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

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Actually, I was bummed. I gave away about 1/2 lbs of candy corn and hardly got any votes. Many walked by and looked at my monitor and said " Ah, a Apple III." I finally had to put a piece of paper over the label so people would look a little closer. The monitor was just the first thing I could find at the top of the pile that lit up. I had a Poly-88 setup but I think only one in 10 noticed and even then, I think only 2 in those ten knew what it was. Of course, my display was all about tape recovery and not the Poly-88. I don't think, maybe, 5 people all together realized that. It was partly my fault. My title was a little small and I spent most of my time fighting with Larry over table space instead of talking to people ( Larry was cheating with Tootsie Pops! ). I had no cool graphics either. Next year I'll have better candy and a bigger title! Still, I had a great time. Thanks Sellam!!! Dwight >From: "Sellam Ismail" <foo(a)siconic.com> > >On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > >> Anyone out there want to enlighten us poor slobs stuck on the wrong side >> of the continent? Anyone putting any pictures on the web? > >It was a wholly awesome event. The most well-run VCF in the history of >the VCF (all talks on time and recorded and video taped). Nearly a >perfect exhibit (one problem with a circuit breaker on Sunday that was >promptly fixed) with Kraftwerk playing in the background, not to mention >the excellent exhibits themselves. We had broadband Internet access >in the Exhibit Hall plus a WAP. Plenty of good stuff in the vendor >area (much stuff for which I had to quell my impulse to buy, though I >did get a lot of keen donations). Lots of great literature at the >Propaganda Zone. Tours to the Computer History Museum, the California Air >and Space Center (which were only a short walk away) and an excursion to >the DigiBarn (http://www.digibarn.com). And the attendance was way >higher than expected (right up around 300). > >In my opinion it was one of the best VCF's yet. Next year it will be even >bigger and better. > >I will now turn my sights to VCF East 2.0. > >Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org > > * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com * > >

23 years, 6 months

4
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NeXT Dimension Question

by jingber＠ix.netcom.com

23 years, 6 months

2
2
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Tales of VCF 5.0?

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jim Battle" <frustum(a)pacbell.net> >At 06:09 PM 10/28/02 -0800, dwight elvey wrote: >>Hi >> Actually, I was bummed. ... >> I had a Poly-88 setup but I think only one in 10 noticed >>and even then, I think only 2 in those ten knew what it was. > >I spotted it, and I knew what it was. But how could you tell >that? Probably other people were the same. > >> Of course, my display was all about tape recovery and not >>the Poly-88. I don't think, maybe, 5 people all together >>realized that. > >That, I didn't spot. I noticed the waveforms on the wall, but amidst the >din (auditory and visual) it didn't register. I wish I had noticed, >though, since it is an area I want to spend some time working on one of >these years. Rather than letting it be lost to the moment, is there any >chance of you writing up your work and putting it online somewhere (even >posting it to this list and letting it get archived would work). > >I've read a half dozen very terse summaries of emulators and such that do >this, but most work only on really clean tapes. They simply do some DC >correction, perhaps a bit of filtering, and then time zero crossings and >decode from there. Have you done something more sophisticated than >this? Some of the Sol tapes I've looked at are way too corrupted for such >a simple technique to work. > >There are a lot of communication theory ideas that could be applied to the >problem directly; in addition, the file format is going to have some known >structure that could be used to help train the receiver and disambiguate >some cases. > >I'd be interested to hear more. >----- >Jim Battle == frustum(a)pacbell.net > > Hi Jim I will try to put something together. I did have an outline posted at the exhibit but hoped many would ask questions ( quite a few did but only about 1/3 of those knew what a Poly-88 was ). First, I didn't use any of the high tech methods. I know a reasonable amount about DSP, having taken a couple of courses and tinkered some as well. There is little in DSP that will fix a dropout caused by folded tapes. DSP can be used for such problems as high frequency rolloff or print-thru. These problems are often over stated and are not the most common problems. Understanding how the data is recorded and how your machine reads these back can be a large help. One also needs an alternate method of reading the tape because the canned software usually won't continue after an error. You also need to know the method used to validate the replay. If you are lucky, they used a CRC or ECC. In most cases, it was a simple check sum. Recovery is more about bringing all the known stuff together and recreating the missing parts. As long as the recorded data is something like a program or text the problem can often be solved. If it is something like raw data, ( strings of meaningless numbers ) the chances are poor. One of the first things to look for is duplicate tapes. Not all errors happen at the same place and same time. Like solving a mystery, it is all about putting all of the pieces together and not just a single part. It is easier then one would think but does take some time to develop the tools needed to get all the information. I don't have a web site to publish such information but I suspect someone will provide it. Anyway, I apologize for not having a bigger title. Even though Sellam gave us plenty of extra time, I was still doing a lot of last minute preparations. Dwight

23 years, 6 months

2
1
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KIM-1 24-hour clock

by richy2000_nl_2000＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi Ross, Do you have the Source of your "KIM-1" clock for me. You told me about your clock, here: http://www.learnmicros.com . I have a KIM-1, but I'm afraid to connect it with power. I only can test it on emulators, so maybe you have it for me... Greetz, Richard, The Netherlands. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 6 months

3
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VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5]

by Qstieee＠aol.com

Connecticut sounds good to me too. I am around Hartford and I presume David A. Woyciesjes who is often on this list is around New Haven. If someone wants advice on venues ask me by direct e-mail.

23 years, 6 months

1
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TRS80 Model 3 i/o connectors

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > IIRC, #26-1401 It is basically straight through, and can be made by > crimping a card-edge connector on one end of ribbon cable, and a > "centronics" amphenol connector on the other. Sorry, but I don't remember > which direction to offset the cable (for the 34 v 36) Thanks, Fred. The docs give the pinouts on the card-edge, so a cable should be no problem. > The other 34 pin is for external floppies. It should be possible to > identify which 34 is which by proximity to the disk controller. Piece of cake -- thanks again. > "expansion bus" On the model 1 it was 40 pin. Did they change to 50 on > the 3? I don't know -- I wonder why this is not shown in the docs? Later -- Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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360K drives

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: DAVID L. ORMAND <dlormand(a)aztec.asu.edu> > I'm trying to help some guys outfit TI-99/4As with 360K > drives. A year or so ago, they were still available from > some of the surplus dealers I know about, but they seem > to have disappeared. > > Does anyone have a line on supplies of 360K drives? The > only ones I find via web search are $25, which seems a > bit much for a once-ubiquitous drive that is now a little > obsolete. I've been picking them up on eBay, often in never-been-used condition, for $10 - $12 including shipping. I've also found some in junk systems at thrift stores. They are not as easy to find (at least in my neck of the woods) as they were a couple of years ago, but the high-density "1.2 MB" drives seem to be everywhere (including my shop -- I've got almost 50 of them here!). Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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Repairing devices

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 30, 16:38, Patrick Finnegan wrote: > I've got a 35mW HeNe Laser + Power supply that I picked up today for next > to nothing. It seems to be having some problems - the laser (somtimes) > blinks a few times when I first turn it on, and then stops. As a few others have said, most common cause of an HeNe laser failing to "lase" is loss of the helium. I, too, found that out the hard way. Interestingly, the more it's used, the less likely that is to happen in a given time (at least, so said the notes with the last HeNe tube I bought). > Now, I've never really worked on a HV power supply before, and I'm trying > to be careful when I play with things. First off, does anyone have a > general idea of what sized dummy load ("resisitor") I should try haning > off of the HV output to properly load it? I noticed that the laser tube > has 3x27kohm resistors in series, would a couple watt approx 81kohm > resistor be a good idea? Probably not. Although not always obvious from the specs, most resistors are only rated to some hundreds of volts, maybe a thousand or two. That's why your laser has three in series instead of one bigger one. > Also, does anyone have an idea for a failure mode to look for? I've got > an O'scope, dmm, and various other tools at my disposal, but no > 'authentic' HV test/mesurement gear. You want a proper insulated HV probe for a start... you need to be able to measure kilovolts if you want to check the power supply. Check out Sam's laser FAQ at www.repairfaq.org -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

23 years, 6 months

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Manuals for IBM 2520 Card Reader?

