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

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>> >So what do you call the plug on a 'walkman' headphone? We'd call it a 3 >> >pole (or 'stereo') 3.5mm jack plug. >> >> Here when it's not called 3.5mm, it's called 1/8th inch. And the 2.5mm >> version is 3/32 inch. >Yes, but what do you call that type of connector? Is it a 'phone plug' >even though it's not 1/4" in diameter, or what? Yep, it's still a "phone plug", often listed as a "mini phone plug". -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

IC ID help needed

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- allisonp <allisonp(a)world.std.com> wrote: > 74C92x is TI and you need to find a TI or maybe motorola CMOS databook > CA1980ish. > >NS 74C921... These are not TI, they are Nat Semi as indicated by the double squiggly lines before the number. In any case, if I have the relevant data book, it's backed way far away in a box somewhere. Thanks to all for all the info. -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Santee swap serendipity

by Innfogra＠aol.com

3.5mm is a 1/8" Mini phone plug, stereo or mono 2.5 is a 3/32" Micro phone plug, stereo or mono Paxton

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Acorn A4 website?

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

Does anybody know where (if?) there is a dedicated website for the Acorn A4 laptop? All my searching turned up nil. ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

PROMs offered: Should I take?

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

I've been offered a cheap price on a tubeful of Signetics 82S123 bipolar PROMs. If memory serves (pun intended), these were used as boot ROMs for various PDP-11's of the UniBus persuasion. Is this so? If so, are they also useful for other classic apps? I'm considering picking them up, but don't know for sure whether I'd be wasting $10 or not... Thanks in advance. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Ersatz-11 V2.2 (PDP-11 emulator)

by wilson＠dbit.dbit.com

A new version of Ersatz-11 is now available. V2.2 of the freeware Demo version may be downloaded from www.dbit.com as usual, and commercial users with current update subscriptions (or ones that expired only recently) will be mailed update disks tomorrow. Probably the most interesting addition for hobby users is the new VT11 vector graphic display processor emulation. Yes, it runs the Lunar Lander game. It also works nicely with the GT ON command in older versions of RT-11, as well as EDIT.SAV's scroller mode. A copy of Jack Burness's Lunar Lander game which is all set up to run under the emulator is available at: http://www.dbit.com/pub/e11/lunar/ Other changes which are visible even in the Demo version include the SET CPU FIS and SET CPU EAE options, the Interlan NI1010A/NI2010A Ethernet emulation, the built-in mini-assembler, and the overhauled manual. The full commercial V2.2 release includes the above changes, plus it adds a new DR11C/DRV11 emulation using TLC's DCI-1300 PCI board, which is pin-compatible with the DR11C/DRV11. Also there's a new DH11/DM11BB emulation, the RocketPort driver can handle ISA cards (used to be PCI only), the SCSI disk driver can partition disks on any boundary, multiple serial ports can be attached to the same emulated PDP-11 port (with duplicate output and merged input), and the Q/Unibus adapter drivers allow subsetting of the I/O page so you can have multiple adapters, to get a dual Q/Unibus system, or two identical busses for distributing heavy DMA loads. The new DMA-friendly BCI-2004 bus adapter is supported in addition to the older BCI-2003/2103 and UPG-3600 boards. Also, the DEQNA emulation now supports booting over the network. Acrobat files containing the manuals for all three versions (Demo, Lite, full) of E11 are available on the "Links" page on www.dbit.com. The Demo version's manual .PDF file is also part of the self-extracting INSTALL.EXE archive, plus it's available as a PostScript file at: ftp://ftp.dbit.com/pub/e11/e11demo.ps The E11/Linux port is nearing completion and will be released this summer, however it will probably only be available in a commercial version. John Wilson D Bit www.dbit.com

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

I think I'm back to the list...

by rexstout＠uswest.net

Yow! The things that happen to an overloaded email account... Well, I finally started reading the digests for the list. I'm up to early February now! Only a month left to catch up with. Well, I finally found the perfect computer! It's an HP Vectra 486/25NI. When I was volunteering at the computer lab at OMSI(http://www.omsi.edu/), my favorite computer was a Vectra 386. They're just such cute computers! Well, here in Portland at the NW PDX/Vaughn St. Wacky Willy's, they have probably two dozen Vectras of various models(most are 486/25N or 33N) for $20 each. After looking at them for a while, I noticed that the 25NI(the only one I saw, but there may have been others) has a built-in 10Base-T ethernet port on the back! Not only that, but it has an Overdrive socket that can accept a 486DX2/66 or an Overdrive kit. Pretty good! It has 8MB RAM and a 120MB hard drive, not too bad. It had Windows 3.1 on it, but it would crash both when it started up(actually an unhappy mainframe connection) and when it shutdown(Windows crash). I think they all had Attachmate (I can't remember if those are 3270) network adapters in them. Anyways, it got wiped and a fresh copy of DOS installed. Now I'm happy, I finally have a useable PC(my PS/2 386's just weren't good enough). OK, so it's a bit new for you guys. They also had a Televideo terminal and some HUGE IBM printer(I forget the model... coax connector on back). Now, to deal with my overcrowded basement. I need to get rid of some stuff! To start off with, I have some terminals to get rid of. I think I can dig out about 6 of them, maybe a few more I'm not sure. They are the Wyse WY-99GT. Most of them are a little yellowed, but they work fine. They're free for the taking, I just need some time to find them all and match them with their keyboards. The only catch is that you have to pick it up at my house in north Portland(just off of I-5). Email me if you're interested and I'll let you know when they're ready to go. Back to reading another months worth of email digests... -- /-------------------------------------------------------\ | http://jrollins.tripod.com/ rexstout(a)uswest.net | | KD7BCY List admin for orham and ham-mac at www.qth.net | | pdxham at www.onelist.com | \-------------------------------------------------------/

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Santee swap serendipity

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 1, 22:26, Tony Duell wrote: > The Spectrum uses a 'power connector', probably 2.5mm (but I've not > measured it). The central pin of the part on the PCB is -ve, and the > outer of the plug (cable mounted part) is therefore +ve. > > The ZX81 uses a 3.5mm jack socket (what you call a 'phone socket' across > the Pond) for the power input. The tip is +ve and the sleeve is -ve. Oops, looks like I was too hasty and grabbed the wrong PSU. I'm sure Tony is right, now that I think about it. The ZX81 certainly uses a 3.5mm jack. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

CDrom and SunStation 330

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 1, 13:09, Chris Kennedy wrote: > Technoid(a)cheta.net wrote: > > > I ran accross a reference in the newsgroups that indicates the Toshiba > > 3701b cdrom drive can be run on a sun box with the change of a single > > jumper but what jumper. > > I've no ideal; all of my "Sun" CDROM drives are Toshiba but other than > a factory test jumper and the ID jumpers there's nothing to suggest that > they have hardware-selected block sizes. Early Suns need the drive to be set for 512-byte blocks; later Sun boot PROMs can issue the appropriate mode-select command if they detect the drive is set to 2048-byte blocks. XM3301 and XM3401 have two pairs of pads on the PCB near the jumper block; these are normally both closed (bridged by a thin track) on drives sold for the PC market, but both open for Suns. The pads are small semicircles, labelled 0 and 1. There's a very similar set of pads on an XM3601, but they don't change the blocksize, at least not with standard Toshiba firmware. I don't know about a 3701, as I don't have one. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

PROMs offered: Should I take?

by mranalog＠home.com

> Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2000 09:09:55 -0800 > From: Bruce Lane <kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com> > Subject: PROMs offered: Should I take? > > I've been offered a cheap price on a tubeful of Signetics 82S123 bipolar > PROMs. If memory serves (pun intended), these were used as boot ROMs for various > PDP-11's of the UniBus persuasion. > Is this so? If so, are they also useful for other classic apps? I'm > considering picking them up, but don't know for sure whether I'd be wasting > $10 or not... > Thanks in advance. The 82S123 is the installed monitor PROM in the Quest Super ELF and it's a great little PROM for any 1802 application. I believe most of the toggle switch monitors listed in the PE ELF articles will fit in 32 bytes. And since the 1802 need external address latching to access more than 256 bytes, having your whole operating system in 32 bytes leaves plenty of space for applications on a 256 byte minimalist system. :) --Doug ==================================================== Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com (work) Sr. Software Eng. mranalog(a)home.com (home) Press Start Inc. http://www.pressstart.com Sunnyvale,CA Curator Analog Computer Museum and History Center http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog ====================================================

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software

by dylanb＠sympatico.ca

-----Original Message----- From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com <CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Friday, March 31, 2000 12:42 PM Subject: RE: I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software >>I am spending all my time right now packing and rackmounting - I have no >>time to write anything. I will have some people come over and feed in the >>paper tape this weekend. While I won't be able to archive most of it, I do >>hope to at least read in most of the source code on paper tape. (I have over >>310 PDP-1 paper tapes alone). >> >>This program needs to be *very* easy to use and hopefully supports >>X/Y-MODEM. I will set up a terminal program at this end that supports 32 >>character file names (windows 98). This program would have to run under >>RT11-V3B, or RT11V4 BL. Hopefully it would send the code down a serial line >>separate serial port. > >Umm, what's wrong with Kermit? The latest Kermit for RT does just fine under >RT-11 V4, and Kermit is available for just about every other piece >of hardware ever created. See ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/ > >>It would be really nice if this software just asked the end user to load a >>paper tape, then huit return, and it sends the data read out a separate >>serial port, then prompts to load the next one. > >What sort of paper tape reader are you using? If it's a serial reader, >you can hook it straight up to a PC-clone running MS-DOS and MS-Kermit >(or Linux and C-Kermit) and archive the tapes that way. Both MS-Kermit >and C-Kermit include powerful scripting languages. PC05 with a PC11 controller. > >Remember, you *don't* have to start from scratch, others of us have >been archiving this sort of stuff for many years. > I appreciate that. Do you have this archived: PDP-1 source code. PDP-11 source code - Dos/Batch-11 , RT11. I also have source code to most of the packages they released. If you have this stuff then I won't bother archiving all the source code I have and pass it on. I did get almost all the source from the original minicomputers dec knocked out.. alot of it was internal. john >-- > Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com > Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ > 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 > Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927 >

26 years, 4 months

9
10
0 0

Santee swap serendipity

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 1, 10:48, Cameron Kaiser wrote: > In my eyes, though, the real prize was a Timex Sinclair 1000 with 1016 RAM > pack and six tapes, manual and all the cables EXCEPT the power supply. The > manual has no pinout. It looks like a 9V 1/8" jack but is it centre > negative or positive? It's centre-negative, on a 2.5mm power jack. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

VAX station 2000 HD details?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

> VAX station 2000 HD details? A lot of what you might ever want to know is answered in ftp://ftp.spc.edu/third-party-disks.txt I'm guessing that between that document and the DEC Micronotes about 80% of the questions asked here about DEC stuff are answered... Tim.

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

whos this doof news@cosmic.com?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

Is the listserv being spammed by this doof or is it a posting problem? >news(a)cosmic.com Allison

26 years, 4 months

4
3
0 0

Messages Per Month

by steverob＠hotoffice.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: healyzh(a)aracnet.com [mailto:healyzh@aracnet.com] > Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 9:34 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Messages Per Month > > > > I was just checking the number of messages that have come > through this year > > and it is pretty close to 3900 so far! Let's see. At 90 > days into the year, > > it averages out to about 63 per day. No wonder things get > lost in my inbox > > :)! Wonder how many it would be if Tony were still posting :-) Anyone know what happened to him? Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>

26 years, 4 months

6
5
0 0

VAX station 2000 HD details?

by ip500＠roanoke.infi.net

Not really old enough to be a classic but looks useful. Sep portable, w/handle Hard drive-----model VS410-AA-- Anyone know what is inside--drivewise? RD52,53,54 maybe? Thanks

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Santee swap serendipity

by ckaiser＠oa.ptloma.edu

Unix server freaks missed out at the Santee swapmeet. Some guy was selling an original NeXT for $75, there were a whole row of Sparc SLCs at $15 a pop, and an SGI Indigo and two SParc 2s. The Sparc 2s were loaded with Linux and ready to run. There was also a Mac Portable, but by the time I came back to buy it it was gone :-( The only server I care about is my Apple Network Server 500, but if you're near the San Diego area show up on the first/third Saturdays of the month -- they might be back. There were also some assorted Data General boards (dated 1968) but I have little experience with them. I got, myself, an NEC 8201A. I understand this acts like a Model 100. It works great, came with the leather case, and is in fantastic condition, but it has no manuals whatsoever. Any resources I might consult for it? How do I connect a modem (or does it have an internal one) to use the Term program? It was only $10 :-) In my eyes, though, the real prize was a Timex Sinclair 1000 with 1016 RAM pack and six tapes, manual and all the cables EXCEPT the power supply. The manual has no pinout. It looks like a 9V 1/8" jack but is it centre negative or positive? At the bottom of the box, when I got it home, I also found that there was, of all things, an AIM-65 BASIC manual in there too. Also, has anyone turned up an Atari 130XE power supply in their travails? I'm still trying to get that XEGS working. -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)ptloma.edu -- "I'd love to go out with you, but I've dedicated my life to linguini." -----

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

PROMs offered: Should I take?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

Well, 82s123 are proms, they are used in a lot of places however are they programmed or not? If they are you get whats in them. If not, you need a way to blast them. Allison -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Lane <kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Saturday, April 01, 2000 12:21 PM Subject: PROMs offered: Should I take? > I've been offered a cheap price on a tubeful of Signetics 82S123 bipolar >PROMs. > > If memory serves (pun intended), these were used as boot ROMs for various >PDP-11's of the UniBus persuasion. > > Is this so? If so, are they also useful for other classic apps? I'm >considering picking them up, but don't know for sure whether I'd be wasting >$10 or not... > > Thanks in advance. > > >-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies >http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com >Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 >"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our >own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..." >

26 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

IC ID help needed

by allisonp＠world.std.com

9102=2102 sram. It's just another number for the same thing. 74C92x is TI and you need to find a TI or maybe motorola CMOS databook CA1980ish. Allison From: Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks(a)yahoo.com> >AMD 91L02 - I know it's some kind of SRAM but not the size or pinout. The 9101 >is 256x4. This one is likely to be either 1024x1 or 1024x4 but I don't know >which. > >NS 74C921 - The 74C922 and 74C923 are somewhat common keyboard encoders, one >of which was used on the Netronics Elf-II design. I can't find any info on >the pinout of the 74C921, but I did find several places selling them from >$6 USD to 72 Danish Kroner (however much that is) > >I have a few of each, along with 2Kb of 21L02 chips (-2L and -4L speeds, >whatever they are), all with 1979 - 1983 date codes. > >Any clues? > >Thanks, > >-ethan > > >===== >Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to >vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com > >The original webpage address is still going away. The >permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ > >See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. >http://im.yahoo.com >

26 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

VAX station 2000 HD details?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

The hard drive can be any of the RD51-54, RD31, RD32 others are possible as user retrofits. Typically the hard drive was a RD53(71mb) or RD54(159mb). Allison -----Original Message----- From: Craig Smith <ip500(a)roanoke.infi.net> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Saturday, April 01, 2000 3:06 PM Subject: VAX station 2000 HD details? >Not really old enough to be a classic but looks useful. Sep >portable, w/handle Hard drive-----model VS410-AA-- > Anyone know what is inside--drivewise? RD52,53,54 maybe? >Thanks >

26 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

IC ID help needed

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

I've done the basic digging (www.chipdir.com, etc.) and can't find info on the following chips I found in a box of stuff some one gave me a while back: AMD 91L02 - I know it's some kind of SRAM but not the size or pinout. The 9101 is 256x4. This one is likely to be either 1024x1 or 1024x4 but I don't know which. NS 74C921 - The 74C922 and 74C923 are somewhat common keyboard encoders, one of which was used on the Netronics Elf-II design. I can't find any info on the pinout of the 74C921, but I did find several places selling them from $6 USD to 72 Danish Kroner (however much that is) I have a few of each, along with 2Kb of 21L02 chips (-2L and -4L speeds, whatever they are), all with 1979 - 1983 date codes. Any clues? Thanks, -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com

26 years, 4 months

3
2
0 0

Qbus cards that need ID

by Innfogra＠aol.com

I have four Qbus cards that I am interested in finding out what they are. One is a Micro Technology QTS25. It has a 50 pin header. I was wondering if it was a SCSI card? The second is an Emulex QD331040100 Rev. J. This has a 60 pin header and two 26 pin headers. I was wondering if this was a SMD drive controller? The third is a Dilog DQ696-20.vThis has a 34 pin header and two 20 pin header. My guess is that it is a MFM or ESDI hard drive controller. In the same group of cards is a DEC M7546 which I believe is a TK50 tape drive controller. Why is it called a Maya Controller? Thanks for the help. Paxton

26 years, 4 months

4
3
0 0

Qbus cards that need ID

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>One is a Micro Technology QTS25. It has a 50 pin header. I was wondering if >it was a SCSI card? This is a TD Systems Viking controller, tape-only. >The second is an Emulex QD331040100 Rev. J. This has a 60 pin header and two >26 pin headers. I was wondering if this was a SMD drive controller? That's right, a QD33, MSCP emulating. It handles fairly fast SMD drives (i.e. Eagles, 2344's, etc.) >In the same group of cards is a DEC M7546 which I believe is a TK50 tape >drive controller. Why is it called a Maya Controller? I believe that Maya was the DEC development code-name for the TK50. The Aztec, IIRC, was the RC25. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Original ARPANET protocols (was: I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

I thought the classic PDP-11 unix way was UUCP. Allison ..>On Fri, 31 Mar 2000, Chris Kennedy wrote: >> >> Dunno, but I was using FTP in 1975-76. I'd guess that >> any behavioral resemblence is more a consequence of the >> two both having similar functions, i.e., moving files >> around, rather than any sort of common parentage... >> > >If you were using it in 1975-1976, it wasn't FTP as it exists today - >it would be the FTP implemented on top of the "old" ARPANET protocols >(sometimes referred to as "NCP", but I believe more properly referred to >as simply "Host-to-Host Protocol"). > >But that reminds me of a question I had while I was having lunch today ... >Was there ever an implementation of the old ARPANET protocols on a PDP-11 >or VAX Unix? If it ever existed, I'd guess it would have had to have been >on top of Seventh Edition, but I can't recall ever seeing any drivers for >an ACC LH/DH or DEC IMP-11 on any incarnation of that platform. Berkeley >Unix added TCP/IP in 4.1a, but I don't remember if there had been any >ARPANET support (for the old protocol) before that. > >--Pat. > >

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 31, 14:57, John Allain wrote: > Funny, I've been using Kermit since 1981 and FTP since 1985 and > I still don't know which egg/chicken came first. > They seem awfully similar from a user's standpoint. > Anybody know If FTP is based on Kermit or Vice-Versa? They're fairly different "inside". For example, kermit assumes an "unreliable" connection, and does it's own error-checking, while FTP relies to some extent on a transport layer that already has error-checking. I suppose they naturally have some similarities on the "outside" because they serve similar purposes, though. Anyway, kermit predates FTP by a few years. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Funny, I've been using Kermit since 1981 and FTP since 1985 and >I still don't know which egg/chicken came first. >They seem awfully similar from a user's standpoint. >Anybody know If FTP is based on Kermit or Vice-Versa? The first RFC for FTP is RFC 765, from June 1980. It begins: The objectives of FTP are 1) to promote sharing of files (computer programs and/or data), 2) to encourage indirect or implicit (via programs) use of remote computers, 3) to shield a user from variations in file storage systems among Hosts, and 4) to transfer data reliably and efficiently. FTP, though usable directly by a user at a terminal, is designed mainly for use by programs. Note that today there are few "programs" that know how to speak FTP directly, when someone says "FTP this" they almost always mean running the user-types-command-to-a-FTP-client. (Yes, there certainly are some programs that know how to speak FTP, I'm just pointing out that this isn't as common as the originators of the protocol wanted. If anything, it seems to be gaining in popularity as a "built-in" protocol, for example wget will take a ftp: or http: URL quite interchangably.) The user interface for both Kermit and FTP certainly are similar, and that shouldn't be a surprise, since the "big iron" being hooked up to other "big iron" in that day was almost always PDP-10 to PDP-10. Both the Kermit and FTP command styles are descended from the PDP-10 conventions (the TOPS-20 monitor in particular.) -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

I wrote: >The first RFC for FTP is RFC 765, from June 1980. It begins: Whoops, I found several earlier ones, extending all the way back to RFC 354 (from 8-Jul-1972). This references RFC264, which doesn't seem to exist anymore. Tim.

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Storage Machine 1

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I was just looking over a notebook on what appears to be an OS called >Storage Machine 1 by FileTek. I was wondering if anyone knows anything >about this, and what hardware it ran on. Some notes identify the >cartridge tape drive as "TK50" and the system seesm to have had a big optical >disk library device, about 2.3 or 2.6 gigs. > >Does this sound familiar to anyone? It came in a pile of material from a >DG Nova system. >From www.filetek.com: William C. Thompson and John Burgess founded FileTek in 1984 to address the need for making very large volumes of offline information accessible to online users of mainframes minicomputers, and networked workstations. They firmly believed that historic detail has an increased value when organizations can access and use it productively. In 1987, FileTek introduced its first product, Storage Machine/1, a shared client/server-based, automatically managed storage server. This innovative data server used sophisticated storage management software to control a storage hierarchy of magnetic disk and write once read many (WORM) optical technology. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

1
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Looking for Honeywell TACPAC

by mrdos＠swbell.net

Has anyone heard of TACPAC for old Honeywell computers? I have a Honeywell Level 6, and according to the manual, I need TACPAC to boot the machine.

