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

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

OK, I've just looked at mine, and all of my terminals and all of my power wallwarts for them are clearly marked 20 VAC (1.8 A, 35 W marking on the terminals, 37 VA marking on the wallwarts). Plugging one of the wallwarts into the wall and measuring with a voltmeter showed 24 VAC under no load. I guess it's supposed to sink a little under load. Since it's so clearly marked, why was this a mystery in the first place? What is a little more of a mystery, however, is that the terminals have compartments that seem like they are for batteries, but upon opening them one sees no place to put in standard batteries, but instead some little wierd connectors on short wire pigtails, obviously for some proprietary battery packs. Does anyone have any info on those battery packs? They were rechargeable and charged when the terminal is plugged into AC power, weren't they? I'm guessing that from the fact that they were special battery packs and not standard batteries one buys replacements for at a supermarket or gas station. MS

21 years, 8 months

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Domain Name Registration

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

I use Network Solutions, because no matter how bad they suck, they still ARE the successor to the original SRI-NIC. (But then I have only one domain, registered in 2000 when you could still register a domain by sending a template to HOSTMASTER(a)INTERNIC.NET, and I will never register other domains because I still believe in the original doctrine of one physical organisation = one domain.) But I miss SRI-NIC soooooo bad! To bring this on topic: does anyone have a copy of the original SRI-NIC software, or at least have any idea about what it was like, what it did it run on, what was it written in, etc? I'm talking about the software that processed templates sent to HOSTMASTER@SRI-NIC, and even to HOSTMASTER(a)INTERNIC.NET as late as 2000, and maintained the original registry database in its original unique super-cool format with those NIC handles (like HARHAN-DOM, IFCTFVAX-HST, MS35906), provided the original WHOIS service, and generated HOSTS.TXT and the TLD zone files. The best hope that I see for Internet is the colonisation of Mars. The good thing about Mars is that the 30 min speed of light delay should prevent any possibility of our present rotten, corrupt, spam,porn-and-Weendoze-filled Internet extending to Mars, and on Mars we'll have a chance to start fresh >from a clean slate. If I get there first I'm going to recreate the good old ARPA Internet there in its full glory, with TENEX and 4BSD hosts, open relays (we'll have to relay because interplanetary communication back to Earth and to elsewhere will have to be all store and forward, like the good old UUCP), SRI-NIC, HOSTS.TXT, no Yahoo, no AOL, no spam, no porn, no Weendoze lusers on DSL with dynamic IPs! A copy of the original SRI-NIC registry software would be very helpful. MS

21 years, 8 months

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Stuff for sale, cheap

by aw288＠osfn.org

I picked up the pile of DECstuff located in White Plains, NY the other night, and most I really don't want. I am keeping the rack, PDP-11/23, RL02s and some packs, and maybe a VT100, but the rest I don't need. So here it goes, cheap: (many) RL02 disk packs (some I think have MUMPS stuff) (2 or 3) LA50 printers (little desktop things) (2 or 3) VT100oid keyboards (may have missing keycaps) Make silly offers for this stuff - just give me something for my time and gas fetching the stuff. Shipping is from 10512. Come to think of it, someone local could probably easily talk me out of the whole pile. I must say it is not too pretty. Unrelated, I also have an ancient video game - one of those analog/digital hybrids (ping/squash/practice/soccer - the ultra cheesy games from the mid 1970s). It is a Bentley Compuvision. The paddles are included, but one is missing the knob (the pot shaft is still there). I was told it still works, but did not try it out. Also accepting silly offers for the thing.). Oh, and I also see I have a tube of Altera EP610SC-15 EPLD chips. These are surface mount - I assume unblown, but can't be sure. 17 chips is all. Same deal. Please reply off list. William Donzelli aw288(a)osfn.org

21 years, 8 months

1
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Grid 1520 update

by mapleleafman＠gmail.com

Well Dave and all, I figured out the power supply problem only to find that the hard drive is probably shot. The PS contact inside the case had been heat-shrinked to prevent the battery from working. There was no battery with the computer but if there had been, it would have been drained in a short time due to the plasma screen. After removing the heat shrink, the laptop booted but stuck on a drive error/configuration error, 02 to be specific. One other interesting thing that I didn't notice is that there is a shock detector stuck on the side of the PS cage inside the laptop. It states something about it will show red if excessive shock detected. Well, half of it is red, other half is grey so who knows if it's been dropped? Anyway, I will continue to see if I can resurrect the drive. There was no floppy drive with it so I'm stymied there. Lots of config apps are out there for it but I can't use them. FYI, that's all. BM

21 years, 8 months

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More data on dead wall wart

by vcf＠siconic.com

So I double checked the AC voltage output on this TI wall wart for the Silent 700 model 703 and it definitely has no voltage (and correction on my meter settings: it has 200VAC and 600VAC). I also checked and there is infinite resistance between any combination of pins (I checked on all settings from 2 ohms to 20 Mohms). For the hell of it I checked for DC voltage and there also is none. Foo. Next step is to crack it open. Anyone know a good way to open up these permanently sealed transformers? -- 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, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "William Donzelli" <aw288(a)osfn.org> > >> Reminds me. The CDC Cyber 960 from http://www.cray-cyber.org/ runs at >> 400 Hz. The higher frequency allows smaller transformers. > >I think the intent was to reduce the ripple, rather than reduce the >weight. CDC wasn't afraid of a few more pounds. > >> The 400 Hz three phase current is generated by a motor-generator. The >> rotating mass of this machine is enough to keep the Cyber running for >> some seconds. (Power consumption of the Cyber at minimal configuration >> is around 20 kW.) Enough to start a big diesel generator in case of a >> power outage. > >I doubt you could start a big diesel that fast, reliably. > >The inertia would, however, protect against little dips and burps in the >power, when the utilities are fooling around with the grid. > Hi William I was right next to a flywheel started no-break diesel. It was running at full load in about one second from a complete stand still. My heart was pounding quite hard >from the adrenaline rush I got. Another way to start a diesel fast is with compressed air. In anycase, "Yes", they can start that fast. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Newbie!

by river＠zip.com.au

Hi, I'm a newbie to this forum, though I don't regard my self as a newbie in regards to old computers. I collect the 70's vintage processors and systems and have been playing with them for many years. However, I have hit a bit of a hurdle with a pair of old Intel MDS Systems. Last week I bought a SeriesIV and a Series225 for a few dollars. The Series4 has failed its CPIO PhaseII test with the RAM March error @ location 0000:8001. I have another Series4 that I've had for a while and it works. I swapped over the processor boards and the error followed the board. I don't have a cct diagram so I traced the pins of the RAM chips (32 x 2118chips) and have traced it down to possibly one of 8 chips. However, before I start replacing chips etc, I am hoping that someone here may be able to tell me which chip it is that has failed - assuming you have access to more info on the Series4 than I do. The Series225 was left out under a verandah for 12years with just a plastic tarp covering it and it was covered in mud and dirt. I spent most of the weekend cleaning it up and checking it out. It powers up okay, but I need more info on this box 'cos I have no doco for it whatsoever. I need to know the Monitor commands. I got a few of them out 'cos some are the same as the old Intel SBC monitors, but there are a few extra commands that I'm not sure about. Also, does anyone have a ROM listing for the Series 225 Monitor? I'd like to know its IO addresses for keyboard, CRT, serial port. I can try and hand dissasemble it, but I thought I'd try you guys before I embark on this task. Oh, one other thing... at what stage does the Series225 boot from the floppy? So far I can't get this thing to recognise it's got a floppy. I was assuming it would boot upon power-up/reset, but it doesn't. So, maybe there's a command I need to use or it's just stuffed and I'll have to fix it. seeyuzz river

21 years, 8 months

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Newbie!

by melamy＠earthlink.net

you can find the boot monitor listing for the mds225 (and various other things) at http://bitsavers.org/pdf/intel/MDS2/ The 225 boots up off floppy when you have a single density floppy in the drive and you press reset on the front panel (any floppy in the drive will at least cause it to access the drive whether it can read it or not). Obviously, if the floppy drive was never even selected then you have more problems on the IOC card in back. Keep in mind that the processor board out front does not access the individual items like to the keyboard, display, and IO ports (that is all done by the IOC card) through ports. The main processor sends commands to the back card to access the various pieces of hardware. You can get more info on that by looking at the schematic set at bitsavers also. By the way, welcome to the Intel club. best regards, Steve Thatcher -----Original Message----- From: river <river(a)zip.com.au> The Series225 was left out under a verandah for 12years with just a plastic tarp covering it and it was covered in mud and dirt. I spent most of the weekend cleaning it up and checking it out. It powers up okay, but I need more info on this box 'cos I have no doco for it whatsoever. I need to know the Monitor commands. I got a few of them out 'cos some are the same as the old Intel SBC monitors, but there are a few extra commands that I'm not sure about. Also, does anyone have a ROM listing for the Series 225 Monitor? I'd like to know its IO addresses for keyboard, CRT, serial port. I can try and hand dissasemble it, but I thought I'd try you guys before I embark on this task. Oh, one other thing... at what stage does the Series225 boot from the floppy? So far I can't get this thing to recognise it's got a floppy. I was assuming it would boot upon power-up/reset, but it doesn't. So, maybe there's a command I need to use or it's just stuffed and I'll have to fix it. seeyuzz river

21 years, 8 months

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KM11 clones

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

For those who haven't seen a KM11 in action, I've updated the page to contain a couple of shots of two of my KM11 clones plugged into an 11/40 while I was running some memory diagnostics. The display was quite impressive but I couldn't capture it. :-( You'll just have to get a couple and try it yourself! :-) The link is: http://www.shiresoft.com/pdp-11/boards/index.html -- TTFN - Guy

21 years, 8 months

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value of PDP8e

by Bob.Adamson＠sli-institute.ac.uk

Well I don't know about that!!. One just went on Ebay for ?2,075.00 for a pretty minimal machine!! See http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1247&item=51458233… regards Bob Adamson > -----Original Message----- > From: Jay West [mailto:jwest@classiccmp.org] > Sent: 03 December 2004 20:16 > To: Heinz Wolter; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Re: value of PDP8e > > Yup, I was going to say roughly $1500, if you're looking for ebay > standards. > > Jay > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Heinz Wolter" <h.wolter(a)sympatico.ca> > To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 1:39 PM > Subject: value of PDP8e > > > >I acquired a PDP8e (sn M40000521)as part of a trade, which has not yet > been > > completed. > > Anyone know what value such a unit might have? It's got a blue bezel > > instead of the usual orange, but it on a 19 slide enclosure. Does this > > make > > it > > an 'industrial' ? I'm not looking to sell it (maybe after the deal is > > settled) but > > I'd like to know how to valuate it. I did see some pristine, working > units > > on epay - the top one going for 2300$USD in a silly bid war. But a > > realistic > > price may be more like 1500$USD, I'm told. The machine is in 'new' shape > > and working, has the tty interface card and cabling. core ( dunno how > > much). > > Thanks to all who reply, > > Heinz > > > > > > > > >

