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

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

I found a few minutes of free time and snapped a few shots of the Card Reader I got on Sunday with my digital camera. I've got the start of a web page up for it at the following URL: http://zane.brouhaha.com/healyzh/C302.html Beware the five pic's are 640x480 or smaller, so take a while to load. Also it will probably take a few seconds for the connection to wake up. Apparently my DSL line 'dozes' when not being used. I still don't know anything about it other than it's a 'Peripheral Dynamics' Model C302 Card Reader made in May of '72. The picture at the bottom of the page shows the empty slot that I would suspect is used to interface it with a computer. 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, 5 months

1
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New Finds Today

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Today I got VAXServer 4000-200 with another tower unit labeled R215F, both for $10. I told the server does not work anyone know what else I need to power this unit up ? I have no manuals, kb or anything else for it. Thanks John I'm not sure of it's age as per the 10 year rule.

26 years, 5 months

1
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RSX-11M emulator for VMS?

by cmcmanis＠freegate.com

I was recently told that DEC sold an RSX-11M emulator that run as a process on VMS for people who had old RSX code they wanted to run. Is this true? And if so is it part of the hobbiest license? --Chuck

26 years, 5 months

3
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Fun with the HX-20 battery pack

by bsa3＠cornell.edu

I charged up the Epson HX-20 that I bought on Sunday, and it doesn't seem to like me. The screen flickers out after a minute or so of use. This seems to indicate a bad battery, but this hypothesis does not appear to be borne out by lab tests. Therefore, a lab report: PURPOSE: To determine if the battery pack from subject computer is defective. APPARATUS: Battery pack in question (4xsubC, 4.8V) Fluke 73-III handheld multimeter Hewlett-Packard 6060B DC electronic load Miscellaneous cables 47-ohm and 100-ohm resistors PROCEDURE: 1. Measure open-circuit voltage of battery. Reading is 5.16 VDC. 2. Wire battery directly to load. Power on. Display reads 5.14 VDC, 0.03 A. Load is set as follows: Range 6.0000 A Input Off (htf do you turn it on?) Short On (same) Tran Off Freq 1000 Slew .50000 Duty cycle 50.0 Mode Current 3. Dial in current at assorted amperages. Results: Current Actual requested (A) current (A) Voltage (VDC) 0.000 0.03 5.14 0.100 0.11 5.09 0.150 0.16 5.08 0.200 0.21 5.06 0.250 0.26 5.04 0.500 0.52 4.98 1.000 1.00 4.98 0.000 0.01 5.09 4. Try some resistance values. Resistance (O) Current (A) Voltage (VDC) 5000 -0.01 5.11 1000 -0.01 5.11 500 -0.01 5.11 100 0.03 5.11 50 0.08 5.09 25 0.18 5.04 10 0.48 4.98 5 0.97 4.89 5. Connect a resistor across the battery terminals, and measure the current. Resistor: 100 ohms (spec) 102.3 ohms (measured) Current: 47.3 mA Resistor: 47 ohms (spec) 46.3 ohms (measured) Current: 98.0 mA CONCLUSION: This battery pack doesn't look too defective, although I really don't know too much about what the characteristics of a functioning pack are. Could someone who knows these things tell me if this pack is indeed okay, as these tests seem to indicate, or if it is indeed bad? -- Brad Ackerman N1MNB "...faced with the men and women who bring home bsa3(a)cornell.edu the pork, voters almost always re-elect them." http://skaro.pair.com/ -- _The Economist_, 31 Oct 1998

26 years, 5 months

2
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Pirates...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<#1 Jobs and Wozniak were actually working at Atari when they designed the <Apple 1 (and was the resource for most of the parts they used), in fact, i <was the revenues from Jobs' project Breakout that financed the trip to That must have been later after HP! <#2 IBM came to Microsoft looking for an operating system for the IBM PC, <not the other way around. Microsoft originally sent IBM to Gary Kildall <(developer of CP/M) who refused to meet with them. IBM returned to Gates <who, in turn, bought the OS from Kildall himself for $50K and then license <it back to IBM. These facts were totally inaccurate in the film. Way off. First Kildall didn't take the IBM meeting seriously and his wife working with layers could net get to agreement on nodisclosure that IBM wanted. Gary didn't refuse to meet with IBM, they "dropped in" and it was not convenient. Second Gates bought Qdos (a lofing of CPM1.3, that was copyright infringed) >from Seattle Computer for $50k and granted a unlimited license back to them. He would later reneg on the deal. The copyright problem would result in the rapid design by virgins and issue of the buggy MSDOS/PCDOS V2. <#3 Bill's hair was never that blonde. In 1978 when I met him at PCC78 it was light but very dirty blonde! Allison

26 years, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by edick＠idcomm.com

Aren't those 6520's just weak-kneed versions of the 6821? I haven't ever had cause to use a 6520 and I though it was more or less the same in an identical pinout as the 6821 (maybe the 6521). Dick -----Original Message----- From: Dwight Elvey <elvey(a)hal.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 3:30 PM Subject: Re: Quest ELF was Top 150 ..... >Philip.Belben(a)pgen.com wrote: >> >> >> Ethan Dicks wrote: >> >> > Now, my junk box is *much* deeper. I could probably assemble an entire >> > PET PCB and Amiga PCB, just from spares. Thankfully, I don't have to. >> >> >> You mean you actually have spare 6520 chips? How many can you send me and how >> much do you want? I have at least one dead one in one of my PETS. >> >> Philip. > >Hi Philip > You can buy 6520A's from Jameco. Part number 43246 at $3.75us for >1-9 and $2.95us for 10+ ( 2.95 was a sale price and may have gone up >some). You can even deal through the net ( www.jameco.com ). >Take care >Dwight > >PS > Of course you could always give me your PET. >I would give it a good home ;) >

26 years, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 23, 12:22, Ethan Dicks wrote: > --- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > What is the (practical) difference between a 6520 and a 6821? They look > > to be very similar devices IIRC. > > I do not know. I do, however, have an abundance of 6821 chips. As far as I know, there is no practical difference. They are supposed to be equivalents. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 23, 14:53, Philip.Belben(a)pgen.com wrote: > Ethan Dicks wrote: > > > Now, my junk box is *much* deeper. I could probably assemble an entire > > PET PCB and Amiga PCB, just from spares. Thankfully, I don't have to. > You mean you actually have spare 6520 chips? How many can you send me and how > much do you want? I have at least one dead one in one of my PETS. They're not hard to get: Rockwell still make 6520s (or at least, suppliers here still list them), and Hitachi and SGS-Thomson make 6821s, which are exact replacements (the 68A21 is slighlty faster at 1.5MHz and the 68B21 is 2MHz, but that won't matter). You can get them from Farnell in the UK. We always used to replace the 6520s with 6820s or 6821s if they failed, as the 682x seemed to be more robust. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 5 months

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GridPad 1910 sales?

by review＠RyansPC.ryanspc.com

Hi. A while back I was talking with Rodger on the list about the (appearant) abundance of GridPad 1910's that he was selling.... did th message t osend money float by me, or are we all still in waiting? And come to think of it, I haven't seen any messages from Rodger recently... thanks Tim

26 years, 5 months

4
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card edge connectors

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 23, 20:30, Lawrence LeMay wrote: > Subject: card edge connectors > I'm looking to buy several card edge connectors, preferrably with solder > ends. I'm not exactly sure of the size of the connector though. > > Its a 10x2 connector, and the width of each connector&space appears to > be a tiny bit more than 1.5 times the same measurements from a IBM XT > expansion card. IE, putting the edge connectors together, 3 connectors and > gap spaces on a XT board are almost the same as 2 connectors and gap > spaces on the connector I need to purchase. > > Any ideas of the proper name for what i'm looking for is, and maybe a > source that I could obtain these from, will be appreciated. I'm rebuilding > 20+ year old Terak keyboards, and this will help complete the project. Sounds like a connector with a 0.156" pitch, which is a standard pitch made by several companies. Any reasonable electronic supplier should have them. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 5 months

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card edge connectors

by lemay＠cs.umn.edu

I'm looking to buy several card edge connectors, preferrably with solder ends. I'm not exactly sure of the size of the connector though. Its a 10x2 connector, and the width of each connector&space appears to be a tiny bit more than 1.5 times the same measurements from a IBM XT expansion card. IE, putting the edge connectors together, 3 connectors and gap spaces on a XT board are almost the same as 2 connectors and gap spaces on the connector I need to purchase. Any ideas of the proper name for what i'm looking for is, and maybe a source that I could obtain these from, will be appreciated. I'm rebuilding 20+ year old Terak keyboards, and this will help complete the project. -Lawrence LeMay lemay(a)cs.umn.edu

26 years, 5 months

2
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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

Ethan Dicks wrote: > Now, my junk box is *much* deeper. I could probably assemble an entire > PET PCB and Amiga PCB, just from spares. Thankfully, I don't have to. You mean you actually have spare 6520 chips? How many can you send me and how much do you want? I have at least one dead one in one of my PETS. Philip.

26 years, 5 months

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Xerox workstation -- need hardware info!

by yoda＠isr.ist.utl.pt

>>>>> "Tony" == Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> writes: Tony> I have a daybreak. To confirm it's the same machine, it's a Tony> brown tower case with 5 card slots on the back. From the Tony> left (looking at the back), they are : Tony> Memory/video Spare (memory expansion?) Mesa Processor Board Tony> I/O Processor Board Spare (Optional I/O) Tony> To the right of those there's a fold-down door with the PSU Tony> and hard disk behind it. The floppy drive (and tape streamer Tony> on my machine) are separate boxes that stack on top of the Tony> main tower. I have all slots full, I cannot confirm the order right now, but it seems right to me. In my unit, the PSU e ontop the harddisk, and there are three fans on the bottom of the case, that slide just like a rack (I guess it's even numbered after all the other boards), after a couple of screws have been removed. Tony> I also have a monitor - a big (Samtron?) monochrome Tony> thing. What I don't have is the keyboard or mouse. The Tony> keyboard plugs into the 5 pin DIN socket on the monitor Tony> base, the mouse, I believe, plugs into the keyboard. Hum, one of the boards of my unit, the one with the floppy interface, ethernet, and serial ports, has a DB9 conector labeled keyboard. But I found a couple of extra lines in the DB15 monitor connector besides video and sync signals... Tony> I am told that hardwre documentation and especially Tony> schematics for this machine are impossible to obtain. When I Tony> have time, I'll attack my machine with a logic analyser and Tony> try to figure out something about it. But that won't happen Tony> soon, I'm afraid. Thanks for the info anyway. Cheers, -- *** Rodrigo Martins de Matos Ventura <yoda(a)isr.ist.utl.pt> *** Teaching Assistant and MSc. Student at ISR: *** Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica, Polo de Lisboa *** Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa, Portugal *** PGP Public Key available on my homepage: *** http://www.isr.ist.utl.pt/~yoda *** Key fingerprint = 0C 0A 25 58 46 CF 14 99 CF 9C AF 9E 10 02 BB 2A

26 years, 5 months

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card edge connectors

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I'm looking to buy several card edge connectors, preferrably with solder >ends. I'm not exactly sure of the size of the connector though. > >Its a 10x2 connector, and the width of each connector&space appears to >be a tiny bit more than 1.5 times the same measurements from a IBM XT >expansion card. IE, putting the edge connectors together, 3 connectors and >gap spaces on a XT board are almost the same as 2 connectors and gap >spaces on the connector I need to purchase. Common pitches for card edge connectors are 0.1", 0.125", 0.156", and 0.24". The ISA-bus connector is 0.1" pitch, so I'm willing to bet you want a 0.156" pitch card edge connector. >Any ideas of the proper name for what i'm looking for is, and maybe a >source that I could obtain these from, will be appreciated. I'm rebuilding >20+ year old Terak keyboards, and this will help complete the project. You're lucky that you're in the same state with one of the best distributors for card edge connectors, Digikey. Go to http://www.digikey.com/ and you'll find that EDAC and Sullins make edge connectors like what you want, with your choice of solder tail or solder eyelet terminations. For your use, it sounds like you want to put wires on the edge connectors, so I'm guessing that you want the solder eyelet termination, in which case you want EDAC 305-020-520-202, Digikey EDC307200-ND, which will cost you exactly $1.98. -- 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, 5 months

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card edge connectors

by edick＠idcomm.com

If you compare the pin spacing with that of the classic 44-pin edge connector, you may find it's the same, based on what you wrote. I'd guess it's 0.15625" spacing. There are really only three typical spacings from the old days: 5/32", 1/8", and 1/10". The S-100 used 1/8" while the ISA Bus connectors used 0.100. The old KIM-Bus was 5/32". Is that the info you needed? Dick -----Original Message----- From: Lawrence LeMay <lemay(a)cs.umn.edu> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 2:36 PM Subject: card edge connectors >I'm looking to buy several card edge connectors, preferrably with solder >ends. I'm not exactly sure of the size of the connector though. > >Its a 10x2 connector, and the width of each connector&space appears to >be a tiny bit more than 1.5 times the same measurements from a IBM XT >expansion card. IE, putting the edge connectors together, 3 connectors and >gap spaces on a XT board are almost the same as 2 connectors and gap >spaces on the connector I need to purchase. > >Any ideas of the proper name for what i'm looking for is, and maybe a >source that I could obtain these from, will be appreciated. I'm rebuilding >20+ year old Terak keyboards, and this will help complete the project. > >-Lawrence LeMay > lemay(a)cs.umn.edu

26 years, 5 months

1
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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > What is the (practical) difference between a 6520 and a 6821? They look > to be very similar devices IIRC. I do not know. I do, however, have an abundance of 6821 chips. -ethan _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

26 years, 5 months

1
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Compro, S100 & 8" drives

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I can grab a big Compro (model:?) computer that the junk guys says is a <S100 computer. it includes two 8" drives. What model? They had at least 4 or 5. <Anyone know anything about this box? Generic question generic answer.... Yes! Allison

26 years, 5 months

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Compro, S100 & 8" drives

by steverob＠hotoffice.com

> Ah yes. Active use of Rax's theory in computing collecting. I have multiple > instances of empirical proof of it's validity. Wonder what I would need to draw > an Apple 1 to me. > CASH! Steve Robertson - <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>

26 years, 5 months

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Disc drive repair shops?

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 6/22/99 1:06:33 PM Pacific Daylight Time, ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes: > > > Anyone know of a company/person who fixes/refurbishes/aligns floppy drives? > > > I need some old floppies worked on. > Try ABC Drives 818-885-7157 ITS 800-342-Disk they also do 8" floppies and Pertec I can find more if these don't help. Paxton

26 years, 5 months

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The acid test, sinewaves ala tty

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Perhaps not a true acid test, but one that reassures me as to its veracity. I loaded FOCAL-8 tonight from tape via the '33s reader, then typed in one of the example programs from the programming in Focal pamphlet that found the intersection of two functions and then "plotted" them using ASCII graphics. It all worked as expected so I'm officially declaring this setup revived. I also found a kind soul on the greenkeys list who will re-ink ASR-33 ribbons so I will have something of a supply of those. All in all I am quite pleased and it should make for a _much_ better VCF display running Focal than it did last year just running the memory test! --Chuck

26 years, 5 months

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Paul Montgomery, dead of heart attack at 39...

by jfoust＠threedee.com

<http://www.play.com/news/062199-2.html> Paul was one of the founders of the First Amiga User Group in the mid-80s in San Jose. He soon became part of NewTek, makers of the prescient DigiView video digitizer for the Amiga, and the video manipulation device the Video Toaster. Paul left NewTek with several other employees to form Play several years ago, who made the Snappy video digitizer for PCs, and the Trinity video effects device. - John

26 years, 5 months

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DEC TS05 Tape Controller ?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>What DEC module would be the Q-Bus controller for a TS05 (9-track) tape >drive? I just aquired a drive and I'd like to give it a spin. For Q-bus: M7196 TSV05 Q TSV05 controller for Q/Q22 bus For Unibus: M7455 TSU05 U TSU05 controller Since the TS05 interface is just a minor variation on Pertec Formatted, *most* generic Pertec formatted formatters (i.e. Dilog DQ132, Emulex QT13, etc.) will work. -- 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, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Philip.Belben(a)pgen.com wrote: > > > Ethan Dicks wrote: > You mean you actually have spare 6520 chips? How many can you send me and > how much do you want? I have at least one dead one in one of my PETS. I will have to look. I bought a former Commodore dealer when they went bankrupt in 1992. I do have a tacklebox full of PET parts. I have no idea what a 6520 is worth these days. They used to sell for between $5 and $10 when I had to replace one in the old days. -ethan _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

26 years, 5 months

1
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QXL

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

This is not really on topic, since I failed to find any classic computers, but... I just got pointed towards qxl.com, "Europe's biggest on-line auction". It was (a) very short of stuff for sale; (b) expensive; (c) devoid of anything I might have considered buying. Has anyone on this list _ever_ bought _anything_ useful and/or at a sensible price from QXL? Or had I better just look at the US on-line auctions and pay the transatlantic shipping? 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, 5 months

1
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Pirates...

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

Hello All: Any enlightenment as to what "QDOS" stands for? My understanding is "Quick & Dirty Operating System." 0/0 Glen Goodwin

26 years, 5 months

2
1
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DEC TS05 Tape Controller ?

by wrking＠tsoft.com

What DEC module would be the Q-Bus controller for a TS05 (9-track) tape drive? I just aquired a drive and I'd like to give it a spin. Thanks, Bill

26 years, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Allison J Parent <allisonp(a)world.std.com> wrote: After I wrote: > >I just bought the bare [Quest Elf] board. > > It was available as a kit but rarely did I ever buy the kit if I could get > the bare board. I had (and still have) a very deep junk box. In high school, I had enough of a junk box to build most of the Elf with scrounged parts (I did screw up and stick in some 4001's instead of the 4011's the first time I assembled the Elf. It didn't work so well ;-) Now, my junk box is *much* deeper. I could probably assemble an entire PET PCB and Amiga PCB, just from spares. Thankfully, I don't have to. -ethan _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

26 years, 5 months

2
1
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WTF?

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

That was the traffic signal control system they wrote software for before they got the MITS contract. They mumble its name briefly in the dialogue. "TrafficNet" or something, I forget. Kai -----Original Message----- From: LordTyran [mailto:a2k@one.net] Sent: Sunday, June 20, 1999 5:18 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: WTF? I'm watching Pirates of Silicon Valley on TNT right now (yes, I'm so lame I have my computer in front of the television) and Bill Gates is working on a box... the dialogue infers that it is supposed to by an Altair, but it's just a big box with four blinking lights (alternates - 2 red, 2 green) and reading paper tape.... next scene he's working on a PDP-8/? (I I think, but I'm not up on my PDPs... not so much working on it as having the machine open on his table... no soldering iron, manuals, cards... I could have made the scene a lot better with the stuff in my basement...) Oh well. Kevin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- "It's you isn't it? THE BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL!" "In the flesh, on the phone and in your account..." -- BOFH #3

26 years, 5 months

3
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Compro, S100 & 8" drives

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I don't doubt that it was possible to build quite a good computer from the <board selection that the CompuPro line had, at one time or another. I <bought about ten combinations they recommended, however, and not a one of Try this, STD Compupro s100 crate. CPU-Z Z80 Ram17 MPX-1 DISK1 DISK3 InterfacerII Runs killer, no repairs needed depite the boards last being powered in '92. <Once there was a standard, I don't believe that any other single I could never figure it out. If anything after working with Multibus, Qbus and Omnibus s100 was pure anarchy though somewhat tolerent of bizzare variations. <manufacturer did more to undermine the standard than CompuPro. Their board <were not all claimed "compliant" to the standard and even those about whic <that claim was made often had little footnotes disclaiming certain things <and indicting where they felt their board didn't comply precisely. Since <that set a model for others, even if they didn't originate the practice, Based on the manuals I have (fairly complete) and expereince they were pushing IEE696 and no question their interpretation was somewhat off. Then again my NS*, Computime and CCS systems don't come close either. IEEE spec was pretty late in the game and was influenced more by the intel cpu timings (8085 and 8086 series). <non-compliant boards were proliferated throughout the S-100 world, spreadin <non-interoperability throughout. This lead people to throw up their hands It was already there, that was what IEE696 was supposed to fix long after the barn emptied and burned. Like none of the Teltek (or Konan) cards work in NS* crates due to some lines being grounded and the expectation of address mirroring on IO. <at the prospect of continuing to use S-100 systems in favor of the <relatively risk-free SBC's which were becoming VERY popular, e.g. Ferguson <Big Board, Ampro, et. al. and offered CP/M standard media compatibility at <the disk level and all the basic features built-in. That part I can't agree with more. S100 interoperability was at best terrible and generally systems integration was a true challenge. My Ampro and SB180 systems are compact, fast and worked (and still do) as advertized! Bus based systems are flexible, but without well established standards it can be tough to make them work with third party boards. My qbus and multibus experience also shows with a good solid specification it's still possible to produce a third party board that is marginal. <The IEEE Std.696 board scheme couldn't survive if it wasn't sincerely <implemented. True.. it required lot of stuff including timing specs that most Z80s didn't meet. It's worst fault was the adption was near the end of the S100s life span when there were already a flooded market of non conforming boards. While I was a user and adopted it S100 was a terrible bus! Allison

26 years, 5 months

1
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Analog Computer Patents

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

26 years, 5 months

1
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Compro, S100 & 8" drives

by edick＠idcomm.com

I don't doubt that it was possible to build quite a good computer from the board selection that the CompuPro line had, at one time or another. I bought about ten combinations they recommended, however, and not a one of them worked, so I sent them back. I still have a couple of their motherboards in various cardcages. I will say one thing against the CompuPro line, though, and I doubt it can be denied. Once there was a standard, I don't believe that any other single manufacturer did more to undermine the standard than CompuPro. Their boards were not all claimed "compliant" to the standard and even those about which that claim was made often had little footnotes disclaiming certain things and indicting where they felt their board didn't comply precisely. Since that set a model for others, even if they didn't originate the practice, because they were at the bottom of the price scale, their non-standard and non-compliant boards were proliferated throughout the S-100 world, spreading non-interoperability throughout. This lead people to throw up their hands at the prospect of continuing to use S-100 systems in favor of the relatively risk-free SBC's which were becoming VERY popular, e.g. Ferguson Big Board, Ampro, et. al. and offered CP/M standard media compatibility at the disk level and all the basic features built-in. The IEEE Std.696 board scheme couldn't survive if it wasn't sincerely implemented. (now I'll get off my soapbox . . .) Dick -----Original Message----- From: Allison J Parent <allisonp(a)world.std.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, June 22, 1999 5:39 PM Subject: Re: Compro, S100 & 8" drives ><That's a risky proposition. CompuPro produced some of the best but much o ><the worst S-100 hardware ever made. It seems that Bill Godbout would buy ><couple of boxcar loads of j-k flipflops and the next 5 boards his guys ><produced would be made from them. Nobody cared if they worked. People ><bought them because they were cheap. Interoperability was never a concern ><for Godbout. If it worked with ONE of their other boards, that was good ><enough. > >I have two systems and spares for two more and am using some of them in >other systems, all work. From some 10 systems I aquired and parted out to >several here. Those 10 systems ran a small company and I know their history >and the original owner would also argue they were solid. Generally the >later IEE696 complient boards are very good and my experience over 20 years >says they were one of the better vendors. HOWEVER::: The 696 complient >boards often did not work in systems that were way off the spec or were >pre696. My ALTAIR and the NS* systems are amoung them for the most part. >the NS* mis uses a few lines so the timings are off and a few liknes are >ground that would be otherwise assigned. Standard S100 problem till about >'83-84ish. > >The most interesting and scarce bord they did was the MPX-1 an IO >processing slave. I'm running one with a DISK-1 and DISK-3 in a z80 >system to offload the IO (most of the bios) and it's really a sweet deal. > >Allison >

26 years, 5 months

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N8T97N IC, what is it?

by edick＠idcomm.com

One other item, aside from speed to be considered when using this part, is the current it will sink. The LS variety was slower, basically because it used a slower technology. The 8T97 used essentially the same technology internally as the SCHOTTKY parts the various vendors sold, but it had stiffer outputs, i.e. could sink/source more current. Almost any part which was as fast and would source/sink as much current, will generally bring about the same behavior in the rest of the circuit. If the edges become too steep, as you might see in the form of too much ringing or overshoot/undershoot, soldering little 1/8-watt resistors in series with the outputs will help. I'd say start with 47 ohms and go as far to the smaller side of that as you like. Fairchild actually made a version of their "F-series" logic with 33-ohm resistors built in to minimize problems from both ground bounce and output edges being too steep. One other thing that helps somewhat is to solder a small (<.001uF) high-frequency cap between power and ground on the IC, straight across the back. The leads are long, but it will maintain enough local storage to help with the ground bounce. Dick -----Original Message----- From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Monday, June 21, 1999 7:53 PM Subject: Re: N8T97N IC, what is it? >> >> Jim: >> >> The 8T97 was also recently discontinued by Jameco. >> >> How does the propogation delay compare to the LS367? Tony said that the >> 8T97 has an 8us delay. ISTR that the reason to use the 8T97 was that it had >> a shorter delay. > > >Yes, you're right. The same Signetics data book lists the 74LS367 as >having a typical propagation delay of 10ns. Incidentally, if I claimed >8us for the 8T97, that was a typo, I meant 8ns, of course. > >Anyway, the 74F367 (I looked in the Philips databook) claims a typical >delay of 5ns, so that should easily replace the 8T97 (provided decoupling >an layout is OK - these FAST chips like to cause ground-bounce, etc). > > >-tony >

26 years, 5 months

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Compro, S100 & 8" drives

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<That's a risky proposition. CompuPro produced some of the best but much o <the worst S-100 hardware ever made. It seems that Bill Godbout would buy <couple of boxcar loads of j-k flipflops and the next 5 boards his guys <produced would be made from them. Nobody cared if they worked. People <bought them because they were cheap. Interoperability was never a concern <for Godbout. If it worked with ONE of their other boards, that was good <enough. I have two systems and spares for two more and am using some of them in other systems, all work. From some 10 systems I aquired and parted out to several here. Those 10 systems ran a small company and I know their history and the original owner would also argue they were solid. Generally the later IEE696 complient boards are very good and my experience over 20 years says they were one of the better vendors. HOWEVER::: The 696 complient boards often did not work in systems that were way off the spec or were pre696. My ALTAIR and the NS* systems are amoung them for the most part. the NS* mis uses a few lines so the timings are off and a few liknes are ground that would be otherwise assigned. Standard S100 problem till about '83-84ish. The most interesting and scarce bord they did was the MPX-1 an IO processing slave. I'm running one with a DISK-1 and DISK-3 in a z80 system to offload the IO (most of the bios) and it's really a sweet deal. Allison

26 years, 5 months

1
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That awful show on TNT

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

Sellam doesn't like the movie because he's an early Apple devotee, and the movie portrays Steve Jobs as an acid-dropping, drug-pushing, commune-living, personal-conviction-abandoning, illegitimate-daughter-fathering, beyond-workaholic, universally-disliked-yet-adored, employee-abusing, god-complex-nurturing, business-disrupting idiot whom one expects to have his employees drink hemlock-laden Kool-Aid at any moment. Oh, and Wozniak is portrayed as a small, fuzzy bunny. Does that about sum it up? Kai p.s. the Microsoft contingent gets off rather lightly by comparison, with Bill Gates shown as merely a shrewd, somewhat ruthless, absent-minded businessman with personal hygiene issues. Paul Allen is indistinguishable >from Wozniak in the film, just standing in the background of shots, and has about 30 seconds of screen time. Steve Ballmer, however, is played by Krusty the Klown from the Simpsons. -----Original Message----- From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:dastar@ncal.verio.com] Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 11:33 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: That awful show on TNT On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, Tony Duell wrote: > > I'm virtually apoplectic about this garbage that some of you may watched > > tonight on TV (I certainly did NOT watch it). > > For the benefit of those of us who don't get American TV, could you > please explain what this programme (show?) was and what it got wrong? Its a "story" (fictional) about the early days of Apple vs. Microsoft. I don't even want to talk about it really. Just know it was horrible in every way possible. If anyone dares to pipe up and say they actually liked it I swear to you I will unleash such a torrent of rage upon thee so please don't. Keep it to yourself for your own good. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

26 years, 5 months

4
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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I just bought the bare board. I may have mis-remembered the price. I <know I got the CPU chip and 1822 RAMs from Hughes-Peters here in Columbus. <also got the RCA VIP docs from them, too, when a friend cleaned out his fil <cabinet. It was available as a kit but rarely did I ever buy the kit if I could get the bare board. I had (and still have) a very deep junk box. Allison

26 years, 5 months

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Disc drive repair shops?

by arfonrg＠texas.net

Anyone know of a company/person who fixes/refurbishes/aligns floppy drives? I need some old floppys worked on. How about hard disc repair shops? ---------------------------------------- Tired of Micro$oft??? Move up to a REAL OS... ######__ __ ____ __ __ _ __ # #####/ / / / / __ | / / / / | |/ /## ####/ / / / / / / / / / / / | /### ###/ /__ / / / / / / / /_/ / / |#### ##/____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ /_____/ /_/|_|#### # ###### ("LINUX" for those of you without fixed-width fonts) ---------------------------------------- Be a Slacker! http://www.slackware.com Slackware Mailing List: http://www.digitalslackers.net/linux/list.html

26 years, 5 months

4
3
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PSU pinout

by a2k＠one.net

Hello, can anyone provide me with the voltages for the motherboard connector of a Panasonic Businessmate (286) PSU? On the floppy connectors, I assume that the red it +12V, the 2 blacks are GND, and the yellow is +5? Thanks, Kevin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It's you isn't it? THE BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL!" "In the flesh, on the phone and in your account..." -- BOFH #3

26 years, 5 months

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SoCal TRW Swapmeet 26th

by jpl15＠netcom.com

This coming Saturday, 26th June 99, will be another in an endless series of TRW Ham Radio and Electronics Swap Meets.. at the TRW Plant in El Segundo, CA, from 7:30 to 11:00 am. The meet is held on the last saturday of every month, no matter what. From the 405 (San Diego) freeway, take the Rosecrans exit and go west 1 mile to Aviation. Turn left (south) on Aviation [under the Metrolink bridge] and go down about four blocks. The TRW facility will be on your right, and the Meet is held in the southernmost parking lots. I will be in spaces J21 and J23, if anyone wishes to come by and heckle me in person. If someone has an item or two to sell, let me know via private e-mail and Arrangements will be made. Due to Ham Field Day activities, no brunch or will be held after the meet this time. *Next* month, however.... Cheers John

26 years, 5 months

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That awful show on TNT

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 6/20/99 11:36:32 PM US Eastern Standard Time, dastar(a)ncal.verio.com writes: > I'm virtually apoplectic about this garbage that some of you may watched > tonight on TV (I certainly did NOT watch it). > > If the facts and how they are perceived in the public's mind weren't > already distorted enough, this show totally trivializes the recent history > of computing. They would not do this with the Holocaust or Vietnam, so > how dare they create such a blatantly falsified story? > > It will take years to undo the misconceptions and outright falsehoods this > show has promoted. was it really that bad? I wasnt able to view it. Please give some examples of what was wrong with the show.

26 years, 5 months

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Desperate for immediate help with Win95 IP stack

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

Despite your best efforts to keep me from helping you by dissing Microsoft in your help request :), here is the solution to your problem from the MS KnowledgeBase (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q191/0/64.asp) Kai Error Messages When Running TCP/IP-Based Utilities or Programs[win95x] ID: Q191064 CREATED: 06-AUG-1998 MODIFIED: 28-MAY-1999 WINDOWS:95 WINDOWS PUBLIC | kberrmsg kbtool win95 \* Security : PUBLIC ====================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- The information in this article applies to: - Microsoft Windows 95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- SYMPTOMS ======== You may experience the following symptoms when you attempt to use a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol-based (TCP/IP-based) utility or program: - When you attempt to use the Winipcfg utility, you receive the following error message: Fatal Error! Cannot read IP configuration. - When you attempt to ping a Web site name or TCP/IP address using the Ping utility, you receive either of the following error messages: - Bad IP address <Web address> - PING: transmit failed, error code 10091 - When you attempt to load a Web page using Internet Explorer, you receive the following error message: Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site <Web address>. A connection with the server could not be established. - When you try to uninstall Microsoft Personal Web Server 4.0, you receive the following error message: WINSOCK2 is required to run this setup utility. Please click OK to exit setup. CAUSE ===== This behavior can occur if you attempt to uninstall the Winsock 2.0 update for Windows 95, but it is not uninstalled completely. RESOLUTION ========== To resolve this behavior, follow these steps: 1. Click Start, point to Programs, and then click MS-DOS Prompt. 2. At the command prompt, type the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command cd\<windows>\ws2bakup ws2bakup.bat exit where <windows> is the folder in which Windows is installed. NOTE: If you are prompted to abort, retry, or fail the operation, press A. This causes the Ws2bakup.bat to continue restoring up all the necessary files. NOTE: If you receive sharing violation error messages when you run the Ws2bakup.bat file, continue with step 3. 3. Click Start, click Shut Down, click "Restart in MS-DOS mode," and then click OK. 4. Repeat step 2. NOTE: If you receive error messages when you run the Ws2bakup.bat file stating that some programs cannot be run outside of Windows 95, disregard them. MORE INFORMATION ================ For more information about the Winsock 2.0 update for Windows 95, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Q182108 Availability of Windows Sockets 2.0 for Windows 95 Additional query words: wsock ====================================================================== Keywords : kberrmsg kbtool win95 Version : WINDOWS:95 Platform : WINDOWS Issue type : kbprb \* Edit Status : Published \* Tech Status : Reviewed -----Original Message----- From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:dastar@ncal.verio.com] Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 11:15 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: OT: Desperate for immediate help with Win95 IP stack I would normally not post such a lame question to this list but I need help desparately and don't have time to go wading through a haystack for a needle. Its bad enough I have to keep re-visiting this problem of windows deciding to kill itself every few months for the joy of it. My IP stack is hosed on my Win95 machine. When I try to ping any host I get "Transmit failed, error code 10091". If I try to run WINIPCFG I get "Fatal error: cannot read IP configuration". Since MS is fucked and doesn't have any sort of technical documentation anywhere useful that would list these errors I must now try to go searching for what this bullshit means. Unless you already have the answer? This started to happen after I had to re-install windows over the existing install, because it all of a sudden started coming up with a "Windows exception" during boot and would not boot any further. TIA. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

26 years, 5 months

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Xerox workstation -- need hardware info!

by yoda＠isr.ist.utl.pt

Hi. I got a Xeros workstation recently, probably a Daybreak. I was able to hack the monitor a bit and connect it, but I'm totally puzzled by the keyboard. Does anyone has any info about Daybreak hardware (ou Xerox ws. hardware in general), namely pinouts, etc. I'm really in need for that kind of info. Thanks, Cheers, -- *** Rodrigo Martins de Matos Ventura <yoda(a)isr.ist.utl.pt> *** Teaching Assistant and MSc. Student at ISR: *** Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica, Polo de Lisboa *** Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa, Portugal *** PGP Public Key available on my homepage: *** http://www.isr.ist.utl.pt/~yoda *** Key fingerprint = 0C 0A 25 58 46 CF 14 99 CF 9C AF 9E 10 02 BB 2A

26 years, 5 months

3
2
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FYI: Pacman Fever CD

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> On the chance that someone else here might be interested, the > arcade video game song classics Pacman Fever, etc. have now > been released on CD. Check out: > > http://www.bucknergarcia.com > > Now maybe I'll replace my vinyl copy. You throwing out the vinyl version? I'll take it! :-) (seriously, I buy vinyl whenever possible, but I'd mainly rather buy secondhand than pay new CD price for something like that.) More seriously, I checked out the URL you gave, and it says "the 8 songs from the vinyl version" but doesn't say what they are! Does it contain the Space Invaders song? That's the only video game song I remember hearing... 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, 5 months

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Compro, S100 & 8" drives

by edick＠idcomm.com

That's a risky proposition. CompuPro produced some of the best but much of the worst S-100 hardware ever made. It seems that Bill Godbout would buy a couple of boxcar loads of j-k flipflops and the next 5 boards his guys produced would be made from them. Nobody cared if they worked. People bought them because they were cheap. Interoperability was never a concern for Godbout. If it worked with ONE of their other boards, that was good enough. Dick (owner of lots of Godbout's hardware -and some even works!) -----Original Message----- From: Arfon Gryffydd <arfonrg(a)texas.net> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, June 22, 1999 8:38 AM Subject: Compro, S100 & 8" drives >I can grab a big Compro (model:?) computer that the junk guys says is a >S100 computer. it includes two 8" drives. > >Anyone know anything about this box? >---------------------------------------- > Tired of Micro$oft??? > > Move up to a REAL OS... >######__ __ ____ __ __ _ __ # >#####/ / / / / __ | / / / / | |/ /## >####/ / / / / / / / / / / / | /### >###/ /__ / / / / / / / /_/ / / |#### >##/____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ /_____/ /_/|_|#### ># ###### > ("LINUX" for those of you > without fixed-width fonts) >---------------------------------------- >Be a Slacker! http://www.slackware.com > >Slackware Mailing List: >http://www.digitalslackers.net/linux/list.html

26 years, 5 months

2
1
0 0

OT: Desperate for immediate help with Win95 IP stack

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

I would normally not post such a lame question to this list but I need help desparately and don't have time to go wading through a haystack for a needle. Its bad enough I have to keep re-visiting this problem of windows deciding to kill itself every few months for the joy of it. My IP stack is hosed on my Win95 machine. When I try to ping any host I get "Transmit failed, error code 10091". If I try to run WINIPCFG I get "Fatal error: cannot read IP configuration". Since MS is fucked and doesn't have any sort of technical documentation anywhere useful that would list these errors I must now try to go searching for what this bullshit means. Unless you already have the answer? This started to happen after I had to re-install windows over the existing install, because it all of a sudden started coming up with a "Windows exception" during boot and would not boot any further. TIA. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

26 years, 5 months

3
2
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FYI: Pacman Fever CD

by dlw＠trailingedge.com

On the chance that someone else here might be interested, the arcade video game song classics Pacman Fever, etc. have now been released on CD. Check out: http://www.bucknergarcia.com Now maybe I'll replace my vinyl copy. ----- David Williams - Computer Packrat dlw(a)trailingedge.com http://www.trailingedge.com

26 years, 5 months

2
1
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Bernoulli 10-10 (8 incher) available for shipping fee

by go＠ao.com

One of these beasts is available for the price of shipping (from zip 97339) if someone responds to be by Thursday (6/24/1999). Please save this guy >from the scrap heap. A short (two or three foot) cable is included, though the power cable is missing. (Connectors appear to be 37 pin D-sub (DC37?) at both ends. Guestimate weight is about 20 pounds. Check your preferred method of shipping. No media. Only one, so first-come, first-served. Gary

26 years, 5 months

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MITS ALTAIR 8-inch Floppy Auction

by edick＠idcomm.com

I sold mine to a local guy last week for $300. The last one on eBay about three weeks back went for $565. good luck! Dick -----Original Message----- From: Tom howe <howet(a)ohsu.edu> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, June 22, 1999 3:23 AM Subject: MITS ALTAIR 8-inch Floppy Auction Hello: I put an original 8-inch floppy drive for the Altair on Ebay. Go to this URL to see a picture of the unit and to place a bid: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120678854 --Tom

26 years, 5 months

1
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DEC Handbook, What on earth?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Wait a minute.... You can order out of print manuals from Compaq? How >much, and who do you contact? This sounds even more interesting than the >pair I've got! You call 1-800-DIGITAL, give them the part number (often EK-xxxxx-UG or -MM or whatever), and they'll tell you about availability. Not everything is available, but a fair amount of stuff from the 60's and 70's is available as kind-of nicely Xeroxed copies of the originals. Some of the copies are from microfiche and aren't so nice. It's hard to tell beforehand how nice the copy you end up getting will look! If you don't know the part number, a very handy tool is the DAS (Digital Assisted Services) searchable catalog, at http://www.digital.com/info/DAS-Catalog/dassearch.htm For example, I typed in "RX0" and it came back with these part numbers and prices: H771-A Pow Supply RX01 (RX11) 60 Hz $276.00 M7726-00 RX01 Controller $405.00 M7727-00 RX01 R/W Control $152.00 M7846-00 RX01 Unibus $426.00 M8029-00 RXV21, Q-bus RX02 Interface $381.00 M8256-00 RX211 Unibus RX02 Interface $518.00 EK-ORX01-MM RX01/08/11 Maintenance Manual $ 84.00 EK-ORX01-OP RX8/RX11 RX01 Floppy Disk Sys $ 21.00 EK-ORX02-UG RX02 Floppy Disk System Users $ 21.00 EK-RX012-PS RX01/RX02 Pocket Serivce Guide $ 42.00 Now clearly not all the RX01/02 parts that ever existed are in the above list, but it's a start. And it also shows you how DEC manual part numbers are often constructed; "-MM" is Maintenance Manual, "-UG" is User's Guide, "-PS" is the Pocket Service Guide, etc. -- 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, 5 months