26 years, 4 months

1
0
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I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>>>It would be really nice if this software just asked the end user to load a >>>paper tape, then huit return, and it sends the data read out a separate >>>serial port, then prompts to load the next one. > >>What sort of paper tape reader are you using? If it's a serial reader, >>you can hook it straight up to a PC-clone running MS-DOS and MS-Kermit >>(or Linux and C-Kermit) and archive the tapes that way. Both MS-Kermit >>and C-Kermit include powerful scripting languages. >PC05 with a PC11 controller. OK, you can hook the PC05 up to a PC, but you'd have to do some re-wiring and write the simple code to read it. If you've already got a running RT-11 system with the PC11 in it up and running, it's probably easier if you use Kermit on the RT end and a Kermit script on the PC-clone to do the automation and user prompting. OTOH I could run all the tapes through the machinery here in a few days, as well. It's too bad that you have to do it all in just a few days before they're gone, setting up the automation on your end with your equipment sounds like it might end up taking most of your allotted time, when such archiving (ideally) shouldn't be done in such a rush. How many feet total are we talking about, 10 thousand feet, 30 thousand feet, 100 thousand feet? Remember than 10 thousand feet is (approximately) 1.2 megabytes, and takes a bit more than an hour if you can run it continuously through a PC05's 300 char/sec reader. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

1
0
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Altos machines

by peter.pachla＠wintermute.org.uk

Does anyone have any pointers to sites on the web which cover Altos machines? I've done a search on Yahoo and a couple of other places and turned up nothing. I'm particularly interested in information on the Unix systems they were making around 1990 - we had one at work, an i386 in a tower case. Not PC compatible IIRC, possibly called an "Altos III" or something similar. While I'm on the subject, would anyone in the UK have one of these they want rid of? TTFN - Pete. -- Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer. Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC) peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk | www.wintermute.org.uk --

26 years, 4 months

6
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Old Magnetic Media Questions

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I have somewhere a GAO report that lists the problems, lifetimes, and quantities of data that the US government has on different magnetic media. IIRC the big problem with magentic media is that it is never stored in the correct environmental conditions that provide optimum lifetimes. They included pictures of piles of 9-track tapes of LANDSAT data, some of the stacks were used to block open the door to the tape library. Humidity and heat are big problems for tape. Here are several references about data storage and media Preserving Digital Objects: Recurrent Needs and Challenges. Michael Lesk. Bellcore. Abstract. We do not know today what Mozart sounded like on the... URL: www.lesk.com/mlesk/auspres/aus.html . Effects of Humidity on Life Expectancy of Media. Long-Term Preservation of Dig <http://www.safesupplies.com/article1.html> Long-Term Preservation of Digital Materials. Dr. John W.C. Van Bogart National Media Laboratory. Presented at the National Preservation Office (NPO)... URL: www.safesupplies.com/article1.html http://www.cclabs.missouri.edu/~ccgreg/tapes.html Magnetic Tape and Digital Media Life Expectancies Preservation of New Technology <http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/lesk/lesk2.html> ...as digital media, DAT cartridges, 9-track tape in... ...example, half-inch 9-track magnetic tape densities have... palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/lesk/lesk2.html - Cached </search?q=cache:palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/lesk/lesk2.html> - 58k - GoogleScout </search?num=10&q=related:palimpsest.stanford.edu/byauth/lesk/lesk2.html> I think that the September 1995 issue of Scientific American had an article about preserving digital data. Mike

26 years, 4 months

2
1
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Research Machines Link 480Z (380Z ^IEEE)

by PeksaDO＠Cardiff.ac.uk

>> The 3.5" square (exactly) daughter board plugs directly into and >> only into where the Z80 CPU normally resides. The board contains: >> Z80 CPU, AM25LS252IPC, 2 x SN74LS245N, SN74LS00N, 74F32PC chips >> with assorted resistors etc. There is a 26 way berg connector to >> take the cable to the IEEE-488 port. Also there is a 8-way link >> box with 5 unbroken links, 2 broken links and 1 remade link. > I don't like to say things like this, but I think I am justified... >'Impossible!' > You've got an address decoder (AM25LS2521 == 74LS688 IIRC), a > couple of bidirectional bus buffers ('245s), and a few gates ('00 > NANDs and '32 ORs). What you don't have is any form of latch, which > is what you'd need for an output port. Since the IEEE-488 bus can > run a lot more slowly than the Z80 bus, it's going to need such > latches, at least for output. There are several possibilites. > Either you've missed out some chips (like '374s, or even a true > IEEE-488 chip like the 9914 or 7210). Or this is _not_ the IEEE-488 > option. I suspect the latter, actually. I would be very suprised if > the RML IEE-488 option was a daughtercard that fitted under the > CPU. Everything I can find out about it suggests it's a normal Z50 > bus card. This sounds like some kind of bus buffering/extension > card, sort of like the IDE interface (although obviously > incompatable with the PC type of IDE). Are you sure this is not > some kind of strange winchester interface. It could well be the > host adapter for (say) a WD1001 card or something like that. Please feel free to say 'impossible' - my knowledge of electronics at this level is minimal. I will now write out 100 times 'Failure to pay due regard to warnings repeatedly given, brings in its train dire consequences which might easily been avoided by the use of a little self restraint' (school line). As you have pointed out whatever this is, the person who installed it just made use of the convenient sized hole marked IEEE port. Nothing which came with the equipment (originally from Oxford University, then from Biomechanical Engineering at UWCM (University of Wales, College of Medicine), used that port. Doug.

26 years, 4 months

2
1
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I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I am spending all my time right now packing and rackmounting - I have no >time to write anything. I will have some people come over and feed in the >paper tape this weekend. While I won't be able to archive most of it, I do >hope to at least read in most of the source code on paper tape. (I have over >310 PDP-1 paper tapes alone). > >This program needs to be *very* easy to use and hopefully supports >X/Y-MODEM. I will set up a terminal program at this end that supports 32 >character file names (windows 98). This program would have to run under >RT11-V3B, or RT11V4 BL. Hopefully it would send the code down a serial line >separate serial port. Umm, what's wrong with Kermit? The latest Kermit for RT does just fine under RT-11 V4, and Kermit is available for just about every other piece of hardware ever created. See ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/ >It would be really nice if this software just asked the end user to load a >paper tape, then huit return, and it sends the data read out a separate >serial port, then prompts to load the next one. What sort of paper tape reader are you using? If it's a serial reader, you can hook it straight up to a PC-clone running MS-DOS and MS-Kermit (or Linux and C-Kermit) and archive the tapes that way. Both MS-Kermit and C-Kermit include powerful scripting languages. Remember, you *don't* have to start from scratch, others of us have been archiving this sort of stuff for many years. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

1
0
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iOpener

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)aracnet.com> wrote: > Personally, when and if mine ever shows up at CC, then I'll be paying with > *cash*. Don't sweat it. NP has already said that only units ordered directly >from them are subject to automatic account activation on the credit card that ordered it. Fair or not; legal or not; that is their policy. Units ordered through CC are not activated until plugged into the phone system and turned on. After all, they ship those whenever and they sit around at CC until they are bought (if they weren't 1000's of units backlogged ;-) There's no way to regulate that. The bad news is that NP is explictly shipping to direct customers in preference to CC customers. Mine is still on backorder through CC and likely will be for weeks. I'm number 10 out of 100 at my store alone. There are six stores within driving distance. They have received two units in two weeks. :-( The only good news is that units with a 21-Mar-2000 manufacture date appear to be unmodified. Who knows what the future may bring. For the $106 mine will cost (with tax), I'll take the risk that I have to remove epoxy or solder in a header. -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com

26 years, 4 months

7
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Odd Magnetic Media question

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

OK, I've got a wierd question now. What is the lifespan of Magnetic Media? In this case, I'm concerned about 4mm DAT, but since I'm more familiar with 8mm it as an example. Let's say I've got a stack of 8mm tapes with data on them. They're supposed to be good for archival purposes, when stored in the proper conditions for 2 years. Now let's say I've got a brand new box of 8mm tapes that have been sitting around still sealed for 8 years. Again, they've been stored in the proper conditions more or less. So are they still good? Is the 2 year number for their ability to hold data, or the actual physical lifespan. Anyone have any ideas? The real reason for the question is finding some 4mm tapes that are still sealed, and I'd estimate about 8 years old. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

26 years, 4 months

5
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Odd Magnetic Media question

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 30, 15:25, healyzh(a)aracnet.com wrote: > > I think the 2 year is for reasonable useage. > > Actually the 2 year number is from a government study that I don't believe > is still online :^( It was refering to writing the data to tape and then > sticking the tape in a vault. In other words an archive tape. They found > 8mm was good for 2 years, while DLT and 9-Track tapes were good for 10 > years. > > > New tapes should last for 30 to 40 years at least > > with good storage. Tapes with data may not fare as well. That seems logical to me. I wonder how much of the apparent data loss is due to print-through? I was told that tapes ought to be rewound every year or two to minimise the print-through effect. The idea is that by doing so, you change the overlap between layers on the spool, and the effects cancel out to some extent. Having said that, I've just been reading some old cassette tapes on my Exidy Sorcerer. I sold my original Sorcerer (and associated tapes) 20 years ago, but got a replacement (with no tapes at all) for my collection recently. Last weekend, a friend brought me some tapes he'd found from his, unused since 1980. I've managed to read every program I've tried so far -- about a dozen -- on the four tapes I've tried. In a couple of cases, I got errors on the first read, but no problem on the second. I think that's probably due to the tape being more evenly wound/tensioned after playing through and rewinding once, a common effect in compact cassettes as I recall. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

"New" prompt on Sun box

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On March 29, Technoid(a)cheta.net wrote: > I have tried the 'n' command and it says it is not a command. If I enter > "new" it responds "cpu cache enabled" which is not what I wanted at all. > Is it possible this Sparcstation 330 (sparc 4/300) does not have the 'new' > prompt at all? -- Nope...of all the models in the sun4/xxx family, only the 4/6xx has OpenFirmware. The 4/1xx, 4/2xx, 4/3xx, and 4/4xx have sun3-style "old mode" only. -Dave McGuire

26 years, 4 months

2
1
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Altos stuff, *FREE*, DC Area

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

Bill and I spent the morning sorting through the Altos stuff we had rescued, and this is what we think we have: Altos 5 Box, Z-80 CPU, bunch of serial ports, two 5.25" floppy drives. Also a binder full of Altos 5 documentation. Altos 8000 Boxes (2 of them), Z-80 CPU's, bunch of serial ports, 8" floppy drives, and a binder full of accompanying documentation. Altos 68000 Boxes (3 of them), 68000 CPU's, one of the boxes has an expansion board filled with RAM, two of the boxes have 8" hard drives, all of the boxes have an 8" floppy drive, one of the boxes is missing the panel on the back filled with serial ports. We also have lots of Altos 8" software distribution floppies. Condition is unknown. Some of the boxes have stickers from ten years ago indicating that they were (at least partly) functioning back then, but we haven't powered any of this stuff on. Anyone interested? We will consider shipping these to a good home, though we'd prefer to find local (Washington DC area) takers. You don't have to take them all, you can pick and choose if you wish. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

3
2
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Prime 2455

by peter.pachla＠wintermute.org.uk

Whilst digging out some 380Z manuals I found a "Prime 2455" I'd forgotten I had.... I'd like to have a bash at getting this going, but aside from needing OS tapes (anyone help PLEASE?) the tape drive and hard drive have been removed along with some sort of drive mounting tray. Can anyone tell me what types/capacities of hard drive I can fit to this machine, and what model of tape drive does it take (all I know is that the tape and hard drives are SCSI devices)? Also, I *NEED* the mounting tray/stage which fits inside the top of the machine to which the drives attach. Anyone in the UK in a position to help? TTFN - Pete. -- Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer. Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC) peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk | www.wintermute.org.uk --