21 years, 8 months

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Need help with 2 projects. (TI and Xerox)

by nwdigital＠frontiernet.net

I was interested to see someone still interested in the Old TI 990/10 & /12 system. I worked for TI from 1980 to 1986 and worked with the 990/10, 990/12 & Business System 1300 & Business System 1500. I started my company in Austin, Texas, building performance products for the TI Systems. We built memory expansion boards, 8 Port CRU Devices compatible with the CI-402, 8 Port & 16 Port Ti-Line devices compatible with the CI-403. We also built "Turbo" upgrades for the 990/10A as well as the fastest memory controller to ever be used with the TI 990/12 and 990/12A. The Memory Controller could be configured as 512K., 1 Meg., 1.5 Meg. and 2 Meg. It was totally Static Ram, ( no hesitating every 14 to 15.5 microseconds for a refresh cycle.) The static ram on our board ran at 35ns and the fastest boards ran at 25ns. ALL CACHE MEMORY. The controllers sold to dealers for $15,000.00 ea. At the request of John Deere, TI supported our 8 Port Terminal Controller under Maintenance Contract. We also used to do fixed price repair on all TI Computer Boards. We also performed Memory Upgrades to the TI 512K. LR Cache controller boards. We could upgrade them to 1 Meg. and 2 Meg. of Dram. The 990/10A was sold as 512K, 1 Meg. and 1.5 Meg. but we could upgrade them to any of those sizes as well as to 2 Meg. We designed over 20 products to work with the TI Systems. I really enjoyed working with them. Nothing since has interested me as much. Sincerely, Marty

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

>From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz(a)neo.rr.com> <snip> >Who would be using DC besides electro-platers? The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) uses 600v DC to power its trains. Bob

21 years, 8 months

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Mathiputer info

by kruzicchris＠hotmail.com

Greetings! I am an IT Director for a central Illinois school district and we recently uncovered a Mathiputer while going through old boxes of electronics equipment from the 70s and 80s. Do you have any info about the Mathiputer or even if the company is still in business? We want to tinker with it and give it to a teacher as a gift... and a joke. Thanks much, Chris Kruzic

21 years, 8 months

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Fwd: Re: Mathiputer info

by jfoust＠threedee.com

>From: Ghena2(a)aol.com >Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 20:08:54 EST >Subject: Re: Mathiputer info >To: jfoust(a)threedee.com > >NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!!! > >You must not tinker with and give away as joke! Please!! > >TERRIBLE IDEA!! JOKE IS NOT WORTH IT! > >AND TINKERING WITH...... I SHUDDER! > >Mathiputers are no longer manufactured, and if memory serves me correctly, the company which did make them has metamorphised, merged, whatever.... In other words, disappeared. > >I am a Special Educator in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I have personally been searching for a working Mathiputer for the past ten years or so.... Perhaps two years of that time online. > >I have a computer programming expert on stand-by, from half way across the country, who has volunteered.... for free!.... to write a program which will run on Windows, which will operate in fashion similar to Mathiputer.... IF I CAN PROVIDE HIM WITH A WORKING MODEL TO GO BY. My special ed kids NEED this! > >Is my opinion, as a special educator of almost 30 years, that none of the new-fangled computer programs can hold a candle to the Mathiputer for teaching kids their number facts.... Especially, those kids who have learning disabilities. > >So, of course, I will like you to sell your most valuable Mathiputer to ME.... At a price I can afford, no less! > >If not, I think your Mathiputer belongs in a computer museum. One of the museums I looked at does have one, but it is not a working model. > >And sorry I cannot help you further with Mathiputer info. > >Most sincerely, > >Ghena Dalby >Salt Lake City, Utah > >

21 years, 8 months

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Altair goes for over $2800

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=19198&item=5146452166

21 years, 8 months

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Domain Name Registration

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Tom Jennings" <tomj(a)wps.com> > >On Tue, 14 Dec 2004, Dwight K. Elvey wrote: > >> >that just Wasn't Done then. Some did, I know one person who >> >made millions off nothin' but domregs.) >> >> His name might be Marcelo. > >Jeez that name is familiar... Bay Area? but the person I was >thinking about is/was Stray'n. He at one time (as a small fry >reseller) "pacificbell.com"! With written permission! Really, I >Was There, and his nameserver. Imagine the cluelessness... they >paid some hard cash to get that name back a few years later (if >they had waited a few years more, they coulda had it for free :-) > Hi Tom It was either loan.com or loans.com that he sold. It is probably more interesting to here his story as to how he got the .com name in the first place. You know, failed business plans and then forced on him by the wife of his business partner that felt he was responsible for the business failure. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Domain Name Registration

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Tom Jennings" <tomj(a)wps.com> ---snip--- > > >(I might even have copies of the old COM NET ORG etc files >you used to download from rs.internic.net. I shudder at all >the domains we could have reg'ed and sold for hard cash... >that just Wasn't Done then. Some did, I know one person who >made millions off nothin' but domregs.) His name might be Marcelo. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz(a)neo.rr.com> > >Who would be using DC besides electro-platers? > Hi I'm not sure if they had the same reason but today, DC is actually used for long range, high voltage lines in a number of places. DC doesn't require the insulation to hold off quite as much voltage. It doesn't suffer >from inductive losses. It isn't much good for home use. In fact, lamps don't do as well on DC as AC because of the electrical effects of the wire evaporating ( not sure which end goes first ). Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Zitel card?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> > > Does anyone know anything about Zitel? Pr what bus this card uses or >anything about the card? <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/a4/zitel.jpg>. I >seem to remember that Zitel was a copy cat of Intel. > > Joe It looks like 2 banks of 16 bit RAM with parity. As a RAM board, it shouldn't be too hard to trace out the address selects. What size RAMs are they? Dwight

21 years, 8 months

3
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Looking for an Intel C4040 processor

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Norm and Beth Anheier" <anheier(a)owt.com> > >Anyone have an Intel C4040 processor that they would be interested in >trade or selling??? > >Thanks Norm > > Hi I don't think I ever saw a ceramic 4040? Dwight

21 years, 8 months

2
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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 13 2004, 6:21, Steve Thatcher wrote: > the one floppy deal is not really a bios issue, it is a hardware > issue. As long as there are two drive select lines coming from the > hardware, then the mb can supprt two drives even if there is not bios > support. My ASUS P4 mb only supports one drive and I suspect that > there is only one drive select. Bios code is meant to support the > hardware that is present. At least that is the way is has been for 23 > years... That's like mine. The motherboard only has one drive select line, so the BIOS normally shows only one entry for a floppy. However, if I disable the on-board FDC and add a normal FDC card, I can use two floppies and the BIOS detects and shows settings for both. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 8 months

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HP stuff available

by gdale＠raytheon.com

Hi, Just read your message. Do have any more HP 7906 disc cartridges w/diagnostics available? If so, me e-mail me back. Gdale(a)raytheon.com Thanks.

21 years, 8 months

1
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Fluke 8506A manual

by fholzw＠rz.fh-aalen.de

Hi, looking in the internet I sow that you need a Fluke 8506A manual. I may send you a copy for a reasonable price. kind regrads Fabian

21 years, 8 months

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Off the wall CGA monitor question

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Any of the CGA monitors I have at home have a captive cable with, IIRC, a female DB9. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Eric Smith Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 4:39 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Off the wall CGA monitor question Scarletdown wrote: > All of the CGA cards that I can recall seeing had female connectors, so > most likely, the monitors have male connectors. That only implies that the *cable* has a male connector on one end; it doesn't really tell you anything about the monitor. I'd be inclined to expect that most CGI monitors either had a captive cable, or had a female connector on the monitor as well. But it's been so long since I looked at CGI monitors that I don't recall. Eric

21 years, 8 months

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Looking for an Intel C4040 processor

by anheier＠owt.com

Anyone have an Intel C4040 processor that they would be interested in trade or selling??? Thanks Norm

21 years, 8 months

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DEC computer related injury

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

Pulled out the drawer in the expansion chassis on our PDP-11/70 and then attempted to squat down behind it. Since I have such great balance I fell forward and leaned into/onto the PDP-11/70 backplane and punctured my palm many times with the nice little wire wrap pins. Interesting pattern, very little blood, I thought of a tattoo. Pins are nicely tipped with pyramid suitable for puncturing skin. No worry in those days about any infections since I was young an invincible. Maybe a slight variation on an old adage: Blood, sweat and tears must be shed for the computer to compute correctly. Mike

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Tore S Bekkedal <toresbe(a)ifi.uio.no> wrote: > Norwegian trains run DC... As do Russian electric trains. 4 kV. > I've seen a tagger actually climb up on the > roof of a train, and before I could run to the veranda of my appartment > to tell him to get the fuck down, the dumb fuck stood up. He illuminated > the entire train exchange for a millisecond, and then all that was left > of him was one of his feet, that apparently hadn't made contact with the > grounded train roof. His charred remains were still burning 20 minutes > later, until the firemen came and cleaned up the mess. Ouch. My dad told me a story of something similar happening in Russia with an unlucky railroad maintenance worker. Apparently the vertical spacing between the roof of a train car and the high voltage wire is high enough for workers to be able to walk on the roof under the wire and not touch it, even though it doesn't seem that high when looking from the ground. But that unlucky worker was carrying a wrench in his hand and had it stuck up in the air... When I was an intern on the Moscow railroad I witnessed another incident, this one fortunately without fatalities or human injuries, but demonstrating the power of that DC supply. On Russian and probably many other railroads the rails carry both the power current (return) and signaling current. The power current is DC, the signaling current is AC (at very low voltage of course, 6V). The track is divided into block-sections, each block-section monitored as a unit and reported as free or occupied to the rail traffic control system. Block-sections are separated by insulated rail joints. Each end of a thus isolated block-section is connected to a transformer whose other (higher voltage) winding is connected to a wire pair going back to the rail traffic control centre. Simple enough on diesel-powered railroads. It was a little more complicated on electrically powered railroads. The thick copper wires from the ends of each insulated joint were connected to transformer windings like before, with a separate transformer for each side of the insulated joint. The high-voltage windings were connected to signaling lines like before. But the low-voltage windings, the ones connected to the rails, were centre-tapped, and the centre tap from the transformer on one side of the insulated joint was connected with a thick copper wire to the centre tap on the other side. This way the DC power current effectively passes right through while the insulated joint acts as a barrier to the signaling AC current. The town where I lived and the railroad station on which I had my internship was on the end of a low-traffic branch of Moscow railroad. The station itself had electric centralisation, the term used in the Russian railroad technical documentation for the rail traffic control system at a station. The track stage between that station and the next, however, was unmonitored. What this means is that at the station the left and right rails had the low signaling AC voltage between them, but out on the stage the two rails were simply connected. Thus the last insulated joint at the station boundary had only one transformer box next to it, the ends of the winding connected to one side and the centre tap connected to the other side. Well, one fine day a track maintenance vehicle knocked that transformer box down, and it fell tumbling down into the ditch. Apparently the track maintenance workers didn't notice it and went on with their business. But the monitoring circuit was broken of course. Rail circuits are normally closed. An open rail circuit corresponds to a track section that is either busy (the train axles short the circuit and all the current goes through them rather than through the relay on the other end, so it reports as open) or broken (a rail broke under load or was removed by terrorists, etc). So when that transformer box got knocked down and the circuit broke, it just lit a red light on the panel in the rail traffic control room indicating a busy track section. We (the traffic controller lady and me-the-intern) noticed it and went to check it out, but the trains still had to go on schedule while a crew was dispatched to mount the transformer box back where it belongs. So we let one or two trains through, using the manual override button to override the track busy status. (The manual override buttons have seals on them that you have to break in cases like this when you have to use them, and LOTS of paperwork must be generated.) So we let those trains through. Now think what happened when the train crossed that insulated joint and continued on our side, our station being the end of the line. From what I understood when I was there, our end was not the one supplying train power, so when a train was on our side, its return current had to go through that insulated joint, i.e., through the transformer centre tap. With the transformer gone, where did the current go? Well, it arced right through the insulated joint and melted the ends of the rails. Pretty impressive. MS

21 years, 8 months

1
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KM11 Clone

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

> I've been working on creating a clone of DEC's maintenance panel > (KM11) > for some time now. I intended it to be used as my "hello world" board > to get familiar with EagleCAD and the board fab process. > > On Friday my first boards arrived from the fab house. I spent this > weekend building up 2 boards and both worked perfectly the first time. > It was so cool to be able to single step the microcode in an 11/40! > > It's up on my web site > (http://www.shiresoft.com/pdp-11/boards/index.html) for those that > want > to see what it looks like. Sometime this week I'll take a picture of > the 11/40 with 2 KM11's hanging out of it! > > My first batch of boards/parts has already been spoken for. But for > any > who are interested, I'll place another order for parts/boards for > delivery sometime in January. > > Each board will come with complete schematics, parts list and assembly > instructions. I will also have collected drawings for the overlays > and > instructions on use for the various processors (11/20, 11/05, 11/40, > 11/45 and 11/70). > > I'm pricing as follows: > "Bare" Board $75 > "kit" (includes all the parts) $125 > assembled and tested $250 (I really don't want to) > OK, I just got a couple of board quotes with larger quantities. If I can get an order of ~50 boards, I can drop the prices by $40! So the pricing would be: "Bare" Board $35 "kit" (includes all the parts) $85 assembled and tested $250 (I still don't want to) If I can get a preliminary count of folks who want one (or two or ...) I can get the boards and parts ordered. I'd like to place the orders during the first week of January. -- TTFN - Guy

21 years, 8 months

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Stupid TI power supply

by vcf＠siconic.com

So after beating the shit out of this stupid TI power supply (none of your suggestions worked, thanks) I come to find that it does have an internal fuse and that it is complete intact. Wonderful. This thing is shot beyond repair at this point. It wasn't intended to ever be opened apparently. Anyway, hopefully I can figure out what this pile of garbage was supposed to be putting out. Of course, there are no markings on the housing of the transformer. There is an IC in here. It's inline with the hot side of the input voltage. The markings are thusly: UMI EI X25 150(degree symbol)C 2.5A 250V~ A varistor? Anyway, this is a heap of junk now. -- 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, 8 months

3
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Cooking, fractions & reply attribution... (was: electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Roger Merchberger" <zmerch(a)30below.com> > >Dyslexia. There are a lot more kinds of it than just writing your letters >backwards (my type) -- I have two friends that *just can't spell*, and my >wife is LD in math; she can't handle decimals or fractions! Oh, guess who >has the most college degrees of the 4 people I just mentioned: my wife. > >Some people's brains are just plain *wired funny* -- sometimes it's a good >thing, sometimes it's not. > >Laterz, >Roger "Merch" Merchberger Hi When I was in grade school, I used to get B+'s on my math test. The teacher told me to write down the intermediate steps so that I could get more credit for partial solutions. Up till then I'd been working the problems out in my head and then just writing out the answer. An interesting result happened. My intermediate work had the same number or percentage of errors as my final results. Of course, I still worked them in my head or the final results would have been worse because of the cumulative effects. This was one of the first indications that I was dyslexic and not just lazy ( I was that as well ). I just made errors in translating what was in my head to the paper. Later, I found simple ways to check my results and got 100% on my test :) Dwight

21 years, 8 months

2
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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Gene Ehrich" <gehrich(a)tampabay.rr.com> > >Is there anyway that it can be attached external to the PC through serial, >parallel or USB ports > > Hi Yes and No. Of course, one can make some hardware to handle the drive and connect it to anything. There are 3-1/2 inch drives for the USB. It might be that the software would see a 5-1/4 drive as it is through one of these interfaces. Remove the 3-1/2 and wire it to the 5-1/4. For the parallel, I have some hardware someplace that can connect an IDE drive to the parallel port. I don't think I've seen anything for a floppy. Although, I've seen tape drives that connect to the parallel port. These normally connect to a floppy port. One might be able to do something with one of these interfaces. One of the catalogs that I've seen recently had a USB experimenters kit. One could most likely use one of these with a PIC and a controller chip to interface to just about any drive. Does anyone recall if the ZIP drives were on the floppy ports? If so, one could take a parallel ZIP dive and remove the drive part to connect a floppy drive. One still needs to create some software. It is still just a problem of hardware and software. A better idea might be to locate an older machine at one of the second hand stores and use that. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

8
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Zitel card?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Does anyone know anything about Zitel? Pr what bus this card uses or anything about the card? <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/a4/zitel.jpg>. I seem to remember that Zitel was a copy cat of Intel. Joe

21 years, 8 months

1
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about iSBC 86/30 single board computer

by xiaohancs＠163.com

Dear sir, There is a message on http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2003-January/008285.html I am wondering whether it is still effctive or not.Now I am eager for iSBC 86/30 single board computer hardware reference manual.So can you be so kind to give me a reply? Yours sincerely 　　　　　　 D.P.-Han 　　　　　　 xiaohancs(a)163.com 　　　　　　 2004-12-14

21 years, 8 months

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KM11 clone

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Yep, a PDF file for the overlays would be OK for me. Saves shipping/handling. We can print the file(s) ourselves. What I wanted to say: I hope I will not have to search all documents on bitsavers to get the overlays. The parts list and an assembly instruction would be nice though. I hate to be surprised like "Ahh, I should have soldered that component afterwards...!^#%$ :-) - Henk. > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks > Sent: dinsdag 14 december 2004 11:49 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Re: KM11 clone > > > On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 09:52:59 +0100, Gooijen H <GOOI(a)oce.nl> wrote: > > Ok Guy, hold your breath ... I want 5 bare boards !! > > I assume that the bare board includes the overlays, > instructions, etc. > > I don't mean to speak for Guy, but all I am expecting is the boards > themselves, plus a parts list, plus a .pdf or something similar to > print my own overlays (on clear laser-printer acetate). > > Guy... are my expectations reasonable? > > -ethan

21 years, 8 months

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KM11 clone

by GOOI＠oce.nl

> OK, I just got a couple of board quotes with larger quantities. If I > can get an order of ~50 boards, I can drop the prices by $40! So the > pricing would be: > "Bare" Board $35 > "kit" (includes all the parts) $85 > assembled and tested $250 (I still don't want to) > > If I can get a preliminary count of folks who one (or two or...) I can > get the boards and parts ordered. I'd like to place the orders during > the first week of January. > -- > > TTFN - Guy Ok Guy, hold your breath ... I want 5 bare boards !! I assume that the bare board includes the overlays, instructions, etc. I am in The Netherlands, and assume that you will ship the boards in a US Priority Mail enveloppe, just as Vince did with the blinkenlight project (Core and I/O Board). You did not yet mention payment instructions; I guess PayPal is fine? - Henk, PA8PDP. www.pdp-11.nl

21 years, 8 months

2
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KM11 Clone

by GOOI＠oce.nl

> It's the RK11-C... there's a single slot facing the front of the rack > that I expect is where it goes. The RK11-D is a quad backplane > thingie that goes inside a BA-11 or some such (and the RKV11-D is a > version of it that fits in an external 4-slot enclosure with a set of > cables and a paddle card that go to a host's Qbus. > > I'd be interested to know what _other_ peripherals have a KM11 slot. > I personally want one to debug my RK11C (even though I am usually > using my RK05s with the aforementioned RKV11-D) just for the sake of > doing it. I do _have_ at least one RK11D that I could use for "real > work", but I'd like to get the -C working nonetheless. > > -ethan I read that the 11/40 CPU has 2 positions in its backplane for KM11's. In slot 1 (the first), position F the KM11 is used as a monitor for the KD11-A CPU and it allows to microstep the CPU instructions. When the KM11 is installed in slot 1, position E, the KM11 monitors KT11-D (the MMU), KE11-E (EIS optin) and KE11-F (FIS option). So, to go the full stretch you'd need 2 boards to watch everything in a PDP-11/35 (or /40), but I wonder if you'll ever need/do that ... except to see it once in actual operation :-) Note that DIGITAL writes that in normal operation the KM11 is *not* part of the system. - Henk, PA8PDP.

21 years, 8 months

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copyright in US etc.

by Saquinn624＠aol.com

(1) The copyright of a photograph is held by the photographer, hence, in this case, CNN (2) The first amendment ONLY APPLIES TO GOVERNMENT. For private property, trespass laws do apply, and unwanted press can be barred or removed. (3) There is no need to be rude. I fail to see how an attitude like that taken by Even can aid his career. Scott Quinn

21 years, 8 months

2
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Model 129 Keypunch on eBay with 30 minutes to to!

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5145489194&ssPageNa… eBay item 5145489194 (Ends Dec-12-04 19:00:00 PST) - IBM 129 keypunch verifier vintage card punch

21 years, 8 months

4
3
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HP9845 service toolkit

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

My workbench is currently covered with a 9845 is many bits :-). And I am slowly figuring out just what's inside that darn machine... Anyway, I believe there was an HP service toolkit for it (based on the markings on the PSU cover). Does anyone have it? If so, I have some questions 1) What did said kit contain (other than normal hand tools, which I have anyway). I am almost sure 2 of the items in the kit were a 'Discharge Tool' for the power supply and a 'Turn on fixture' to run the machine without a monitor 2) What does the 'Discharge Tool' consist of? I'll guess it was just a reisstor connected to a couple of isulated probes, or a plug, or something. There are some insulated holes on the SPU cover, under them are bare pads on the PCB connected to the terminals of the mains smoothing capes. The instructions are to insert the tool into 2 of the holes, then into the other pair, then to check the voltage between the holes you put the tool in (basically, check the caps are discharged) before removing the PSU. From the size of those capacitors (1800uF, 200V, small coke-can size), I would agree! 3) More importantly, what does the 'Turn On Fixture' consist of? Again I'll make a gues. It's a little PCB that goes into one of the edge connectors in the monitor pillars. But which connector, and what's on the PCB? Does it just short a couple of pins together to complete some kind of interlock circuit, does it contain load resistors, or worse, does it contain ICs? HAs aonone else been foolish enough to dismantle the printhead? Suffice it to say it consists of a normal PCB that connects to the printer cable, a seramic substrate containing the (thermal) printhead heater elements, 7 seramic hybrid circuits that contain the driver cirucits, and something like 35 of those metal-rings-round-elastomer connectors (like those between an HP41 logic board and keyboard) to link everything up... -tony

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Tom Jennings" <tomj(a)wps.com> > >On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, Carlos Murillo wrote: > >> > It isn't much good for home use. In fact, lamps don't >> > do as well on DC as AC because of the electrical effects >> > of the wire evaporating ( not sure which end goes first ). >> >> Ah, the "Edison Effect". > >I'd heard of the effect, but not for a long time, and probably paid little >attention to it :-) > >So, how pronounced is this DC-filament effect? If I collect >dead lightbulbs from my cars, should I see filaments with gaps >burned towards the ground end more often than not? > >(Tapered filaments would fix this.) > > Hi I would think the effect is smaller today since we don't still use high vacuum bulbs. Most have a partial atmosphere of an inert gas. The Edison effect is the same as used in vacuum tubes. You still might see a slight bias towards one or the other end. You have to realize that work hardening and fracturing of the filament in an auto is a large factor in shortening the life of these lamps. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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NEXT@CNN

by classiccmp＠vintage-computer.com

CNN has a magazine style show called NEXT@CNN that has a gaming theme this week. Included is, of course, a discussion of vintage gaming and what the kids today think of the old stuff. It's funny to see the old Atari X-Wing run side-by-side with the modern version. About 20 minutes into the show is a "bump" for the 30th anniversary of the Altair computer featuring a machine from my collection including a shot from this year's VCF! Erik Klein www.vintage-computer.com www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum The Vintage Computer Forum

21 years, 8 months

11
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Lisp machine wisdom

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Makes perfect sense :) A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing spoke sternly: "You can not fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no understanding of what is going wrong." Knight turned the machine off and on. The machine worked.

21 years, 8 months

2
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electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts

by melamy＠earthlink.net

the only sound physical reason for fractions is cooking... the general populace is so technically illiterate that is really doesn't make a difference whether things are in fractions or decimal. They really don't have a clue anyway. When was the last time you heard any clerk actually count change out or someone realize that 1/4 cup is 1/2 of a 1/2 cup... The people that like decimal systems don't understand fractions and the fractional people don't know what to do with a decimal point. As for eight fingers, I like my thumbs... -----Original Message----- From: "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey(a)amd.com> Sent: Dec 13, 2004 3:12 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: electro-Physics: 17.3409 volts >From: "Paul Koning" <pkoning(a)equallogic.com> ---snip--- > >Some of this discussion reminds me of the "arguments" why the metric >system is inferior to the US system of measures. Contrary to what Tom Jennings states in a later post, there are sound physical reasons for using fractional systems when dealing with the physical world.

21 years, 8 months

1
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Old Dos Programs

by ron.hudson＠sbcglobal.net

anyone have the DOS version of Empire, Nethack (an older version that does not need dpmi), I had a DOS version of tetris too (using regular characters in 40 char mode) so I am looking for that too. Any websites that provide old DOS programs for download? Thanks!

21 years, 8 months

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Older floppies, newer hardware...

by zmerch＠30below.com

All this talk about getting older drives to work on newer hardware got me thinking about a totally different track on how to get this done (not to mention the previous subject was referencing a 5 foot, 3 inch floppy drive... ;-) ) There are VAXen that have SCSI bridgeboards to control 3.5" 1.44Meg floppy drives via the SCSI bus - how "controllable" are those, WRT different drives, data rates & low level programmability? I have one, but other than "it gives my VAX a floppy drive" I know very little about them. (I know I'd been thinking of getting another one so I could use 1.44Meg drives on a CoCo system under OS-9 equipped with a SCSI board... but have yet to get around to it.) Also, would those bridgeboards support 2 drives? Just an "out of box" thought... Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger | A new truth in advertising slogan sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | for MicroSoft: "We're not the oxy... zmerch(a)30below.com | ...in oxymoron!"

21 years, 8 months

4
3
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Iomega ZIP drives

by Saquinn624＠aol.com

They also made SCSI ZIPs - used on Macs and SGIs, etc. The parallel models used a proprietary SCSI over parallel protocol, at least on the early ones, and were slower than snails. I've never popped one open to see if it is possible to revert to SCSI, though (probably not). I think I heard that later models used an encapsulated IDE protocol. I'm not sure if it is still the case, but I think some of the old (2.2.x) Linux kernels had some documentation about the protocol. It could be possible to hack together a similar interface for floppies, though (encapsulate over parallel port)

21 years, 8 months

6
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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by melamy＠earthlink.net

the one floppy deal is not really a bios issue, it is a hardware issue. As long as there are two drive select lines coming from the hardware, then the mb can supprt two drives even if there is not bios support. My ASUS P4 mb only supports one drive and I suspect that there is only one drive select. Bios code is meant to support the hardware that is present. At least that is the way is has been for 23 years... -----Original Message----- From: Robert Feldman <r_a_feldman(a)hotmail.com> Sent: Dec 12, 2004 11:13 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: 5-1/4' drive on modern PC I've been wading through a lot of digests, catching up with the list, so this post is a bit late in the thread. One thing to watch out with on recent PC's is that the BIOS might not support more than one floppy drive. I found that out on a SOYO motherboard I got last year. The BIOS can handle 360KB and 1.2 MB 5 1/4" drives, as well as 3.5" drives, but you can have only one drive attached at a time. Bob

21 years, 8 months

1
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8" floppy drive

by Saquinn624＠aol.com

If you can read the disks, this might be of interest http://home.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/8-525.html - cabling to use a 5.25" HD (1.2MB) drive in place of an 8" and http://nemesis.lonestar.org/computers/tandy/hardware/model16_6000/floppyfix… ml hints specific to the TRS80 Found it on the web and have it in the pile of projects to try out on my Z-80 when I get around to it. although I don't know how much longer 5.25 HD diskettes will be easy to get- Scott Quinn P.S. I'm new to Classic Computing, so don't take my word for it-please double check before risking your machine

21 years, 8 months

10
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"misc pc boards" found

by wrm＠ccii.co.za

Hiya >Three boards which I expect are from an SwTPc. Each bears the SwTPc >logo somewhere in the component-side etch. Well, that's easy then :-) >One I feel sure is a CPU board. It bears many DIPs, all socketed (and >all sockets populated), a 7805 and four discrete transistors or similar >devices soldered in, and miscellanous two-terminal devices (resistors, >caps, a crystal, maybe some others I don't recognize). The "big chip" >is an MC6800P; I also see an HM46810P, an MC14411P, and a chip labeled >with the motorola logo and the text "SWTBUG 1.0" and a "7748" which I >imagine is a datecode. Everything else is in the 8- to 20-pin range. >On the card edge is a 50-pin single-row connector with slightly over >2.5 pins to the centimetre, with one pin space filled with plastic. Yup, it's a CPU all right. SS-50 bus. >Next to the SwTPc logo is the text "MP-M". I suspect the 7805s are >intended to have heatsinks which the board has been robbed of, probably >at the same time as the socketed chips were removed. This has a >card-edge connector apparently identical to that on the CPU board (just >above). Yup, memory board. >A board which I feel sure is memory. It's marked "MP-8M2" and has a >SPDT switch with the positions marked "WRT. PROTECT" and "NORMAL"; next >to one row of 8 DIPs is "UPPER 4K" and next to another is "LOWER 4K". >It also has two 7805s, each driving power to some of the chips - their >outputs aren't wired together. There is also a DIP bank of four >switches. Yup, more memory. The 30-pin card is an I/O card for the same box. The motherboard ran the SS-50 bus, plus a decoder to eight SS-30 I/O sites, mem mapped of course. http://www.retro.co.za/6809/documents/ct-apr81.pdf W

21 years, 8 months

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Free DEC/mini stuff in Washington DC area

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

>> for free, you must pick up > No shipping? Right, I just don't have the time. I'm starting to think that by insisting that no money can change hands that as a result there are fewer interested. Single vintage chips go for multi-hundred dollars on E-bay and get talked about here a lot, then I go and try to give away a quarter-ton of hardware and software for free and get ignored :-). Tim.

21 years, 8 months

7
7
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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

I've been wading through a lot of digests, catching up with the list, so this post is a bit late in the thread. One thing to watch out with on recent PC's is that the BIOS might not support more than one floppy drive. I found that out on a SOYO motherboard I got last year. The BIOS can handle 360KB and 1.2 MB 5 1/4" drives, as well as 3.5" drives, but you can have only one drive attached at a time. Bob

21 years, 8 months

1
0
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KM11 clone

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

I've been working on creating a clone of DEC's maintenance panel (KM11) for some time now. I intended it to be used as my "hello world" board to get familiar with EagleCAD and the board fab process. On Friday my first boards arrived from the fab house. I spent this weekend building up 2 boards and both worked perfectly the first time. It was so cool to be able to single step the microcode in an 11/40! It's up on my web site (http://www.shiresoft.com/pdp-11/boards/index.html) for those that want to see what it looks like. Sometime this week I'll take a picture of the 11/40 with 2 KM11's hanging out of it! My first batch of boards/parts has already been spoken for. But for any who are interested, I'll place another order for parts/boards for delivery sometime in January. Each board will come with complete schematics, parts list and assembly instructions. I will also have collected drawings for the overlays and instructions on use for the various processors (11/20, 11/05, 11/40, 11/45 and 11/70). I'm pricing as follows: "Bare" Board $75 "kit" (includes all the parts) $125 assembled and tested $250 (I really don't want to) -- TTFN - Guy

21 years, 8 months

2
1
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hardware fault on SGI Indigo?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Nov 24 2004, 17:30, Fabian H?nsel wrote: > I have an old SGI Indigo (IP12) which refuses my attempts to populate > the harddisk with Irix 5.3. The harddisk doesn't boot, so I assume it to > be empty. > > I get sashIP12 and fx.IP12 to load from cd, but using fx with that hd fails: > > SGI Version 5.3 IP12 Oct 31, 1994 > fx: "device-name"= (dksc) > fx: ctrl#= (0) > fx: drive#= (1) > ... opening dksc(0,1,) > dks0d1s10: Drive not ready: RAM failure, ASQ=0x80. > fx: warning: Failed to open dksc(0,1,10) > SGI Version 5.3 IP12 Oct 31, 1994 > > (and the same again, if I want) > > Is it trying to open a non-existent partition dks0d1s10? Is it a > software-fault? If it's a hardware fault: What's broken: hd or ram? That looks like a faulty drive. Does it spin up? fx is trying to read the status from the drive, and getting a message to say that the drive has an error and is "not ready". "Not ready" means either not spinning, or not able to initialise itself for some other reason, like a fault in the drive's own RAM). If it were just because the drive isn't set for auto-spinup, fx would issue a spinup command, so it would seem in this case there is some other drive problem. dks0d1s10 is the first disk (dk) unit (d1), on the first SCSI controller (s0), partition 10. Partition 10 is "the whole of the disk". Once the disk has an SGI label structure written to it, things will be able to find the volume header, but initially fx just accesses "the whole disk", ie ignoring any partition table (since such things are OS-dependant). > The hd is in the bottom drive bay. After my enter keystroke in line 4 > (drive#=1) the led flashes for a short time and at the same time (or > maybe some millisecconds later) the error message appears. As you probably know, the SCSI ID is automatically determined by the bay you put the drive in. At least, it is if you use standard sleds, which have a connection from the ID pins on the drive, via the sled connector, to the backplane. A few (genuine SGI) sleds have a selector switch instead. The flash from the LED is the drive responding to the command sent by fx to read the status from the drive, so the chances are that the drive is being correctly addressed. If its address was mis-jumpered, which can happen if you didn't connect the drive ID jumpers to the sled, it either wouldn't respond, or would respond to address 0 (which is the Indigo's SCSI controller's address) which would cause different problems. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 8 months