1
0
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IBM book...

by mid＠auk.cx

Does anyone have a copy of the "IBM PC Network Technical Reference Manual" (c. 1984) that they could part with / copy/scan a few pages out of for me? I'm trying to write an RPL loader daemon and can't seem to figure out a few things about the protocol. (I'm trying to boot an IBM 8227, which is not-so-classic as the above book is.) Also, does anyone know of something (besides LANtastic, which I can't get to work), that will speak such an old thing as IBM "FIND/FOUND" RPL? Thanks af --- Adam Fritzler { mid(a)auk.cx, afritz(a)iname.com} http://www.auk.cx/~mid/ "Behold the power of cheese." -- National Dairy Council

26 years, 5 months

1
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DEC Handbook, What on earth?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I just got a box of doc's today in the mail, and I'm totally fascinated by >two of them. They're nicely done copies!?!? They have semi-heavy cream >coloured covers with the actual cover xeroxed onto them, and the pages are >xeroxes, but the right size. They're bound with the spiral plastic things. >Does anyone know what the story is with these? Are these copies that DEC >made, or did a 3rd party go to this much trouble? If you order out-of-print manuals from DEC (err, Compaq) today, they run Xeroxes off from originals - there's a special name for the facility they use to do this, but I can't remember it at the moment. The resulting document sounds very much like what you're describing. -- 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, 5 months

4
3
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Compro, S100 & 8" drives

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I can grab a big Compro (model:?) computer that the junk guys says is a >S100 computer. it includes two 8" drives. > >Anyone know anything about this box? I'm willing to bet they mean Compupro. Yes, they made a multitude of S-100 systems. One of the most common was their 8085/8088 combo system, as displayed with 8" drives in the Smithsonian. Compupro is a well-respected S-100/IEEE-696 manufacturer -- 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, 5 months

1
0
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Desperate for immediate help with Win95 IP stack

by bwit＠pobox.com

Sam, The 100xx errors returned by WinSock are generally the Berkeley errno values with 10000 added to them. This one has no Berkeley equivalent. The information I have on it is: The WinSock implementation cannot function at this time because the underlaying system it uses to provide network services is currently unavailable. o Check that WINSOCK.DLL is in the current path. o Check that WINSOCK.DLL is from the same vendor as the underlaying protocol stack. o Check that all WinSock components are installed and configured. Not much I know but maybe it will be of some help. Regards, Bob ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------- Bob Withers Two things are infinite: the universe and bwit(a)pobox.com human stupidity, and I'm not sure about http://www.pobox.com/~bwit the universe. - Albert Einstein ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------- ----- BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK ----- Version 3.1 http://www.geekcode.com GCS d- s: a+ C++ UO++ P L++ E--- W++ N++ o-- 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 ----- On Tuesday, June 22, 1999 1:15 AM, Sellam Ismail [SMTP:dastar@ncal.verio.com] wrote: > > I would normally not post such a lame question to this list but I need > help desparately and don't have time to go wading through a haystack for a > needle. Its bad enough I have to keep re-visiting this problem of windows > deciding to kill itself every few months for the joy of it. > > My IP stack is hosed on my Win95 machine. When I try to ping any host I > get "Transmit failed, error code 10091". If I try to run WINIPCFG I get > "Fatal error: cannot read IP configuration". > > Since MS is fucked and doesn't have any sort of technical documentation > anywhere useful that would list these errors I must now try to go > searching for what this bullshit means. Unless you already have the > answer? > > This started to happen after I had to re-install windows over the existing > install, because it all of a sudden started coming up with a "Windows > exception" during boot and would not boot any further. > > TIA. > > Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------ > Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. > > Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 05/25/99] >

26 years, 5 months

1
0
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MITS ALTAIR 8-inch Floppy Auction

by howet＠ohsu.edu

Hello: I put an original 8-inch floppy drive for the Altair on Ebay. Go to this URL to see a picture of the unit and to place a bid: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120678854 --Tom

26 years, 5 months

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OT: Found the solution for my own request for help

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

Just wanted to let everyone know in case they ever have to deal with this obnoxious bug that I found the solution on MS's support website. I did a search on the error code and got back two articles, the first of which detailed a procedure for fixing the problem, which had something to do with WinSock 2.0. I guess the lesson to be learned here is that, to their credit, what MS lacks in obvious documentation they make up for on their website at least. Sorry for the off-topic crap. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

26 years, 5 months

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That awful show on TNT

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

I'm virtually apoplectic about this garbage that some of you may watched tonight on TV (I certainly did NOT watch it). If the facts and how they are perceived in the public's mind weren't already distorted enough, this show totally trivializes the recent history of computing. They would not do this with the Holocaust or Vietnam, so how dare they create such a blatantly falsified story? It will take years to undo the misconceptions and outright falsehoods this show has promoted. I'm truly outraged. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

26 years, 5 months

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Brain Fart - which Xerox computer started GUI?

by bwit＠pobox.com

According to "Dealers of Lightning - Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age" it was the Alto. Bob ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Withers Two things are infinite: the universe and bwit(a)pobox.com human stupidity, and I'm not sure about http://www.pobox.com/~bwit the universe. - Albert Einstein ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK ----- Version 3.1 http://www.geekcode.com GCS d- s: a+ C++ UO++ P L++ E--- W++ N++ o-- 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 ----- On Sunday, June 20, 1999 10:14 PM, Glenatacme(a)aol.com [SMTP:Glenatacme@aol.com] wrote: > In a message dated 6/20/99 10:06:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > rcini(a)email.msn.com writes: > > > I just finished watching "Pirates of Silicon Valley" on TNT, an > > interesting interpretation of the dynamics between Apple and Microsoft from > > 1975 to 1997. > > > > Here's the question -- what was the name of the computer at Xerox that > > Steve Jobs "modeled" the Lisa/Mac after? Was it the Alto or the Star? > > Definitely it was the Star. My ex worked at Xerox from '85 through '87. > Some details in "Pirates" were, um, a little "inaccurate," but they got one > thing right -- there were a lot of really pissed off people at Xerox when the > Apple GUI hit the streets. > > Glen Goodwin > 0/0

26 years, 5 months

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WTF?

by a2k＠one.net

I'm watching Pirates of Silicon Valley on TNT right now (yes, I'm so lame I have my computer in front of the television) and Bill Gates is working on a box... the dialogue infers that it is supposed to by an Altair, but it's just a big box with four blinking lights (alternates - 2 red, 2 green) and reading paper tape.... next scene he's working on a PDP-8/? (I I think, but I'm not up on my PDPs... not so much working on it as having the machine open on his table... no soldering iron, manuals, cards... I could have made the scene a lot better with the stuff in my basement...) Oh well. Kevin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It's you isn't it? THE BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL!" "In the flesh, on the phone and in your account..." -- BOFH #3

26 years, 5 months

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N8T97N IC, what is it?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Yes, you're right. The same Signetics data book lists the 74LS367 as <having a typical propagation delay of 10ns. Incidentally, if I claimed <8us for the 8T97, that was a typo, I meant 8ns, of course. < <Anyway, the 74F367 (I looked in the Philips databook) claims a typical <delay of 5ns, so that should easily replace the 8T97 (provided decoupling <an layout is OK - these FAST chips like to cause ground-bounce, etc). At that time the difference of 2-4nS was insignificant relative to CPU timing and memory timing. At the time the 8t97 was vogue memories were fast at 250nS and typically 450ns was the norm for Eproms. I freely swapped 8t97s with '367s based on availability. Also as time wore on the 8t97 would disappear and the '367 would get faster. Moot point in general then. Allison

26 years, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<$14.95". I looked through all the 1979 BYTEs and I saw the board for sale <but I didn't see a $99 original ELF kit. The Super ELF kit was $106.95. My <only Quest catalog is for 1982 and I didn't see the board or the kit in it Wrong mag... should have been looking in Popular Electonics, maybe Kbaud. One of the truths of the late 70s and early 80s was BYTE was only one of the hourde! Allison

26 years, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Doug Coward <dcoward(a)pressstart.com> wrote: > Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks(a)yahoo.com> said: > >I have a Quest Elf that I built from a kit as a kid... > OK, I stand corrected. I know you and I talked about this before. Right. > But I never could find an advertisement for the Quest ELF. But with a date, > I finally found it. The print in their ad is so small I could read this ad > 20 times and not see this one little line that says "original ELF kit board > $14.95". Maybe that was the price. It's been so long, I forget. I remember that I could afford it and not a full-blown Elf II or whatever was common by then. > I looked through all the 1979 BYTEs and I saw the board for sale > but I didn't see a $99 original ELF kit. That came later, I think. Try around 1980 or 1981. > The Super ELF kit was $106.95. My only Quest catalog is for 1982 and > I didn't see the board or the kit in it. I think it was gone by then. By 1982, I had a C-64 (w/1540!) I was getting paid to program. > But I'll look again tonight. And I'll dig out BYTE for 80 and 81. Good place to look. I have a crate of those, too. Some did not survive a basement flood at my mother's place. :-( > How's the ELF99 coming? No progress lately. I got stumped at the layout phase and have had zero time to devote to it in the past six months. I've been working on my farm when I'm not pushing bits to pay for the farm. I have some I/O chips and other parts, a schematic captured in OrCAD and no idea how to get a valid netlist from OrCAD Capture into OrCAD layout. I can do the tutorials from the rat's-nests, but I can't get my schematics (even a 2-chip TTL test) to generate a file that will give me part silhouettes and a rat's-nest. > allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) said: > > Quest Electornics, ELF as per the PE article. I have one. > > Was your ELF a full kit or just a bare board when you bought it? I just bought the bare board. I may have mis-remembered the price. I know I got the CPU chip and 1822 RAMs from Hughes-Peters here in Columbus. I also got the RCA VIP docs from them, too, when a friend cleaned out his file cabinet. > And I guess this is as good a time as any to ask if anyone has a > booklet called "Programs for the COSMAC ELF: GRAPHICS" by Paul C. > Moews. I have the other two ": INTERPRETERS" and ": MUSIC and GAMES" > that I can copy for a copy of ": GRAPHICS". Never seen it, sorry. -ethan _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

