think I know who this is. I'm a little pissed as I've bugged them for the vintage stuff before and they act like it's gold, don't want to talk about it, yet sometimes scrap it. Tried to deal on an Octane and it was weeks of "we're not sure what we're doing with it" and then it vanished. I think I'll drive out there tomorrow.

21 years, 1 month

6
8
0 0

Making an XXDP boot disk on an RX02

by jim＠g1jbg.co.uk

Hi, I have recently added an RX02 to my 11/23+ system, and was trying to make an XXDP bootable floppy, but havae had no success. I can write files to the drive, and read them back, but can't boot. The process I used (in UPDAT) was: ZERO DY0: CREATE DY0: then copy all *.sys files, plus UPDAT and HELP to the disk ( I have a TU58 image with these files on that will boot fine, using the TU58 emulator). I tried copying the files with both FILE and PIP, but when I use either the UPDAT BOOT command, or key in a bootstrap, the proceesor halts at address 000016 (I think this indicates a trap on halt). Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong.......... Thanks Jim. Please see our website the " Vintage Communication Pages" at WWW.G1JBG.CO.UK

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

KDJ-11 PDP11/73 digrams needed

by jim＠g1jbg.co.uk

Hi, while repairing some 11/73's at work yesterday, I ended up with two gaulty KDJ11 processor cards, one has not TX data from the SLU, and the other doesn't talk to the rear panel 7-segment displays. The company policy is to replace the CPU, and scrap the u/s unit. I suspect the faults are fairly trivial, and am looking for a circuit diagram of the KDJ11 so that I can have a go at repairing them. Can anyone point me to an online source? Thanks Jim. Please see our website the " Vintage Communication Pages" at WWW.G1JBG.CO.UK

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

IDE hard drive on original IBM AT?

by richard.beaudry＠gmail.com

Hello all, I have two "true-blue" IBM ATs, both the early motherboard revision. I have the following questions: - Is it possible to use an IDE hard drive instead of MFM? I have tried several different drive/controller combos, and nothing works so far :-( . The drives are small ( < 100 MB), so it's not a geometry issue (at least, I don't think so :-) ) - Is anyone running an early rev. AT with an IDE drive? How did you do it? :-) - I Google'd a bit, and someone mentioned not only upgraded disk-based setup programs, but also upgrade BIOSes for the AT. Does anyone have an upgraded setup disk or BIOS that they'd be willing to copy for me? Thanks all! Rich B.

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

international shipping

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Hi Chris, well, from The Netherlands to other countries *inside* Europe the Dutch Postal Service accepts packages upto 30 kilo, and then the max shipping costs are 39 Euro. *Outside* Europe the max weight is only 20 kilo, and economy shipping is 53 Euro, and priority shipping is 108 Euro. 100 Euro is approx 130 US$, so asking $300 is a rip off I would say! - Henk, PA8PDP. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org To: cctech at classiccmp.org Sent: 8-7-2005 22:08 Subject: international shipping Can anyone tell me the best way to have something shipped from say England or the Netherlands (or Germany). Or even Brazil/Argentina. Or even Australia. I know it's not ever going to be cheap, but when you calculate 20 or so pounds from S.America - $300+, I figure there must be a better way. For those of you who already don't know it, FedEx usually beats UPS by a mile at domestic postage. Perhaps half in alot of cases. But they don't cover as many areas as it seems UPS does.

21 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

WTB: Sun3 SCSI card

by pat＠computer-refuge.org

I need a SCSI card for my Sun 3/180. Is there anyone that can help me? I've got a few $$ I could spend towards it, but I'm not willing to pay insane amounts of cash. ;) Pat -- Purdue University ITAP/RCS --- http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/ The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org

21 years, 1 month

5
9
0 0

Sphere 1 computer from 1976

by swtpc6800＠comcast.net

Here is some info on the Sphere 1 http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/BYTE/Jan1976/Jan_1976_BYTE.htm ------------------------------- Michael Holley swtpc6800 at comcast.net www.swtpc.com -------------------------------

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Sphere 1 computer from 1976

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Folks, I was contacted by a person who has a Sphere 1 kit computer from 1976, and wants to know more about it. It was his fathers, who has passed away. Feel free to post or send me any info you might have and I'll pass it on to him. Thanks- Steve. ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb