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

by go＠ao.com

I'm "just about" finished with an emulator for a Control Data 3300 computer (you might ask "why" - I'll explain later.) But I'm looking for diagnostics tapes (instruction, floating point, mass storage, memory, etc.) Also, other operating systems would be interesting (I was dumb back in the 70's and didn't make copies of all my old stuff...) such as Master with MATS or MSOS or Realtime Scope. (I have no problem reading 7 track tapes.) I'm building this primarily to resurrect an obscure language, also developed at OSU, called "Oscar". It was a numerical person's dream interactive system for it's time (way before common graphics terminals, alas) including all sorts of large precision arith and rational number management (ratios of integral fractions) which made matrix manipulations a lot easier. Oscar ran under OS-3 and hence the need for the emulator. Besides, it's fun. (And I have source for damn near all of the OS-3 system, languages and tools (I was "with it" enough to make copies of those at least.) The original 3300 at OSU was "decommissioned" back in the early 80s, so this part is even "on topic!" It's a bit depressing (and humiliating) to see that my entirely-C-based emulator (i.e. NO assembler "optimization" on my part) runs at nearly the speed of the original machine on a lowly 66 mhz 486. (1.6us/cycle where instructions USUALLY took 2 cycles, for fetch and memory reference.) It'll probably scream on a reasonable Pentium-class system. (By inference will we be writing emulators in 15 to 20 years that emulate 400 mhz Pentiums and Power PCs at the full speed of day? Boggles the mind...) I'm emulating most CDC periphs (as far as I can without real "iron") so the emulator should handle virtual 604/607 tape drives, disk controllers, 501/512 printers, card readers, punches, etc. I realize this may be a bit "off topic" with respect to the other "mainstream" collectable computers (dec/hp/etc.) but, hey! it's what I learned on way back when. And the computer was far too large to ever think of "owning" one. For reference, the 3300 was a 3rd generation computer (no IC's - all Germanium transistors) with memory that came in chunks of 8k words (24 bits) all the way up to 256k words (LOTS of boxes.) Each 8k took half a 7 foot tall by 6 foot wide rack (IIRC). I think very late in life they had 32k modules... 24 bit ones-complement math with a "reasonable" two-state architecture (program/system mode) that actually worked (OSU's may have been the only one that really challenged it, though, running timesharing software on it.) Any and all software for the beast would be welcome. For reference, anything for the 3150, 3200, 3300 or 3500 would be welcome, as well as any CDC docs on these machines. I've got quite a few, but some of the more obscure controllers (3317 terminal control, for example) eluded me. Information on 3600 or 3800 (a sort of "48 bit word" 3300 and 3500) would also be welcome, as these two lines shared a lot of peripherals and controllers. And of course, assuming anyone else is as silly as me and wants to play with this mess, I'm happy to make the source/executables available (it's Linux based.) It's not "ready for prime time" yet, but soon... Thanks for sharing the bandwidth, Gary

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Definition of an Analog(ue) Computer

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<What's that got to do with it? Diodes are analogue parts - the output <(current) is a continuous function of the input (voltage), not a <discrete one (to me the difference between an analogue and a digital Yes, but they don't (generally) amplify. <component). In fact, Allison, you were saying only a few days ago that <you don't need any amplification to make an analogue _computer_ (with <which I agree - although some of your examples I wouldn't call <computers). I still hold that amplification is a factor in the equation that an analog function may contain but it is not required. ----||----+---------+------> | | | | V --- input === diode --- | | --------------------+------> This is an analogue function, take a shot at the equation it solves. <For non-electronic digital computers, where do Facit mechanical <calculators lie? I have one (which is driven by an electric motor but Computers, mechanical, fixed program. <For pneumatic computers, I think some pipe organs of the turn of the <century came close - you could program some buttons to set various <combinations of ranks for fast selection during performance. However, <the more complicated schemes of this nature (popular around 1920) used <electrical as well as pneumatic logic elements. pipe organs were an example of repetitive but generally simple logic. I might point ot that when they went electronic they used lots of flipflops to generate octave and also diodes and tube to do keying (gating). They were likely one of the earliest users of large numbers of bistable and monostable elements in one system other than computers and electronic measuring instruments. You've not seen a modern production line that uses air logic. I've worked on one that was used to produce pharaceuticals that were in flamable bases (ethanol). There was some fairly complex logic in that system. Working with it is like designing with relays. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Definition of an Analog(ue) Computer

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> <Are you thinking of 'Digital circuits are built from analogue parts' ? > > Not a valid concept. both OR and AND gates can be done using totally > non amplifying devices (diodes). What's that got to do with it? Diodes are analogue parts - the output (current) is a continuous function of the input (voltage), not a discrete one (to me the difference between an analogue and a digital component). In fact, Allison, you were saying only a few days ago that you don't need any amplification to make an analogue _computer_ (with which I agree - although some of your examples I wouldn't call computers). > It was Vonda that postulated that digital was analogue with a precision > of two states, true and false. The realm of analogue is one of infinite > precision but possibly of limited accuracy. The digital realm is one of > limited precision and absolute accuracy. That is an excellent concept. Thank you - I'll remember that. For non-electronic digital computers, where do Facit mechanical calculators lie? I have one (which is driven by an electric motor but could conceivably use any motor) which has algorithms for optimised decimal multiplication and non-restoring decimal division. It is not programmable, but it is pretty complex - and all done mechanically. For pneumatic computers, I think some pipe organs of the turn of the century came close - you could program some buttons to set various combinations of ranks for fast selection during performance. However, the more complicated schemes of this nature (popular around 1920) used electrical as well as pneumatic logic elements. Philip.

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

RSX-11 Disk Images anyone?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 5, 11:37, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote: > [Adding RX50 to the Supnik emulator...] > > Yeah, it'd be a Lot Of Work(tm). It certainly would. Even the RT-11 driver (which is about the simplest I've seen) is fairly complex. > Those talk MSCP, and there's little/no documentation on how it works. > (I think...) It's basically a message-passing protocol, unlike most of the earlier DEC disk stuff where you can poke the hardware registers to "make things happen". To oversimplify, with MSCP you make a message containing instructions, put it in a memory buffer somewhere, tell the controller it's there, and it does the rest with DMA, returning a response message. The relevant documentation is "MSCP Basic Disk Functions Manual", AA-L619A-TK, and "Storage System Diagnostics And Utility Protocol", AA-L620A-TK, which in turn are parts of the UDA50 Programmer's Documentation Kit (QP-905-GZ). My copy is version 1.2, April 1982. It's not good bedtime reading; the plot's a bit too convoluted and the characterisation is weak :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science [remove indy. from email address to reply] University of York

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-05-05 22:56:32 EDT, you write: << Speaking of sealed originals, I found some original still shrink-wrapped Osborne software today, with the original Byte Shop price stickers on them no less. They were basically some accounting packages by a company called Computronic that made software for the gamut of the machines of the era (TRS-80, Apple, Atari, Commodore, Xeroex, Osborne, Kaypro...that was the list of machines on the package). I also got a shrink-wrapped copy of WordStar circa 1981, a shrink-wrapped copy of Microsoft Multi-Tool Budget and a shrinkwrapped copy of Desktop Plan II by Visicorp. Vintage shrink-wrapped software is still out there, you just gotta look for it. Sam >> i agree, my list is small, but i do have os2 1.1 which came in two seperate boxes wrapped together and includes sidekick 2.0 which i paid $3 for. i also got a never opened 1.3 which i did open just to look at but i never used, and several boxes of the ibm pc 3270 emulation program entry level version 1.22 david

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by IVIE＠cc.usu.edu

Philip Belben: >Sam Ismail: > >> The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great >> damage to MICROSOFT." > >Hey! Let's all start copying Basic 80! Or other Microsoft stuff! >Perhaps we can cause great damage to Microsoft! > >Wait a bit... somehow I don't think we'll do any damage unless we >persuade people to buy our copies in preference to the originals. Oh? You know somewhere you can buy the originals? Roger Ivie ivie(a)cc.usu.edu

28 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

RSX-11 Disk Images anyone?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Whether the distributed monitors and drivers are enough to run it <depends strongly on your application! Under an emulator - where If your developing with RT-11 for a specific task then sysgening is needed. If you need to run BASIC, DECUS-C, MicroPower Pascal, write assembly code files or edit text then the stock monitor are just fine. Sysgening to simply move to a different varient of PDP-11 cpu or disk however is not required. The typical example of sysgening RT-11 I've done was to use a console that wasn't DL (standard PDP-11 serial line unit) compatable. RT-11 was designed as both a development enviornment and a realtime executive for embedded applications. It's pretty flexible and small so it's good for lots of other stuff. It weakness (there is one) is that it does not use a scatter-gather map for storage so storage space can be poorly used due to device fragmentation. <I interpret "no source code" quite differently, mainly because I have <the source kits! Same here, V4, V5.0, V5.1, V5.4 I may even have 3.xx. Heck I've been running RT11 since '79 on one thing or another Q-bus. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Northstars up the wazoo

by mor＠crl.com

Wow, anyone desparate for a Horizon should check out recent posts to comp.sys.northstar. No fewer than six systems from three different individuals have been offered there in the past couple of days. And some AFAIR are free for pick up or the cost of shipping. -- mor(a)crl.com http://www.crl.com/~mor/

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

> >> >> Well, this kind of comes from a rant of mine... ya see, on my computer, I >> origionally had an AMD InterWave chip on my sound card, but found that it >> was STB made. It was made in Dec. 1996. I called about it in Dec. 1997, >> and NO ONE at their technical support knew ANYTHING about it. And that's a >> year after it was made!!! > >Don't get me started on Tech Support, or the lack of it. > >When I call Tech Support I will have made some attempts to check the >obvious, gather evidence, and solve the problem. In particular : > >I'll have checked the 'bleeding obvious' - that it's plugged in, that I > >I'll have read all available documentation, including, but not limited to >the user manual, tech/service manual (if available), schematics, data >sheets on the chips, command reference, processor instruction set, >language standards, etc as appropriate. > >I'll be sitting in front of my machine with a 'scope, logic analyser, >software debugger, etc at the ready > >Alas this seems to mean that I know more about the product than the >company that sold it to me. Tech support seems to consist of either >telling me to check I've inserted the disk correctly or reading the user >manual to me very, very slowly (I am not kidding...). I am fed up with You've got to be gentle w/tech support. For one thing, they're nothing more than figureheads for the company, also, they are treated fairly poorly, according to PC World. Most have no desire to spend 8 hours reading assembly listings. There's just no encouragement, like with teachers. In the end, they just get tired. >> Anyway, lets call, e-mail, fax, walk up and talk to, etc. people at >> various companies and talk about tech support, etc. for old OLD products. >> (Like calling up IBM... "Hello, I've got this 8" disk here, it was new in >> package, and it was not free of mechanical errors. I want my money back!") > >IBM are better than most, at least for providing parts/manuals. They may >claim that a machine never existed (IBM UK told be there was 'no such >thing as a PC-jr'), but they can often find all sorts of things given a >part number or forms number. > >> Or saying that we found a bug in the 4K MS tape basic, etc. ;-) > >Sending in bug reports (and even better, fixes) for ancient products is >great fun :-). Have you ever gotten a response? > >Agreed. C'mon d00dZ, 1've got \/\/1nd0ze 98 beta on ftp.aol.com/max/42342/!!! Let's get some c00l \/\/aReZ, Man! >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Definition of an Analog(ue) Computer

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

I have just returned after a long weekend to find my mail had got set to Postpone again. This has probably all been said but I thought I'd put my bit in anyway. Tony: < A question occurred to me today : Can you have an embedded analogue < computer, and if so, how many op-amps are needed to have one? Allison > Yes, and that's very common. None, a low pass filter(RC) performs a > function and can be considered analogue. A filter made of passive components or otherwise I wouldn't consider a computer, although I agree it is definitely analogue (Americans may omit the ue where appropriate). I would say that an analogue computer: (a) combines two or more signals (b) does so in a more complex way than by simple addition or subtraction. (But this could be A+dB/dt, for example) An analogue computer need not be electrical at all - quite complex analogue functions can be implemented in cams, for example. A good example of a simple embedded analogue computer is the ignition distributor on a petrol engine. This: Takes two inputs - camshaft angle and manifold vacuum; Differentiates camshaft angle to get engine speed (centrifugal weights on springs); Applies some non linear function to engine speed (cams attached to the centrifugal weights); Adds together camshaft angle, function(engine speed) and constant * vacuum level; Compares the result with a reference angle to generate pulses of a given width for the ignition. I claim that is a simple (but actually quite sophisticated) analogue computer. < I was looking at the service manual for my Micropolis 1203 hard disk, and < I read the circuit description of the servo electronics. It's a fairly < complicated array of op-amps, which combine integral and differential < forms of the position error, positioner current, etc. I would claim that < is an embedded analogue computer. > Valid claim, also a good example of a fairly complex function. Agreed 100% (As Tony would say). An excellent example of an embedded analogue computer. Another example is the convergence circuit in a colo(u)r television. This takes the two timebases as inputs, multiplies them and their squares/ first derivatives etc. by user settable constants, and feeds this back onto the deflection systems of the tube. < On the other hand, I think it would be stretching the definition to call < a simple op-amp wired as a voltage follower an analogue computer. > Correct. However often the buffer is between some function or follows one > so it's part of the analog system. Agreed it could be part of an analogue computer. But I think Tony's point was that it does not by itself make one. Otherwise practically any analogue circuit becomes a computer (One of Vonada's axioms, I think: All circuits are amplifiers) > Other analog systems common to computers: > > cassette IO (low pass filter on output) and complex filter/differentiator > edge/peak detectors for input. Some of the acients used PLLs for clock > recovery (KANSAS City is one). > > Analog to digital conversion (quantification). > Digtial to analog conversion (filtering) > > Disk/tape systems have several layers of analog function for data and > control. Definitely analogue systems. But some are merely filters, not computers. (I think a PLL almost qualifies as a computer, though...) But in general, I agree with you both - analogue computers are often small, simple and embedded, and they're a heck of a lot more common than most people think. Philip.

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

KMW Systems Corp. VP-10 Vector Processor

by dastar＠wco.com

Anybody ever heard of the following? KMW Systems Corp. VP-10 Vector Processor Its a smallish box (about the size of a small PC desktop box sliced horizontally in half). Anyone? Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 05/03/98]

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Well, this kind of comes from a rant of mine... ya see, on my computer, I origionally had an AMD InterWave chip on my sound card, but found that it was STB made. It was made in Dec. 1996. I called about it in Dec. 1997, and NO ONE at their technical support knew ANYTHING about it. And that's a year after it was made!!! Anyway, lets call, e-mail, fax, walk up and talk to, etc. people at various companies and talk about tech support, etc. for old OLD products. (Like calling up IBM... "Hello, I've got this 8" disk here, it was new in package, and it was not free of mechanical errors. I want my money back!") Or saying that we found a bug in the 4K MS tape basic, etc. ;-) And DON'T COPY ANY SOFTWARE. I don't even care if it was made by a criminal, it gives you no right to do the same. BTW, I remember seeing copies of DOS 3.3 shwrinkwrapped by this company for Microsoft. Was this done widely? Where can I find out more? (Kai Kaltenbach? Know anyone who knows anything about this? I REALLY am longing for a copy of Windows 2.x, as I've got this software for it... from our school, even though they can't find hte actual 2.x disks.) Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 8:05 PM Subject: Re: Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement >> >> The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great >> >> damage to MICROSOFT." >> > >> >Hey! Let's all start copying Basic 80! Or other Microsoft stuff! >> >Perhaps we can cause great damage to Microsoft! >> > >> >Wait a bit... somehow I don't think we'll do any damage unless we >> >persuade people to buy our copies in preference to the originals. >> >> Oh? You know somewhere you can buy the originals? > >I've found some original sealed Microsoft CP/M software by frequenting >comp.os.cpm. None of the registration cards that I've sent in during >the past couple years have come back returned from any of Microsoft's >old Redmond/Seattle addresses, so I assume they found their way to >the right place (though I've never heard anything back from any bug >reports on CP/M products.) > >Q7 of the comp.os.cpm FAQ provides this address as a non-US source >of several Microsoft CP/M products: > > For our European readers, much is available in Germany. dBASE, > WordStar 3.0, Multiplan 1.06, SuperCalc PCW, and Microsoft Basic > (Interpreter and Compiler), M80, L80, CREF80 , and LIB80 can be > ordered in either PCW format or C128 (also native 1571) format from: > > Wiedmann Unternehmensberatung & EDV-Handel > Hauptstrasse 45 > 73553 Alfdorf > F.R.Germany > Tel: +49-7172-3000-0 (Inside Germany use 0-7172...) > Fax: +49-7172-3000-30 > > They are marketed as "for the C128", however the disks are in KAYPRO > IV format, and since the C128 uses the same screen codes as ADM-31 > or KAYPRO, it's probably interesting for people with other CP/M > machines as well. Everything is said to come with a German language > manual and each one is offered for DM 149.50 , including sales tax > of 15%, which you could probably somehow get a refund on if living > outside the EC. > >Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)

28 years, 1 month

4
5
0 0

Get a life! Buy a PDP!

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I know, I know, when I get a chance. For now; I found an Anderson-Jacobson 1200 BPS modem (AJ1256). Is there any thing special about it, or is it safe to throw this back? This was on the way to a thrift store. There I saw: TI-60 w/thermal printer for $10,working --fair? RCA Victor, couldn't tell if it worked, $75, no I won't buy it IBM PPS II ( I think) form printer - does anyone have any experience w/ this? I didn't buy any of the three, but I might get the TI-60. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

RSX-11 Disk Images anyone?

by sethm＠loomcom.com

A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 932 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19980505/fe42077d/at…

28 years, 1 month

4
7
0 0

HP 700/44 terminal

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I have one remaining Hewlett Packard 700/44 terminal with keyboard left to get rid of. Like new shape and in working order, fairly modern. Emulates other terminal systems like 52, 100, 200 series and HP series, maybe others. I need $10 plus shipping on this if someone wants it. I'm sure someone has a need for one. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Sam Ismail: > The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great > damage to MICROSOFT." Hey! Let's all start copying Basic 80! Or other Microsoft stuff! Perhaps we can cause great damage to Microsoft! Wait a bit... somehow I don't think we'll do any damage unless we persuade people to buy our copies in preference to the originals. And it goes rather against the grain to persuade people to buy Microsoft stuff at all. Oh well. ;-) ;-) ;-) Philip.

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Microsoft BASIC 80 non-disclosure agreement

by dastar＠wco.com

Here's an interesting artifact. I got the reference manual for Microsoft BASIC-80 (version 5) over the weekend and it still had inside the original non-disclosure registration card that I guess one was compelled to sign and send in before they could use MS BASIC. This book was distributed with some morrow system as the card is addressed to Morrow Designs Software License Department. It reads: "The party below agrees that it is receiving a copy of MICROSOFT DISK BASIC or FORTRAN for use on a single computer only, as designated on this registration form. The pary agrees that all copies of MICROSOFT DISK BASIC and FORTRAN are owned by MICROSOFT, that all copies will be strictly safeguarded against disclosure to or use by persons not authorized by MICROSOFT to use MICROSOFT DISK BASIC or FORTRAN, and that the location of all copies will be reported to MICROSOFT at MICROSOFT's request. The party may make up to two additional copies only, for back-up purposes. The party agrees that unauthorized copying or disclosure will cause great damage to MICROSOFT." Sheesh! Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98]

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Sord Computers

by Ivan.Calhoun＠ins.gte.com

Sorry about this message but I have friend who still uses a Sord IS 11C. Unfortunately it is now failing. I saw the message thread you had concerning some units that were available last year. Could either of you let me know the availability of a similar device or a person who can repair these units? Thanks, Ivan Calhoun

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Convergent Voice Module

by red＠bears.org

I promised Sam I'd look this up a long time ago. I had some trouble with the phone lines, though, which made it impossible to use the modem. But here it is. I seem to have a preliminary version of the 'Voice Module' manual, although I did not get the module itself with the machine. The manual goes into a lot of detail: theory of operation, external interfaces, architecture... schematics... I'll quote from the overview: INTRODUCTION TO THE MODULE __________________________ GENERAL The Voice Processor Module, shown in Figure 1-1, provides a fully integrated voice and data interface between a workstation and the switched telephone netowrk or commonly used private automatic branche exchange (PABX) system (supporting Tip and Ring connection). When used with a digital PABX system, all signals and transmission between the Voice Processor Module and the PABX occur via analog techniques. The Voice Processor Module is an X-Bus module containing two printed-circuit boards. The first board contains a Bell 212A-compatible modem. The second board contains the following: * modular jacks for two telephone line interfaces (FCC, part 68, registered) * additional modular jack (FCC, part 68, registered) that allows connection to any standard voice unit (telephone set) * analog crosspoint switch allowing any device to connect to either line under software control * Dual-Tone Multifrequency (DTMF) touch-tone auto-dialer * DTMF touch-tone decoder that permits numeric data entry via remote voice unit touch pad * call progress tone detector * voice amplifier * Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) CODEC (Coder/Decoder) for support of digitized voice communications at speeds far less than the normal 64Kbps * 8051 microprocessor to control all module activities (...excepts from following specifications...) Modem board is originate/answer, full-duplex. Supports 212A and Bell 103/113. DTMF generator generates all 16 DTMF digits, may be programmed to transmit various key sequences, and can generate single tones. CODEC and ADPCM technique allows recording/playback of digitized voice information at 6-kHz (24Kbps) or 8-kHz (32Kbps) rates. Software support is provided by CT-MAIL, CT-Net, and "Operator" software, which is specifically tailored for the Voice Module as follows: * Telephone directory management, which has the ability to add, delete, modify, and look up entries in a disk-based telephone directory, and automatically establish calls using the information in the directory. Menus provide assistance in accessing special functions used by PABXs. * Voice digitization, which allows the operator to use the CODEC to record and play back calls or messages. This capability enhances CT-MAIL, where it is used for voice annotation of written documents, as well as the inclusion of voice attatchments to textual mail. * Telephone answering, which allows an unattended system to automatically answer the telephone and perform a variety of user-selectable operations ranging from simple messatge playback/recording to input of numeric data from a telephone touch-tone pad. There you have it. All typos are my responsibility. ok r.

28 years, 1 month

1
1
0 0

HDD died in a spectacular way

by manney＠lrbcg.com

I recently bought a Maxtor IDE along with other HDDs at a hamfest. When I got it home, I noticed that it "clunked". No response when I hooked it up, so, I took it apart... The head had gouged its way through the entire thickness of the platter; the remaining part of the platter was lying loose around the hub! It must have made a horrible screeching sound for days (months?), but I guess no-one noticed. The head is ground away, of course, but the arm's still intact. Anyone ever seen a worse failure? manney(a)lrbcg.com

28 years, 1 month

7
11
0 0

FW: DECStation 3100 needs rescue in CO.

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Found this on Usenet. A fellow in Colorado's looking for a home for a DS3100. Any takers, please contact him directly. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- From: jimvela(a)aol.com (JimVela) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Subject: DS3100: Free to good home Lines: 22 Message-ID: <1998050417034500.NAA19003(a)ladder03.news.aol.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder03.news.aol.com X-Admin: news(a)aol.com Date: 04 May 1998 17:03:45 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Path: blushng.jps.net!news.eli.net!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!204.59.152.222!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!portc01.blue.aol.com!audrey03.news.aol.com!not-for-mail Greetings... I have a DS3100 system which I picked up cheap, and was planning to play with NetBSD or OpenBSD on it. As it turns out, I've picked up a couple of other projects and will probably never get 'around to it'. I'll give the system away to anyone who can pick it up- I'm near Boulder, CO. The system is a DecStation 3100 with a VR299 monitor and Dec Keyboard. I don't have a mouse, or hard drives. I believe that there is 16Mb of Ram installed. As far as I know, it works fine. (I never got further than realizing that the mouse was generating an error on boot, and never made a loopback connector to go further.) Anyone that's interested, reply via email... Regards, Jim Velasquez -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, SysOp, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fido 1:343/272) kyrrin {at} j<p>s d[o]t n=e=t "...No matter how hard we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object, event, or living creature, in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them!..."

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Fujitsu Eagle

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Before I go calling around to drive repair places, does anyone happen to have the service manual for a Fujitsu 'Eagle' (M2351 series) that they feel they could part with? I'd be happy to pick up postage for such. Thanks in advance. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

N*'s available in Seattle

by rcini＠email.msn.com

Found in comp.sys.northstar: >Hi, >I have three functional Northstar Horizons (at least they were working >when they went into the basement) that I'd like to find a good home >for. > >For history buffs. the systems used to belong to Dr. Tim Lineham in >Olympia Wa. and served as one of the very early Z-Node bbs systems. >Gar Nelson >Seattle, Wa. Reply directly to the original author (elli12(a)gte.net) . Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

OK, got farther... (RSTS 8.0-07 + RA92)

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

Now the RA is hardware visible. As opposed to the RA81, where you CAN'T plug it straight into the controller, the RA92 likes that. Go figure. Anyway, I boot up and say HARDWR LIST. It sees 2 devices off the UDA50, the RA81 and the RA92. It identifies the RA92 as a RA92 also. Now, I try to DSKINT the 92. I get to where it asks me for pack clustersize. The default here is 32. When I type 32, it says ?Illegal clustersize specified and prompts me again. Nothing works. Apparently 32 is too big a number, but it's the required number, so I've shot myself in the foot. Is this a known bug? Have I screwed up here? Is there something I can change in RAM to let me go ahead? I can't find any mention of this anywhere.... -------

28 years, 1 month

2
4
0 0

(Fwd) Re: Wang PC XC3-2

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

From: Lawrence Walker <lwalker(a)interlog.com To: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> Subject: Re: Wang PC XC3-2 Reply-to: lwalker(a)interlog.com Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 15:02:08 On 2 May 98 at 22:48, Sam Ismail wrote: > > Ok, what do you all know about the Wang PC XC3-2 circa 1984? I got one > today. Unfortunately it was just the system itself with no documentation, > but I did get some software. This one has a 5.25" disk drive and a > half-height hard drive. I haven't dug into it yet so don't know many more > details but from the labels on the interface cards on the back it has an > IBM Monochrome emulator board among all the basic stuff (winchester disk > controller, serial, parallel, etc.) > > Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com I posted on a trash find about 2 weeks ago on virtually the same machine, with no response. Ditto on some newsgroups. That in itself is fascinating.The one I have is a PC-S3-2. The only info I was able to find on Wang's venture into the world of MS-DOS was on the Wang users bbs and this was pretty slim. They call it a "classic" Wang, (Apple anyone ?) I was able to get a start-up file from them but it seems to be an orphan like the Atari PC. There's quite a few Wang CP/M enthusiasts sites but like the TRS m.2 little info on this beast. even tho, like the TRS m.2, many were sold to the business community. Most likely quietly fed to dumpsters around the world since most small businesses don't have garage sales. You were fortunate ( mind you didn't find it in the garbage) to have some means of IO. Mine had the 2 winchesters removed and nothing else. I find the MB interesting with its mix of Zilog, Motorola and Intel chips. Old Wang was known for it's interesting innovations and IIRC many of it's people went on to illustrious careers with other companies , like the original DEC, Xerox, and Atari crews did. I don\t have the URL for the WUG handy but it should be readily available thru a search. They're a Brit group IIRC and I wasn't about to pay $35 for the privelage of joining their discussions. Could you give me some info on the FDD's , KB , etc. ciao larry lwalker(a)interlog.com

28 years, 1 month

3
3
0 0

FD55E drives...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Bingo! They are a single head version of the FD55F which was their <'quad' density drive - 96tpi and 250k data rate. < <What other info would you like? Thanks Don, that conformed what I thought. They are used in Visual 1050 CPM3 systems as 400kb drives. I'm looking at fitting them with a 3.5" drive to be compatable with my other CPM systems at 720/780/1.44. Allison

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

I guess RSTS doesn't like RA92s...

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

I dragged the RA92 up here, plugged it in as DU1, and started RSTS, but RSTS says DU1 doesn't exist. This is RSTS/E v8.0-07. Is there some trick to do to make the RA92 work, or am I up a creek? I'll play with it to make sure it's not my cabling, but I have it the same way as the RA81, so I doubt it... -------

28 years, 1 month

1
1
0 0

Wang PC XC3-2

by dastar＠wco.com

Ok, what do you all know about the Wang PC XC3-2 circa 1984? I got one today. Unfortunately it was just the system itself with no documentation, but I did get some software. This one has a 5.25" disk drive and a half-height hard drive. I haven't dug into it yet so don't know many more details but from the labels on the interface cards on the back it has an IBM Monochrome emulator board among all the basic stuff (winchester disk controller, serial, parallel, etc.) Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98]

28 years, 1 month

3
3
0 0

FD55E drives...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

Anyone have or know where I can find specs for TEAC FD55E drives? I know they are single sided half height but I suspect they are 96tpi 80track drives. Allison

28 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

HDD ...