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

Hi -- does anyone have any documentation for the IBM 2520 card reader? I know it's a long shot. (I checked Al Kossow's archive and don't see it there). Any leads would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, 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

23 years, 6 months

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Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750

by jwillis＠arielusa.com

I've removed (as of tonight) all the parts out of the chassis, documenting where everything goes. I cleaned the chassis very carefully. Once the card cage/ backplane was out, it was obvious that these parts were in beautiful condition, if not more than a little bit dusty. A couple of bent pins in back were easily corrected, and the entire assembly sits waiting to be reinstalled in the chassis. The TU58, unfortunately, did not fare quite as well, as the mice had chosen it as their nesting place. After finally managing to get the tape that was in it loosened up, it came out coated with mouse fur and mouse droppings etc. The rollers are entirely wound up in this stuff. It sits in a box awaiting later attempts at cleaning. I hold out little hope. The power supply, which seems to consist of a controller and two actual PSUs, looks solid from the outside, and also what I can see of the inside. It appears to have large battery packs in the bottom of it. These, certainly, would be dead after all this time. Are they important? Maybe theyre not even batteries... The H7112A looks solid, but again, I haven't explored inside. Everything in the system has a light coating of New Mexico red clay dust. The blower/motor assembly from the bottom of the cabinet awaits cleaning. The blower itself turns freely, which I'm taking as a good sign. The cards are pristine, L0002, L0003, L0004, L0008, L0007, L0016. There are 8 memory boards (M8750), several bus grant cards, a card labeled "M9313" and one labeled "M9202." I also found in the bottom of the system an M9014 Unibus to H854 adapter that wasn't plugged in. I also have a DELUA. -----Original Message----- From: Zane H. Healy Sent: Tue 10/29/2002 9:35 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Cc: Subject: Re: Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750 > I just a couple of days ago picked up a VAX 11/750. This machine has Cool! > been stored > in a damp shed for ten years or so, has had mice living in it, and the > usual assortment of spiders, etc. Oh, SHUDDER! It sounds like you're in for an interesting restoration process. > to the control panel and TU58 tape drive. I'm in the process of cleaning > all the components, > but am in search of some advice on this process, especially the power > supply. How long > should I let the power supply dry out from its prior damp condition, and > what should > I do to bring it up for testing without risking damage to other > components? I wish to > do this methodically and carefully. Unless this is a powersupply that needs a load on it when you power it on (anyone know?), I'd recommend having it totally disconnected when you power it on. I'd also recommend you have someone else standing by with a C02 Fire Extinguisher for safety. As for how long it needs to dry before powering up, I'm not really sure, if you've got it in a warm, heated location, I'd say a week or two should be plenty (probably doesn't need that much but it's better to ere on the side of caution). Something to do in the mean time is to look for corrosion and to get everything good and clean. I'm most concerned about your powersupply and backplane. Also take a look at the rollers in your TU58. While the following is for a PDP-8, you might find it useful. http://pdp-8.org/revive.htm Definitly read up on what Aaron has to say about Backplanes. Zane

23 years, 6 months

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I can't believe this?!??!

by dittman＠dittman.net

BTW, I've found my VAX 4000 reports errors and will not boot if the KZQSA is not properly terminated. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

23 years, 6 months

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Best version of AIX for my RS6000

by ceby2＠csc.com

> ...Yes it does! I'm using it right now on a POWERserver 370 (7012-370) at > work an it runs just fine. (That's a 62,5MHz POWER proc, 64bit memory > bus, and MCA for those who don't know.) ... Let me just echo those sentiments. I'm currently running AIX5L on a 7013-591 at the office and a 7012-390 at home. Both of these machines are similar in spec to the 370 and 580 Pat mentioned. Mine have 128MB and 256MB RAM respectively. I can also add that I've had full graphic support on both. In fact the only graphics nightmare I've had with backward compatibility is with my 860(RS6000 Laptop). It depends on your card of course, but the graphics on my systems are just fine. Odd to say, but in most things non-CPU bound, these are the fastest machines I have at the moment, including the PII linux boxes. The IO in these boxes is fab'. > If you need any help with AIX things feel free to email me, I'm now > involved (somewhat) with some sysadmining of AIX boxen at work, so I might > be able to help with OT things (or talk to someone who has been for a > while).... I'll also echo Pat's offer of help. I'm trained, current and even somewhat proficient with both the recent gear and the vintage stuff. I'm not a sysadmin anymore, though -- I consult on performance engineering. Colin Eby ceby2(a)csc.com

23 years, 6 months

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[OT] paper on Retro ?

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

However, documentation/softwareless old computers make wonderful doorstops. Actually, I gave a couple gutted 5360s away to a friend who made them into a workbench, I had stripped the good stuff from them already. Waste not, want not. Will J _________________________________________________________________ Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 6 months

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Destroying a SX-64.. :-(

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Yeah, everyone knows you're supposed to put a blown, alcohol-injected 392cid Chrysler hemi in a T-bucket, not some chevy garbage... LOL Will J _________________________________________________________________ Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 6 months

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VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5]

by cb＠mythtech.net

>I'll second that, although a VCF 'near' New Jersey *might* be close >enough for me to attend... Being that everything in NJ is within driving distance (as opposed to RI where everything is within walking distance)... I would most likely attend if it were held within about 4 hours drive from Northern NJ (so DC or similar to the south, Mid to West PA to the west, and Boston or abouts to the North.... not much of a swimmer, so going east is out of the question for me). But I would attend purely as a spectator/buyer (I'm assuming that is allowed... you aren't forced to expo things to get in right?) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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[OT] paper on Retro ?

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

All, Today I got a call from one of Holland's major daily newspapers (for those of you who are curious: its the NRC Handelsblad). They asked me if I were willing to write them a feature article on "Retro computing: strange people, or a necessity for the future?". This (working) title is mine; what they mean is: are we just being weird geeks, or is preserving the computing past something required for future generations to understand the world in which they live, and how things got to be that way? I have done books and various articles in papers before, but I do feel a little uncomfortable writing about things I have been involved in for only about 5 years or so. Any suggestions here? [the answer, by the way, is: "yes, we're weird. so deal with it."] Cheers, Fred

23 years, 6 months

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FS: hard sectored floppy disks, E&L Z-80 SBC, slide rules, CBM disk drive manual -- More!

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

<http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=rigdonj> Some ending today so check now!

23 years, 6 months

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Need a Corvus Mirror

by foo＠siconic.com

Does anyone have a Corvus Mirror? I need it for a project. Please contact me directly if you do. <sellam(a)vintage.org> Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 6 months

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VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5]

by CordaAJ＠NSWC.NAVY.MIL

D.C. Sounds like a good idea. There are a also a number of other attractions in the area, such as the Smithsonian and various historical sites, etc. (Of course, the fact that it's local to me has had no impact on my opinion ;-) -al- > -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Veeneman [mailto:dan@ekoan.com] > Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 10:58 AM > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: RE: VCF East ? [was:Re: VCF5] > > > At 10:11 AM 10/30/02 -0500, you wrote: > > > I vote for somewhere in CT this year, it will give those in the > > Southeast an > > > easier drive up (seems like a lot of people in Virginia > and PA would > > attend) > > > and be more of a median point for all. > > > >I vote for Washington, DC. The above mentioned people could attend > >plus the Florida contingent might come up. (Not to mention it's > >where I live :-) ) > > I vote for DC as well, or at least somewhere close by. It > would also give > the attendees a chance to visit the NSA's Cryptologic Museum, which > does have some interesting old computers as well. You can read more > about the museum at http://www.nsa.gov/museum/ . > > > Cheers, > > Dan >

23 years, 6 months

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I can't believe this?!??!

by dittman＠dittman.net

> I must be google-ly impaired, I tried all different combo's of kzqsa > jumpers, settings, technical and so forth and the closet I found was a > cryptic response from the HP/Compaq Vax Wizard which said a lot but told you > nothing, thanks Eric, where do you want that Jolt sent? :-) No charge, Curt. :-) -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

23 years, 6 months

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OK, I think I've stepped in it... (MICOM 2000)

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I just got the UPS tracking info, this thing weighs 100 pounds!? I thought I was being gouged on the shipping, but now I see I wasn't. It just doesn't look that big in the pictures. Anyway, when these two crates show up on my doorstep, my wife is going to have a cow! Space is tight here and I've just managed to get my collection as it stands under control. So, I'm going to need to move this beast fast. Is there anyone in the Washington, DC area that wants to take it off my hands for what I have invested in it ($30 cost + $50 shipping)? Email quick, UPS says it arrives on Friday (11/1). Thanks, Bill

23 years, 6 months

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I can't believe this?!??!

by dittman＠dittman.net

> In all that is the collective geek-dome of classic computers, I find it > boggling to see that no one has (or wishes to share... you greedy SOB ;-) > the technical manual and/or jumper settings for the elusive DEC KZQSA Qbus > to SCSI adapter boards.... come on, I challenge the collective knowledge > base of the DEC geeks to come up with this mysterious and treasured > knowledge and share it with the list. The winner gets a free 6 pak of > JOLT soda for those looooonnnnngggggggg caffeine induced late nights ;-) Courtesy of Google (first entry I found): There are three sets of jumpers on the KZQSA: 1) W1 to W7 select the CSR address; the interrupt vector is programmable, so there are no jumpers to set it. Since it sounds like your setup is fairly simple, I'll guess that your CSR is at or near the default address and list a few corresponding jumper settings ... if the CSR that CONFIGURE gives you is not below, you might want to post it, so that one us can verify the correct jumper settings, just to be on the safe side. CSR W7 W6 W5 W4 W3 W2 W1 ------ -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 761300 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 (default) 761400 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 761500 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 But generally, you can work out the jumper settings as follows: if W7 is 0 (not set), the CSR is 76xy00, but it it is set (1), the CSR is 77xy00; the octal digit "x" is determined by the settings of W6 to W4, and the digit "y" is determined by W3 to W1 as illustrated by a few examples: 760100 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 760400 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 761000 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 764000 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 770000 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2) W9 to W13 determine the memory base address; the default is the address range 01000000-01377777 for the 128 KB memory on the KZQSA, for which only W10 is set and the others are not. You need to arrange for all modules that use Qbus memory space to have unique address ranges ... but this is normally not such a problem, since not so many modules use Qbus memory space. To see if it is a problem in your configuration, issue a SHOW QBUS command from the console prompt (>>>); at the end of the output (after the scan of IO space), you will find the Scan of Qbus Memory Space, which shows which address ranges are in use. If 01000000-01377777 does not overlap any range currently in use (if any), you have no problem and can just use the default jumper setting here. Otherwise, the address selection jumpers just increase the base address of the KZQSA's 128 KB memory in steps of 128 KB; i.e., address range W13 W12 W11 W10 W9 ----------------- --- --- --- --- --- 00000000-00377777 0 0 0 0 0 00400000-00777777 0 0 0 0 1 01000000-01377777 0 0 0 1 0 (default) 01400000-01777777 0 0 0 1 1 ... 17400000-17777777 1 1 1 1 1 Also note that W8 is in the same jumper block as W9-W13; I have no idea what it does, probably best to leave it alone... 3) W14 to W16 set the SCSI ID of the KZQSA; W14 sets the MSB (4) and W16 the LSB (1). The default is 7, which should be OK for most purposes. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/