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Wanted: TI-99/4A Solid State thermal printer - PHP1900

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Hello, Anyone have one of they are willing to trade or part with? Thanks- Steve. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo

21 years, 8 months

1
0
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Irix-Install on SGI Indigo: RAM failure, ASQ=0x80

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 11 2004, 18:06, Fabian H?nsel wrote: > Jules Richardson wrote: > >of our Indigos have 450MB drives, so they don't need anything > >particularly big. > > > I'll take a big one to install nearly all packages available on the cds, > as the cd drive isn't my own one. I have 1GB drives in most of my Indigos, but they NFS-mount /usr/local with lots of locally-compiled stuff, and /usr/people with home directories, from another machine. BTW, if you're looking for packages, there are still a few sites with packages for 5.3 (is this an R3000 Indigo?) and I have quite a few that I've compiled here. You can even get the IDO (Irix Development Option, ie the compilers) for free from SGI's website -- and it's significantly better than gcc. You can also still get all the patches from SGI (there's a LOT -- I know because I just re-installed all the Y2K and security patches for one of my machines). But remember that for an R3000 you need things compiled -mips1, not -mips2 (which some 5.3 systems default to) or mips3/4 (later versions of IRIX). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 8 months

1
0
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hardware fault on SGI Indigo?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 11 2004, 17:58, Fabian H?nsel wrote: > Pete Turnbull wrote: > >As you probably know, the SCSI ID is automatically determined by the > >bay you put the drive in. At least, it is if you use standard sleds, > >which have a connection from the ID pins on the drive, via the sled > >connector, to the backplane. > > > My drive has a 50 pin scsi, a 4 pin power supply and a 10 pin cable (I > did not know what it is used to) - that connects to those ID pins, > doesn't it? A new drive does not have to have such ID pins, as long as I > can set the scsi id with jumpers, is that right? Yes, that's right, just remember what you set it to, because (obviously!) it will no longer be automatically set by the slot. Don't use ID 0, because that's the controller. By convention, the boot drive is ID 1, a CDROM is 5 or 6, a tape is usually 4, but you needn't stick to those. IRIX will work out what type of device (disk, removable disk, CDROM, tape) is at each ID. You can change the drive ID that's used for booting, by changing a couple of PROM variables. On my Indy here (sorry, haven't got an Indigo handy that I can power up, but it should be very similar) they are (these viewed from IRIX rather than >from the PROM): SystemPartition=scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(8) OSLoadPartition=scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(0) NB they are case-sensitive. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 8 months

1
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What the Lady has in her collection

by Ladyelec＠aol.com

I am on digest and a bit behind. I am a journeyman electrician due to health reasons had to close my business of 16 years. I started collecting because I was trying to find a way to make money that corresponds with my body which only gives me about 4 to 5 good working hours a day and a friend of mine on the net suggested ebay seller. Good idea, I can combine my love of garage sale shopping and junk shopping and make some cash to boot. What started my vintage computer collection was one day I found a Compaq Lunchbox computer and had it sitting on the floor when some of my many nephews (hubby is one of 24, 19 currently living) came by and wanted to know what it was. I told them a computer and they said no--it's a sewing machine. I set it up and showed them how it worked. They were fascinated by the monochrome monitor! LOL It's like explaining that if it were not for Pong and Atari they wouldn't have Playstation and X-Box. I am also a crafter so due to limited space I collect the Ladylike dainty computers that I can pick up. I currently have: Compaq II and an III Portable Tandy 1000 HX Sr. Partner Panasonic Portable Timex Sinclair 1000 in box with marked Styrofoam IBM PS/1 Apple IIe and an SE Zenith Data System Laptop Atari and the works all on original in boxes with Styrofoam. Commodore HP -87 Digi-Comp II that I have not even had the time to mess with yet. A small yet growing collection. I have more fun on "THE HUNT" than I anything else. Second most fun is showing the youngsters where computers have come from. I also have started a "Tech" signature collection. I have: Patrick Norton signed PIC Michael Garfield the High Tech Texan signed PIC Michael Nadeau signed book I need to see if I can get the good looking TV star, magnificent,hairy, intelligent, smooth, ever so popular International Man of Intrigue and Danger , Sellam Ismail to sign a book or picture or something for me. If I had not seen him on TechTV I would have never found this list. I am a firm believer if you want to have an interest in something--READ! Educate yourself! I have learned a lot from ya'll and even enjoy off-topic stuff cuz ya'll can get to be down right a hoot at times. I think I have been on the list for close to a year now. I am old and don't remember well. I am going to find me a dadburn Apple 1 if it kills me. I know there are only a few but one of them has MY name on it! Just a beginner, Back to lurking, Isa

21 years, 8 months

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TTYs for the deaf

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> wrote: > Do you know of any timesharing host or BBS that is compatible with TTY? Sure, any PDP-11 or VAX UNIX timesharing host with a Bell 103 modem attached to one of its RS-232 ports will happily accept calls from an ASR33 TTY. It's a pity that the deaf TTYs are 5-bit rather than ASCII. The reason for my question had to do with my campaign to get the few people I care about to switch from PeeCees to timesharing computing, i.e., instead of using a PeeCee, paying for Internet service, etc., get an account on my VAX and dial into it from a Teletype. One of the problems is of course that no one has Teletypes any more. I was wondering if the deaf ones could be used, as in the current horrible state of the world it seems like Teletypes are now only used by the disabled, rather than by 100% bodily abled people who are more intelligent than the masses and want to use timesharing UNIX (or VMS or RSX or TENEX or ...) instead of a pee sea. BTW, has there ever been a Teletype model that did 300 baud instead of 110? Perhaps Model 35 or 37? My Courier V.Everything modems are great, and they can go down to Bell 103 or V.21, but to my knowledge they do not have an asynchronous pass-thru mode between the RS-232 TxD/RxD lines and the Bell 103 FSK modulator/demodulator, it always has to go through the modem's internal buffers, which requires it to know the baud rate, and as a result it can only operate at 300 baud with Bell 103 / V.21, even though this modulation scheme is in fact asynchronous and baud rate-oblivious for the range 0-300 baud. The end result is that they can't answer 110 baud calls >from ASR33s. Bummer. MS

21 years, 8 months

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3 Mil Spec Novas?

by pcw＠mesanet.com

But maybe ony the front panels... http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=500266&convertTo=USD And heres a nice picture of the front panel: http://www.simulogics.com/nostalgia/Rolm/Rolm02_01.jpg Peter Wallace

21 years, 8 months

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Grid 1520

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 12 2004, 17:58, Philip Pemberton wrote: > In message <f16f6cf804121209392fa82ab3(a)mail.gmail.com> > Brian Mahoney <mapleleafman(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Tandy used roms in some > > of their models, didn't they? I mean to store applications. Acorn too, > > I think. Yes, the BBC Micro (and 8-bit successors) couyld use "Sideways ROMs", ie ROMs mapped into the same address space as BASIC, and switched in and out by the O.S. Archimedes (32-bit) machines and successors could have ROMs on expansion cards (eg an Ethernet card might contain the card drivers and TCP/IP stack). > Sounds like you're referring to the "5th Column ROM". All the Acorn machines > I've seen have RISC OS in ROM anyway (No HDD? No problem!), though. > The 5th Column ROM socket was - IIRC - fitted to all the Acorn A-series > machines up to the A5000. I don't think there was much that ever used it. There's no "5th Column ROM socket". Even the term is a invention of someone outside Acorn. What they mean are simply Extension ROMs on expansion cards, which contain relocatable OS modules which get copied into RAM when the machine is booted. (It has to be, most ROMs are only 8 bits wide, but the memory bus is 32 bits. Obviously you could use four ROMs, but I never heard of anyone doing so, although the spec does allow for it.) Almost all Ethernet cards, several SCSI cards, scanner cards, and several others, use them. The only one I know of that could contain application software that wasn't tightly bound to some interface on the same card, was Computer Concepts card for Inter<whatever>, which was a bit of a flop. It was only useful for the BBC Emulator, and the code still had to be copied to RAM to be accessed. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 8 months

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Got a HP 2648. Now what?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Actually I picked up two of them. They're HP graphics terminals with dual tape drives. One of these has a HP-IB port in it. What's that for? They're both marked that they have options 007 and 032. Anybody know what those are? Anyboy have a pointer to a manual for them. Also spotted a rack mount box that's marked HP 5478C. I looked through a bunch of HP catalogs but couldn't find it in any of them. Does anyone know what it is? The front of it is blank except for three LEDS marked power(?), Trigger and DAC so I'm guessing that it's some kind of D/A unit but it's darned big for that. Joe

21 years, 8 months

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Got a HP 2648. Now what? Now women on list? Now worst computer related injury

by peterbrown10＠hotmail.com

Hi Sellam and all, >I think my worst computer related injury is a recurring one: I keep >bumping my kneecaps on monitors that are sitting on the ground. I took an HP 9122D to the head once - kinda fell off a high shelf where I was working Blood, swearing and confusion but no stiches.... Anyone with one that involves stiching and / or an ER? Peter PS: for those of you who're worried, the drive was fine - built HP tough...

21 years, 8 months

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Free DEC/mini stuff in Washington DC area

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

Still available, for free, you must pick up in the Washington DC suburbs: 1. "Double" BA23 with all associated rack-mount hardware and double- high bulkhead panel in the back. 2. Several Trimm Industries 5.25" high rack-mount SCSI enclosures, styling is very similar to BA23's, and takes DEC skid plates. 3. Several dozen assorted Unibus and Q-bus boards. 4. Fujitsu M2444 Pertec interface 1600/6250 bpi 9-track drive. 5. Several hundred pounds of DEC VAX/VMS, Alpha/VMS, and Ultrix condists. Mostly early/mid/late 90's, some from the past 4 years too, and a few VAX and Alpha VMS installation CD's. Many dupes, especially of the mid-90's VAX/VMS stuff. I will let you sort through the piles if you don't want to take dupes, but I will not let you take "just the new stuff", for every post-2000 condist I'm gonna make sure you take away at least ten mid-90's ones! And as always, if you show up for any of this stuff, I will try to make you take away some other things too :-). First-come, first-served. None of the items are availble for shipping, I just do not have the time to box them up in any reasonable manner. All of it probably would fit in a station wagon or larger car. (The only thing really bulky is the M2444, which is a rather deep, high, and wide rectangle, but even that will fit in the trunk of a large car.) If interested, E-mail me at "shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com". Pick-up times on weekday evenings and weekends are available. Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)