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

With all this talk of hard drives slicing themselves and adjacent walls to pieces, how is it that the motor can spin up to such a high speed when it's not supposed to, and why doesn't the head dragging on the disk surface cause it to stop? Can any of these stories happen to a modern drive? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Backing up to videotape

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I have seen, on this list and otherwise, comments about cards that allow a VCR to be plugged in and data to be written to them. I was wondering if a) this is a good idea b) why these things cost so much - shouldn't a simple D/A converter and serial port do? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

HDD ...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 23:30, Tony Duell wrote: > On (almost) all hard disks, the head doesn't drag on the disk - it floats > on a film of air. Even if the head crashes, the intertia of a stack of > 14" aluminium platters is considerable, and the most likely result is > that the head/mounting is ripped off the arm and flung into the HDA > housing/across the room. That's what happened to my Seagate, as far as I could see. > > > Can any of these stories happen to a modern drive? > > Unlikely. The platters are a lot smaller for one thing, so they can > probably rotate faster without breaking up. And there's likely to be more > complex speed control of the spindle motor, so it may not be able to > overspeed significantly. > > I'm not worried about my PC drive suddenly spreading bits of platter > through the front of the case. No, but the load bang I described was from a 3.5" winnie. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 23:38, Tony Duell wrote: > Tim wrote: > > Same goes for the RL01/RL02 (which will spin about 3000 RPM instead > > of nominal if you convince them to spin up without a pack). > > Yes, but with no pack there's no platter to break up :-) > > I'm not going to try it, but what does an RL0x do if you get it to > overspeed with a pack in place, I wonder? Probably not a lot. Not much, it just goes rather faster than normal. I've seen it happen when a servo circuit failed (actually, a field servoid had removed a vital component from a drive that he thought wouldn't be used again). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 23:23, Tony Duell wrote: > Pete Turnbull wrote: > > I have a couple of 14" Fujitsus (a massive 135MB apiece) similar to that. > > Well, that Shugart I mentioned is either 12Mbytes or 24Mbytes depending > on how many disks/heads were fitted at the factory. > > > They're the predecessors to the Eagles, which have heavy cast metal HDA > > enclosures. Much more fun to watch (and listen to). > > I remember the Eagle... I've got the service manual somewhere (given to > me along with some other manuals) and I once had to repair a later drive > (2361???) that was somewhat similar to the Eagle (maybe it was called a > Double Eagle or something - I forget). The HDAs in those drives certainly > look impressive. Super Eagle. Impressive? Yes, those fins really are there to cool it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FD55E drives...

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 19:16, Allison J Parent wrote: > Anyone have or know where I can find specs for TEAC FD55E drives? > > I know they are single sided half height but I suspect they are 96tpi > 80track drives. Easy way to find out is to try it :-) There's a small amount of data on TEAC's web site, http://www.teac.com/dsp/fd/fd_55.html but that's really for the -R series which are newer. I've got jumper and setting info for the GFR (similar to RX33) and a little info on the FD55-FB and FD55-BVU (40 trk DS) and FD55-GFV-17 (HD 80 trk). TEAC also have a faxback service, and there's a catalogue of the faxback documents at http://www.teac.com/dsp/catalog.html You could try http://www.psyber.com/~tcj as well. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

HDD ...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<With all this talk of hard drives slicing themselves and adjacent <walls to pieces, how is it that the motor can spin up to such a <high speed when it's not supposed to, and why doesn't the head <dragging on the disk surface cause it to stop? Head draging...? only if it's crashed even then the motors on those old drives were huge. <Can any of these stories happen to a modern drive? Less likely as smaller platters, less mass and more exotic speed control servos. The big difference is that you would need som really amazing RPM to make a 3.5" plater fracture and fail where a 14" platter has a far higher speed at the perimeter at a lower RPM. Without running the numbers a 14" platter goes transsonic at the perimeter at something like 14,000 RPM however before you get to that speed the forces working on the metal are high enough that it will exceed the tensile strength. Also small imbalances show up with increasing rotational speed and the platter start to develop vibratory waves which if allow to go to destructive extremes make for good stories. I know as I have an operating Morrow (thinkertoys) DISCUS with a 10mb memorex(m101) 8" drive. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 3, 18:19, Tony Duell wrote: > > Well, seen after the fact when I was called in to 'repair' it... > > > > Probably over 15 years ago, NorthStar offered a 14 inch hard drive in an > > external cabinet for use with the 'Horizon' microcomputers. It was > > amusing to watch with the top of the enclosure off as the entire unit > > was enclosed in a slightly smoked brown Plexiglass 'bubble'. > > That description matches a number of 14" hard disks available at that > time. I still have a Shugart SA4000 (on a PERQ 1) which has a similar > design of HDA. But that one uses a synchronous mains motor to turn the > disks (and produces the write clock from a special head on one of the > disks, thus synchronising the whole thing to the disk rotation). I have a couple of 14" Fujitsus (a massive 135MB apiece) similar to that. They're the predecessors to the Eagles, which have heavy cast metal HDA enclosures. Much more fun to watch (and listen to). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

HDD died in a spectacular way

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Truly incredible. The official explanation sounds like something >from a book on Chernobyl. What the heck did the thing use for a motor? Diesel or Gasoline? > >At 04:53 PM 5/2/98 -0400, you wrote: >> >>Anyone ever seen a worse failure? > >Well, seen after the fact when I was called in to 'repair' it... And >actually, quite a good thing that no one was there to witness it! (you >will see why in a moment) > >Probably over 15 years ago, NorthStar offered a 14 inch hard drive in an >external cabinet for use with the 'Horizon' microcomputers. It was amusing >to watch with the top of the enclosure off as the entire unit was enclosed >in a slightly smoked brown Plexiglass 'bubble'. > >The down side was that the sector wheel/transducer/tachometer assembly was >external to the sealed housing and frequently caused "sector not found" >errors as dust collected on it. This required regular (monthly or so) >cleaning which required removal of the HDA from the external enclosure in >order to access the bottom of the assembly. (quickly rectified by our >staff after a couple of calls by using a 'nibbler' tool to add a 2"x3" >opening on the bottom of the external enclosure that we could access the >assembly through) > >It was also noted in one of the service bulletins that since this assembly >also served as the tachometer for the spindle drive, that you could tell if >the wheel was becoming dirty by a "surging" sound coming from the unit even >if you did not experience sector errors. Little did we know... > >We had one customer who tended to keep his system up 24x7 since he had an >external sales staff that used the system to file orders and he liked to >work from home. (dial-in lines) He also liked to run the HD with the upper >part of the external enclosure removed so that he could show off to >customers and clients just how advanced their operation was. (ignoring our >warnings that this would allow the unit to attract dust and dirt more rapidly) > >Well... One Monday morning I get to the shop and we have a number of >messages on the answering machine (in increasing levels of agitation). He >starts off by explaining that Friday evening he started getting frequend >'sector' errors reported from the system. Over the course of the day >Saturday the errors increased and the system response degraded. Sunday >morning the system would not answer a call at all. Sunday evening he got a >call from the Alarm Monitoring company that something had tripped the >offive alarms. When he went in to check the building, he noted that there >"appeared to be a problem with the hard drive" and wanted us out there >first thing to make sure he did not lose any data. > >So... a couple of us went out expecting to have to clean out the wheel >assembly (yet again) and perhaps correct a couple of glitched sectors... >WRONG! > >When we entered the computer room, it was quite obvious that there was a >bit more than a "problem with the hard drive"! > >The room looked like someone had stood in the center of the room with an >M-16, and used it to try to cut the room in half. Clear around the room at >about table top level were pieces of plastic and metal stuck into the wall >boards. The plexiglas 'bubble' from the HDA was gone (obviously shattered) >and the platters had large chunks missing from them. No need to even look >for the head/arm assemblies. > >After an extended discussion with the customer, of which most of the time >was spent explaining that we would NOT be able to recover any data from the >drive, we set about collecting the wreckage and installing a new drive and >software. > >Once back at the shop, a call to NorthStar brought a visit a few days later >from one of their technical support staff as well as an engineer from the >manufacturer of the HDA (Micropolis if I recall correctly). > >The "official" explaination went something like this: > >Due to the design of the (rather basic) tachometer circuit in this unit, a >missing sector pulse was intrepreted by the tach as a loss of spindle >speed. (start-up mode mentality, if you are starting the drive and don't >see a pulse, speed up (or start-up) the motor until the required pulse rate >is achieved) This was the cause of the "surging" sound noted in previous >service bulletins. > >In "theory" (now apparently proven) if the sector/tach wheel became >sufficiently dirty the tachometer circuit could attempt to keep increasing >spindle speed up to such a point where a failure of the unit might be >induced either by overload failure of the spindle motor or by excess >vibration caused by excess rotational speed. > >Apparently, no one ever considered a 'fail-safe' for the tachometer circuit... > >While they never did detail just exactly what failed first, whatever it was >apparently caused a head crash severe enough to fracture one or more of the >platters, and from that point it was all downhill... > >Without the cover of the external enclosure to contain it, (a metal >enclosure by the way) when things started to come apart there was nothing >to stop it! And the results were indeed quite spectacular. > >Made everyone a good deal more serious about keeping those sensor wheels >clean... (and the covers on!) > >BTW: NorthStar did replace the drive for us... > >-jim > >--- >jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com >The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw >Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174 > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