26 years, 4 months

4
4
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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 30, 22:30, Olminkhof wrote: > I do this and get: > > 147470 > @ > > Further iterations all result in: > > 173000 > @ > > If I hit restart at any time after that there is a some disk activity and > eventually and "&" prompt appears. The first address is in RAM, which is interesting. It suggests the processor is executing some bootstrap that gets copied into memory. 173000 is the standard bootstrap address; every time you restart the CPU, it sets the program counter to that address. The "&" is not any normal PDP-11 prompt, so that must have come from the disk or custom boot roms. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Tephelones (fairly off topic)

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 30, 19:25, Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk wrote: > This is only on topic at all because I shall be using a classic computer for > it... > > I understand that some mobile telephones nowadays can download tunes to play > when they ring. Can anybody point me to (a) the download protocol(s) that the > phones use and (b) the file format(s) for these tunes? Yes, several Nokia, Ericsson, and Siemens models can download tunes, and a few can be programmed in other ways with a data cable. One place to start might be http://www.cellulartips.com/index.html but there are lots of other sites around. You'll find a lot of information by using AltaVista, or DejaNews to search the uk.telecom newgroups as well (look for "nokia" and "data"), eg http://www.gadgets.demon.co.uk/nokia61xx/ -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

1
0
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Tephelones (fairly off topic)

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

This is only on topic at all because I shall be using a classic computer for it... I understand that some mobile telephones nowadays can download tunes to play when they ring. Can anybody point me to (a) the download protocol(s) that the phones use and (b) the file format(s) for these tunes? Philip. ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses. Power Technology Centre, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottingham, NG11 0EE, UK Tel: +44 (0)115 936 2000 http://www.powertech.co.uk **********************************************************************

26 years, 4 months

1
0
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Research Machines Link 480Z

by PeksaDO＠Cardiff.ac.uk

> realise there was an analogue I/O card for the 380Z. I've got no > info on the winchester and network cards, but I guessed they must > have existed. IIRC at least one of the RML winchester systems was a > box about the size of a 380Z with a PSU, ST506-interfaced drive and > a SASI-ST506 interface card. I assume the 380Z interface was a SASI > host adapter or something. The 3rd. party winchester disk unit measures 16" x 16" x 4.5" and the cover (top and sides) is a beige type plastic with rounded corners (radius about 1") on the top of the sides; sitting on a metal base/ font/back. It has the wiring for two 5.25" FH disk drives but contains only one Rodime RO 100 (4 platters/8 heads/192 cylinders). The interface card in the disk unit is a 'Konan David Jr. II'. As I mentioned this has never worked. The instructions for running up the hard disk (given verbally to me) was to insert the floppy containing the executable x and to type x - Found the floppy, typed the command - nothing, although the disk does whirr quite happily, it doesn't seek. > I'd always assumed that the IEEE-488 card was a card that connected > to the bus cable. Are you saying that it's a daughterboard that > fits under the Z80 or something? The 3.5" square (exactly) daughter board plugs directly into and only into where the Z80 CPU normally resides. The board contains: Z80 CPU, AM25LS252IPC, 2 x SN74LS245N, SN74LS00N, 74F32PC chips with assorted resistors etc. There is a 26 way berg connector to take the cable to the IEEE-488 port. Also there is a 8-way link box with 5 unbroken links, 2 broken links and 1 remade link. > Do you happen to have schematics other than the ones that appear in > the normal Information File. Sorry, no schematics Doug.

26 years, 4 months

2
1
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RP04 geometry?

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

Since alt.sys.pdp10 is in a big flamewar right now, I guess I'll ask here. Does anyone know the correct geomerty of an RP04 pack in 18-bit mode? I have it as 19 heads, 411 cylinders, and 20 sectors a track, with 260 word sectors. (18 bit words, 256 data words and 4 header words.) I think that's wrong though. -------

26 years, 4 months

3
2
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I need some PDP-11 RT11 archiving software

by dylanb＠sympatico.ca

My entire collection was purchased by a *very* large corporation. Details will probably be PR'd later this month. I have a lot of source code and PDP-1 software that does not exist anywhere. I would like to back up this material in case of damage in shipping, and it should be made available to all. I am spending all my time right now packing and rackmounting - I have no time to write anything. I will have some people come over and feed in the paper tape this weekend. While I won't be able to archive most of it, I do hope to at least read in most of the source code on paper tape. (I have over 310 PDP-1 paper tapes alone). This program needs to be *very* easy to use and hopefully supports X/Y-MODEM. I will set up a terminal program at this end that supports 32 character file names (windows 98). This program would have to run under RT11-V3B, or RT11V4 BL. Hopefully it would send the code down a serial line separate serial port. I will only have this software here until Wednesday April 5,2000 (5 days). It would be really nice if this software just asked the end user to load a paper tape, then huit return, and it sends the data read out a separate serial port, then prompts to load the next one. Please e-mail me at: dylanb(a)sympatico.ca . P.S. Most wishlist items were set aside before this offer to purchase so I will be able to ship them soon. P.P.S I bought a DSI to do this but it got seriously damaged in shipping - I have no time to fix it. john

26 years, 4 months

1
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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

Thanks to all for the advice so far. I now have the terminal connection working again at least. > >Try connecting directly to the 10-pin connector on the left side of the >MXV11, start it up, and hit the HALT button. You should get an address and >an ODT prompt. You should get another prompt every time you press RUN, if >HALT is still pressed in. Assuming the panel is connected to the backplane >correctly. > I do this and get: 147470 @ Further iterations all result in: 173000 @ If I hit restart at any time after that there is a some disk activity and eventually and "&" prompt appears. The keyboard doesn't respond and nothing seems to happen in a reasonable time after that. I consulted the original owner who reports that it definitely went through a self test routine on the screen and did this before the linked PDP8 was started, so there's a hardware problem somewhere. Anyway I'm streets ahead with the info from Aaron Finneys scans which I will now study. I plan to reseat all the roms and cards and check all the jumper settings. Thanks all, Hans

26 years, 4 months

1
0
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Scanned Docs Update

by af-list＠wfi-inc.com

Hi, Just a quick note to let everyone know that I (somehow) managed to add a few more docs to my page at http://www.retrobytes.org. Since my last announcement, I've added an HP section (sparse yet), some more RT-11 docs, some MicroPDP docs, an SWP section, etc... Cheers, Aaron

26 years, 4 months

1
0
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SUNOS 5.4 Root Password

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 12:38, Dwight Elvey wrote: > It is OK to call the 'ok' the open-boot prompt. I knew it had a proper name, but I didn't remember until later. Some of us still regularly call it "the new prompt" :-) > Forth is the hardware > persons secret tool, don't tell software types, they won't understand. Oh, I don't know. I've got software written in Forth, such as my PAL assembler. Though come to think of it, that's not really a software type's thing, is it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

4
3
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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

Well . . . after another few more hours of exploration : The M8059 YA card wasn't that at all. It is actually an M8639 YA. I need glasses . . and stronger light. Anyway, Control C doesn't work and I can no longer repeat getting to an @ prompt, instead getting a lot of backward ? characters at times. I'm now using the console port but have lost confidence in the terminal and serial cable completely. I discovered the baud setting control for the ports after I blew the dust out of the little window. Set the port to 4800 baud, the default setting on the VT220. All for no consistent result. Tried 110 baud on both with no result I switched to a straight though 25 wire serial cable and got absolutely no communication, . . added a null modem and got a little garbage . . changed >from the default VT200 mode 7 bit controls to some of the others . . . all to no result. I think the PDP is booting OK judging by the sounds it makes but there is nothing on the terminal screen. The terminal seems to do everything OK when in local mode. I have another VT220 tucked away. Trying that is all I can think of at this point. I should see something on the screen even if the hard drive or OS have a problem shouldn't I? Is there a PDP11's for Dummies book? Hans -----Original Message----- From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Wednesday, 29 March 2000 17:45 Subject: Re: PDP11/23 More dumb questions >On Mar 28, 15:25, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: >> >> >M7195 >> >> >> >> 128 kbyte RAM >> >> >It's actually a MXV11-B Multifunction card, with 128KB RAM, and ... >> >> >> It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial >> >> line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea >> >> how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. >> >> >... the MXV11-B has two SLUs, of the same type as a DLV11. >> >> Yeah, that makes more sense. I still don't know how his machine is >> supposed to boot from disk without a disk controller, though! > >Ah, that's the magic part :-) > >-- > >Pete Peter Turnbull > Dept. of Computer Science > University of York >

26 years, 4 months

5
4
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Dayton Computerfest finds

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list(a)wfi-inc.com> wrote: > No extra cable...but I do have the RS422 standard pinout handy... I've got the pinout of the camera from the Apple tech support web site. What I was confused about is what signals get wired to what signals for RS-422. I've been making RS-232 cables for 10 years, but without a cable diagram, I've never made a Mac cable. > > On Sun, 12 Mar 2000, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > > So... does anyone out there have a Mac "null-modem" cable they'd like to > > get rid of? I've also found out that this *exact* cable (down to the icon) is used to connect a Newton to a Mac. Any Newt users out there (in the States, Hans ;-) that have a source for cables? ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

26 years, 4 months

6
8
0 0

backup tapes

by ghldbrd＠ccp.com

Hello, fellow scroungers, After having formatted my system drive in error, I am putting back in my tape backup unit. I have gobs of 150 meg and 250 meg tapes, but am in need of 525 meg tapes ----------- DC6525 --------- for less that retail price (which at last report was $20-30 a pop). I would appreciate any leads . . . . Gary Hildebrand

26 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

Zax ICD 378 for Z80

by klager＠execpc.com

I have been using a Zax in-circuit debugger and it has recently stopped working. As best as I can tell, the Zax corporation is no longer in existence. I'd like to either have my unit repaired or find a replacement. Any help out there? klager(a)execpc.com

26 years, 4 months

3
2
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Parallel port hard drives?

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>Are you using a 1.2MB floppy drive to write a 360K floppy disk? Yes, but I used the drive (1.2Mb) to format it to 360K. ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 30, 0:17, Olminkhof wrote: > Anyway, Control C doesn't work and I can no longer repeat getting to an @ > prompt, instead getting a lot of backward ? characters at times. > I'm now using the console port but have lost confidence in the terminal and > serial cable completely. I discovered the baud setting control for the ports > after I blew the dust out of the little window. Set the port to 4800 baud, > the default setting on the VT220. All for no consistent result. Tried 110 > baud on both with no result If the system is using the SLUs on the MXV11-B, the little window is meaningless, as the baud rate etc on the MXV11 has to be set by rejumpering several links, often with wire wrap. There's no handy way of connecting a selector switch. > I switched to a straight though 25 wire serial cable and got absolutely no > communication, . . added a null modem and got a little garbage . . changed > from the default VT200 mode 7 bit controls to some of the others . . . all > to no result. Try connecting directly to the 10-pin connector on the left side of the MXV11, start it up, and hit the HALT button. You should get an address and an ODT prompt. You should get another prompt every time you press RUN, if HALT is still pressed in. Assuming the panel is connected to the backplane correctly. The MXV11-B only supports 300/1200/9600/38400 baud. J9,J10,J11 control the setting for SLU0, J7,J8,J9 control SLU1 (the console port). 9600 is J9 to J10, and J8 to J9. J61 to J62 forces SLU1 to be the console. It's also possible that you have some kind of custom bootstrap in it. MXV11-Bs were sometimes sold without boot ROMs (the standrd ROM set is known as the B2 ROM set, and marked as such), and use the same software arrangement as the MRV11-D ROM board, so people were able to roll their own using information in the MRV11-D manual. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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Prime 2455

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 29, 13:41, Bill Pechter wrote: > > In article <00ce01bf990a$26953aa0$03e893c3@proteus>, Peter Pachla > > <peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk> writes > > I have an external tape drive which I am told came from a Prime of some > > sort which you can have. I don't know what sort of tape it takes as I > > didn't get any with it. Perhaps someone else on the list could say > > whether it is any use to you. It has no external markings except for a > > sticker showing that it passed statutory testing in 1988. The drive > > itself is an Exabyte Model EXB 8200, does anyone recognise this? > It's an 8mm 112M Exabyte... www.exabyte.com. Works great with any > SCSI single ended (usually) interface. I have two here, one sold originally as a PDP-11/83 add-on, and one from a Pr1me. I upgraded the firmware in the older one using code from www.exabyte.com, and both work very nicely on my Unix machines and an Acorn Archimedes. They don't do compression and the standard 8200 doesn't have the high-speed search that the 8200S has, but they handle a reasonable data rate and hold around 2.2GB per tape. Lots of people use 8mm video tape; I prefer to use proper data cartridges, though. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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Swap Meet

by steverob＠hotoffice.com

Went the the Hamfest at the Motorola Factory in Plantation (western Ft. Lauderdale) last weekend. From what I understand, it used to be a regular event but, now it's held infrequently. There were quite a few sellers there but, not too much computer stuff. I found a micro-based controller for $10. Looks like it was used for some kinda automated inspection or manufacturing system. The system consisted of 4 large wire-wrapped boards and 4 fairly large power supplies. There was some damage to the innards so, I bought it strictly for the parts. Got a ton of TTL devices and other goodies out of it. Also found a "NIDA" Counter / Timer. It's an educational tool used to teach digital logic. It's in great condition considering it came from the school board. In my experience, most of the stuff from the schools is pretty beat up. Anyway, it's very cool and only cost me $5. I had other comittments so only stayed until 8:00 AM. At that time, sellers and buyers were still filing in. Probably missed some good stuff but, oh well... Later, Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com> > > We stayed at the meet for about an hour or so, and decided > that we had had > enough of the wall to wall people. I had fun but I doubt that > I'll go again, > unless I learn more about ham radio stuff. I'll hold out for a vintage > computer fest instead. > > Ernest

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 15:25, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: > >> >M7195 > >> > >> 128 kbyte RAM > > >It's actually a MXV11-B Multifunction card, with 128KB RAM, and ... > > >> It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial > >> line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea > >> how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. > > >... the MXV11-B has two SLUs, of the same type as a DLV11. > > Yeah, that makes more sense. I still don't know how his machine is > supposed to boot from disk without a disk controller, though! Ah, that's the magic part :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 19:14, Tony Duell wrote: > The other thing is that when 96 tpi drives were in common use, some (lesser) > manufactuerers fitted the narrow head to all drives (even 48 tpi ones!). > Or at least some system builders/OEMs did. I have heard rumours that a > well-known BBC micro supplier sold 40 track, 80 track, and 40/80 > switchable drives. They were actually all the same (80 track, 96 tpi) > mechanisms. The '40 track' ones had been modified to double-step, and the > switchable ones had this mod controlled by the switch. Canon mechanisms, by any chance? or Chinon? > Needless to say, these '40 track' drives can correctly read '40 track' > disks that have been overwritten by 96 tpi drives (since the head in such > a drive only 'sees' the narrower 96-tpi-like track anyway), but what they > can't do is overwrite disks formatted or written on real 48 tpi drives. > Don't ask how I got to sort this out! Yuk! I can imagine :-) > The other question, of course, is how reliable do you need it to be. > > For example, the last time I wrote a 40 track disk in an 80 track (96 > tpi) drive was when I wrote a TRS-80 Model 4 boot disk on this linux box > (which has a 1.2Mbyte 96 tpi drive). I did the following : yes, i do things like that quite often. But not for anything I want to keep (not the one written in the 80-track drive, anyway) because you never know if the drive you use next year will be the same... -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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Altos machines

by Innfogra＠aol.com

Altos machines came in several generations. 1st Generation Altos 5-ZZ where ZZ was the size of the HD. These were Z80 machines with 5 1/4 inch drives. These are small rectangular desktop boxes. Altos 8XXX-ZZ was a large heavy rectangular desktop box with Z80s or 68000 CPUs. These were generally multiuser machines. ZZ again refers to the size of the 8" HD(10=10 Meg, 12=20 Meg, 14=40 Meg HDs). They used a large custom single board computer the size of the case. The drive controller was a separate half card mounted on top of the SBC. The early 8000s had separate cases for the 8" FD & HD. In later models the drives and cards were integrated in the same case. I think the 68000 processor machines were labeled 68XX-ZZ but it has been too long to be sure. I also think the 68000 machines ran an early version of Xenix. You could get them in versions up to 9 users and a supervisor. 2nd Generation Altos 5XX & 6XX class machines. These looked like squashed hexagons, flat on the bottom and top with two angles on each side. These were medium sized desktop cases, usually beige but often came in custom colors. They carried on the two circuit card configuration. Large SBC with secondary drive controller card. Altos 580 was my favorite. Half height floppy and St 225 20 Meg HD with a Z80 and ran 4 terminals under MPM. They would also run CPM. These also came with FH 10 & 15 Meg HDs Altos 586 came with a 40 meg FHHD and the new 8086 processor and was a 6 user machine. These often ran Xenix and were password protected. While I never had one I think the 686 series machines had the 68000 processor and ran Xenix. These were all squashed Hexagonal shaped machines. I think this line went up to 9XX series numbers with greater amounts of users. 3rd Generation Then there were the Brown floor towers, Altos II & III. These were multiple card towers for large amounts of users. These had 80286 and 80386 processors. I believe there were machines that continued the 680xx processor line too. I only had a couple of these. The Altos II terminal is a rebadged Wyse 100 and the Altos III was a Wyse 50. I think the Altos IV was a Wyse 60 but I am not sure at the moment. Paxton

26 years, 4 months

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360K in a 1.2M drive (was: Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 26, 16:16, Richard Erlacher wrote: > I'm not sure I am the one who should wake up here. I would repeat "It > doesn't matter whether the diskette is a 1.2 MB one or a 360K type" but it > does depend what sort of drive it is. No, Fred is right. There are plenty of drives designed to use single density or double density disks at 96 tpi, and disks cerified for such use, and they work perfectly reliably for 80 tracks, SD or DD. Historically, such drives predate 1.2M (HD) drives. Provided you use SD/DD media in a drive using the correct write current, and providing there isn't any other leftover rubbish for the wider heads in a 48 tpi drive, any reasonably well-aligned 48 tpi will handle those disks just fine. However, no 48 tpi drive I have ever heard of is designed to use HD 1.2M media, and if you try it, it will give trouble sooner or later. All the evidence indicates that the major factor is the magnetic coercivity of the media. > [...] the fact that the heads designed for 48tpi will write a > significantly wider swath on > the diskette than the 96tpi drive can erase. Consequently, and I'll bet > you've had this experience, you can format a bulk erased diskette to 48tpi > with a 96 TPI drive and have it work for a while. > > The more the diskette is written, by the 48tpi drive, the harder it becomes > for the 96tpi drive to erase its writing, Again, no. Providing you're only reading back the part overwritten by the 96 tpi drive, this is not true. It only matters if you both write with 48 tpi, overwrite with 96 tpi, and then try to read back with a 48 tpi drive -- which is not what was being discussed. And it doesn't make any difference whether the 48 tpi drive writes once or one thousand times, the magnetic field strength is the same! > and, of course, the 48TPI drive > will have the most trouble because the signal not erased in the 96tpi drive > is perceived by the 48tpi drive as noise, while the signal written by the > 96tpi is written at a lower level to begin with, since the drive relies on > the higher coercivity of the medium to generate a larger signal amplitude if > that factor is to come into play at all. No, it doesn't rely on the higher coercivity, not when it's writing single or double density. It only does that for High Density. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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Swap Meet

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

At 20:39 12-03-2000 -0800, John Lawson dared me to... > So... where's the detailed Swap Meet Report???? > > We're waiting... >PS: Post to The List if you dare... :) Ok, I dare. ;-) The Puyallup swap this year was quite crowded compared with last year. I managed to sell a bunch of stuff that I didn't think I would, and some stuff that I thought would sell (almost) didn't. For the record, I sold all the Exabyte drives (the 8500's are holding here for checks from the purchasers -- thanks, guys!) and the small UPS I had. I don't think any of the buyers (with three exceptions) were classiccmp'ers, but all business was appreciated. There were equal amounts of joy and irritation with this year's event. On the 'joy' side was, certainly, good sales. Add to that my finding of not one, but TWO Amp 'Butterfly' tools (if you don't know what one is, you'll have trouble appreciating it), plus some spare batteries for the pair of radios I use for SwapComm and a nice mid-80's vintage Amprobe clamp-on AC meter, and I think I did pretty well. On the irritation side. One fellow showed up with a beautiful mil-spec HF receiver. Those of you familiar with the radio side of things will likely recognize the designation of R-2174(P)/URR, a.k.a. the Racal 6790. It was in great shape, came with its manual and power cord, and had a sticker price of $1,275. Those of you who know this receiver will know immediately that this is a bit exorbitant. In prime shape, they're worth about a grand, and that's what I offered the fellow for it (knowing full well that I'd be going into debt for six months to pay it off!). He insisted on waiting until the end of the day. However, at day's end, I came back to find him wrapping it up. Upon asking what was up, he told me (rather brusquely) that someone had paid him $2,000 in CASH for it. Initially, I was stunned. Not only was that over twice what the unit was worth, but it astounded me that ANYone would be (a) walking around with two grand in cash in their pocket, and (b) would use it to buy a mid-80's HF receiver, however nice. I walked away from that one fuming. In retrospect, and after talking to a friend of mine, it is now my firm belief that the owner was lying through his teeth in an effort to cover the fact that no one had been willing to pay his outrageous sticker price. Here's why I think this. 1). He was wrapping the receiver up as if to ship it. If someone was crazy enough to pay $2K for that unit, said buyer would have taken it with them ON THE SPOT. 2). The seller's attitude throughout the day was loud, obnoxious, and forceful on trying to sell things. Too forceful, in fact. He wouldn't dicker beyond a certain point, and he seemed borderline arrogant in every dealing he had with those around him. From what I could tell, he sold very little that day. 3). His body language, as he was wrapping up the receiver, was most definitely NOT that of someone who'd just closed a two-grand sale. It was more along the lines of "I'm taking my ball and going HOME! To blazes with this whole mess!!" Anyway, that's about it. I deposited more back into the bank than I took out to cover my purchases, so I think I did pretty well. Eric Smith came by on Sunday to pick up the DSD-880's I had for him, plus some other goodies, and it was he who bought my last Exabyte drive. Eric, if you're reading this, thanks again and enjoy! Guess I'll just have to do it again next year. Heck, I might rent a table just to get in early. Let's hope that, if someone has a similar receiver next year, they'll be more serious about selling it at a reasonable price. Caveat (burp) Emperor! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 4 months