23 years, 6 months

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Anyone need 486 motherboards?

by cb＠mythtech.net

Does anyone want some 486 motherboards? I'm not sure who makes them (made in Tiawan, SiS chipset). They have the CPU (486 DX/2 50Mhz); 6 ISA slots, 2- 72pin SIMM slots and 8- 30 pin slots, AMI bios, AT keyboard, SiS chipset. And I'll throw in the VGA card and I/O cards that are currently installed with them (I/O card has FDD, IDE, LPT, 2- Com). Both are ISA cards, but have a 2nd connector that looks a bit like AGP and hangs off the back end of the ISA slots (3 of the 6 slots have this addition connector, so these two cards fit into 2 of those). CMOS batteries are soldered on, and corroded, but were working and holding power as of not too long ago (these machines were last used a month or so ago). If anyone wants them (there are 4), let me know before I pull all the jumpers off and toss the motherboards. Or if anyone just wants 486 CPUs, let me know. I have the 4 listed above with the boards, and another 3 or 4 pulled from other boards (not sure on the specs for them, if there is interest, I'll check). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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The 5155 Challenge...

by SecretaryBird＠SoftHome.net

could fit in there. > > Here is a picture of the (almost) final results... > Naturally, I forgot to post the link to the picture... http://www.oz.net/~otter/geekworks/Crysta-00.JPG -- Scarletdown

23 years, 6 months

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Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750

by Antonio.Carlini＠riverstonenet.com

>I just a couple of days ago picked up a VAX 11/750. This machine has >been stored in a damp shed for ten years or so, has had mice living in it, Sounds like you are in for a bunch of fun ! If the mice chewed through the docs you can find a set of prints and a few manuals at: http://208.190.133.201/decimages/moremanuals.htm I don't think the Installation and Acceptance manual covers infestation in great depth though :-) Antonio

23 years, 6 months

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[maybe OT]: Removing pesky floppy disk labels

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Hi all, OK, so here I am sitting at my computer with a stack of 100 or so disks to reformat. Unfortunately most of said disks have been labelled using felt-tip pen. And the labels are the nasty kind that don't come off without a fight. Sooo... Has anyone got a method that will get these stupid things off without leaving a gummy, sticky residue or damaging my disks? I've tried WD40 (didn't work at all), 3-in-1 oil (don't ask), an upside down airblaster (freeze spray for half the price) and a few other things and nothing works! Anyone want to share their secret? Thanks. -- Phil. philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/

23 years, 6 months

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Removing glued on heatsink (was: Anyone need 486 motherboards?)

by cb＠mythtech.net

Ok, anyone know of a safe way of removing a glued on heatsink? I have a few of these 486 CPUs where the heatsink is glued down. I could just jam a screwdriver in and snap it off, but that just doesn't seem very good for the chip. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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Wanted: KZQSA Adapter - Never mind

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

> Hmmmm, unobtainium huh??? Thats similar to Kryptonite I think ;-) No.. Kryptonite is sugar compared to Un. If you ever find someone you suspect of having, they'll fiercefully deny that... and then smile... --f

23 years, 6 months

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Bringing up a 10 years dormant VAX 11/750

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> I just a couple of days ago picked up a VAX 11/750. This machine has Cool! > been stored > in a damp shed for ten years or so, has had mice living in it, and the > usual assortment of spiders, etc. Oh, SHUDDER! It sounds like you're in for an interesting restoration process. > to the control panel and TU58 tape drive. I'm in the process of cleaning > all the components, > but am in search of some advice on this process, especially the power > supply. How long > should I let the power supply dry out from its prior damp condition, and > what should > I do to bring it up for testing without risking damage to other > components? I wish to > do this methodically and carefully. Unless this is a powersupply that needs a load on it when you power it on (anyone know?), I'd recommend having it totally disconnected when you power it on. I'd also recommend you have someone else standing by with a C02 Fire Extinguisher for safety. As for how long it needs to dry before powering up, I'm not really sure, if you've got it in a warm, heated location, I'd say a week or two should be plenty (probably doesn't need that much but it's better to ere on the side of caution). Something to do in the mean time is to look for corrosion and to get everything good and clean. I'm most concerned about your powersupply and backplane. Also take a look at the rollers in your TU58. While the following is for a PDP-8, you might find it useful. http://pdp-8.org/revive.htm Definitly read up on what Aaron has to say about Backplanes. Zane

23 years, 6 months

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(no subject)

by f.heite＠hccnet.nl

> gil smith asked: > I am curious what your favorite cp/m system might be. My first 8bit CP/M machine was made by putting a Microsoft Softcard into my Apple ][ Plus, early 1981. After sitting there for a few years, the Softcard was moved to a new Apple //f. That's an Apple //e, where I had the Rom software patched by my dealer, to prevent the hard reset routine from overwriting a few bytes in every xx KB's. And, of course, the startup text on the top line of the screen changed to Apple //f to make it my "personal" machine. The //f machine was upgraded with serial and parallel cards, a clock/interrupt card, extra RAM, and finally a SASI interface card, connected to a 10 MB Xebec harddisk. For that SASI harddisk, as sold by my dealer, I wrote the boot prom, patches and drivers for Microsoft CP/M 2.2, ALS CP/M Plus, Apple DOS, Apple Pascal and finally Prodos. In the end, it was a system that could run not only two flavors of CP/M, but also all other OS's that were available for the Apple - all with megabytes of harddisk space. CP/M Plus was my favorite OS as it was the fastest one, mainly due to the large numbers of disk buffers that were possible in CP/M Plus. Sometimes I feel sorry that I sold all this for about fifty dollars... Freek.

23 years, 6 months

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For Sale: Diamond D5 Wordprocessor

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, > > curious. Mine's definitely a Diablo unit and plugs into its own > > card within the > > Yes, a Diablo Hitype II. ha ha - just me being stoopid :) > > cardcage in the system unit. But there's also a seperate card > > in there (oddly, > > How many wires in the cable between the printer and this card? right, just taken another look... yes, it is 50 pins - but not connected to anything; the printer connects via a serial cable to a seperate SIO board (which seems capable of supporting 2 devices). A post-sale upgrade I assume, but they left the original Diablo board in the machine too. The SIO board has DIP-switches on it whereas configuration on the other cards seems to be solder-contact only. do you remember if your unit shows anything on the display prior to putting the system disc in? Be useful if it did in terms of tracing the fault with this machine. there's more cards in the cardcage than I originally remembered: disc #4 drive (x 2) disc #4 read/write disc #4 control 64K ram SIO interface 3 mode VDU output 3 mode VDU counter VDU memory CPU #9 Z80 RTC keyboard interface diablo interface The 3 VDU boards are coupled on the outer edge as well as on the backplane. Backplane connections are via 88 contacts, with the component-side of the cards being purely ground. Not sure if the layout was to any recognised design; probably proprietary though. cheers, Jules 88 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 6 months

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Swapping boards on ST225 drives / Philips P3800 help

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Tony (and others), > I have the schematics of the ST225 somewhere. I misremembered about the drive - I've just had the case off the machine to get some pictures in response to Stefan's post about the P4500 (at www.moosenet.demon.co.uk/temp/p3800 for anyone who's interested) The drive's a Rodime 202E which going from memory is 50MB or so. I'm quite keen to see if I can get this thing running now as it's got me curious. The key at the front has 3 settings - off, on and 'pm' - I have no idea what the latter does but the abbreviation might mean something to someone?? Applying power I get LEDs on the back of all cards, plus one labelled as +5V on the power supply board. No fan activity though and no hard disk spindle motor; maybe a +12V rail is dead or the problem might be more tricky to diagnose. There's five LEDs on the front of the case - labelled 1,2,3 and 4 plus one with a power symbol - none of those light when power is applied. Might be something stupid like the system is waiting for a console command before starting the disk but that's probably a little too hopeful :-) There's 6 cables hanging out the back, all terminated with 25 pin connectors. One's black and unlabelled, another is grey and unlabelled, and all the rest are grey and labelled as: '8 bit 3100', '16 bit 3100' '8 st' and '8 st4'. Mean anything to anyone? Are those terminal types or something? I'll reseat all the cards tomorrow and measure a few voltages to see what's what - plus connect the hard drive to a known-good supply and just check it does spin up. IC dates are all in 1984 so it's more recent than I thought (I'd guessed '82 or so) but no idea when it last ran or what it was used for. Hopefully the disk wasn't wiped prior to it being submerged in a flood! :) cheers Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 6 months

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IBM 5150 brings $910 on EBAY

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I would say that the three original manuals and the DOS SW contributes mightily to the value to collectors. When Items like this sell for such high values I notice they usually include the original Software and manuals. Often they have the original boxes. Also condition is very important to collectors. This one purports to be in near perfect condition which is somewhat rare in its own right. Paxton Astoria, OR

23 years, 6 months

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Micropolis hdd

by woftbo＠cox.net

I have been searching for information regarding the assembly of a Micropolis 1991 hard drive. What is the best method to disassemble the case to access the latching area? Dave S

23 years, 6 months

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Removing glued on heatsink (was: Anyone need 486 motherboards?)

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Don Maslin" <donm(a)cts.com> > > >On Tue, 29 Oct 2002, chris wrote: > >> Ok, anyone know of a safe way of removing a glued on heatsink? I have a >> few of these 486 CPUs where the heatsink is glued down. I could just jam >> a screwdriver in and snap it off, but that just doesn't seem very good >> for the chip. > >Better a single edge razor blade or a putty knife than a screwdriver! >Too much local load with the screwdriver blade - probably crack the >chip. > - don > >> -chris >> <http://www.mythtech.net> >> Hi I've always removed glued things from chips by heating it first with a hot plate. We used to remove the epoxied covers >from EPROMs this way in the lab when someone would plug one in upside down. This way we could replace the blown bonding wire ( the most common failure for reversed power ). It was handy to have a wire bonder around ( Ah, the good old days ). Dwight

23 years, 6 months

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Philips P4500

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

> Does anybody know anything about a Philips P4500 ?? > I just now the size which is well, a decent size.... :) > Maybe someone has a picture ? not as such, but maybe it's a bigger brother of my P3800. In which case I'll be amazed - I heard of one other Philips system a few years ago which was a similar but more basic version of mine (P---, can't remember the number now), but the owner had long since disposed of it when I made enquiries. Never come across anyone who has the same system as mine, or even heard of it, and not heard of a 4500 either. My unit's about 1 foot wide, 4ft deep and 3ft tall and is some kind of multi-user CP/M system, or so I was told. It certainly has a lot of Z80 CPUs on the cards in the cardcage! Not a particularly lightweight system either. I can email an image off-list if you want. cheers Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 6 months

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Philips P4500

by stefan＠softhome.net

Hiya, Does anybody know anything about a Philips P4500 ?? I just now the size which is well, a decent size.... :) Maybe someone has a picture ? Stefan.

23 years, 6 months

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Whats this nubus card?

by cb＠mythtech.net

>Whats this nubus card? > >Workstation Technologies card. No idea but I believe it was an early video >conferencing setup. Appears to have an ADB or S-video connector, mini-Din >serial, a three row DB-25. Has a 68030/33 processor on board so it must >have some amount of horsepower in its day. Awesome looking card anyway. Hey.. no fair... I was going to buy first, ask questions later! (does this mean you beat me to responding to the guy on this?) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

23 years, 6 months

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[OT] Fun find...

by patrick＠evocative.com

I've had a "grab bag" of chips in a box for months that I haven't had time to sort. Last night I got the bug, and while straightening pins and sorting, I found an AY-3-8500-1, one of the original "Pong on a Chip" chips. I found some schematics online quite easily. Condition of the chip is unknown, and I guess I'm going to have to build to find out, unless one of you has a suggestion for a quick health check? Patrick

23 years, 6 months

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Drives? (was: RE: Tales of VCF 5.0?)

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Tom Uban wrote: > At 04:28 AM 10/29/2002 -0600, [Tothwolf] wrote: > >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/Tony%20Cole%20Vendor.jpg > >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/MemoryBillia2.jpg > > > >Does anyone recognize the drive with the numeric pad and LCD on the far > >right of the above two photos? It looks nearly identical to the 4 drives > >in my SGI 210S, and I'm still not exactly sure what type they are. > > It was labeled with a Seagate brand, but I think that when I last used one > like it it was a CDC brand drive, perhaps a Sabre. Didn't Seagate buy that part of CDC's disk drive business? -Frank McConnell

23 years, 6 months

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Apple II Programmer's Aid ROM

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

I didn't realize that Integer BASIC also included the ROM image...in which case I don't need it. Was there a special manual for those commands or were they covered in the DOS 3.3 book? Thanks. -----Original Message----- From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:foo@siconic.com] Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 8:08 PM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Apple II Programmer's Aid ROM On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Eric Smith wrote: > Rich wrote: > > I just read about this in the A2FAQ. Does anyone have this Apple ][ ROM > > and manual? > > If you've got a DOS 3.3 Master diskette (or a "BASICS" diskette), you've > got the ROM image. It's in the INTBASIC file on the DOS 3.3 Master. > > I've got a manual, somewhere. And of course if you boot the DOS 3.3 System Master on a 64K Apple ][, it will load the Integer BASIC ROM image (containing the Programmer's Aid ROM) into the upper 16K of memory. Then you can switch into Integer BASIC from Applesoft BASIC by typing 'INT' (which is a DOS command). To get back to Applesoft type 'FP' (for Floating Point, as in floating point BASIC). INT basically bank-switches in the ROM image in RAM. You can also press RESET to get back to Applesoft. Switching using either command will init your environment from scratch (i.e. any BASIC program in memory, either Applesoft or Integer, is lost). Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

23 years, 6 months

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Need SA400 help

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com> > Drive select - a choice of 1/2/3 - is determined by the programmable > shunt at location 1F. Installing a DIP switch is a much handier means > of selection. Configured for multiple drive installation, MX should be > open, HS shorted, and only the desired DSx shorted. Okay, that's clear. > Termination is by a 150Ohm resistor DIP. Thanks. There's an empty 14-pin DIP socket adjacent to the above-mentioned shunt, so I'd guess this is drive is missing the terminator. > The power connector is the same as used on more modern 5.25" floppy > drives with pin-1 at 12VDC, pin-2 12V return, pin-3 5V return, and pin-4 > 5VDC. Pin one is identified on the component side of the PCB. Thanks again, this drive does not have a "standard" power connector such as is found on late-model 5.25" drives -- it only has a four-pin header. Not being familiar with the SA400, I wasn't sure if this header was normal for this drive, or if it was some user's modification. Fred Cisin wrote: > Termination is required on the last drive on the cable. Lack of proper > termination can make for flaky operation, but will not generally > prevent it from working. Sure, but I didn't know the details of the terminator since it's missing on this drive. > I've never seen a factory switch on the front of one. Are you sure that > that wasn't a user added switch, such as one to override the write-protect > for flippies? Not sure at all, but it certainly is professional-looking. Due to my inexperience, I've never seen an SA400 before and I thought there might have been variations. Thanks to both of you for the information. Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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Apple II Programmer's Aid ROM

by paulrsm＠buckeye-express.com

Wayne Stewart did a PDF conversion--not just a scan--of the manual for the Apple II Programmers Aid ROM. There are a few typographical errors but it is very good. It is about 278KB. E-mail me if you want a copy. The empty ROM socket in the Apple II at addresses $D800-$DFFF never had an official Apple ROM but there were some third party ROMs such as the Inspector and the Senior PROM. In the Integer BASIC disk file on the DOS 3.3 system masters that area is filled with the Applesoft BASIC code from the same range of addresses. -- Paul R. Santa-Maria Monroe, Michigan USA

23 years, 6 months

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Need SA400 help

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > The original post on this thread mentioned not having a "standard" floppy > power connector (Molex), and not knowing the pinout of the > connector(s). Upon very close examination I can see some stray flux around the solder connections to the four-pin header (which is present instead of the Molex connector), so my guess is that the original connector was removed by a user. The additional write-protect switch, however, is a *very* professional installation. > Could it be that his SA400 is an aftermarket drive for > Apple (or something else), where the Shugart board was replaced by > something weirder? Possible. The drive came from a home-built enclosure which also contained a home-made PSU and ZX81-compatible keyboard (no ZX81 board, though :<( ) Also, since all of my other systems use 40-track drives, I doubt I'll ever have any use for this thing. Are they still commonly available? If not, I may hang on to it "just in case." Otherwise, it's probably off to eBay unless someone on this list wants it and is willing to pay postage. Later -- Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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Tales of VCF 5.0?

by frustum＠pacbell.net

At 06:09 PM 10/28/02 -0800, dwight elvey wrote: >Hi > Actually, I was bummed. ... > I had a Poly-88 setup but I think only one in 10 noticed >and even then, I think only 2 in those ten knew what it was. I spotted it, and I knew what it was. But how could you tell that? Probably other people were the same. > Of course, my display was all about tape recovery and not >the Poly-88. I don't think, maybe, 5 people all together >realized that. That, I didn't spot. I noticed the waveforms on the wall, but amidst the din (auditory and visual) it didn't register. I wish I had noticed, though, since it is an area I want to spend some time working on one of these years. Rather than letting it be lost to the moment, is there any chance of you writing up your work and putting it online somewhere (even posting it to this list and letting it get archived would work). I've read a half dozen very terse summaries of emulators and such that do this, but most work only on really clean tapes. They simply do some DC correction, perhaps a bit of filtering, and then time zero crossings and decode from there. Have you done something more sophisticated than this? Some of the Sol tapes I've looked at are way too corrupted for such a simple technique to work. There are a lot of communication theory ideas that could be applied to the problem directly; in addition, the file format is going to have some known structure that could be used to help train the receiver and disambiguate some cases. I'd be interested to hear more. ----- Jim Battle == frustum(a)pacbell.net

23 years, 6 months

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Destroying a SX-64.. :-(

by bpope＠wordstock.com

This is very sick. http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/28/2137208.shtml?tid=137 This person modified a SX-64 to contain a 1.2 Ghz P3. Bryan

23 years, 6 months

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Pinouts schema for DEC PRO console on printer port

by franco.tassone＠inwind.it

Hi all, I've heard of the possibility to have a serial console connected to the printer port of the DEC Professional series computers, and it is what I'd ike to have. Do you have any pointers to get it solved, or any hints ? The pinouts schema could be the best for me. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Franco

23 years, 6 months

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Drives? (was: RE: Tales of VCF 5.0?)

by uban＠ubanproductions.com

At 04:28 AM 10/29/2002 -0600, you wrote: >On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Erik S. Klein wrote: > > > http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/ImageMap2.htm > >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/Tony%20Cole%20Vendor.jpg >http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/VCF5/MemoryBillia2.jpg > >Does anyone recognize the drive with the numeric pad and LCD on the far >right of the above two photos? It looks nearly identical to the 4 drives >in my SGI 210S, and I'm still not exactly sure what type they are. > >-Toth It was labeled with a Seagate brand, but I think that when I last used one like it it was a CDC brand drive, perhaps a Sabre. --tom

23 years, 6 months

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Fw: Free VAX

by rschaefe＠gcfn.org

----- Original Message ----- From: "dneprcomp" <dneprcomp(a)rmortho.com> Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 7:20 PM Subject: Free VAX > The following items are free: > 2 MicroVax II model DH-63003-E2 TK70 OS VAX IVMS ver. 1,7 > Terminal VT 220 > Tape Backup 8 mm > Plotter Bruning model ZETA 8A. > Location: Los Angeles > If interested please call Yakov at 818-704-8198 > >

23 years, 6 months

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IBM 5150 brings $910 on EBAY

by gmphillips＠earthlink.net

31 bidders. 4 willing to pay over $700. Are these machines in good condition really that rare? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2062770257

23 years, 6 months

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Pinouts schema for DEC PRO console on printer port

by franco.tassone＠inwind.it

Hi all, I've heard of the possibility to have a serial console connected to the printer port of the DEC Professional series computers, and it is what I'd ike to have. Do you have any pointers to get it solved, or any hints ? The pinouts schema could be the best for me. Your help will be greatly appreciated. Franco

23 years, 6 months

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Supply of DEC 11/23 11/73 front panel switches

by GOOI＠oce.nl

Hello Jay. I am sorry to say that I am not going to use those buttons in PDP-11's, but in my StarShip (click the starfield on http://home.hetnet.nl/~tshaj). I have developed the code for the main screen, with a correct view on the stars. The code allows for magnification and view opening angles. To use these "options" I am looking for 'nice' buttons, like the ones that HP uses. Those buttons have a LED in the middle to indicate that the button is active. If those buttons you have found at the surplus dealer have the LED in the middle of the button, I would like to buy several of them. Let's say 20 with the green colored LED and 20 with the red LED. I can pay via PayPal, or send cash $$ in a letter, what you prefer. Hoping you have found the correct buttons ... and willing to do the effort, kind regards, - Henk. (PS. would it help to say that I was one of the donators?) > -----Original Message----- > From: Jay West [mailto:jwest@imail.kwcorp.com] > Sent: maandag 28 oktober 2002 17:30 > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Supply of DEC 11/23 11/73 front panel switches > > Found at a local surplus dealer... a whole container of those > square white > pushbutton switches that I am pretty certain are the ones > used on the "front > panel" of the 11/23 or 11/73 systems. > > They have the following markings.... > > I think they had them marked at 0.59 each, if these are the > right ones (got it at work actually, haven't had a chance to > go home and check they are the right ones) and anyone wants > any, let me know. > > Jay West

23 years, 6 months

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Micropolis hdd

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "WOFTBO Data Recovery" <woftbo(a)cox.net> > >I have been searching for information regarding the assembly of a Micropolis 1991 hard drive. > >What is the best method to disassemble the case to access the latching area? > >Dave S Hi I've found that a hammer and a chisel work best with Micropolis drives. But that is just my opinion. Dwight

23 years, 6 months

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All-In-One Interface For All Your Retro/Legacy Drives

by jingber＠ix.netcom.com

Gratuitously ripped from Slashdot: An anonymous reader writes "Individual computers have announced a new version of they're multi-format floppy controller the Cat Weasel. This new version (Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper) has a few surprises such as 3 different interfaces to connect it to the host computer and a socket for an original C64 SID chip :). 'The main purpose of the Catweasel has always been to allow access to non-standard disks using normal PC-disk drives, even if you usually need a completely different computer for that. The capacity of the drive does not matter in this case: A 5.25 inch drive with 1.2MByte capacity will read and write a C-64 disk with 170KByte as well as a 3.5 inch drive with 1.44MByte can access a 1,76MByte Amiga disk. Together with a company that has specialized in data recovery, we're working on the implementation of more than 1100 different disk formats, and it does not matter that this has been classified impossible by others before. Even the 800KByte disks from older Macintosh computers can be used in standard 1.44MB drives, although the original drives have rotated their disks at variable speeds.' Find out more at the Catweasel MK3 PCI/Flipper page."

23 years, 6 months

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Anybody want Varian 620/F Reference Handbook?

by aek＠spies.com

> Is this, in fact, an office of Varian Data Systems? Varian's computer division was sold to Sperry in the mid 70's "Second Source Computers" bought what was left from Sperry in the 80's. I talked to Roger Lee at the company. 714/832-7724 voice, 714/832-3260 fax. rlee(a)sscitech.com. He repairs V-70's for some number of folks -- enough to keep him in business. He says there's even a 620i still running in England -- says the customer told him it only went down for repairs once.

23 years, 6 months

1
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Grundy Newbrain problems

by lgomez＠cdromsa.es

A few days ago, i was looking for Grundy Newbrain schematics. Now i have it (if somebody need it, please let me know) -Thanks to Voyager- but i can?t solve the problem: When i turn on the computer, the 16 character display flicks for 10 seconds. After this i can see the image in TV or monitor screen: new?brain?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Uppercase are converted to lowercase Spaces are converted to ? Numbers are converter to alphabetical characters (1 to q, 2 to r, 3 to s ....) but in 16 char. display all information is ok. It look like add 32 to ASCII code to display, but it is not so, because ASCII(1)+32=ASCII(Q) Q not q If i move just a little the computer i can see the correct character in screen, but not spaces, it still as ?. It like there is a bad contact in componet board, but i've check all contact and i can't found the fault. Sombody know this problem?? There is not the flat cable conecting diferent boards. Thanks and sorry by my english. Luis

23 years, 6 months

1
1
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Apple II Programmer's Aid ROM

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

I just read about this in the A2FAQ. Does anyone have this Apple ][ ROM and manual? Rich

23 years, 6 months

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5
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I buy DEC equipment. Call me

by robert＠usce.org

Robert M. Campbell U.S. Computer Exchange, Inc. 386 East Maple Troy, MI 48083 Ph. 248 583-9000 Fx. 248 583-9009 robert(a)usce.org

23 years, 6 months

3
2
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Anybody want Varian 620/F Reference Handbook?

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Yea, some old NMR machines of theirs have their minis inside them... I think thats why they bought Data Machines in the first place, though that is a conjecture. Will J _________________________________________________________________ Get a speedy connection with MSN Broadband. Join now! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp

23 years, 6 months

1
0
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Anybody want Varian 620/F Reference Handbook?

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

No, since for one, Varian sold that subsidiary to Sperry-Univac in the late 1970s.. Also, the computers were actually made in Billerica, MA.. But the logo of Varian Data Systems was the same as that of Varian Associates, the parent company. Indeed, the logo is still the same. So my money says its a Varian Associates building. Will J _________________________________________________________________ Unlimited Internet access for only $21.95/month. Try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/2monthsfree.asp

23 years, 6 months

2
1
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Reading old disks on Linux

by pat＠purdueriots.com

Quite a while ago (and maybe more than once) we had a thread on reading/writing 'odd' disk formats. I thought about it again, typed a few words into google, and found this: http://fdutils.linux.lu/Fdutils.html#SEC22 It looks like setfdprm and superformat will do much of what's necessary in working with 'odd' format disks. I haven't played much with it yet, but I've verified it works for setting the density, heads, cyls, and sect/track of the disk to write to. However, it doesn't allow for setting an initial sector number - something that's necessary for some formats. Using the program "fdrawcmd" should overcome any obsticles, but will require more work to be useful. I just thought I'd pass this along in case people would find it useful. -- "This fucking university has shown time and time again that it is completely fucking incompetent when it comes to employing technology" -- Anonymous http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2040637020924.gif

23 years, 6 months

6
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Anybody want Varian 620/F Reference Handbook?

by pat＠transarc.ibm.com

I stopped by at the only used bookstore in downtown Pittsburgh last week. It appears that the place is getting ready to fold, as they've got everything on sale at ridiculously low prices, and there is a big "BUILDING FOR SALE" sign in the front window.... Since they've started liquidating, they've been letting people up on to their second floor, which was always their storage and "we'll never be able to sell this stuff..." area, and was always off-limits to customers in the past. In adventuring around up there, I found two copies of the Varian 620/F Reference Handbook, dated November 1970. This isn't really in my area of interest, but at $1.00/each, I couldn't resist, and I figured that there might be people here who would like them. Both copies are in reasonably good shape, though both have suffered a bit from being stored in a bad environment (this shop's storage floor is open to the sky in a couple of places - probably one reason they never wanted to let customers up there....). One has a small tear in the cover. If you want one of these, it's yours for the cost of shipping. Limit of one per customer. First two responses get 'em. --Pat.