'Classic' typewriter?

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Yes, you read correctly. One of the local thrift stores turned up a Xerox 'MemoryWriter 630' for all of $8.00. Since I was in the market for something to fill out forms with, and curious about the MW series in any case, I picked it up (with a grunt -- these are not light!). It's built very robustly inside, and appears to be based heavily on the 8085 chip. The design and layout resemble (no surprise) the Diablo 630 series daisywheel terminals. A good vacuuming and a little oiling later and it works just great. Original manufacture date is around 1984 (based on the date codes I found on the components). No CRT on this one, though I understand that was one option. If anyone happens to have a user's guide, accessories, options, or diskettes for this beast, please let me know. Thanks in advance. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

TI99: Anyone reading this with a TI-99/4A?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<To my knowledge no flavor of unix runs on anything less than a 32-bit <processor. There's a unix-workalike for the C-64/128, but that's not Your knowledge is limited. Unix was started and lived for years on PDP-11s (a 16 bit machine) in the form of V5, V6, V7 and 2.9BSD and 2.11BSD. I may add it was on other machines like the Interdatas. <quite the same thing. Anyway, it's called Lunix. I haven't tried it yet, There is also ELKS embedded kernal linux aimed at XT class(16bit) and other small machines. <but it's possible that Lunix could become fairly popular amongst the <8-bitters. The point I was trying to make about running Minix (since you Linux is is one form of popular free unix and was launched on PC hardware that happens to be 32bit(386 and later). Fitting unix on most 8bitter means a minikernal and swapping as most 8bitters have only a 64k address space unless some banking logic was added or the CPU is only of the later z80 varients with MMU(z180 1mb, z280 16mb). <generally run that on a PC anyway) is that it just simply makes more <sense to run Linux or FreeBSD or some other supported operating system. Minix is supported exactly the same way LINUX is. <It's possible to run those operating systems with 8MB comfortably <(provided you're not running XFree86)...all the text-based stuff runs <just fine. Besides 8MB RAM doesn't exactly break the bank nowadays. :) Well, my 386 is running it in 8mb with xfree86 and while not blindingly fast it does run well. Not everyone has bundles of cash for their computer. I find the idea of not less than 32bits, 200mhz cpus and large memory being a must to be patently retrorevisionist to the history of what was done before those things were available. Allison

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

A British piece

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> Today I picked up a G.R. Electronics Ltd "Pocket Terminal" and I am <> looking for some user information on it. I have two of them, it's a mini terminal. I have no data even though I know mine work. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

'Classic' typewriter?

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I once saw one of these w/CRT and two floppy drives at a thrift store. It looked quite old ;) I tried it out, coudn't really tell how to use it, and didn't bother to take it. The thing on the screen looked a bit vi-like. Another thing that's more complicated than it should be... > Yes, you read correctly. One of the local thrift stores turned up a Xerox >'MemoryWriter 630' for all of $8.00. Since I was in the market for >something to fill out forms with, and curious about the MW series in any >case, I picked it up (with a grunt -- these are not light!). > > It's built very robustly inside, and appears to be based heavily on the >8085 chip. The design and layout resemble (no surprise) the Diablo 630 >series daisywheel terminals. A good vacuuming and a little oiling later and >it works just great. Original manufacture date is around 1984 (based on the >date codes I found on the components). > > No CRT on this one, though I understand that was one option. If anyone >happens to have a user's guide, accessories, options, or diskettes for this >beast, please let me know. > > Thanks in advance. > > >-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) >(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) >"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own >human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..." > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Seagate info

by scottk5＠ibm.net

-----Original Message----- From: Joe [SMTP:rigdonj@intellistar.net] Sent: Saturday, May 02, 1998 2:44 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Seagate info I just picked up a couple of old Seagate SCSI drives and I'm looking for jumper information. (YES, these DO have jumpers.) I can't find a Seagate site. Does anyone know of a site that has this kind of information? [Kirk Scott] Try: http://www.blue-planet.com/tech/no-frames.html I've gotten a lot of information help on older drives from them. Kirk scottk5(a)ibm.net

28 years, 1 month

5
5
0 0

Another IBM S/

by william＠ans.net

At first I thought it was some sort of typo, but now I have another reference... What the heck is an IBM System/7? William Donzelli william(a)ans.net

28 years, 1 month

3
3
0 0

HDD died in a spectacular way

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 2, 16:53, PG Manney wrote: > The head had gouged its way through the entire thickness of the platter; > > Anyone ever seen a worse failure? Not seen, but heard... Some time ago, I had a little Seagate 50MB drive on running on the shelf above a workstation. I knew it had a stiction problem, so I tended to leave it running most of the time. So there I was, minding my own business, as they say, and suddenly there was a very loud BANG. I couldn't see anything amiss, but I shut things down anyway. Then I realised any damage that was going to be done by whatever went bang had presumably already happened. I wasn't going to find much out by staring at a blank screen, so I powered everything up again. All came to life, but the Seagate just reported disk errors. Tried reformatting; no joy. So I took it apart. Every platter had huge circular gouges, and two of the heads were in bits, mostly embedded in the walls of the disk chamber. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Seagate info

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 2, 22:20, Joe wrote: > Yes, I tried that URL. It said that that webpage was not available!?!?!?!? > I don't know about Impris but Seagate just bought Conner (who had already > bought Maynard, who had already bought Irwin.) There goes a lot of their > competion! > >Uh, did you try www.seagate.com? They have information on even their > >oldest SCSI drives, Conner drives, and Imprimis too. They also have an ftp site (ftp.seagate.com, I think) which has all the jumper info in text files. They also have zip files giving the info for griups of drives, eg all the scsi drives, all mfm, etc. I use them so often that I always have a reasonably up-to-date version on my server. BTW, I find seagate's site and similar sites much more useful than TheRef. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by allisonp＠world.std.com

For direct to ugly... Commodore PET netronics explorer-85 intel mds800 minutman missle computer (lots of ways ugly!) I can think of others but those were pretty ugly on an esthetic basis and a few were ugly from a human factors standpoint (pet chicklet keys). Programming the serial disk computer of the MMC was really nasty. Allison

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Apologies... Was Re: Anyone know where to find a Setup disk for Epson Equity II+?

by lfb107＠psu.edu

I am truly sorry for sending that huge file to the mailing list. I had intended it for Daniel only. Sorry for any inconveniences it may have caused. Les