26 years, 5 months

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GridPad 1910 sales?

by roblwill＠usaor.net

Me neither. I have a WANG WLTC that I'm supposed to send him and need his address, but he hasn't answered any of the emails... ///--->>> -Jason Willgruber (roblwill(a)usaor.net) ICQ#: 1730318 <http://members.tripod.com/general_1> -----Original Message----- From: Cameron Kaiser <ckaiser(a)oa.ptloma.edu> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Montag, 21. Juni 1999 16:04 Subject: Re: GridPad 1910 sales? >::Hi. A while back I was talking with Rodger on the list about the >::(appearant) abundance of GridPad 1910's that he was selling.... did th >::message t osend money float by me, or are we all still in waiting? And >::come to think of it, I haven't seen any messages from Rodger recently... > >Nor I. I sent him a couple of "anyone home?" mails which didn't bounce, but >I hadn't heard any reply, either. > >-- >-------------------------- personal page: http://calvin.ptloma.edu/~spectre/ -- >Cameron Kaiser Database Programmer/Administrative Computing >Point Loma Nazarene University Fax: +1 619 849 2581 >ckaiser(a)ptloma.edu Phone: +1 619 849 2539 >-- It is a tremendous Mitzvah to be happy always! -- Reb. Nachman ------------- >

26 years, 5 months

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N8T97N IC, what is it?

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I picked up some cards that say "Dual Port RAM" that have a number of these ICs on them. They all have 1979 and 1980 date codes on them and the letters SA or SB. Anyone know what they are? I can't find them in any of my IC references. Joe

26 years, 5 months

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Quest ELF was Top 150 .....

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks(a)yahoo.com> said: >I have a Quest Elf that I built from a kit as a kid. It was the Popular >Science design, pre-1861 video chip. It has a speaker, a Q LED, 8 toggle >switches for data, DMA/EF4 pushbutton, RUN/LOAD/MEMPROT toggles and the >original TIL311 latching hex displays. My PCB is rev 2.1, 1979. I bought >just the PCB and assembly plans for $35 around 1980. The entire kit was >available for $99. OK, I stand corrected. I know you and I talked about this before. But I never could find an advertisement for the Quest ELF. But with a date, I finally found it. The print in their ad is so small I could read this ad 20 times and not see this one little line that says "original ELF kit board $14.95". I looked through all the 1979 BYTEs and I saw the board for sale but I didn't see a $99 original ELF kit. The Super ELF kit was $106.95. My only Quest catalog is for 1982 and I didn't see the board or the kit in it. But I'll look again tonight. And I'll dig out BYTE for 80 and 81. How's the ELF99 coming? allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) said: > Quest Electornics, ELF as per the PE article. I have one. Was your ELF a full kit or just a bare board when you bought it? And I guess this is as good a time as any to ask if anyone has a booklet called "Programs for the COSMAC ELF: GRAPHICS" by Paul C. Moews. I have the other two ": INTERPRETERS" and ": MUSIC and GAMES" that I can copy for a copy of ": GRAPHICS". Thanks, --Doug =================================================== Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com (work) Sr Software Engineer mranalog(a)home.com (home) Press Start Inc. http://www.pressstart.com Sunnyvale,CA Visit the new Analog Computer Museum and History Center at http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog ===================================================

26 years, 5 months

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MITS HDC Enclosure

by edick＠idcomm.com

I have a MITS HDC enclosure which has surfaced after some time in "the heap" which has all the original markings, and paint, along with 20+ years' scuffs and scrapes, but which has no controller electronics, nor do I believe it ever had any. This baby has a multi-slot 100-pin (not S-100) bacplane and a (+5, +12 ?) linear power supply inside. No connector panel and no cover for the cardcage. It might make a nice enclosure for a bridge controller + drive combo. Any offers? Dick

26 years, 5 months

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GridPad 1910 sales?

by bwit＠pobox.com

The last I heard from Roger he said it was going to be a while before he was ready. I haven't seen anything else. Bob ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Withers Two things are infinite: the universe and bwit(a)pobox.com human stupidity, and I'm not sure about http://www.pobox.com/~bwit the universe. - Albert Einstein ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK ----- Version 3.1 http://www.geekcode.com GCS d- s: a+ C++ UO++ P L++ E--- W++ N++ o-- 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 ----- On Monday, June 21, 1999 4:37 PM, Tim Hotze [SMTP:review@RyansPC.ryanspc.com] wrote: > Hi. A while back I was talking with Rodger on the list about the > (appearant) abundance of GridPad 1910's that he was selling.... did th > message t osend money float by me, or are we all still in waiting? And > come to think of it, I haven't seen any messages from Rodger recently... > > thanks > > Tim >

26 years, 5 months

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WTD: Non-working Mac Portable with good screen

by rcini＠email.msn.com

Hello, all: I decided to fiddle around with my Mac Portable again, after a few months of it sitting in a closet. My unit, non-backlit, has a row or two of bad pixels. If anyone has a non-working Portable with a good screen, let me know. Thanks. [ Rich Cini/WUGNET [ ClubWin!/CW7 [ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking [ Collector of "classic" computers [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/ <---------------------------- reply separator

26 years, 5 months

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DEC Handbook, What on earth?

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

I just got a box of doc's today in the mail, and I'm totally fascinated by two of them. They're nicely done copies!?!? They have semi-heavy cream coloured covers with the actual cover xeroxed onto them, and the pages are xeroxes, but the right size. They're bound with the spiral plastic things. Does anyone know what the story is with these? Are these copies that DEC made, or did a 3rd party go to this much trouble? I do have one copy of "Introduction to Programming" that is spiral bound, but it was printed and bound that way. These are most definitly xeroxes. Way Cool! 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, 5 months

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Where the heck did they get the Lisa 1?

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

In Pirates of Silicon Valley last night (let's not get into the movie please), they trundled by an Apple Lisa 1 on a cart. Where the heck did they get a Lisa 1? They're rare as hen's teeth! They certainly didn't get it from Apple, given the movie's treatment of Steve Jobs (let's not get into the movie please...) Has anyone actually seen a Lisa 1 in person, or knows anyone who has one? Kai

26 years, 5 months

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This weeks finds.

by black＠gco.apana.org.au

Pays to stay away from the tip shops for a while :-) Today I got: Three Dick Smith VZ200's plus tape drives, joysticks, manuals & a bit of software, another CBM 1571 & a 1541-II, a CBM 1802 monitor, a CBM 1701 amber monitor (been looking for one of these & something I've been looking for, an Apple //c (it even works!), although the case is rather shabby. As well as the usual collection of books, tapes & disks for the 64...... cheers, Lance

26 years, 5 months

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DEC parts list?

by mark_k＠iname.com

Hi, Some time ago, I thought I read that someone on this list has a list of DEC part numbers (and presumably what each part number is for). If anyone does, can they please contact me? I want to know which DEC computers would be compatible with some 80-pin 4MB SIMMs that I have. (The SIMMs have this on the PCB: 5019144-01 A1P2) -- Mark

26 years, 5 months

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ASR-33 on-line

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Well, in a somewhat anti-climatic moment I hooked up the ASR-33 to my PDP-8/e, switched on the 8/e, then switched on the tty to "line" and got the expected idle hum. I keyed in the "simple test" that is in the maintenence book which simply echos the keyboard to the printer, and that worked, and then keyed in the "real" test which was to take the character and add 1 to it and then echo it. (A DEC engineer explained to me that this test actually proved the character typed went through the ALU versus a M8650 with a short that just connected tx to rx). Everything worked as expected. Now to get my paper tapes to run through it and boot Focal or PAL8 the old fashioned way. --Chuck

26 years, 5 months

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Where the heck did they get the Lisa 1?

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

Hmm, no, the picture of the Lisa on their web site is a Lisa 2. Kai -----Original Message----- From: Lawrence LeMay [mailto:lemay@cs.umn.edu] Sent: Monday, June 21, 1999 2:04 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: Where the heck did they get the Lisa 1? They got it from The Computer Museum of America. I was just at their web site today, and saw all sorts of references to the movie, plus I recall that they said the Apple I they have at the museum is actually just a mockup that was made for the movie. http://www.computer-museum.org/ -Lawrence LeMay > In Pirates of Silicon Valley last night (let's not get into the movie > please), they trundled by an Apple Lisa 1 on a cart. > > Where the heck did they get a Lisa 1? They're rare as hen's teeth! They > certainly didn't get it from Apple, given the movie's treatment of Steve > Jobs (let's not get into the movie please...) > > Has anyone actually seen a Lisa 1 in person, or knows anyone who has one? > > Kai >

26 years, 5 months

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Aesthetics

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 21, 17:53, Philip.Belben(a)pgen.com wrote: > I too like the PET. > But I don't like the 8032SK or its 8296 descendant. I agree with that. Actually, I didn't like any of the big-screen PETs. Out of proportion to my eyes. > Lots of people sing the praise of the SGI Personal Iris descendant that looks > like two blue plastic wedges that don't quite make a cuboid when placed > together. But I thought that was naff, as we say over here. That's an Indy workstation. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 5 months

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Aesthetics

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

> Has anyone ever put together a list of handsomely designed computers? > Not great runners, not powerful, but just aesthetically pleasing? My > impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the > first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques. I have seen some of the replies to this, and rather than join in the argument, I'll just make some suggestions. I too like the PET. But I don't like the 8032SK or its 8296 descendant. (I always maintained that SK stood for Silly Kasing). Yes, it's not bad to look at, and was one of the first curvy machines, but the keyboard plug that always falls out at the worst moment spoils it totally for me. Lots of people sing the praise of the SGI Personal Iris descendant that looks like two blue plastic wedges that don't quite make a cuboid when placed together. But I thought that was naff, as we say over here. We had some machines (PC clones) at work a few years ago which were square with one corner cut off. You put them in the corner of one of those desks with curved fronts, with the cut-off corner towards you, and find that the latter has floppy drives etc. in it. But I can't remember the manufacturer. I thought it was a nice (visual) design, but boring machines. Philip. PS I like the original Mac better (visually) than any subsequent Mac)