21 years, 8 months

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Free DEC/mini stuff in Washington DC area

by shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com

Still available, for free, you must pick up in the Washington DC suburbs: 1. "Double" BA23 with all associated rack-mount hardware and double- high bulkhead panel in the back. 2. Several Trimm Industries 5.25" high rack-mount SCSI enclosures, styling is very similar to BA23's, and takes DEC skid plates. 3. Several dozen assorted Unibus and Q-bus boards. 4. Fujitsu M2444 Pertec interface 1600/6250 bpi 9-track drive. 5. Several hundred pounds of DEC VAX/VMS, Alpha/VMS, and Ultrix condists. Mostly early/mid/late 90's, some from the past 4 years too, and a few VAX and Alpha VMS installation CD's. Many dupes, especially of the mid-90's VAX/VMS stuff. I will let you sort through the piles if you don't want to take dupes, but I will not let you take "just the new stuff", for every post-2000 condist I'm gonna make sure you take away at least ten mid-90's ones! And as always, if you show up for any of this stuff, I will try to make you take away some other things too :-). First-come, first-served. None of the items are availble for shipping, I just do not have the time to box them up in any reasonable manner. All of it probably would fit in a station wagon or larger car. (The only thing really bulky is the M2444, which is a rather deep, high, and wide rectangle, but even that will fit in the trunk of a large car.) If interested, E-mail me at "shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com". Pick-up times on weekday evenings and weekends are available. Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)

21 years, 8 months

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TTYs for the deaf

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> wrote: > the ASR33 TTY is Bell 103 at 300 baud? That's what I've always thought, anyone who knows otherwise please correct me. > "MODERN" modems that will do Bell 103, will often only do it at 300 baud. Yes, that's what I wrote in my previous post. My question about 300 baud Teletypes went unanswered though. I do, however, have a few TI Silent 700s. These are absolutely lovely 300 baud portable terminals, small and portable enough to compete with modern laptops, and even though they weren't made by Teletype, I think of them as portable teletypes. There were two versions: 703 with RS-232 interface and 707 with a built-in Bell 103 modem. My only 703 doesn't work (the printhead moves but prints nothing), but my 707s work great, and I do in fact travel with one to UFO conferences, etc. I will be celebrating New Year at Butterfly Lounge (www.butterflylounge.com), and I might post here from my hotel room from a TI 707 dialing into ivan.Harhan.ORG at 300 baud! (And yes, I have the same taste in women as in computers: I like them both BIG!) > surely SOMEBODY knows how to write a look-up table program to translate! Of course it's possible, it's just totally non-standard, and most importantly, UNIX generally expects the user to have the complete ASCII set available to him. The V7 tty driver has support for turning an uppercase-only tty like ASR33 into a terminal with both cases in software, but emulating full ASCII from the 5-bit TDD code seems like a bit of a stretch. > TDDs are more expensive, and do not have a 24 x 80 screen. > They typically have a single line display, and sometimes an > adding machine width printer. > > For what kind of applications would you consider that interface connected > to a timesharing system to be more usable than a personal computer, > or a 24 x 80 screen terminal? None. I didn't realise that TDDs were that bad, I thought that they were more or less normal terminals, that's why I asked. MS

21 years, 8 months

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TTYs for the deaf

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Eric Smith <eric(a)brouhaha.com> wrote: > Fred wrote: > > the ASR33 TTY is Bell 103 at 300 baud? > > Michael wrote: > > That's what I've always thought, anyone who knows otherwise please correct > > me. Dammit, I somehow managed to misread Fred as asking "the ASR33 TTY is Bell 103 at 110 baud?", hence my answer. MS

21 years, 8 months

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TTYs for the deaf

by lists＠microvax.org

On Sat, 11 Dec 2004, Michael Sokolov wrote: > I will be celebrating New Year at Butterfly Lounge > (www.butterflylounge.com), > and I might post here from my hotel room from a TI 707 dialing into > ivan.Harhan.ORG at 300 baud! (And yes, I have the same taste in women > as in computers: I like them both BIG!) Michael, We don't care. alex/melt

21 years, 8 months

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Subject: Re: Got a HP 2648. Now what? Now women on list

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Ladyelec(a)aol.com wrote: > Ya'll have at least one. > ME! > Isa Thank you for being on our list, and for your interest in Classic Computing! -- Michael Sokolov Engineer / Researcher / Truth seeker / Freedom fighter http://ivan.Harhan.ORG/~msokolov/

21 years, 8 months

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Possible to speed up I/O subsystem of 5150?

by trixter＠oldskool.org

I have a few IBM model 5150s that I use to code entries for programming competitions and I'd like to try to speed up the hard disk in any way possible. (If you're curious what my last project was, check out http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=13722 to download and try it out -- it displays full-screen full-motion color video with sync'd sound -- yes, on a 4.77MHz 8088, no fooling). I've been looking for any way to speed up the hard disk subsystem (currently WD1002 with Seagate ST225) and I simply can't get more than 130KB/s out of the darn thing... so: - Is there any MFM/RLL 8-bit ISA controller that can read disks at their full 1:1 interleave? If so, where can I get one? 3:1 is the best I've been able to get using the above MFM combination. I haven't tried RLL yet because I don't have any RLL controllers. - If not, do such things exist as 8-bit ISA IDE controllers? I have lots of "little" IDE drives (320MB and 540MB models) that I could hook up. I attempted not one but TWO 8-bit Plus hardcards (both 40MB models), thinking that the embedded drive/controller combo would be better, but my experience with Plus Hardcards (even the 16-bit 120MB versions) is that, after about 8 years, the damn EEPROM forgets everything and it doesn't boot (no BIOS, get a 1701 "controller error"). So I couldn't get either of them to work. (As a result I have 4 Plus hardcards that I am *this close* to throwing away, unless someone has an idea of reviving them :-) Any advice? Or should I just try to find an EMS board and cache my data instead? (Speaking of which, does anyone have a LIM EMS board for sale/trade? Can't seem to find one of those either.) -- Jim Leonard (trixter(a)oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/ Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/

21 years, 8 months

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TTYs for the deaf

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Hello folks, I have a question about those TTYs that the deaf use. Are they real Teletypes, like ASR33 and friends, or not? I guess probably not, because it would be so super-cool if they were that it's probably too good to be true, but I thought I would ask anyway. So what are they? Are they normal ASCII terminals with standard modems built in, or something entirely different? Can one pretend to be deaf, go to some social service or whatever agency asking to use a deaf TTY, and dial into a timesharing host or BBS with it? It also seems like there are two kinds of deaf devices, TTY and TDD. What's the difference? MS

21 years, 8 months

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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 11:50 AM 12/11/2004, you wrote: >There are such devices though I think they use ABS plastic. Newer ones (3D >printers) seem to be using dust of some kind (starch?) with water or something >sprayed on the dust with an ink-jet head. Once having been in the 3D market, I have a small collection of objects >from UV-cured stereolithography and Z Corp's starch-based system, including one of my head as scanned by a laser body scanner. - John

21 years, 8 months

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Anyone need 27128s?

by acme＠gbronline.com

I just acquired a large pile of 27128s and 27C128s -- clearly pulled from sockets, and as of yet untested. I thought I'd offer them to the list first. Ten for $10 plus postage. If no takers, I'll clean and verify 'em and put 'em up on the Web site for $3 each. Please contact me offlist. Later -- Glen http://www.acme-sales.net

21 years, 8 months

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Anyone need 27128s?

by sales＠acme-sales.net

I just acquired a large pile of 27128s and 27C128s -- clearly pulled from sockets, and as of yet untested. I thought I'd offer them to the list first. Ten for $10 plus postage. If no takers, I'll clean and verify 'em and put 'em up on the Web site for $3 each. Please contact me offlist. Later -- Glen http://www.acme-sales.net

21 years, 8 months

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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Tom Peters" <tpeters(a)mixcom.com> > >There was an attempt to "simplify" connection of multiple floppy drives >(meaning TWO) at one time by adding a "twist" to the cable-- some >conductors in the ribbon are cut out and reversed, which is a sort of >"cable select" for floppy drives. > >I seem to recall in this case that one would jumper both drives as drive A >in such a case, or as DS0. > >Stupid idea. Use a straight thru floppy cable and jumper one for DS0 and >one for DS1. We get it. > >If you intermingle the two drive select ideas you may have problems where >both or niether drives light up and niether can read. ---snip--- Hi As I recall, the two drives with the twist were actually DS0 and DS2 as seen by the controller. If using a straight cable, one had to skip DS1. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Subject: Re: Got a HP 2648. Now what? Now women on list

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: Ladyelec(a)aol.com > >In a message dated 12/9/04 8:21:47 PM Central Standard Time, >cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org writes: > > >> ubject: Re: Got a HP 2648. Now what? >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" >> <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >> Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.61.0412091313390.12343(a)fiche.wps.com> >> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII >> >> > I'll keep going: >> >> So. Are there any women (left) on this list? Hmm... I wonder why. >> > >Ya'll have at least one. >ME! >Isa > Hi Isa What type of machines are your favorites? Most of the women we've had in the past were into the heavy metal machines. You know, "If you could pick it up, it really wasn't a computer." Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by melamy＠earthlink.net

there are commercial machines that use a liquid photopolymer and a laser. You can scan a 3d object or feed in a autocad drawing. The object is then "built" from the bottom up 4 thousands of an inch at a time. You can create up to a final object size of a cubic foot with one machine I have seen. Its really cool to watch it make a part. The photopolymer is around $5 an ounce though (I seem to recall). > > I've daydreamed about a rapid prototyping machine that used > > relatively inexpensive hot glue sticks to create plastic 3D models. > > > > - John > > > > > >There are such devices though I think they use ABS plastic. Newer ones (3D >printers) seem to be using dust of some kind (starch?) with water or something >sprayed on the dust with an ink-jet head. > > >Peter Wallace

21 years, 8 months

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Subject: Re: Got a HP 2648. Now what? Now women on list

by Ladyelec＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/9/04 8:21:47 PM Central Standard Time, cctalk-request(a)classiccmp.org writes: > ubject: Re: Got a HP 2648. Now what? > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.61.0412091313390.12343(a)fiche.wps.com> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > > > I'll keep going: > > So. Are there any women (left) on this list? Hmm... I wonder why. > Ya'll have at least one. ME! Isa

21 years, 8 months

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Got a HP 2648. Now what?

by allain＠panix.com

> Was that Alison? I remember the name from the > list way back and wondered what had happened ... That makes two. Megan and Alison. I think MBG tends to check for interesting topics to comment on every few weeks (Thank-You). In general, She is ex-DEC and this list is less DEC oriented than it used to be. I'm tempted to go over to a netnews list. And we do have a few lurkers running Internet shops and things. There are just some things that don't help you meet women. My college had a 9:1 ratio. The MIT swap meet looks like about 20:1. ** On the other hand, this is a great place for women to meet men. ** John A.