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Research Machines Link 480Z

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> IIRC at least one of the RML winchester systems was a box about the size >> of a 380Z with a PSU, ST506-interfaced drive and a SASI-ST506 interface >> card. I assume the 380Z interface was a SASI host adapter or something. that sounds like what I maybe have.... never seen a 380Z so I don't know. I've got five or six 480Z machines though, three or four of them with network interfaces, and then two big black metal cabinets - one houses the hard drive, and from memory the other contains either controller logic or floppy drives (these things have been sitting in sotrage for the last 4 years, so it's been a while since I've seen them!) pretty nifty stuff though, I must dig them all out again some day... (they were given to me along with my Diamond wordprocessor, which was the main find, so I only ever powered up the 480's to check that they could talk to the disk unit before they got stored...) someday I will have the time and space to fire these things up again and have a serious play around with them... cheers Jules >

26 years, 4 months

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remove

by thomas.h.lindberg＠se.abb.com

remove

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 11:51, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: > On Mar 28, 20:15, Olminkhof wrote: > >The cards are, from one end: > >M7195 > > 128 kbyte RAM It's actually a MXV11-B Multifunction card, with 128KB RAM, and ... > >M8067 > > Another 128 kbyte RAM Or maybe 256K > It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial > line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea > how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. ... the MXV11-B has two SLUs, of the same type as a DLV11. It also has a bootstrap (usually) which is vaguely similar to some of the 11/23+ ad early 11/73 bootstraps, and an LTC. And a million jumper posts. I have a document listing their names/functions somewhere online, if you need it. > There seem to be some (slight) behavioural differences depending on which > serial port I plug the terminal into. Well, the one on the left of the card, looking into it from the back, is the console line, if that helps. > I'm unclear about the switches and lights, but I have the run light on, the > DC light on, the fixed disk write protect switch out and it's red light out, > and the fixed disk ready switch out with it's green light on. Well, that should be running. As Tim noted, there isn't a disk controller in your list, though. I'd expect an RQDX1 or maybe RQDX2 in that machine -- more likely an RQDX1 if the drive is an RD50. If there isn't, it won't do much. It might be worth trying to connect a terminal to the console SLU and seein what happens when you start it. You can break into the bootstrap routine using ctrl-C if necessary. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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Next Password

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Picked up a next turbocolor station early this week and it powers up but is password protected, anyone know a quick way around this ? Thanks in advance John

26 years, 4 months

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Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 27, 18:44, Richard Erlacher wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > > On Mar 27, 19:57, Tony Duell wrote: > > > fact behaves like the second type above -- a 98tpi (80 cylinder) drive > Surely you mean 96 tpi . . . right? I'm sure that was just a typo on Tony's part :-) > I'm curious ... How do you "set" a > 1.2MB drive to behave as a 720-K drive, i.e. use that type of medium? It > seems to me that, at a minimum, the controller would have to be seriously > involved as well. Assuming the HD drive is correctly jumpered, you simply get the controller to put a low signal on pin 2 (density) of the interface. On most drives, that will also change the speed from 360 rpm to 300; on others, not. > > Furthermore, the media used in 96 tpi standard density disks is, in my > > experience, the same as that used in 48 tpi standard density disks. It > > even says so in my CDC drive manuals. However, as we all (ought to) know, > > the media for HD disks is very different. > > > The fact remains that there are diskettes specifically designated as being > 96TPI-certified, "QD" presumably for quad density, since you get twice as > many tracks as with a double density diskette, which were, originally sold > at a higher price than the "360K" Indeed, and I have lots like that, ie either "certified for 96 tpi" or in a few cases, "QD". However, the differential is partly marketing, and partly because manufacturers often tested 96 tpi disks more carefully for microscopic blemishes -- a tiny defect might cause a disk to be rejected for 96 tpi, but pass a test for 48 tpi. Many (most?) manufacturers used exactly the same media/emulsion for both types -- I know for a fact that Dysan and Verbatim did, although I also know that Dysan at one time made disks that looked slightly different, and presumably those did use a slighlty different coating. > > > According to all the data I can find (which is not much), the centre > > lines > > > of the 48tpi tracks and the centre lines of alternate 96tpi tracks > > > coincide. This means (amongst other things) that you can use the same > > > alignment disk for both types of drive. > > > This would follow but for the technique used for writing radial alignment > tracks. I don't follow -- the instructions for my Shugart and Dysan alignment disks clearly state that the disk is suitable for both 96 tpi and 48 tpi drives, and lists the apropriate track numbers for the various tests, such as the cats-eyes alignment test (and, yes, the track number for 96 tpi is simply double the number for 48 tpi in each case). > results I had and observed in others' lack of success certainly support the > belief that the media were not the same. Perhaps you've been unlucky. I too have found some old 48 tpi media are just not good enough, giving one or two errors, but most post 1980 are fine -- and I suspect that's just the result of better quality control. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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Sharp PC-7000

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>I have a copy of the Sharp PC 7000 boot disk if you would like a >disk >image of it. Let me know and I can email a copy of it to you. > >Ernest I already have a boot disk for this thing, but thanks anyhow. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 4 months

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SUNOS 5.4 Root Password

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 1:26, Technoid(a)cheta.net wrote: > In <38E04821.4B8943AE(a)mainecoon.com>, on 03/28/00 > at 01:26 AM, Chris Kennedy <chris(a)mainecoon.com> said: > >Is this a Sun cdrom drive? Random SCSI cdrom drives are prone to not > >working unless they have a sun-specific hack to make the ID string they > >return something identifiable to the boot prom. Differing Suns have > >differing ways of refering to CDROM drives, and some insist that the > >CDROM drive show up as ID 6. Have you tried using the prom diagnostics > >to probe the bus to see who is home? > > I figured the id6 thing out by inferring from other info I hit on the web > which was pretty slim on specifics. The drive is 6 and is a Toshiba > XM-3701b. > Maybe I need a single-speed cdrom? Some older Sun boot PROMs won't recogise a CDROM unless set for 512-byte blocks. Although the 3601 and later Toshibas recognise the SCSI mode-select command to switch from normal CDROM 2048-byte operation to Sun/SGI 512-byte operation, older PROMs don't issue that command. I'm not sure about a Sparcstation 330, but you may need a drive that can be explicitly set (such as a Toshiba 3301 or 3401; some Sony and Hitachi drives also have a switch or jumper. You might also want to switch from the "old" boot mode (prompt ">") to the "new" one (prompt "ok ") by typing "n". PROBE-SCSI, HELP, and most other commands are only available from the "new" prompt. > BTW there are issues with this machine > I have not yet resolved such as a parity error on a simm and what I think > might be a power problem. I'd fix that first :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>> >M7195 >> >> 128 kbyte RAM >It's actually a MXV11-B Multifunction card, with 128KB RAM, and ... >> It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial >> line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea >> how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. >... the MXV11-B has two SLUs, of the same type as a DLV11. Yeah, that makes more sense. I still don't know how his machine is supposed to boot from disk without a disk controller, though! -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

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iOpener

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>By purchasing the i-opener you are agreeing to use the i-opener Internet >service. The fee is $21.95 a month and will be billed to your credit card >approximately 2 days after the i-opener is shipped to you. And then $21.95 every month for the rest of your life? I seriously doubt that such an open-ended contract is enforceable anywhere. >i-opener Internet appliances shipped after March 20, 2000 can no longer be >reconfigured in the manner described in recent reports. Modification of the >i-opener in any way is in violation of our terms and conditions. What terms and conditions? If you aren't allowed to see them (I poked around a little bit and didn't find them) how can they be part of the sales contract? Wasn't it a Steve Martin movie that illustrated the "Substantial Penalty for Early Withdrawal" clause? IIRC the depositor was given a blindfold and shot... -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

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installing SGI SVR3 from tape

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 3:00, r. 'bear' stricklin wrote: > On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, r. 'bear' stricklin wrote: > > > GL2-3.6 (SGI's UNIX didn't come to be called until the first 4D-series > > machines were released) and 3.5r1. > > -cough- > > What I MEANT to type was, of course, "didn't come to be called IRIX until > the first 4D-series machines were released". I knew that :-) What I don't know, unfortunately, is the first thing about GL. Not that sort, anyway. 'sifex' rings a bell, though. I'll ask amongst my friends. Have you tried any of the c.s.sgi.* newsgroups? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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HP Apollo/9000s

by paulrsm＠ameritech.net

Try http://www.zepa.net/apollo/Apollo-FAQ.html ---------- > From: Peter Pachla <peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk> > To: Classic Computer <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> > Subject: HP Apollo/9000s > Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 06:04 PM > > Hi Does anyone know of a FAQ or other document which describes the HP Apollo > (700 series?) and/or the HP-9000 series of PA-RISC machines (9000/7xx?).

26 years, 4 months

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Research Machines Link 480Z

by PeksaDO＠Cardiff.ac.uk

All this talk of RM380/480s has prompted me to admit that I own four: 2 x Link 480Z (with one 'beige' twin 5.25 drive) 1 x 380Z (twin 8" drives and winchester) 1 x 380Z (twin 5.25" drives) The 380Z with 8" drives is fairly well loaded: 1) IO 2) CPU/32K #1 3) 32K 4) Hi Res Graphics 5) Winchester #2 6) Analog I/O 7) Network #3 8) Terminator #1 Containing (roll on drums, wait for it tony) a daughter card containing the CPU and the IEEE gubbins (connected to the 'IEEE STD 488 PORT') #2 A 5Mbyte 5.25" unit - unfortunately expired before I acquired it #3 This card has more wire wrap on the 'back' than any other card I've seen that wasn't designed as such The serial number is 35/121003 and the etch dates are 1978 or 1979 with some cards have a cloth sticker of 1980. Doug.