26 years, 5 months

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Top 150 Collectible Microcomputers

by Philip.Belben＠pgen.com

Getting into work after the weekend, I find that Kai has been compiling a little list... > Here's the first draft at a list of the Top 150 Collectible Microcomputers > (from the U.S.A.). I would have gone for Top 100 but there are just too > many great machines, and 200 is too many. > > It's currently at 133 items. Some related models are combined as one, even > though they are rather different... other similar models are kept separate. > This is basically just because I personally feel they rate their own > separate listing, feel free to disagree. > > Please add items! Items on the list should meet the following categories: > > 1) Collectible Microcomputer (yes, I know the H-11 is on here as an > "honorary" micro) > 3) Sold in the USA > 4) Available from a manufacturer (not just plans in a magazine) Why criterion 3? (What was 2, by the way?) If you want "from the USA" wouldn't it be better to specify designed and/or manufactured there? To use your analogy from another post, you would define the top Italian sports cars as designed/built in Italy, not just those sold there. My view is that the US is so dominant in microcomputers, that your restriction excludes interesting machines without a significant reduction in the quantity of entrants... *************************************** Still, I have a few to add: Tektronix 4051. Not many around. First micro to be designed starting with graphics and then going on to processor. (since I like the 4050 series, I might put the 4054A on a list of top non-micros...) IBM 6150. This was the RT-PC. IBM's first RISC box; IBM's first Workstation; and (to make sure it qualifies) it was sold under a variety of names, including "6150 Microcomputer" Vectrex. A home computer with vector graphics. May not be a wonderful design, but funnnnnn concept! I think someone has already mentioned the Victor (we called it the Sirius, but that's another matter) *************************************** I also would like to condense the list in places. Tandy model 4P should be on the same line as model 3/4, especially if you put all 3 Coco machines on a single line. Do you need quite that many Apple IIs? *************************************** After this it's minor quibbles: You commented elsewhere that the PET 4032/8032 was in as "PET gets a sensible keyboard and goes for business" or words to that effect. This happened with the 2001-8B (-16B and -32B) and their renumbered equivalents, 3008, 3016, 3032. I'd put the PET 2001-8 on one line; 2001-B, -N and -K, 3000, 4000 on the next and 8032, 8096, 8296 on a third - the 80 column PETs. HP85 - how about the 86 or 87? Or the 75? Or even the 71? Why that one and no other? Still, it's an interesting list. Keep up the good work! Philip.

26 years, 5 months

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Acoustic Coupled Modem

by arfonrg＠texas.net

I just picked up an Anderson Jacobson (Model: AJ1235) acoustic/direct coupled modem. Anyone have any information on this? QUESTION #1: The front panel has a slide switch that is labled "Disconnect" and has ON and OFF positions. There is also a momentary push button labled "connect". Now, I assume that the "Disconnect" switch is to pick-up and release the phone line when the direct coupled plugs are used but, what does the "Connect" button do? QUESTION #2: There is a 300/1200 baud switch. all of the acoustic modems I have ever used only ran at 300 or slower. Can you run 1200 baud over an acoustic coupled modem? QUESTION #3: The place I bought this at has a few more. Anyone interested? ---------------------------------------- Tired of Micro$oft??? Move up to a REAL OS... ######__ __ ____ __ __ _ __ # #####/ / / / / __ | / / / / | |/ /## ####/ / / / / / / / / / / / | /### ###/ /__ / / / / / / / /_/ / / |#### ##/____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ /_____/ /_/|_|#### # ###### ("LINUX" for those of you without fixed-width fonts) ---------------------------------------- Be a Slacker! http://www.slackware.com Slackware Mailing List: http://www.digitalslackers.net/linux/list.html

26 years, 5 months

5
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MAS-20 Microbotics hard drive for Amiga?

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

I'm looking for a MAS-20 hard drive for the Amiga made by Microbotics. Does anyone have one they'd like to sell or trade? Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out. Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0! See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 05/25/99]

26 years, 5 months

3
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PDP 11/23 System to go (Long Island, NY) (fwd)

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

A possible rescue, of what sounds like an interestingly outfitted system, especially if you are into video. Replies to the original poster please... -jim --- jimw(a)computergarage.org The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174 >>> Coming soon to www.computergarage.org - the CBBS/NW on-line archives >>> Coming to VCF III (2-3 October 1999) - CBBS/NW live! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 14:45:00 GMT From: cdknet(a)my-deja.com Reply-To: larry(a)nobots_cdknet.com.UUCP To: Info-PDP11(a)transarc.com Subject: PDP 11/23 System to go (Long Island, NY) I have an 11/23 system that needs a new home. It is actually a complete IMAGES system as sold by CGL,Inc. way back in the the early eighties. It runs a legit flavor of UNIX off an RL02 diskpack. The bundle consists of three wheel-around racks and a few loose items. Rack #1 is the CPU and two mounted RL02 drives. Rack #2 contains (3) Genisco frame buffers and power supplies. Rack #3 contains a video patch panel, sync generator, RGB->NTSC video encoder, NTSC->RGB video decoder and a video digitizer. In addition, there is a VT100 terminal, a large graphics tablet, a third unmounted RL02 drive and a cabinet rack with over a dozen RL02 diskpacks. At this time I would prefer to unload the system as a package rather than break out individual components. Interested parties must be prepared to move system. I will not ship. For more information please reply via email by removing the letters "nobots_" from this address: larry(a)nobots_cdknet.com -larry

26 years, 5 months

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Aesthetics

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Has anyone ever put together a list of handsomely designed computers? <Not great runners, not powerful, but just aesthetically pleasing? My <impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the <first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques. Hummm. Well I think form and function are related. My thoughts would suggest... NorthStar* Horizon (wood cover) as a simple but pleasing to the eye design. Kaypro Toteables, very functional and simple. DEC BA123 based machines for simple styling and good mechanical/thermal engineering. Epson PX-8 laptop. small package for its time but not industrial looking. TRS80, TI99, Commodore C64/C128 for evolving the wedge design to the limit. Others, PDP-10 (KA10), PDP12 Allison

26 years, 5 months

3
2
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id this transputer tram

by emu＠ecubics.com

HI, -----Original Message----- From: Ram Meenakshisundaram <rmeenaks(a)olf.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, June 17, 1999 7:45 AM Subject: Re: id this transputer tram >Tony Duell wrote: > >> I don't know this one - my experience of transputers is restricted to >> genuine INMOS TRAMs and homebrew boards. Of course a 50 pin IDC could be >> a number of things... >> >> My first question is what chips are on the board (on both sides...) Any >> large chips apart from the T8? > >I was mistaken it is a T225 chip and apparently it might be a SCSI Tram. >However, I don't see any NCR scsi chip or any other chip that might be SCSI >related. The only other chip I see is a chip from Logic. I wonder if that >is the SCSI controller. If that is a "LOGIC" it could be a scsi controller. Logic made a 5380 compatible/and better controller to the ncr5380. You should see the number somewhere on this chip "5380" or similar. have fun, emanuel

26 years, 5 months

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AT&T Unix PC 7300

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

Kai's original Top 150 list had the AT&T Unix PC 7300 on it. I passed one of these up in a junkyard a few months ago. It looked a bit too much like a terminal and I didn't know anything about it. Did I do wrong? My decision was a little swayed by the fact that I powered it up without looking and something went bang. It was then that I saw the 110v sticker on the bottom. We have 240v around here! >Apple Macintosh 512K Through SE >Apple Macintosh Portable >AT&T Unix PC / 3B2 / 7300 >Atari 400 >Atari 800

26 years, 5 months

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Computers in the media

by wrm＠ccii.co.za

Apple IIs in Brazil. Must be Apple II from the way the image loads onto the screen in bands. W

26 years, 5 months

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Sanyo MBC 555 PC/IBM 5150 XT

by PATTON2R＠aol.com

Greetings to all, I was wondering does anybody have a keyboard to fit either of these computers (a Sanyo MBC 555 or a IBM 5150 XT) and would like to sell it? Robert Patton II Lakewood, WA

26 years, 5 months

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Sorry for blank msg

by jpl15＠netcom.com

^C is *so* close to ^X But I still love Pine... Cheerz John

26 years, 5 months

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Epson HX-20

by bsa3＠cornell.edu

Today, I found a mint Epson HX-20 at the MIT hamfest. All the original packaging and manuals, and only $15. It doesn't have a tape drive or expansion module, but it's cool nonetheless. Anyone know where to find software or monitor documentation for this thing? -- Brad Ackerman N1MNB "...faced with the men and women who bring home bsa3(a)cornell.edu the pork, voters almost always re-elect them." http://skaro.pair.com/ -- _The Economist_, 31 Oct 1998

26 years, 5 months

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A bit of Xerox history.

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

In a message dated 6/20/99 10:32:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time, cmcmanis(a)mcmanis.com writes: > The computers built by PARC were: > ALTO - this was a prototype microcode loadable machine > with CDC disk pack attached. Generally credited to > be the machine that was running the software that > inspired the Mac and later windows (Charles went to > work for Microsoft from PARC) > ALTO II - Was Xeroxes attempt to manufacture the Alto as a > product. (they weren't very successful) > DANDELION - Officialy the Xerox 8010 Workstation. Which ran > a set of applications called "Star" or "The Star > Document Processing System" > DORADO - ECL version of the "D-machine" architecture that > was the machine that ran Smalltalk really quickly. > > Both the Alto and the Dandelion also ran XDE (called "tahoe") which was the > "Xerox Development Environment" and it ran on top of an operating system > called "Pilot". > > This first-hand from the Network Services Architect for the Office Systems > Business Unit in Palo Alto, who also happens to be my wife of nearly 16 > years. Well, maybe my ex was wrong . . . again . . . ;>) Glen Goodwin 0/0

26 years, 5 months

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Brain Fart - which Xerox computer started GUI?