28 years, 1 month

4
4
0 0

Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I believe KISS tends to apply in these cases. In general, I find that I like blockier ones more. I won't get myself started on modern case design, but I will say that I do not find any of the "home computers" by Compaq, Toshiba, Acer, and Sony to be very nice-looking. Of classic computers, the TI 99/4a probably is in that vicinity... >On Sat, 2 May 1998, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) wrote: > >> On Fri, 1 May 1998, William Donzelli wrote: >> >> > Speaking of which, what are the ugliest machines? >> >> Apollo DOMAIN computers and every last intel based PC manufactured since >> 1993 and _especially_ since 1995. Except the new IBM GL machines which are >> actually kind of nice. > >I'm actually keen on the contemporary Compaq designs and the cool Acer >designs with the neon colors and artistically drilled venting holes in the >dense pattern. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. > > Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > [Last web page update: 04/25/98] > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Auction crap

by aaron＠wfi-inc.com

In case anyone cares, I put another Sun 3/50 and a Sparcstation 1+ on www.haggle.com. The 3/50 is a 12meg flat-top, and the 1+ has 36megs and a 205meg HD. I started them at something like $5 so they'll probably go for just enough to cover packaging tape. The impetus? The space is now being hogged by the System 36 I just dragged in here.... By the way, does anyone want that Sperry IT I got awhile back? It is sitting in the garage looking forlorn. It has that nifty Genoa video card, a memory board, an ethernet card, an unknown size HD, keyboard, optical mouse and pad, complete manual set (system installation guide, Basic user's guide, and MS-DOS user's guide), and original disk set. I haven't had the chance to even power it on yet, so I don't know the operational status (worked when removed). It's heavy (duh), so if someone just wanted the cards/HD/etc, I could disassemble and ship what you wanted and leave the carcass at the local thrift. Oh yeah, I am in the L.A. vicinity, so if someone wanted to pick it up.... Aaron

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Introduction

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<A question occurred to me today : Can you have an embedded analogue <computer, and if so, how many op-amps are needed to have one? Yes, and that's very common. None, a low pass filter(RC) performs a function and can be considered analogue. <I was looking at the service manual for my Micropolis 1203 hard disk, and <I read the circuit description of the servo electronics. It's a fairly <complicated array of op-amps, which combine integral and differential <forms of the position error, positioner current, etc. I would claim that <is an embedded analogue computer. Valid claim, also a good example of a fairly complex function. <On the other hand, I think it would be stretching the definition to call <a simple op-amp wired as a voltage follower an analogue computer. Correct. However often the buffer is between some function or follows one so it's part of the analog system. Other analog systems common to computers: cassette IO (low pass filter on output) and complex filter/differentiator edge/peak detectors for input. Some of the acients used PLLs for clock recovery (KANSAS City is one). Analog to digital conversion (quantification). Digtial to analog conversion (filtering) Disk/tape systems have several layers of analog function for data and control. Allison

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Compaq laptop dock FS/Trade

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

Ok Compaq laptop owners (you know who you are). I have a near new unit to sell or trade as follows: Compaq 2815 Desktop Expansion Base. Looks a lot like the Prolinea line of desktops with a special lid to slide your laptop machine into a "bay". It has no drives (blanking plates) but has an internal contrller for floppy or hard disk and the empty bays. Has a token ring card now in one of the two ISA slots. Includes ports for VGA, LPT, COM, KB and mouse. Has an A/B switch on the rear that I really have no idea of it's use. This is like brand new but has no manuals. Looking for $100 cash or will consider trades of items such as memory, cdroms, sound cards (especially MCA PS/2 types), etc or a complete Snappy 3/3 Deluxe setup. I will also consider equal value electronics test equipment in trade especially function generators, signal generators, frequency counters, Fluke DMMs, etc. Email me direct please. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by cfandt＠servtech.com

Okay, first, where do we stop with the 'was:' things as an interesting thread evolves!? There may be a limit to number of nested parentheses in a subject line! ;-) At 16:52 30-04-98 -0500, Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote: >On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Christian Fandt wrote: > >> Thankfully, the metal/plastic boxes our old computers were made with have >> virtually no value as 'interior decorations' (yet). However, there could be >> exceptions for maybe a couple of models. I recall some list members here >> had commented upon some as being rather attractive in appearance. I haven't >> come across those yet. > >Hmm, a list of computers that look good enough to display as art? Here's >mine (most are laptops): > >IMSAI 8080 >GRiD Compass >Ampere WS1 >MINDSET PC (good enough for MOMA, anyway) >NeXT Cube >eMate 300 > >-- Doug Anybody know of a URL or printed reference to a photo of an Ampere, MINDSET or eMate machine? Heard of them and I would like to see what they're like. I have somewhere in my archives old Popular Electronics and Byte mags which I'm sure show the others on Doug's list. Those NeXT machines were indeed pleasing to look at. I wish I could find one nearby here to see up close or/and purchase. --Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/

28 years, 1 month

8
9
0 0

Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

>I'm actually keen on the contemporary Compaq designs and the cool Acer >designs with the neon colors and artistically drilled venting holes in the >dense pattern. Yep, those are cool. Also, I also kind of like the Toshiba's, the ones with those cool monitor/TV/speakers, and the box is awsome, too. And that new Toshiba model... the one in PC Week... the one that has that "30 second motherboard change", is finally a smart design, if not artistically pleasing. >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- >Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. > > Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > [Last web page update: 04/25/98] -Tim D. Hotze

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Soviet Computer on the web

by dastar＠wco.com

I was going to post this when it was still relevant within the context of the thread but anyway.... Here's a web page with some pictures and information about a pretty fascinating Soviet mainframe: http://www.mailcom.com/besm6 Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98]

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1))

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

What about the Monorail PC's (http://www.monorail.com)? Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: R. Stricklin (kjaeros) <red(a)bears.org> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Saturday, May 02, 1998 7:58 AM Subject: Re: Artistic Computers (was: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)) >On Fri, 1 May 1998, William Donzelli wrote: > >> Speaking of which, what are the ugliest machines? > >Apollo DOMAIN computers and every last intel based PC manufactured since >1993 and _especially_ since 1995. Except the new IBM GL machines which are >actually kind of nice. > >ok >r. >

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, the speakers are probably 6". We are playing instrumental music, nothing too heavy. Both drives were Micropolis, IDE-based, like most newer Macs. Nothing much bangs on the table, except the speaker vibrations. Could it be the Yamaha keyboard or amplifier (just regular black box) >> > >> > >> > >> > The speakers MIGHT be the problem. There is a pair of them, each >> > twice the size of an IMSAI, right beneath the macintosh >> >> I see... Now, while a lot of older drives locked the pack to the spindle >> using a fairly powerful magnet (and 3.5" floppy drives still do), I'd >> still not want to run a hard disk near speakers of that size. Can you >> rearange the layout of the room a little? >> >> -tony >> >Guys! I know of several deaf and impaired hearing people who likes >music at full blast thru regular quality 60W with subwoofer and their >hard drives cared nothing a whit about vibration level. I think >something is funny: (Thobbing of music...boom boom bop...) > >1. Did someone disconnect/connect scsi stuff often? >2. Did something bang the table where Mac sits often? >3. Specific brands is no better than some and why didn't Max give us >what kind of both toasted hds was? >4. Termination issues sometimes cooks the hd especially selection of >termination power used. >5. Sharp resonanent sounds sometimes can make the pc chassis >resosate thus killing hd life early. That does means to some >machines with plastic chassis and some that will resnsonate, shaking >the hd long and often. Push and pull on that hard drive bay to see >how much it can shift or "pluck" it to see if it does vibrate. > >Magnetic field have nearly no effect on hd's inside that steel boxes >unless Apple used plastic shell with thin tin sheets which that >requires you to remove either speakers or the pc to different >location at least 6" to 3 feet away. >Magnetic field strength falls away at logithmic rate with increaseing >distrance from the source. > >Jaosn D. > >> > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

kaypro<->IBM?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

ive been in communication with a lady that has an old kaypro with a lot of text files on disk she wants to transfer to an IBM for further editing and safekeeping. i presume i need to cable their serial ports up and transfer that way, but exactly how? i need some sort of program to send the files on the kaypro i guess, but have nothing to do it with. if i can do this file transfer, i'll get two working kaypros, a TI word processor from 1985 and some NLQ dot matrix printer shipped to me free. david