26 years, 4 months

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Altos machines

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

> > If you can wait a day or two, a fellow classiccmper and I are > >going to be inventorying the Altos machines.... > >....there may be some documentation (we've several binders full > >of it) on your machine. >Thanks, if you manage to find out ANYTHING do let me know. Sorry, nothing about the machine that you had described, though we did find some Altos 5-series and 8000-series binders. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

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Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 27, 19:57, Tony Duell wrote: > There is some wonderful confusion in this thread :-).... Yes :-) > The first is the standard density 48tpi drive. This is what PC owners > would call a '360K drive'. [...] > The second is the standard density 96tpi drive. [...] > The third is the high density drive, known to PC users as the 1.2Mbyte > drive. [...] > From this, it seems to me that a 1.2Mbyte drive will _not_ reliably > read/write a 360K format on HD disks. It will use the wrong (too low) > write current. HD disks should be used for 1.2Mbyte formats only. > > Of course when a 1.2Mbyte drive is set to use 'standard' disks, it in > fact behaves like the second type above -- a 98tpi (80 cylinder) drive > and not a 360K (40 cylinder) one. Tony has put this very well. It's exactly what I was getting at. Furthermore, the media used in 96 tpi standard density disks is, in my experience, the same as that used in 48 tpi standard density disks. It even says so in my CDC drive manuals. However, as we all (ought to) know, the media for HD disks is very different. > According to all the data I can find (which is not much), the centre lines > of the 48tpi tracks and the centre lines of alternate 96tpi tracks > coincide. This means (amongst other things) that you can use the same > alignment disk for both types of drive. It also means that a 96tpi drive > can reliably read a disk formatted and written on a 48tpi drive (only). > When the 96 tpi drive's head is on a suitable track it is reading along > the middle of the track. It's going to read good data. That's why there's > no problem reading disks that have been formatted/written in 360K drives > using 1.2Mbyte drives. > > Now lets consider going the other way. Tony and I are in very close agreement here as well. The only point I'd add, is this: Disks which have been written in 48 tpi drives, and not subsequently been bulk erased, may be read in a 96 tpi drive; and if then overwritten by a 96 tpi drive, they will still be readable perfectly reliably by the 96 tpi drive, but often not by the 48 tpi drive. Just as Tony (and others) have said (and as I've been telling people for nearly 20 years). However, there is a good reason that the process is sometimes observed to work to some extent, and that has to do with the way the tracks are written/erased. When the track is written, data is only written into the centre portion (about 50% of the nominal track width). Either side of that, the erase coils in the head write a narrow guard band, which occupies most of the remaining track width. It may happen that the guard bands written by a 96 tpi drive are wide enough to erase a large proportion of the signal written by a 48 tpi drive, and a 48 tpi drive might just manage to separate the new signal from the relatively low level of the residual old signal. I'm *not* advocating this as an excuse to write 40-track (or 35-track) disks in an 80-track drive without prior bulk erasure. But it explains why some people have found it works for them (even before manufacturers streamlined the range of heads they made), though probably only with limited permutations of drives, and limited (at best) reliability. I'm well aware of the problems in switching between 48 tpi and 96 tpi. In the early '80s, I made and sold a little addon for micros that might need to read 40-track disks in 80-track drives. Because I was well aware of the problem, I arranged it so that it could not only switch on double-step for one drive, but could separately switch one of the drive selects between the normal connector and an extra one. The device was normally used on BBC Micros with twin 80-track floppies, and the extra connector was to connect a third, genuine 48 tpi, drive. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>The cards are, from one end: >M8192 OK, this is the CPU, a KDJ11-A. >M7195 128 kbyte RAM >M8067 Another 128 kbyte RAM >M8045 Depending on the letters that follow M8045, it's between 8 kbytes and 64 kbytes of RAM. I'm guessing it's a fully populated 64 kbytes. >M8059 Another 128 kbytes or 256 kbytes of RAM, depending on the letters that follow the M8059. >I've also found out that it ran Venix in it's first life. It was connected >to a PDP8/A that I also have but can't do anything with because of it's >state. >I'm unclear about the switches and lights, but I have the run light on, the >DC light on, the fixed disk write protect switch out and it's red light out, >and the fixed disk ready switch out with it's green light on. >There seem to be some (slight) behavioural differences depending on which >serial port I plug the terminal into. It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. Look at the serial ports on the back of the machine, and the ribbon cables coming from the inside of the cab kits. Which cards in the backplane do these connect to? -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

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eBay iopeners

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Tue, 28 Mar 2000 05:13:11 -0600 Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com> writes: > yeah, I've seen stuff for the Amiga go for more than you could buy > it new . > . . > > Typical auction, or should we call it a feeding frenzy? > > Gary Hildebrand > Amigaphile and purveyor of vacuum tube technology Ain't that bizarre? Even more bizarre was when I picked up an extremely scarce WD-1009 ESDI controller for < $10! Contrary to popluar belief, there are bargains there. . . ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

The cards are, from one end: M8192 M7195 M8067 M8045 M8059 There is an RX50 double floppy drive and an RD50 hard drive. It's difficult to work out what these are cabled to as they all plug into an interface behind the backplane. I've also found out that it ran Venix in it's first life. It was connected to a PDP8/A that I also have but can't do anything with because of it's state. I'm unclear about the switches and lights, but I have the run light on, the DC light on, the fixed disk write protect switch out and it's red light out, and the fixed disk ready switch out with it's green light on. There seem to be some (slight) behavioural differences depending on which serial port I plug the terminal into. Hans -----Original Message----- From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com <CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Tuesday, 28 March 2000 0:49 Subject: RE: PDP11/23 More dumb questions >>Anyway, I start the VT220 before the PDP and it gives a message VT220 Ready. >>I power up the PDP and basically get nothing at all. The only sequence that >>gets any response is hitting the halt button. The terminal then says: >>165262 >>@ >>When I hit the Restart button after that nothing happens for about 2 >>minutes. >>Then an "&" prompt appears. >>Nothing I type in gets any response after that. Typing "help" gets no >>response. > >The "165262 @" prompting is from ODT. ODT is a very simplistic monitor >that lets you modify memory and registers and start or single-step >through instructions in memory. > >165000 is a common (but not the most common) address to put a ROM'ed >bootstrap at. I'm guessing that when you halted it it was either doing >the self-test or waiting for an external device to come ready. > >The "&" prompt I'm not so sure about. It's possible that this is a prompt >from the bootstrap monitor (some Emulex bootstraps will say that) or >maybe it's from the OS/embedded application. > >>The machine is in a BA23 case and was a PDP11/23 I think, but has a PDP11/73 >>CPU upgrade. There is a full height ST506 hard drive reputed to be 30Mb in >>size, which spins and makes all the right noises. >>Any suggestions? > >What would help the most of all is an inventory of cards in the backplane. >If they're DEC cards they'll have a "Mxxxx" number on the handle. Third >party cards you'll probably have to pull to identify. Also tell us >the exact position of each card in the backplane, and what cards are cabled >to what drives. > >I suspect from the less-than-perfectly-standard bootstrap address of >165000 that you've got a third-party controller in there with on-board >bootstrap, though of course there an infinite number of permutations that >things could have been set up for! > >-- > Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com > Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ > 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 > Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927 >

26 years, 4 months

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installing SGI SVR3 from tape

by red＠bears.org

Howdy; I've got an IRIS 3130 I recently rescued, along with a shocking pile of tapes. Among these are what appears to be complete OS install tapes for GL2-3.6 (SGI's UNIX didn't come to be called until the first 4D-series machines were released) and 3.5r1. For various reasons I am interested in performing a new system installation. Booting from tape is (obviously) in order, and a tape identifying itself as the "boot system" is present. If I 'boot sq0' the QIC spins briefly and complains that it can't find the default boot file. Supposedly there is a stand-alone utility called 'sifex' which can be booted from tape to initialize disks and the like, but if that's on this tape it's not letting on. 'boot sq0:sifex' returns with an error to the effect that 'sifex' can't be found on the tape. I'm missing something but I don't know what. Am I trying to boot the wrong tape, or is something else going on? I suppose it would be worth trying to read a few of the QIC tapes while the system is up, but if someone knows in the meanwhile what my problem is likely to be, it'd be helpful. ok r.

26 years, 4 months

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Altos

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 3/27/2000 12:35:30 PM Pacific Standard Time, at258(a)osfn.org writes: > I checked out our Altos, and the old one is a 580-10A, #43948. Apparently > they made a lot of these little devils. > I believe the 580 is a Z-80 machine, not an intel 8080 processor. Another PN used for the Z-80 is the MK3880P-xx where xx=speed & P=plastic case. The '-10' indicates a 10 Meg HD. They could come with several different brands of drives. CPM or MPM was usually the operating system. there is a separate supervisor terminal port to administer the system. I think there were three user ports and two serial ports, one for a modem and one for a printer. I had about 10 of these at one time. Sold the last during my warehouse sales. I have had several up and running. They are easy. Plug a terminal into console. Wyse 100 or 50 terminal emulation. usually 9600/8/N (Hmm I can't remember the stop bits) Put a current limiter on the power line when you power it up for the first time. Make sure it is warm (room temp) and not cold >from storage. Paxton

26 years, 4 months

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Parallel port hard drives?

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>Did you start with a bulk-erased (i.e. with a degausser) disk? And >is it a >real 360K disk (and not a 1.2Mbyte one)? > >-tony Yes, it was a real 360K disk, I just reformatted it in Windows (it will let you choose between 1.2Mb or 360 formats). ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 4 months

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Altos

by andy.sporner＠networkengines.com

I had a 2086 and THAT was a cool machine (also a way to find an RD-54--because it was the same drive!). > > I checked out our Altos, and the old one is a 580-10A, > #43948. Apparently > they made a lot of these little devils. > > M. K. Peirce > Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc. > 215 Shady Lea Road, > North Kingstown, RI 02852 > > "Casta est qui nemo rogavit." > > - Ovid >

26 years, 4 months

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FW: First come first served: VAX 11/750 (UK)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> So, would any of our UK members like a VAX 11/750? Possibly one tha <>has a SCSI adapter? <> < <I gather that these are quite big, how does it compare for size with my <MicroVAX II with 5 RA81 drives (ie 2 19" rack units)? the basic 750 box is a 40" (memory test) wide by 40" high rack. So it's smaller than your dual rack microvax. It can be powered off 110V at reasonable current so in the 230v world it's not a huge problem there. <I would like to ask for it but if it is a roomful then SWMBO might throw <me _and_ the VAX out of the house ;-) Depends on the disks alongside. Performance wise the 750 is still slower than MVII, though IO perfomance can be much better due to unibus vs qbus. Though reasonable cooling and basic maintenance they tend to run a long time with little effort. Allison

26 years, 4 months

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VAX GKS Docs available

by wilson＠dbit.dbit.com

>I have a complete doc set for the VAX GKS software (whatever >the heck it is) Graphics Kernel System, maybe? Sounds dimly familiar from the Core graphics library for the Pro, unless I'm confusing it with something else. John Wilson D Bit

26 years, 4 months

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iOpener

by wilson＠dbit.dbit.com

OK, I got a 6.4 GB laptop drive hooked up and right now the iOpener is running DOS/BATCH V10-01A on an emulated PDP-11/40+RK05 system. I love it!!! It's going to take some real butchery to get the case closed, but I guess that's to be expected. The low-profile 3M connector barely fit under the CPU heat sink w/o needing it to be clearanced, that was nice. BTW the CPU seems to be 200 MHz, not 180 MHz. But it still gets only about 80 BogoMIPS, pretty slow. John Wilson D Bit