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

In a message dated 6/20/99 10:06:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, rcini(a)email.msn.com writes: > I just finished watching "Pirates of Silicon Valley" on TNT, an > interesting interpretation of the dynamics between Apple and Microsoft from > 1975 to 1997. > > Here's the question -- what was the name of the computer at Xerox that > Steve Jobs "modeled" the Lisa/Mac after? Was it the Alto or the Star? Definitely it was the Star. My ex worked at Xerox from '85 through '87. Some details in "Pirates" were, um, a little "inaccurate," but they got one thing right -- there were a lot of really pissed off people at Xerox when the Apple GUI hit the streets. Glen Goodwin 0/0

26 years, 5 months

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Brain Fart - which Xerox computer started GUI?

by rcini＠email.msn.com

Hello, all: I just finished watching "Pirates of Silicon Valley" on TNT, an interesting interpretation of the dynamics between Apple and Microsoft from 1975 to 1997. Here's the question -- what was the name of the computer at Xerox that Steve Jobs "modeled" the Lisa/Mac after? Was it the Alto or the Star? [ Rich Cini/WUGNET [ ClubWin!/CW7 [ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking [ Collector of "classic" computers [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/ <---------------------------- reply separator

26 years, 5 months

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ASR-33 more on spacing

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Hmmm, now this doesn't look particularly good. I manually pushed the carriage to the right and it worked. (ie the pawl re-engaged.) Then I typed for a while and then it stopped spacing in the middle of the page. Manually push it one character space and it works again. By observing the mechanism, I can see that there is one position of the spacing ratchet that doesn't seem to allow for spacing. It could be a broken tooth but I can't tell from looking at it from the side. Another interesting tidbit is that when I hit "return" the carraige _stops_ at that tooth, even if this means stopping mid page! Now a damaged tooth could be used to explain the first behavior but not the second I don't believe. The cardboard/spacer thing is still in there and it doesn't seem to harm anything so I still can't tell if it is supposed to be there or not. I have a complete (but dirty) typing unit available as an organ donor if I can deduce the cause of the trouble. --Chuck Spacing Ratchet shown on page 75, part number is 181077 for the gear at the bottom of the spacing ratchet, it apparently attaches with two bolts, the carraige stops when the feed pawl is lined up with one of the two bolt heads on the top.

26 years, 5 months

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Hamfests

by chemif＠mbox.queen.it

Hi Kevin, At 17:52 19/06/99 -0400, you wrote: >I got a few fun bits from the Milford Amateur Radio Club Hamfest today... >Kevin I have a question for you and the other EU subscriber (in future hopefully will ask the same to U.S. subscriber): What is the Bigger/Better HAMFEST relating to RETROCOMPUTING swap/trade in your country? Here in Italy I think is in PORDENONE (30/04 -> 02/05) Is Friedrichshafen the biggest HAMFEST in Germany (or even the biggest in EU?)? And what about France, England, Portugal, etc.? I'm tryng to organize a "RETRO-EXPEDITION" from Italy to Friedrichshafen, and would like to receive infos on this and other EU Hamfest. Thanks . Riccardo Romagnoli <chemif(a)mbox.queen.it> I-47100 Forl?

26 years, 5 months

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Card Reader!!!

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

I'd spotted the rack Jim mentioned yesterday in my wanderings before he posted about it here, and today I decided to go pick it up. Good thing I did, as I was out in front of the store, pulling the drives out of it so it would be easier to handle, I got to talking to this old guy. We got to talking about old computers, and it turned out he had a card reader he didn't want/need any more. So I went over and picked it up. It's a nice small unit, that can easily sit on top of a desk. The only problem is I'm not sure how to interface it to anything. It was made by "Peripheral Dynamics Inc", and is a Model C302 manufactured in May of 1972. I think you're supposed to interface it by plugging some sort of card into a connector in the back of it. Unfortuantly he didn't know where the manual is, or if he still has it. Does anyone know how to hook one of these up to anything? Ideally I'd like to be able to attach it to a Unibus system or a PC. 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, 5 months

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Commodore 64 Software

by manney＠hmcltd.net

I have available for the C64: Micro Subtraction (Hayden) (Disk only) Kids on Keys (Spinnaker) 10 Little Robots (no disk -- box & instr only) Anyone want then for shipping and a couple of bucks? P Manney "...We must all give an account of ourselves to God." Thousands of discounted photo items at http://www.hmcltd.net/pgphoto

26 years, 5 months

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ASR-33 question

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Hello everyone, I'm bringing back to life a "LT33" (aka a DEC modified ASR-33 teletype) and out of the gate I've got an issue. When I switch on, into "local" mode, I get continuous "nul" typing. The mechanism is doing the typing dance and its trying to type NUL. Where to start? I've got the prints and am going to check out the keyboard area for now, perhaps it has a clue. I'm guessing it is either stuck in 'here is' mode, the keyboard is sending infinite nuls, or something else :-) --Chuck

26 years, 5 months

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List of attractive computers

by Historical＠aol.com

From: "Merle K. Peirce" <at258(a)osfn.org> <<My impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques. I would offer just a very few for initial consideration: Epson QX-10 Apricot Honeywell DPS-6 Olivetti ETV-300 IBM PS/2 towers>> These machines were all attractive computers and I like your idea about discussing boxes just on good looks, but what's with this "grotesque" stuff in reference to the iMac? I happen to think they look rather nice. Have you ever seen a Lear Siegler ADM 5 terminal? I have one and it's cool. The iMac looks a lot like it in terms of curves. Just because you don't particularly like something doesn't mean it has to be "grotesque" or "gross" or some other childish adjective. Best, David Greelish Classic Computing Press www.classiccomputing.com

26 years, 5 months

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Cromemco System 1 in Ghostbusters

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>> And don't forget the HP 200 LX with the Nokia cell phone that Simon used >> in The Saint. >That movie was horribly forgettable. I must've tuned it out at the point >where he pulled this out. I laughed all the way through the movie. The cold fusion secret tucked into her underwear? Her cold fusion speech? Hilarious! And what's-his-name doing the German guy? I was rolling on the floor! Tim.

26 years, 5 months

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SCSI-Floppy Card

by dann＠greycat.com

A few days ago, I was in a local used electronics/Junque (only high-class stuff here :-)) and found a rackmount case with PS, SCSI cables, and three devices for five bucks. Took it home, blew the dust out, and found I'd gotten a Exabyte 8mm tape that worked perfectly with my VAXCluster (once I'd reseated the cards, blew the dust out and ran a cleaning tape through it), an Archive 160 meg QIC drive (have no use for this, anyone want it?) and a 5.25 in floppy with what claims to be an NCR SCSI intereface bolted to it. It's this last I need info on. This interface board is the same size as the drive; at one end is the power plug (it appears to be powered independently of the floppy) and the SCSI header. The other end has a 34 pin header with a standard cable going back to the 34-pin edge connector on the floppy. Has an NCR 5380 and an Intel 85272 as the main chips, with a lot of glue, as well as a 80188 CPU with ROM. There are two switch pack, one 4-pos, one 8-pos. The 4-pos pack has the first three positions labeled FT and the last position is labeled EXT PF. The 8-position pack has the last three switches labeled ID (almost certainly the SCSI address). Anyway, anyone ever seen one of these before? I'm a little scared to just plug it in; I've seen lots of tape drives but this is the only SCSI floppy I've ever seen, and I want to take good care of it :-). Any info greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! Dann Lunsford

26 years, 5 months

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Aesthetics

by Jgzabol＠aol.com

As far as aesthetic appeal goes, to my taste absolutely nothing beats a Cray-2 !! Next would be the CDC 3000 series with its tinted glass panels, next the Cray-1. (Ranking according to my personal taste, of course). There are quite a few more aesthetically interesting supercomputers; maybe if you spend so many millions of US$ (and in particular since buying supercomputers is or has been mostly a prestige matter) aesthetically pleasing design can be expected. John G. Zabolitzky

26 years, 5 months

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Top 150 Collectible Microcomputers

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> A RCA COSMAC 1802 is a microprocessor, right? And I still <> have not find any evidence that there was a kit for the ELF, <> the Popular Electronics ELF was just plans in a magazine. <> You could say "ELF II/Super ELF". Quest Electornics, ELF as per the PE article. I have one. Allison

26 years, 5 months

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Top 150 Collectible Microcomputers

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- KFergason(a)aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 6/20/99 12:26:19 AM Central Daylight Time, > mranalog(a)home.com writes: > > > > 4) Available from a manufacturer (not just plans in a magazine) > > > RCA COSMAC 1802 / ELF / Super ELF > > > > A RCA COSMAC 1802 is a microprocessor, right? Right. > > And I still have not find any evidence that there was a kit for the ELF, > > the Popular Electronics ELF was just plans in a magazine. I have a Quest Elf that I built from a kit as a kid. It was the Popular Science design, pre-1861 video chip. It has a speaker, a Q LED, 8 toggle switches for data, DMA/EF4 pushbutton, RUN/LOAD/MEMPROT toggles and the original TIL311 latching hex displays. My PCB is rev 2.1, 1979. I bought just the PCB and assembly plans for $35 around 1980. The entire kit was available for $99. > > You could say "ELF II/Super ELF". The Elf II was a different manufacturer, Netronics, IIRC. Quest made the Elf and Super ELF. > It should probably say RCA COSMAC VIP, as I have several of them. Right. An entirely different beast - keypad, ROM, 1861 video, I/O expansion slot, up to 4Kb on the board, system expansion slot, cassette interface. I have one, too. -ethan _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

26 years, 5 months

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7900A drive platters

by jlwest＠tseinc.com

Thanks to all the folks who replied with suggestions and advice on my 7900A drive! I had previously written: >>He said I could use any 14" disk media that was the right >>thickness. Can't remember if it was 50 mils or 75 mils. I >>think it's the same as the RK05. I'll find out the mils number >>tonight when I compare my 7900 cartridge with my 7905/6 >>one. The 7900A platters are 50mils. So that I can keep an eye out for cartridges that I could steal the media out of, does anyone know which commonly available cartriges use a 50mil 14" platter? I thought the 75mil platters were much more common, but don't know for sure. Thanks in advance! Jay West

26 years, 5 months

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