23 years, 6 months

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Looking for Symmetric 375

by jmkatcher＠yahoo.com

It's kind of an odd thing, but does anyone have a Symmetric 375 box that they want to pass to a good home. I remember wanting one badly when they were new and my memory was just jogged by seeing one at VCF. (It's a small 32016 based box running more or less BSD 4.2. Something with personality. Gosh I miss my Symbolics 3620...different of course, but certainly unique.) Many thanks in advance, Jeff Katcher jmkatcher(a)yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site http://webhosting.yahoo.com/

23 years, 6 months

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Swapping boards on ST225 drives / Philips P3800 help

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Hi, Dusting off my old Diamond system the other day got me thinking about trying to resurrect my Phillips P3800 (some sort of multi-user CP/M platform, early 80's I believe). It's another garage resident that I acquired a few years ago and then never had time to restore. It had been the victim of a basement flood when I got it and was dead as a dodo - plus the hard drive had roasted itself (I believe when the previous owner turned it on when it was still soaking wet, which is always such a very good idea...) I'm going from memory here, but believe that the hard drive is an ST225 - and the main logic board on the base of the unit was pretty well charred. What I did was find an identical model working drive and use its logic board with the frame and platters from the drive in the Phillips unit. Am I wasting my time even trying that? Or, assuming the data is intact on the platters still and survived the flooding, might I get a usuable drive by trying that? Maybe the logic boards are calibrated against some of the mechanical components within the drive for all I know. When I tried this the drive would at least then spin up (using a standard PC power supply for testing), but without fixing the power supply in the Philips and figuring out how to connect something to it (there's a whole pile of cables hanging out the back, to one of which presumably some sort of console connects) I don't yet know if I can actually read any data off it. Unfortunately I have no manuals for the unit, no system disks, no idea of the cabling, a possibly-dead hard drive, and a definitely-dead power supply. I'm also missing a tape drive for it (previous owner wanted to keep that) but hopefully it'll run without it. Never found anyone else who has heard of one of these, let alone owns one. On the plus side, the case is a nice shade of beige ;-) cheers Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 6 months

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For Sale: Diamond D5 Wordprocessor

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

> But for those who've never heard > of it, let me provide a few details. thanks there to my sales agent... (ha ha, only kidding :) > The logic circuitry is on a lot of fairly small plug-in cards in a > cardcage inside. CPU, memory, 3 or 4 for the display, ditto for the > floppy controller, and a couple of interface cards for the keyboard and > printer. Or something like that anyway. There are no custom chips in > there that I am aware of. I pulled a few cards the other day when I took that photo of the insides - I was a little out on my dates; earliest copyright date I can see is 1977 and the last manufacturing date on any chip was sometime in 1979. card list sounds about right without wheeling the machine out of storage again, and no I didn't see any custom chips in my machine either. Think there are only two boards for the display, joined both on the backplane and the outer edge. Then CPU, memory, RTC, keyboard, drives x2, printer, and an unknown board (see below) > The printer (at least on mine) is a Hitype II. With that strange 50 pin > interface (separate control lines for selecting a character, deciding how > far to advance the carriage/paper, and so on). curious. Mine's definitely a Diablo unit and plugs into its own card within the cardcage in the system unit. But there's also a seperate card in there (oddly, marked as Diablo!) with a large connector on the outer edge (2 rows of pins, non-staggered) with nothing plugged into it. I have no idea what that's for - that connector looks purposeful though. There's not a huge amount of logic inside this thing so I suppose figuring out a circuit diagram wouldn't be too difficult and maybe then its function would be revealed. oh, and it's a 'proper' machine, in that it has wheels on the bottom ;-) cheers Jules __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page >from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

23 years, 6 months

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Micropolis hdd

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Eric Smith" <eric(a)brouhaha.com> > >> I can't find it online anymore, but about two years ago I stumbled >> across this fascinating article which discussed the demise of >> Micropolis, presenting it as a case study of business fraud. >> >> My favorite highlight had to do with Micropolis claiming much larger >> inventories of hard drives than they actually had. This was to make the >> company look as if it were more valuable. This excess inventory was >> primarily made up of a special class of hard drive, which in the company >> records were listed as "very hard drives". In reality they were bricks >> that had been boxed in Micropolis packaging. > >Micropolis had their own problems, but I don't think we should accuse >them with out-and-out fraud without researching it a bit further. >The company that shipped bricks was Miniscribe, and one of their >executives was finally convicted when it was discovered that he'd >actually purchased the bricks on his credit card. (Note to self: >when buying materials for an inventory scam, pay cash.) > >I very much doubt that any company records used the phrase "very hard >drives", since that wasn't brought up by the prosecution in the trial. >Sounds more like a clever phrase a reporter came up with. > >> Apparently a few of them were even shipped to customers. > >The true story may never be known, but I don't think any shipped to >customers that weren't aware of the plan. Some customers may have >agreed to help Miniscribe with their inventory problems (as in lack >of), because the customer may have been more interested in the promise >of a real drive delivered later than the company going out of business >sooner. > >One of the surplus stores in the Denver area had a brick in their >display case with their disk drives; the brink had a sign saying >"Miniscribe 40MB". However, it was not an *actual* Miniscribe brick. > >Miniscribe was acquired by Maxtor and was known for a time as "Maxtor >Colorado". > >The only complaint I had with Micropolis was that their drives had a >very high failure rate. Hi At the last company I was at, we never had one ( Micropolis ) complete a 1 week burnin ( at room temp ), until they fiddled with something and the rate dropped to only about 3 out of ten per week. I knew we were making a mistake, at the begining when they said that they would give us free engineering time to help use get their drives to work on our machines. I stated such to management but was ignored. Dwight

23 years, 6 months

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Fw: 4D 220 VGX: free for Shipping or Orlando,FL pickup

by CordaAJ＠NSWC.NAVY.MIL

The older SGI 4D twin towers (professional series) used a SCSI bus that was routed through a connector arrangement up through the smaller drive tower. Unfortunately, I seem to remember that because of the stub length off of these connectors, it violated the SCSI specs pretty badly. My guess is that because the early CPU cards that were fitted in these systems (IP4 and IP4.5) only supported async. scsi, they were more forgiving than a sync. system would be. BTW, I believe that one of the reasons for using ESDI vs. SCSI in these critters was that, at the time, the ESDI drive/controller combo was quite a bit faster than async. SCSI. They intended the SCSI interface for peripheral access only... That said, I did manage to get a SCSI drive working in one, but since I had the ESDI controller and drives, it didn't seem worth it at the time to pursue it further... As far as the twin tower power series, my memory fails me... I don't remember when they began supporting sync. SCSI, but my guess is that it began with the power-series CPU boards. -al- -acorda(a)1bigred.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Tothwolf [mailto:tothwolf@concentric.net] > Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 2:16 PM > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Fw: 4D 220 VGX: free for Shipping or Orlando,FL pickup > > > On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Will Jennings wrote: > > > Eh? How are they SCSI? I had one of these once, the drive > in it was most > > definetly a Hitachi ESDI disk... They're such cool looking machines, > > too... > > If the system is a dual tower configuration, it almost always > uses ESDI > drives, but the single tower deskside 'cubes' always have a > SCSI bus in > them. AFAIK, the dual tower was retired around the time of > the 2x0, so I > guess it could indeed use ESDI drives. I have yet to have > seen a 2x0 in a > dual tower, but I suppose they might exist. A photo of the > system itself > would pretty much clear it up. > > The cpu boards in these are actually interchangeable for the > most part, > and the deskside chassis can accept up to two such boards > with up to two > cpus each for a total of 4 processors. The predator rack > chassis support > up to 4 cpu boards for a total of 8 cpus. > > -Toth >

23 years, 6 months

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[OT?] Supra FaxModem

by voyager＠hol.gr

Hi, It may sound a bit offtopic, but it's near the 10yrs margin :-) I have an external 28.8 Supra FAX modem, the one with the 2 digit green LED display. It's never flashed, and contains one of the very early firmware versions. I recall that Supra had an extensive file list (including manuals in PDFs) for downloading at supra's site, then moved to Diamond, then nothing, they vanished. Could anybody help me locate a mirror of these files? I need the flash files to upgrade it up to 33.6 version (needs several consecutive flashes) and the AT command set that supported (the non standard commands). Cheers George

23 years, 6 months

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Varian books claimed, thanks!

by pat＠transarc.ibm.com

<EOM>

23 years, 6 months

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Educational Computer Corporation ?

by Qstieee＠aol.com

This could be right, because clearly "EDUcational COMPuter Corporation" could be shortened to "EduComp". EduComp was in the Hartford, Connecticut area in the mid-70's at least. EduComp morphed into QuoData, and QuoData morphed in Jenzabar. There is still a Quodata.com web site. When I dealt with EduComp they resold DEC 8's and 11's to schools along with some of their own software, plus co-developed ETOS on the 8's

23 years, 6 months

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HPUX 10.20?

by geoffr＠zipcon.net

Where can I get HPUX media to install a couple Apollo 700's?