21 years, 8 months

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Irix-Install on SGI Indigo: RAM failure, ASQ=0x80

by fabtagon＠gmx.de

Hi everybody, I have an old SGI Indigo (IP12) which refuses my attempts to populate the harddisk with Irix 5.3. The harddisk doesn't boot, so I assume it to be empty. I get sashIP12 and fx.IP12 to load from cd, but using fx with that hd fails: SGI Version 5.3 IP12 Oct 31, 1994 fx: "device-name"= (dksc) fx: ctrl#= (0) fx: drive#= (1) ... opening dksc(0,1,) dks0d1s10: Drive not ready: RAM failure, ASQ=0x80. fx: warning: Failed to open dksc(0,1,10) SGI Version 5.3 IP12 Oct 31, 1994 (and the same again, if I want) Is it trying to open a non-existent partition dks0d1s10? Is it a software-fault? If it's a hardware fault: What's broken: hd or ram? The hd is in the bottom drive bay. After my enter keystroke in line 4 (drive#=1) the led flashes for a short time and at the same time (or maybe some millisecconds later) the error message appears. The error isn't very meaningful to me. Does anybody know about the problem or does have any hints? Thanks in advance, Fabian

21 years, 8 months

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Looking for a place to get small(-ish) SCSI drives

by sethm＠loomcom.com

I fool around with a lot of systems that want small (by today's standards) 50-pin SCSI drives. A few years ago you couldn't walk around the streets of Palo Alto without tripping over big stacks of 500MB drives. These days, though, the stacks are made out of 9GB SCA drives -- far too large for my needs, and often far too large to be recognized by the computers I fool around with. But drives smaller than that are suddenly "rare" and "expensive", $30 or $40 for any SCSI drive under 9GB at a lot of resellers I've visited lately. Anyone know where those stacks went? Are small drives just impossible to come by for less than $30 now? -Seth -- "It looks just like a Telefunken U47! Seth Morabito You'll love it." - Frank Zappa sethm(a)loomcom.com

21 years, 8 months

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IBM 5110

by merkabah＠sbcglobal.net

Would you be interested in selling your computer. It would be great for displaying to the kids in our school district. Thanks Daniel

21 years, 8 months

1
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5-1/4' drive on modern PC

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > >> >There was an attempt to "simplify" connection of multiple floppy drives >> >(meaning TWO) at one time by adding a "twist" to the cable-- some >> >conductors in the ribbon are cut out and reversed, which is a sort of >> >"cable select" for floppy drives. > >Several manufacturers had problems with their field dealers, such as >Computerland, being unable to properly handle things as complex as >jumpers. > >> >I seem to recall in this case that one would jumper both drives as drive A >> >in such a case, or as DS0. > >In the case of IBM, with a twist, jumper both as DS1 (SECOND drive). >In the case of TRS80, with pins removed in connector cables, jumper all >drive positions on the drive. > >> >Stupid idea. Use a straight thru floppy cable and jumper one for DS0 and >> >one for DS1. We get it. >> >If you intermingle the two drive select ideas you may have problems where >> >both or niether drives light up and niether can read. >> ---snip--- >> Hi >> As I recall, the two drives with the twist were actually >> DS0 and DS2 as seen by the controller. If using a straight >> cable, one had to skip DS1. > >On PC (5150), with straight cable, I used drives jumpered DS0 and DS1. >On PC (5150), with twisted cable, I used drives jumpered DS1 and DS1. > Hi I stand corrected. Thanks Fred. I knew it was something like that. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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my CP/M-80 pile'o'gunk

by tomj＠wps.com

I started inventorying the manuals a week ago, below is a bad copy of the spreadsheet, in two parts (software and hardware). A lot of it is common (Cromemco), maybe a few others are of interest: Phoenix Software PDOS. Manuals and software (pasm, plink, plib, etc) but also linkable objects to make the operating system (Z80, very high-perf (sic), CP/M-80 superset). JRT Pascal, 8", CP/M-80, xeroxed manual, includes letter mentioning the price drop from $250 to $25! Microsoft BASIC Compiler, 8" flop, CP/M-80, xeroxed manual. Software sucked then, probably amusing now. I have enough boot disks to simply bring the machine up (assuming the hardware doesn't catch fire, etc) and copy the files off. I once had some weird EPROM burner, brand forgotten, that wanted input as Intel hex, so I have a program called ZAPLOAD that converts to hex; I'll convert (assuming it does files > RAM) and send out the serial port as text using Telink, my old XMODEM program (or at worst, PIP) to my linux laptop. Twice for good measure, diff. It will have to wait until the rest of the machine arrives. I assume no one ever got an 8" flop going under DOS/Win/Linux? If any manuals are not floating around, I'll scan and make available. quan manual software location tomj TJ's mongrel computer (FIDO) hardware configuration 2/10/81 S1000 binder covered sheets; IO ports, boot/bugger manual Phoenix Software Associates Ltd PDOS User's Guide 1.0 1 yes ? S1000 binder CSSN-labelled copy in S1000 binder Phoenix Software Associates Ltd PDOS Programmer's Guide 1 yes ? S1000 binder 29227 Phoenix Software Associates Ltd PASM Users Manual 1 yes ? S1000 binder rev 1.0, 1 Feb 80 Phoenix Software Associates Ltd TEXT EDITOR User's Manual 1 yes ? S1000 binder 29202 Phoenix Software Associates Ltd LINK User's Manual 1 yes ? S1000 binder 29202 Phoenix Software Associates Ltd Plink II 1 yes ? S1000 binder 15 Jan 81, xerox, Lifeboat Associates Phoenix Software Associates Ltd BUG/uBUG 1 yes ? S1000 binder 29202 Computer Service Systems Network Inc (CSSN) Backup 1 yes ? S1000 binder written by tomj, undated, includes 25 Nov 80 addendum larger than the manual Microsoft, Inc MBASIC Compiler 1 yes probably, 8? flop Black binder Digital Research CP/M 2.2 Users Guide 1 yes yes CPM80 binder xerox Digital Research CP/M 2.2 Interface Guide 1 yes yes CPM80 binder xerox Digital Research CP/M 2.2 Alteration Guide 1 yes yes CPM80 binder xerox Digital Research CP/M Assembler (ASM) User's Guide 1 yes yes CPM80 binder original looseleaf Digital Research An Introduction of CP/M Features and Facilities 1 yes yes CPM80 binder original looseleaf Digital Research CP/M Interface Guide 1 yes ? CPM80 binder 1.4 I think Digital Research ED: A context editor for the CP/M disk system users manual 1 yes ? CPM80 binder 1.4 I think Digital Research CP/M Dynamic Debugger Tool (DDT) User's Guide 1 yes yes CPM80 binder 1.4 I think Digital Research CP/M System Alteration Guide 1 yes yes CPM80 binder 1.4 I think Alloy Computer Products TIP (Tape Interchange Package) 1 yes ? JRT ? JRT Pascal 1 yes yes blue binder 1982 quan manual software location HARDWARE Mountain Hardware Inc 100,000 day clock 1 yes Two manuals, different versions Teletek FDC-1 1 yes Scitronics Inc Real Time Clock 1 yes Cromemco TU-ART 2 yes Macrotech International Corp. SS256 1 ? 36ea HM4864P-2's Alloy Engineering S100/DEI 1 yes yes tape interface Central Data Corp. 64K RAM 1 yes Measurement Systems and Controls Inc DM6400 1 yes 64K RAM; rev C Cromemco 32K Bytesaver 1 ? no Cromemco ZPU 1 yes fido Modified as per LITTLE FIDO Cromemco 4FDC 1 yes yes fido Modified as per LITTLE FIDO Cromemco 16FDC 1 yes Cromemco RDOS ? yes EPROM on 4FDC card? Seattle Computer Products 16K PLUS ? yes static memory Industrial Micro Systems Inc Model 370 32K RAM ? yes Data Electronics Inc The Funnel ? yes yes fits Alloy card CMC Marketing Inc Model 2018R 1 yes fido notes for fromt panel in rear Microft Inc EPROM board 1 yes yes fido TC's homemade board Cromemco PRI 1 yes yes ? Solid State Music Microcomputer Products Inc VB3A 80-char video 1 yes yes fido TeleVideo Inc Operators Reference Manual 1 yes n/a Manual is for TVI-912B, 920B, 912C, 920C TeleVideo Inc 912, 920 Operating Instructions 1 yes n/a Shugart Associates SA800/801 Diskette Storage Drive yes n/a

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 3.3 volts

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Joe Actually, the East Germans fab ours. They are packaged in Singapore. We do the design and debug, though. That may change in the future, who knows. Still, by we, I included all of the AMD employees. Dwight >From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> > >At 10:25 AM 12/10/04 -0800, you wrote: > >>Hi >> I don't think I'm giving away any trade secrets by mentioning >>that the primary reason for going to lower voltages is to >>reduce power consumption. The thinner oxides are to make them >>work at lower voltages( needs more gain ). Power is a squared >>factor of the voltage. Even a small reduction in voltage is >>a big payoff in power. If we could make the transistors work >>at 0.1 volts, we'd be doing it. >> Remember, we make these things. > > No you don't. The Chinese, Koreans, Malaysians and other Asians do. > > Joe > > >>Dwight >>from AMD. >> >> >> > >

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 3.3 volts

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Steve Thatcher" <melamy(a)earthlink.net> > >there is a secondary aspect to voltage reduction and that is reduced power dissipation... which also translates to shoving more stuff into smaller spaces... > >-----Original Message----- >From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> >Sent: Dec 9, 2004 9:51 PM >To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >Subject: Re: electro-Physics: 3.3 volts > >At 09:30 PM 12/9/04 -0500, you wrote: >>Today I started mothballing the VAX 6000 and noticed that a large part >>of its power supply is on 3.3 volts, now common, but probably not in 1988. >> >>Seems like something was invented, probably in chip design that made >>3.3 so useful. I wonder what that was, when that landmark was reached. > > It wasn't a new invention. In was the fact that ICs were getting so >dense that they couldn't squeeze in any more circuits unless they could >reduce the space that the insualting layers took up. The layers were >already so thin that they'd break down at about 5 1/2 volt so they had to >reduce the voltage to 3.3 volts. Since then they've further reduced it to >1.8 volts and (I think) now to 1.1 volts. And there are plans to reduce it >even more. All so that they can reduce the bulk of the insulating layers >and add more gates. > > Joe > Hi I don't think I'm giving away any trade secrets by mentioning that the primary reason for going to lower voltages is to reduce power consumption. The thinner oxides are to make them work at lower voltages( needs more gain ). Power is a squared factor of the voltage. Even a small reduction in voltage is a big payoff in power. If we could make the transistors work at 0.1 volts, we'd be doing it. Remember, we make these things. Dwight >from AMD.

21 years, 8 months

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my CP/M-80 pile'o'gunk

by aek＠spies.com

How about documenting the switch and jumper positions on your drive before you send it off. -- I can do that. Tom wanted to try some other things first. The manuals for the DT8 and the 1/2 height 242 are up at www.bitsavers.org/pdf/qume

21 years, 8 months

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VAX 11/725

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Antonio Carlini <a.carlini(a)ntlworld.com> wrote: > The DSV-11 was rated at 256kbps but > it can actually do either a tiny smidgen over (or a tiny > smidgen under) 1Mbps on a worst case HDLC sequence, > essentially forever. Hmm, interesting. I assume that's the limit for single channel operation, right? Do you know the true limit for operation with both channels? (64 kbps officially.) MS

21 years, 8 months

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my CP/M-80 pile'o'gunk

by aek＠spies.com

I haven't tried to use that on the output of my rfloppy->dmk2raw programs, but if it doesn't work it should probably be fairly easy to adapt it. -- It works fine. Tom, I have a Qume DT8 you can borrow to read your discs. Send an adr offlist and I'll send it off.

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 3.3 volts

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "John Allain" <allain(a)panix.com> > >Today I started mothballing the VAX 6000 and noticed that a large part >of its power supply is on 3.3 volts, now common, but probably not in 1988. > >Seems like something was invented, probably in chip design that made >3.3 so useful. I wonder what that was, when that landmark was reached. > >(For that matter, I don't really know why 5V and > 12V were popular, on a "first priinciples" basis.) > >Maybe we've lost some of the people on the list who can answer these >questions, but I'm trying anyway. > >John A > Hi RTL was 3.6V. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Card punch?