26 years, 4 months

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iOpener

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<>BTW the CPU seems to be 200 MHz, not 180 MHz. But it still gets only <>about 80 BogoMIPS, pretty slow. The winchip is about slow as pents come. Pentium with MMX at 180 is much better. <I heard last night that Netpliance is making modifications so that people <can no longer do this... they are apparently losing a LOT of money selling <the machines, having expected to recoup it in the service charges... No one has seen one and there is commentary both ways from Netplience. <Can someone confirm this... and maybe confirm the change that they <have done (which I understand is simply removal of the cable connector <for the drive). Removing(not putting it in really) the connector is about all they could do with a production stream like that otherwise the cost to manufacture and all goes out the window. To me that does not constitute hacker proofing as putting one in is trivial and I might get to put in in the right side of the board even. In any case it would take a major effort to change something in production more than trivially, I've had to push that at DEC and elsewhere, it was hell. The other half os the current hacker words for it is that it's a great box even as is and they'd give their mother one. Loosing that good will to a few thousand hacked units at most would be costly in the long term. They have gotten a lot of VERY positive free press and it could become negative fast if they tried something too nasty. <Oh, and supposedly back-ordered units will have the mod... We shall see, I'm waiting. Allison

26 years, 4 months

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BA23 Power Supply

by mbg＠world.std.com

>On many of the operating systems, you don't have to do a SYSGEN - just >tweak a number in the configuration word and viola, it's now a 50Hz >machine. > >For an RT-11 machine, in particular, you can tweak this on a running >system if you wish: [... 50hz.mac deleted ...] Tim - I'm surprised at you... simply setting this bit is *not* sufficient. The bit is set based on assembly parameters. Those parameters also set the values for ticks/day based on 50 and 60 hz. Those values are patched at boot time to reflect what the system thinks the clock is supposed to be (what it was genned for). Without the other counters set correctly, date rollover won't work at all correctly... since it will be waiting for sufficient clock ticks at the 60hz rate to have gone by before it bumps the clock. I seem to recall that there is another gotcha to this, but haven't yet found it in the sources... Bottom line is that the config bits are supposed to be read, not written, as they indicate what the system was built for or what it has determined (via probe) to be running on... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

Thanks all for the advice on the BA23 110/230v power switching. I've done that now and powered it up. I have a VT220 terminal that is functional as far as I know and connected to a random serial connector on the PDP, one of 6. Unfortunately I know nothing at all about PDP's or VT's. Anyway, I start the VT220 before the PDP and it gives a message VT220 Ready. I power up the PDP and basically get nothing at all. The only sequence that gets any response is hitting the halt button. The terminal then says: 165262 @ When I hit the Restart button after that nothing happens for about 2 minutes. Then an "&" prompt appears. Nothing I type in gets any response after that. Typing "help" gets no response. The machine is in a BA23 case and was a PDP11/23 I think, but has a PDP11/73 CPU upgrade. There is a full height ST506 hard drive reputed to be 30Mb in size, which spins and makes all the right noises. It was last operational about 5 years ago and was part of a Cybermation laser cutting system. I have no idea what OS would have been installed. I have no docs or media. Any suggestions? Thanks, Hans

26 years, 4 months

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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Anyway, I start the VT220 before the PDP and it gives a message VT220 Ready. >I power up the PDP and basically get nothing at all. The only sequence that >gets any response is hitting the halt button. The terminal then says: >165262 >@ >When I hit the Restart button after that nothing happens for about 2 >minutes. >Then an "&" prompt appears. >Nothing I type in gets any response after that. Typing "help" gets no >response. The "165262 @" prompting is from ODT. ODT is a very simplistic monitor that lets you modify memory and registers and start or single-step through instructions in memory. 165000 is a common (but not the most common) address to put a ROM'ed bootstrap at. I'm guessing that when you halted it it was either doing the self-test or waiting for an external device to come ready. The "&" prompt I'm not so sure about. It's possible that this is a prompt >from the bootstrap monitor (some Emulex bootstraps will say that) or maybe it's from the OS/embedded application. >The machine is in a BA23 case and was a PDP11/23 I think, but has a PDP11/73 >CPU upgrade. There is a full height ST506 hard drive reputed to be 30Mb in >size, which spins and makes all the right noises. >Any suggestions? What would help the most of all is an inventory of cards in the backplane. If they're DEC cards they'll have a "Mxxxx" number on the handle. Third party cards you'll probably have to pull to identify. Also tell us the exact position of each card in the backplane, and what cards are cabled to what drives. I suspect from the less-than-perfectly-standard bootstrap address of 165000 that you've got a third-party controller in there with on-board bootstrap, though of course there an infinite number of permutations that things could have been set up for! -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

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Sharp PC-7000

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

I just today acquired a Sharp PC-7000 "lunchbox" style luggable, I thought it was a boombox until I opened it up. I know that it is an MS-DOS (XT or AT class?) machine, but now I need software for it. Can someone direct me to a good software archive for this machine? Also, what is the purpose of the metal-covered (screwed shut) connector on the underside of the machine? Is it for an external hard drive? ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 4 months

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Altos machines

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Does anyone have any pointers to sites on the web which cover Altos >machines? I've done a search on Yahoo and a couple of other places and >turned up nothing. Yes, there is a surprising lack of information "on the web" on Altos machines. >I'm particularly interested in information on the Unix systems they were >making around 1990 - we had one at work, an i386 in a tower case. Not PC >compatible IIRC, possibly called an "Altos III" or something similar. If you can wait a day or two, a fellow classiccmper and I are going to be inventorying the Altos machines that we've (temporarily) taken custody of, as well as the documents. All the machines that we have are 19" wide by about 7.5" high tabletop units, often with 8" floppies in the front so they're almost certainly older than your machine, but there may be some documentation (we've several binders full of it) on your machine. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 4 months

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VAX GKS Docs available

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

CC'd to port-vax (NetBSD) and Classiccmp... Last call! I have a complete doc set for the VAX GKS software (whatever the heck it is) that's going in RECYCLE if someone doesn't speak up by Tuesday. These are still in their shrink wrap, and they can be yours for $1.00 plus the shipping cost (small box, not very nasty at all). Let me know. Thanks! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 4 months

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Altos machines

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>This pair of boxes is nominally the same size, somewhat narrower than >"rack-width" and about 7" tall. They're plastic boxes with a beige (could >be influenced by many years' cigarrette smoke) exterior and black (probably >... I haven't looked closely at them for some time.) front. > >They're quite weighty. By that I mean absolutely too heavy to ship across >the planet. Huh? The boxes you're talking about must be different than the 6 Altos boxes I have that meet the same dimensions... they only weigh 55 or 60 pounds each. (OB disclaimer: my standard for "heavy enough that I don't want to lift it too often" is a DG 6045 drive or a DEC RA80 drive, about 140-150 pounds. I used to be a puny weakling until I started collecting old computers and drives...) Tim.

26 years, 4 months

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FW: Items still available (Cleaning house)

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

I'm CC'ing this to both classiccmp and port-vax. Found on Usenet. Keith Huff, in Allentown, PA has a bunch of DEC'ish freebies up for grabs. Get 'em while you can! Attachment follows. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- On Sun, 26 Mar 00 18:31:13 GMT, in comp.sys.dec you wrote: >> I still have some stuff I need to get rid of, otherwise it goes to the >>dumpster. Everything listed is best offer and shipping. Items located in >>Allentown, Pa 18103. >> >> >> (2) VR262 19" mono monitors >> >> (1) VR260 19" mono monitor >> >> (2) DECstation 3100 motherboards >> >> (18) DEC 2Mb 80-pin SIMMs >> >> (1) VFB01 mono framebuffer >> >> (10) used TK50 tapes >> >> (6) brand new TK50 tapes >> >> (1) bare TK50 drive >> >> (1) LK201 keyboard >> >> (1) VT320 terminal >> >> (1) VT1200 mono X-term base >> >> (1) Wyse WY-85 terminal & keyboard >> >> (8) CDROM caddies >> >> (1) DZ11 users guide >> >> (1) DZ11 maintenance manual >> >> (1) RL01/RL02 disk subsystem users manual >> >> (23) 6250 BPI 9-track tapes >> >>Keith Huff >> >>kshuff(a)fast.net -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies -- kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech [dot] com Web: http://www.bluefeathertech.com "...No matter how we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them..."

26 years, 4 months

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Parallel port hard drives?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Yes, it was a real 360K disk, I just reformatted it in Windows (it will let <you choose between 1.2Mb or 360 formats). <____________________________________________________________ <David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. A 1.2mb drive does not produce reliable 360k media. It will read it but it's not symetric. Some 360k drives have more than normal difficulty reading disks created by a 96tpi drive. Allison

26 years, 4 months

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Fw: Mac Computer

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Here are some more items up for grabs. John ----- Original Message ----- From: Kevin and Julie Grove <grover(a)scecnet.net> To: <jrkeys(a)concentric.net> Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2000 4:35 PM Subject: Mac Computer > Hi, > I saw the article in the Pioneer Press. I have a Macintosh SE/30 (~1989) > and an Apple ImageWriter II. Both are in excellent condition. Do you have > either of these in your collection yet? Let me know if you are interested > in either one or if you need more info about them. > > We also have a "Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display" monitor (~1995). The screen > has a blue cast to it. According to the Apple website, there is a way to > fix this problem, but I no longer have a use for the monitor. Let me know > if you are interested in this as well. > > We live in Western WI, but come to WBL on occasion, so we could drop it off. > > J.G. >

26 years, 4 months

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Large qty of GRiD external floppy drives available

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Going by the goodwill today, they've got a LARGE quantity of external floppy drives (probably 15-20 at least) for the 2260 and 2270 models for $2.95 each. If anybody needs one for their GRiD, let me know, and I'll pick one up for you (already got one for each of my 2270s). They look BRAND NEW - no scratches/wear, and the connectors that plug into the laptop have a little blue plastic bag still over them.... Now, if I could just find a power supply and/or a pen. Bill -- +---------------+-------------------+ | Bill Bradford | mrbill(a)mrbill.net | +-------BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-------+-----------------------------------------+ | Version: 3.12 GCS d- s:++ a- C++++ US++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ N++ o K+++ w--- | | O- M-- V- PS PE+ Y+ PGP t+ 5 X- R-- tv+++ b++++ DI++++ D++ G++ e++ h r++ y+ | +--------END GEEK CODE BLOCK--------------------------------------------------+

26 years, 4 months

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GRiD 2270s

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Anybody know where I can get info on these? I picked up 3 of them today, complete with batteries, but no power supplies or pens (they can be used as a "flat pad" mode, with a pen, or the screen flips up to reveal the keyboard). Any info would be appreciated. Bill -- +---------------+-------------------+ | Bill Bradford | mrbill(a)mrbill.net | +-------BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-------+-----------------------------------------+ | Version: 3.12 GCS d- s:++ a- C++++ US++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ N++ o K+++ w--- | | O- M-- V- PS PE+ Y+ PGP t+ 5 X- R-- tv+++ b++++ DI++++ D++ G++ e++ h r++ y+ | +--------END GEEK CODE BLOCK--------------------------------------------------+

26 years, 4 months

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Parallel port hard drives?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<>Are you using a 1.2MB floppy drive to write a 360K floppy disk? < <Yes, but I used the drive (1.2Mb) to format it to 360K. <____________________________________________________________ <David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. There lies your error. 360k floppies are 48tpi, 1.2mb floppies are 96tpi. The intertrack spacing is different, head width is different. Find a real 360k drive, try again. These young apprentices... ;) Allison

26 years, 4 months

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test-drb