23 years, 6 months

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Available: IBM 3164 terminals

by pat＠purdueriots.com

There's a few IBM 3164 terminals down at Purdue University Salvage and Surplus that are about to be thrown out. If anyone wants one, let me know, and I'll ship them for $5 + packing stuff + shipping. Respond soon, they'll probably be gone in a day or two. Pat -- "The Microsoft/IBM FORTRAN was adequate for teaching FORTRAN 77. But the performance was AMAZING! It could actually take longer to run a benchmark like sieve of Erastothanes with compiled FORTRAN than with interpreted BASIC." -- Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2040637020924.gif

23 years, 6 months

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Micropolis hdd

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

Hi I see the rest seem to have a similar opinion of this manufactures drives. I got mine from experience. Dwight >From: "Jim Arnott" <jrasite(a)eoni.com> > >High explosives work well too. Shaped charge. > >(Why would *anyone* want to get inside a Micropolis drive? They're best >used as doorstops.) > >Jim > >Dwight K. Elvey wrote: >>>From: "WOFTBO Data Recovery" <woftbo(a)cox.net> >>> >>>I have been searching for information regarding the assembly of a Micropolis >> >> 1991 hard drive. >> >>>What is the best method to disassemble the case to access the latching area? >>> >>>Dave S >> >> >> Hi >> I've found that a hammer and a chisel work >> best with Micropolis drives. But that is just my >> opinion. >> Dwight >> >> >> . >> > > >

23 years, 6 months

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Need SA400 help

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Glen Goodwin" <acme_ent(a)bellsouth.net> > >> From: Dwight K. Elvey <dwightk.elvey(a)amd.com> > >> One should note that double termination can also cause flaky >> operation as well. I've seen it twice now that I have a machine >> that has a flaky disk and I open it up and see a terminator >> on both drives. > >Would you and Fred please define "flaky?" What symptoms are exhibited by >an improperly terminated drive? Hi This can vary, from not working at all to the occational bad read or bad write of a sector. Some times it shows up as a data dependent problem. The disk formats fine but can't write all 1's or all 0's. In both of my cases, it would occationally damaged data on a write that would show up as a non-recoverable CRC error. Although it is recommended that the termination be on the last drive on the cable. I've never found it an issue when the two end drives cable connectors are only 2 to 3 inches apart. I have been known to put the termination, where ever it is handy, while trouble shooting( such as swapping drive ). I also alway tape the terminator to the drive that I remove it from. I don't know if I or someone in the future will need that terminator. If it is right there, I know it is the right one. Dwight

23 years, 6 months

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Fw: 4D 220 VGX: free for Shipping or Orlando,FL pickup

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Eh? How are they SCSI? I had one of these once, the drive in it was most definetly a Hitachi ESDI disk... They're such cool looking machines, too... Will J _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

23 years, 6 months

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Need SA400 help

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Dwight K. Elvey <dwightk.elvey(a)amd.com> > One should note that double termination can also cause flaky > operation as well. I've seen it twice now that I have a machine > that has a flaky disk and I open it up and see a terminator > on both drives. Would you and Fred please define "flaky?" What symptoms are exhibited by an improperly terminated drive? Thanks -- Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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IBM 5100 (fwd)

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

$5,000? Good God, that computer is worth more than the car I drive as my daily transportation... Will J _________________________________________________________________ Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 6 months

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Swapping boards on ST225 drives / Philips P3800 help

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> > I'm going from memory here, but believe that the hard drive is an ST225 - and > the main logic board on the base of the unit was pretty well charred. What I > did was find an identical model working drive and use its logic board with the > frame and platters from the drive in the Phillips unit. Am I wasting my time > even trying that? Not at all. I've salvaged ST225s before by board-swapping, with good results. Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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Need SA400 help

by acme_ent＠bellsouth.net

> From: Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > When you get a chance, try to trace out what it's connected to. It bypasses the write-protect switch; when in the "on" position, write-protect is enabled. Glen 0/0

23 years, 6 months

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Need SA400 help

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > >On Fri, 25 Oct 2002, Glen Goodwin wrote: >> Can anyone help me with settings on this drive? >> Specifically, drive select, termination, and pinouts on the power connector >> (J2) would help. > >Same as the other 5.25" drives. That's why they are called "SA400 >interface". Such as drive selects on pins 10, 12, 14, . . . > >But some newer drives have added SIDE SELECT (for double sided drives), >and "density" for multi-media drives, such as 1.2M. > >Termination is required on the last drive on the cable. Lack of proper >termination can make for flaky operation, but will not generally >prevent it from working. Hi One should note that double termination can also cause flaky operation as well. I've seen it twice now that I have a machine that has a flaky disk and I open it up and see a terminator on both drives. Removing one brings back normal operation. One of the machines was a KayPro and the other was my Olivetti M20. I suspect that these were that way from the beginning since both normally ship as dual drive machines. Dwight > >Power connection isthe same as all other (well, ALMOST all) 5.25" drives. > >The SA400 is a 48TPI, 35 track drive. Most drives that replaced it added >another 5 tracks. > >> Also, the specimen I have has a power switch on the front which appears to >> be factory-installed. Is this common for this drive? The photos I found >> on the 'net don't have a switch . . . > >I've never seen a factory switch on the front of one. Are you sure that >that wasn't a user added switch, such as one to override the write-protect >for flippies? > >-- >Fred Cisin cisin(a)xenosoft.com >XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com > >

23 years, 6 months

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Origin of "half-inched" - OT

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Honestly, I would've expected you Brits to say "nicked", but yeah.. FYI further synonyms (american) would be jacked, ganked, swiped, etc. Will J _________________________________________________________________ Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 6 months

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Origin of "half-inched" - OT

by altertech＠blueyonder.co.uk

-----Original Message----- From: "cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org" <cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org> on behalf of "Hans B Pufal" <hansp(a)aconit.org> Sent: 27 October 2002 20:16 To: "cctalk(a)classiccmp.org" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Origin of "half-inched" - OT snip < I recently heard from Bob King that "it was born shortly < after Sir Robert Peel introduced and implemented his idea for a Police < force. The criminal fraternity had never been faced with such a < concerted effort to thwart them, so they developed Cockney Slang, the < idea of which being that, two or more criminals could hold open <conversation, within earshot of a "Peeler," without fear that their <plans were being overheard by the police." Likewise "mug shots". When photography was introduced, criminals would "mug", ie twist their faces, in order to render the photo unrecognisable. Apologies for the lousy formatting. Posting from a web browser with interface poisoning. Rob

23 years, 6 months

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OT Re: Naming Computers (strategy, and WHY)

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Once again, I am glad to be an only child! Perhaps you should add "frequently abuse brother with heavy blunt object" to your list? Kidding... Will J _________________________________________________________________ Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 6 months

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Supply of DEC 11/23 11/73 front panel switches

by jwest＠imail.kwcorp.com

Found at a local surplus dealer... a whole container of those square white pushbutton switches that I am pretty certain are the ones used on the "front panel" of the 11/23 or 11/73 systems. They have the following markings.... ITW 39-23 301 R 39-23100 89 16 I think they had them marked at 0.59 each, if these are the right ones (got it at work actually, haven't had a chance to go home and check they are the right ones) and anyone wants any, let me know. Jay West --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

23 years, 6 months

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DN4x0

by baytek＠ixir.com

Sorry John but your e-mail was scrambled as shown below. Pls resend it.. Thanks. Birol AYTEK I don't remember... help.. John Allain cctech(a)classiccmp.org Wed Jul 17 21:12:00 2002 a.. Previous message: Bootstrapping a CP/M system to usability :) b.. Next message: Bootstrapping a CP/M system to usability :) c.. Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How about a DN4x0 series? The tape drives were probably cypher 880's. The disk drives were probably FSD/SMD. <g>Check with Birol Aytek in Oxnard or Charlie Mengler -- they might know a bit more</g> John A.

23 years, 6 months

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IBM 5150 brings $910 on EBAY

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

I don't think I'd ever pay anything for a PC (5150 variety)... Only PCs that interest me are the 3270 PC, and the XT/370... Will J _________________________________________________________________ Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

23 years, 6 months

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Paging Fred N. Van Kempen

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

Jay, Try replying to this address... _should_ work... --f > -----Original Message----- > From: Jay West [mailto:jwest@classiccmp.org] > Sent: Monday, October 28, 2002 4:00 PM > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Paging Fred N. Van Kempen > > > Fred; > > I still have your package of 1/2 mag tape markers to send > you, but I need > your mailing address. I have tried several times to contact > you via email > but no response... please advise. > > Jay West > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Fred N. van Kempen" <Fred.van.Kempen(a)microwalt.nl> > To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2002 12:51 PM > Subject: RE: I buy DEC equipment. Call me > > > > All, > > > > >>> Piss off... > > >> Wait, I thought ads were allowed? > > > Actually, there doesn't seem to be an answer. > > My beef is with HOW it's done, not THAT it's done. People can > > plug their services and/or goods here, if they are polite about > > it. This guy.... (grumbl) wasn't. > > > > --fred > > > > --- > [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] > >

23 years, 6 months

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I buy DEC equipment. Call me

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

All, >>> Piss off... >> Wait, I thought ads were allowed? > Actually, there doesn't seem to be an answer. My beef is with HOW it's done, not THAT it's done. People can plug their services and/or goods here, if they are polite about it. This guy.... (grumbl) wasn't. --fred

23 years, 6 months

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Need help with DSSI/SCSI and an ext CD-ROM