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

What's par for the course is that they have it classified as FSC code 5999 - Miscellanous electrical equipment. I have a standing search for 7040 (Punched Card Equipment), a category that they appear to use only for laser printers, monitors and photo-ID cameras. I suspect they just pull the numbers out of large bowl, lotto style. > http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=498212 It seems to be a keypunch/verifier, non-IBM. There also seem to be a couple of VT-100's in the lot, or close cousins, non-yellowed. Wonder if the keyboards are there. Someone with more storage space than I have should get this. And then tell me about it so I can enjoy it vicariously. Isn't it funny that keypunch/verifiers show up here and on ebay in the same week? Brian =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- _| _| _| Brian Knittel _| _| _| Quarterbyte Systems, Inc. _| _| _| Tel: 1-510-559-7930 _| _| _| Fax: 1-510-525-6889 _| _| _| Email: brian(a)quarterbyte.com _| _| _| http://www.quarterbyte.com

21 years, 8 months

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Yaze 2.01 under Mac OS X 10.3.6

by ron.hudson＠sbcglobal.net

I have just downloaded Yase-AG 2.01 from http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/users/ag/yaze-ag/ The install instructions say: 4. If you want to run yaze-ag under Mac-OS-X then (gcc ?.?.?) You have to use the Makefile_solaris Refer to section "Solaris". Which switches are to set, that I don't know at this time. In a console session (iTerm or Terminal) I renamed the Makefile to Makefile_save, and Makefile_solaris to Makefile, Did a Make, and although there were many warnings, I got a working system. Run ./yase from the same directory and was transported to CP/M land. Apparently you don't have to worry much about the switches, but they might reduce the number of warnings.

21 years, 8 months

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Got a HP 2648. Now what?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > Was that Alison? I remember the name from the list way back and wondered > what had happened to her, she seemed pretty clued-up on things. Do you mean Allison Parent? I never saw her on this list, but maybe it was before I joined. What about Megan Gentry and Emanuel Stiebler? MS

21 years, 8 months

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Making CP/M disk images

by GFisher＠tristonecapital.com

I just wanted to give an update on how I was making out with the disk images for the Altos 580. I was informed by another member of the group that Teledisk 2.22 & 2.23 don't really work too well for this application and suggested Teledisk version 2.15n. That did the trick as to writing an image that the Altos could use. My 1.2Mb drive wrote the images (which were 96tpi) on a DSDD 48tpi disk just fine using the older but better version. If any of you are looking for where I got those images, there is a extensive collection in a zip (or tar) at: http://computer-refuge.org/classiccmp/altos580/ The real problem was me failing to hearing absence of the "click" of the heads on the Altos drop down. The head loading solenoid (sic) was sticky and with a bit of prodding now engages the heads with the accompanying successful loading of the disks. My thanks to those who offered to help (you know who you are!) However (and isn't there is always a 'however'), my next saga is to try and make a hard disk work with the Altos. I've tried various MFM drives from 10mb to 40mb but with no success. The heads don't seem to move on any commands, just the nice whirring of the main motor. The HD initialization program on my diagnostics disk doesn't seem to do anything and offers a limited choice of drive parameters. Therefore I'm assuming the massive amount of jumpers on the motherboard and disk controller card must have something to do with getting the HD going. Does anybody have documentaion on the 580 jumper settings or can shed any light on how to get HD's to work? I'm really enjoying this machine as it is fast, has gobs of memory and just plain looks good! Thanks, Gary F. on 11/25/04 9:15 AM, Gary Fisher at GFisher(a)tristonecapital.com wrote: > I'm trying to do the same thing with some (downloaded) Teledisk images for an > Altos 580 server which has a similar 96tpi floppy with no luck (a plea for > help here). > Gary Fisher C/O Tristone Capital Inc. Suite 1800, 335 - 8th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta T2P 1C9 B: 403.303.8657 F: 403.294.9543 E:gfisher@tristonecapital.com This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete this e-mail and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorized and may be illegal. Unless otherwise stated, opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the author and are not endorsed by the author's employer.

21 years, 8 months

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hp2100s

by oceanid987＠yahoo.com

dear sir HEWLETT PACKARD Microprogrammable System Computer HP2100S is a compact data processor include: 32k word 16bit RAM , peripherals I/O interface,floating point and arithmetic capabilities,interrupt,two-channel DMA , operator panel CRT & KEYBOARD ,software for hp2100S : fortran,algol,basic .user can write progam and cpmpiling program and run it .several operating system are available HP7900A disc drive can store 5M byte in two disc fix and removable HP2100 or HP2116 with two I/O work with HP7900 disc drive (HP2100 have DMA). hp7900 work like floppy disc in PC.HP2100 designed in 1970. you know above information , but my project : i design one board install in PC for example in PII 333Mhz and connect to HP2100 (connect to I/O for HP7900A disc in 2100) HP2100 think connected to hp7900 but it connect to new board . new borad work like hp7900 data on hp7900 save in file on PC this board get data >from PC and send it to HP2100 or get from HP2100 and send to PC for replace in file. all thing work like hp7900 stuts word ,addressing,send and recive data. oceanid987(a)yahoo.com please connect me --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! – Try it today!

21 years, 8 months

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electro-Physics: 3.3 volts

by melamy＠earthlink.net

there is a secondary aspect to voltage reduction and that is reduced power dissipation... which also translates to shoving more stuff into smaller spaces... -----Original Message----- From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> Sent: Dec 9, 2004 9:51 PM To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: electro-Physics: 3.3 volts At 09:30 PM 12/9/04 -0500, you wrote: >Today I started mothballing the VAX 6000 and noticed that a large part >of its power supply is on 3.3 volts, now common, but probably not in 1988. > >Seems like something was invented, probably in chip design that made >3.3 so useful. I wonder what that was, when that landmark was reached. It wasn't a new invention. In was the fact that ICs were getting so dense that they couldn't squeeze in any more circuits unless they could reduce the space that the insualting layers took up. The layers were already so thin that they'd break down at about 5 1/2 volt so they had to reduce the voltage to 3.3 volts. Since then they've further reduced it to 1.8 volts and (I think) now to 1.1 volts. And there are plans to reduce it even more. All so that they can reduce the bulk of the insulating layers and add more gates. Joe

21 years, 8 months

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Shugart 850 drives

by melamy＠earthlink.net

I don't recall from the conversation... -----Original Message----- From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> Sent: Dec 9, 2004 11:57 PM To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Shugart 850 drives On Thu, 9 Dec 2004, Steve Thatcher wrote: > a heads up on California Digital, Although the owner still answers the > phone, the web site is basically bogus in that he sold off most everything > last spring. He still has drives I believe and some few miscellaneous stuff Oh yeah? Who did he sell it to? -- 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, 8 months

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Apollo 425e-looking for keyboard & Domain/OS

by Saquinn624＠aol.com

I aquired a "bare box" (HP/) Apollo 425e machine + memory & CD-ROM several months ago. What I have heard about Apollos sounds neat, but is geared towards people with complete systems. (1) I have no Domain keyboard, and from what I have seen the system does not automatically switch to serial for console, I've even tried it with the service switch set to "service"-it will display firmware self-test info on the graphics display and stop, but nothing on the TTY. Is there anyone with a extra Domain keyboard to sell or ideas for a way to use it without a Domain or HIL keyboard. (2) Domain/OS seems to be the neatest OS to run on it, does anyone have a copy of Domain/OS they would be interested in selling/trading? Scott Quinn P.S. My apologies if this is an inappropriate use of the list.

21 years, 8 months

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Shugart 850 drives

by tomj＠wps.com

So what's the story with 8" DSDD floppy drives these days? Are they still available at all? I may need one for my old CP/M-80 machine; some meeces made a nice house and toilet in one. B: is now a single-sided drive, good enough for now, but not later, as the spindle bearing is VERY NOISY (always was). There may be a spare DSDD drive in a box of junk and/or I may recover the one that went weewee. My brother Gregg will ship the zenith monitor (the box uses a Solid State Music VB3a for 24x80 video) and parallel keyboard and boot flops next, then I'll worry about booting. The CMC Marketing chassis seems fine, powered up OK 10V, 18V, -18V, (empty of cards of course), there's little tanalums on the motherboard (for the terminator power supply) I'm running it empty for a few hours to see what gets hot or loses the all-important smoke inside. BIG ferroresonant power supply. I forgot all about the shredded finger callous from extracting S100 boards that don't have ejectors (all the time we used to discuss "standardized" board height utterly wasted... never happened...). Very nasty. Not all memories are pleasant. The board stack is: * Cromemco PRI hacked for port 74 (I have no idea why I did this; will have to RMOFM (*)) * Cromemco TUART hacked, looks like Parallel B pins wired to Serial B, RS-232 control? RMOFM * Cromemco 4FDC hacked, Apparat Trash-80 data separator added, if I remember head-load logic mumble for Shugart-type drives. * Industrial Microsystems 32K static RAM (no jumpers!) * Cromemco ZPU hacked, sigh, one jumper, RMOFM * Seattle Computer Producs SCP-16K 16K static RAM, quantity two. * SSM VB3a video terminal board, 6x7 fonts, no jumpers * Homemade EPROM/monitor card. (*) RMOFM = Read My Own F-ing Manual.

21 years, 8 months

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IMLAC - what happened to assembler, emulator?

by wilsonr＠iinet.net.au

Hi all, I've been lurking here since a slashdot article on the 30th anniversary of Maze, the first lan/wan FPS, which was run on an IMLAC. I was very interested in this as I programmed an IMLAC - PDS-4, I guess - in 1977/8 at Sydney University (au) and have good memories of the machine. I saw hints on the list that an assembler was imminent and an emulator was under consideration. That was September 2002, and nothing since. I am really interested in an emulator - I have an emulation of the main processor running and got it loading 'paper tapes' from disk via the paper tape boot loader. I've used this to load code from hand assembled files to test the emulation and I would like to go a little further a little faster. Does anybody have information on the format of the data the papertape block-loader reads and loads? The block loader is the first thing the boot loader runs - it reads in the rest of the tape. Also, does anyone know of or has any software (source or binary) on papertape or any other form? I have no idea of the current ownership, if any, of the existing IMLAC software, and I could write an assembler, but it's so much more cool to run the IMLAC assembler! TIA, Ross

21 years, 8 months

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Possible to speed up I/O subsystem of 5150?

by melamy＠earthlink.net

considering that the ATA-1 spec included 8 bit transfers from the harddrive, I don't understand why no IDE drives that supported ATA-1 would not work on a PC/XT (unless the DMA speed was the problem). -----Original Message----- From: Eric Smith <eric(a)brouhaha.com> Sent: Dec 9, 2004 1:52 PM To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Possible to speed up I/O subsystem of 5150? Fred wrote: > Yes, there ARE some 8 bit IDE controllers, > but not all IDE drives will work with them. To a first approximation, *NO* IDE drives will work with them. 8-bit support is not part of the official ATA specification. Even back when 8-bit IDE adapters were being sold, not many drives worked with them, and as soon as the adapters disappeared the drive makers that had bothered to support them stopped doing so. Eric

21 years, 8 months

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