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

Curt, > On the 4000-200 on the far left side of the QBus slots is > a slot with 2 connectors, one appears to be a standard > SCSI-1 connector and the other is an inverse SCSI-2 connector > (labels Bus 0) with a terminator on it that lights up on power > up. The first one indeed is a SCSI connector. The second one is the DSSI bus connector, connected to bus #0. It should be terminated (with the lighted term) unless you have an external storage cab, which then in turn has the term. The SCSI connector, however, is NOT usable for what you're doing. The BA440 box (which is what your cab sounds like) has provisions for changing its internal (DSSI) bus into a SCSI bus, for example to be used with the KFQSA controller. That way, you can use SCSI devices with the VAX by mounting them in the old DSSI rails. The VAX does _NOT_ have a SCSI controller by default; unless you have something like a KFQSA, Dilog or Emulex SCSI-to-Qbus controller, you can NOT use the RRD43. Sorry to be the bringer of Bad Newz (tm).. Cheers, Fred

23 years, 6 months

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IBM 5150 brings $910 on EBAY

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but if you can find the ones with the cassette port easily, then I hate you. I've only ever found one, and the case was in poor shape.. I pitched the case, but the mobo is sitting next to me... HAH! Mine is more R@RE! LQQK! 37ï†3! than the Ebay one, cause I have an 8087 marked "IBM".. Which, I must say, is something I haven't ever seen before... And no, I'm not claiming that is indeed rare, beats me, I just thought it was nifty... If I had kept all the PC stuff I had, I could likely have made more than that auction, since I had the complete technical references and troubleshooting diskettes and pretty much every genuine IBM option you could want.. I have a CMI IBM HDD, and an ST-506 IBM HDD, numerous IBM floppies, never have found the p-System, however.. But hell, I had genuine IBM loopback plugs.. lol.. Will J _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

23 years, 6 months

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DECstation-3000/400 Questions

by bob＠jfcl.com

I picked up a DECstation-3000/400 (aka PE40A) at the flea market recently. It powers up OK (the power light comes on, the fans run, and checking the voltages on the power supply connector gives reasonable results) and all eight LEDs on the back panel turn on, but after that nothing. There's no video that I can find from the PMAGD card; there's no RS232 output on the console/printer port; changing S3 has no effect on either of these results, and the eight LEDs never change (always a bad sign!). I tried removing all the SCSI devices and all the Turbo channel cards (including the PMAG) just in case one of them was hanging it up, but it made no difference. Now there's nothing in there except the power supply, the mother board, and eight SIMMs on four riser cards. Same results. I have lots of VAXes, but this is my first Alpha machine and there might be something I don't know. Am I doing something stupid, or is it just dead? BTW, I only paid $1 for it, so I won't feel bad no matter what :-) Thanks, Bob Armstrong

23 years, 6 months

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cp/m favorite?

by IVIE＠cc.usu.edu

Mark Tapley said: > As usual, my favorite is the DEC Rainbow. Z-80 for CP/M, 8088 for CP/M > 86-80, both available via anonymous update from ftp.update.uu.se, and you > can even run (early) MS-DOS, I gave up on teh Rainbow because it was not good enough as either a CP/M or MS-DOS box. The IOBYTE didn't work from the Z80, for instance. I kept running across MS-DOS software that needed PC compatibility. The COMMAND LINE version of Turbo C V1.2 made ROM BIOS calls. I had to trade with a friend who had purchased 1.0. My favorite was the DECmate II with the APU card. The IOBYTE worked, it's the only machine I've used with an intelligent hard disk partitioning scheme [1], and the terminal emulation was much faster than either the Rainbow or the PRO 350. [1] There was a simple filesystem managed by the 8051 that ran the hard disk. Creating a partition involved telling the 8051 to create the file. Mounting a partition involved telling the 8051 to open a file and associated it with a given drive number. -- Roger Ivie ivie(a)cc.usu.edu

23 years, 6 months

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IBM 5100 (fwd)

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Well hell, I need like 18 5100s then... If I got $1200 apeice for em I could pay off all my debts and likely have money to spare! Will J _________________________________________________________________ Get a speedy connection with MSN Broadband. Join now! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp

23 years, 6 months

2
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vax 7610 needs home, cambridge massachusetts

by akb+lists.cctech＠imap1.mirror.to

Hi-- A friend has just told me that there is a VAX 7000-610 system in cambridge mass looking for a home. The system is to be disposed of in the next week or so. It's currently at a ground level loading dock. It's a 3 cabinet system, storage peripherals include a pair of ra92's, a tz857 stacker, a 9-track, and (I believe) 3 ba-350 shelves. I have warehouse space in the area and could be convinced to temporarily hold the system for pickup. I'll read both this address and the list for any interest... I have also written to the Rhode Island Retro-Computing Society, other places to post to welcomed... (any appropriate usenet groups?) --akb

23 years, 6 months

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sharp

by konieczny＠intranet.ca

Hi Mike, I noticed on a Q&A board, you mentioned you have a sharp PC-1421 handheld computer. I'm interested in possibly using it to help control the stepping motors in a small robot, but I need the pinout for the 11-pin connector, and the memory location that controls them,.. Do you know where I can find that info? Thanks, Jeff

23 years, 6 months

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I buy DEC equipment. Call me

by Fred.van.Kempen＠microwalt.nl

I'm known to sometimes revert to (censored) abusing annoying people trying to irritate the shits out of people by sending ads to discussion lists like these. In other words... piss off. (sorry folks... thas been a long day here.. BUT: I have LAT Server working under both OpenBSD _and_ Ultrix ! ;-) --fred -----Original Message----- From: Robert M. Campbell [mailto:robert@usce.org] Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 4:42 PM To: cctech(a)classiccmp.org Subject: I buy DEC equipment. Call me Robert M. Campbell U.S. Computer Exchange, Inc. 386 East Maple Troy, MI 48083 Ph. 248 583-9000 Fx. 248 583-9009 robert(a)usce.org

23 years, 6 months

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Fw: 4D 220 VGX: free for Shipping or Orlando,FL pickup

by rschaefe＠gcfn.org

----- Original Message ----- From: "Trenton Tuggle" <Trent(a)Tuggle.Org> Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.marketplace,misc.forsale.computers.workstation,comp.sys.sgi.har dware Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2002 3:27 PM Subject: 4D 220 VGX: free for Shipping or Orlando,FL pickup > For free pickup (or cost of shipping and time/materials/trouble > involved, if you can figure out how to ship this beast) from Orlando, FL. > > I have an IRIS 4D 220 VGX deskside system which used to boot fine. > Haven't run it in several years, so I don't have the hinv on it, but it > has VGX graphics, 64MB ram, 2 ESDI HD's (unknown but presumably small > size) and one 9GB scsi drive which has not actually been set up for it. > Also has the QIC serpentine tape drive. > > Condition is pretty good, a few scratches here and there. The monitor > (I might have several I have to check) is alright, shows a little age. > Keyboard is good, but you might want to find another mouse. With this > mouse, I'm not sure whether or not it's the pad or the mouse, but the > horizontal direction doesn't work very well: you have to really press it > down hard on the optical pad to make it move horizontally. > > Two CPUs, not sure which rev. I believe IRIX 5.3 is installed, I might > be able to find some installation media, but not sure. > > Obviously the Power Series deskside systems are quite beastly, shipping > would probably be a fortune on it, but if you want, I can look into it. > I don't have a crate or anything, though. (they originally were > shipped in nice reusable wood crates, but alas, mine doesn't have it > anymore.) > > Please contact me *via email* with offers (offers to come pick it up!) > > -Trenton Tuggle >

23 years, 6 months

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good book on Pascal

by dwightk.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > ---snip--- > >> Of course, it isn't on a x86 machine so there may be >> differences. > >? >what version are you talking about? Hi Fred I'm not sure if this will help much because it was obviously cross compiled to run on a Z8000. Here is what prints out: Olivetti M20 Professional Computer Pascal Compiler Version 1.2 There is a file listing some of the library references that mentions that it is MS-Pascal. There is a librarian called mlib.cmd. You know, I'd only ask about weird things. > > >> I am mostly interested in the kind of things >> one would normally find in the object library that one >> would use with this compiler. They mention that it is >> a shared library with MS-FORTRAN. Information on FORTRAN >> libraries might also be useful. >> Thanks >> Dwight > >The Microsoft/IBM FORTRAN was adequate for teaching FORTRAN 77. But the >performance was AMAZING! It could actually take longer to run a benchmark >like sieve of Erastothanes with compiled FORTRAN than with interpreted >BASIC. I fear this may be similar. It takes 3 disk of code, just to run the Pascal compiler ( 280K disk ). If this is any indication, I'd suspect the final code isn't all that swift. I just want to play with it a little. Dwight > >-- >Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com > >

23 years, 6 months

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NewBrain

by lgomez＠cdromsa.es

I'm looking for techbical information abou Grundy Newbrain computer. I need solve a little problem in my computer.

23 years, 6 months

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modem help

by carlos_murillo＠epm.net.co

At 03:49 PM 10/24/02 -0700, you wrote: >On Thu, 24 Oct 2002, no wrote: >> I have a couple of (almost classic) external modems missing >> the wall warts. Anyone on list running either of these that >> can provide the dc voltage/current requirements? Thanks. >> Sportster 33.6 faxmodem >> Motorola ModemSurfer 33.6 >Dont know specifically about those (Though I did have the Motorala >one years ago) but _many_ newwer modems run on 9 VAC adapters... That sportster needs 9VAC. Older sportsters need 12VAC. I don't know about the Motorola. carlos. -------------------------------------------------------------- Carlos E. Murillo-Sanchez carlos_murillo(a)nospammers.ieee.org

23 years, 6 months

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