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Introduction

by rax＠warbaby.com

Hi All - Just joined the list - looks like a great resource for information. I've been collecting vintage micros for a couple of years now and only recently discovered there were other fools with the same bad habit. Currently I've got about 50 assorted Commodores, half-dozen Apple ]['s, two Kaypros, an Osborne Executive, a TRS-80, a couple of TI-99's, a bunch of Atari, Coleco and other game machines, and the rest of the garage is filled with boxes of tape drives, modems, printers and other peripheral stuff. I'm always interested in trading, so if there's something you need, let me know. I'll go back to lurking now. R. BTW - I've been compiling a chronological list of every computer ever made for a book that I'm working on - big stuff as well as micros. It's a pretty big file, but I'll post it (as a MS Word attachment?) if anyone is interested. -- Robert Arnold Managing Editor The MonkeyPool WebSite Content Development http://www.monkeypool.com Creator and Eminence Grise Warbaby: The WebSite. The Domain. The Empire. muahahahahaaaaa http://www.warbaby.com Dreadlocks on white boys give me the willies.

28 years, 1 month

6
10
0 0

For you TI 99/4 collectors out there

by bill_r＠inetnebr.com

For you TI 99/4 collectors out there: >"Bill Frandsen" <bfrandse(a)rrnet.com> >I have the following package for auction on the eBay auction web site. It >ends in less than 24 hours. The current bid is $1.00, but it does have a >reserve price that has not been met. A picture is included at the following >link where you can also place your bid. > >http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=11843202 > >Set of 3 Different TI 99/4A Computers >One each of the major shell + keyboard revisions > >Includes 3 shell types: 1 Cream colored and 2 Black + Silver colored. >1 black + silver unit has a "Solid State Software" emblem under the cart >slot. >The other black + silver unit has different keyboard lettering and help >bezel. >Also includes 3 slightly different styles of working power supplies. >Will include 4 NON-WORKING RF Video Modulators (may be fixable?). >Also includes keyboard help reference strips and some blank strips. >All units have been cleaned and tested and work fine, however, >you will need a working RF Video Modulator or video cable to use them. > > >Thanks for your interest! > -Bill Richman bill_r(a)inetnebr.com http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!)

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, I guess I got my answer, so, if I may inquire, why is it that older hard drives did not need a clean room? Were they sufficiently rought that you could just pull them apart? >> distance? Is there a way to block their effects, using metal, for > >Well, mu-metal would be a reasonable screen, but it's not cheap and can't >be bent to shape after annealing. A larger room might well be cheaper! > >> example? Can I fix the broken drives? > >If it's magnetic damage to the servo information, then it's almost >impossible to repair. You'd need a clean room and the rig used to write >the information at the factory. I don't think many hobbyists have that >sort of setup. > >The other suggestion was mechanical damage from vibration. This might be >more likely, actually. Repairing that (which would be similar to a minor >headcrash) is going to be impossible as well. > >In general even _I_ class modern hard drives as being impossible to >repair. I'll do electronic repairs on the older winchesters (but modern >drives are all custom chips, so that's impossible now), and I'll repair >demountables with no problems at all. But I don't have a clean room to >dismantle the HDA (yet!) > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

This room is about the size of a porta-potty. What would be a safe distance? Is there a way to block their effects, using metal, for example? Can I fix the broken drives? >> The speakers MIGHT be the problem. There is a pair of them, each >> twice the size of an IMSAI, right beneath the macintosh > >I see... Now, while a lot of older drives locked the pack to the spindle >using a fairly powerful magnet (and 3.5" floppy drives still do), I'd >still not want to run a hard disk near speakers of that size. Can you >rearange the layout of the room a little? > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, Lisas are essentially the same case... > > ><Actually, the VT100 does have a rather nice look to it. If you insist ><that only computers go on the above list, I'll list it as a VT103. > >If it has to be a computer bow about a VT180 (CP/M) or PDT-11/130? > >Allison > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

This sucks.

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

Well, the KS-10 deal went over like a lead baloon... It seems the HARDWARE to the system has already been packed off to Caterpillar Spares. But the SYSTEM (disk) is still there. THAT is what they were melting down. Not the whole rack, just the RP06 packs that had their data. When I was told the SYSTEM was intact and may be rescueable, we assumed the HARDWARE. When I asked about config, he assumed I meant "What's the monitor built for?" And they don't wanna give me those disks anyway. Basically, I went in and made a fool of myself... Oh well. Live and learn... -------

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Introduction

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Tony Duell wrote: >> Heck, I'd like to see a good computer taxonomy (you know, kingdom=digital, >> phylum=silicon, class=portable, order=laptop, family=grid, >> genus=1500-series, species=1535-EXP). > > On the grounds that all laptops are portables, I think I'd rather see > something like > > kingdom = {analogue, digital, quantum} > Phylum = {silicon, GaAs, Germanium (?), hollow-state, mechanical} > Class = {Mainframe, Mini, Workstation, Micro} > Order = {Rackmount, deskside, desktop, luggable, laptop, notebook, palmtop} > > (I know of at least one luggable mini, and I think a Sparcbook could > reasonably be called a laptop workstation) Ummm. Given the number of hybrids around (as we have seen from more recent posts), your system might be better. But AFAIK in the taxonomy used by biologists etc. the list of available classes is different for each phylum, the list of available orders different for each class, etc. But I have a computer that is hybrid analogue/digital (an EAI-1000, I think it's called, which is an analogue computer with a microprocessor doing an embedded control type job to run the system)... Philip. PS Luggable Mini = P850?

28 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Anyone know where to find a Setup disk for Epson Equity II+?

by lfb107＠psu.edu

At 07:15 AM 5/1/98 -0700, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote: >One of ours lost it's CMOS. >------- Here's a zip of one. At one time it was available off of the Epson web page but I'm not sure if it still is. Anyway, it works for both II+ and III model Epsons. Enjoy! Les

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Anyone know where to find a Setup disk for Epson Equity II+?

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

One of ours lost it's CMOS. -------

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

XT Power Supply help... (More Info)

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

OK... by some act of God, when I try to plug in the HDD alone, it spins up, along with the PSU. Now, when I take EVERYTHING out, that includes drives, cards, etc. and just give the motherboard power, it doesn't spin up at all. Yes, the black pins are in the middle, I know I've got a good connection... could this be the "No power" line thingy? Should a real-XT case work with a clone-XT motherboard? Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Friday, May 01, 1998 3:13 AM Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... >> I've gone as far as epoxying a screw upside down onto the odd "security" screws >> way back when they started coming out and used a pliers/visegrips to turn the > >Or filing a nail to make a tool to fit some of the more obscure screws. > >If it has a head that stands proud of the surface, and if you don't care >about mangling the screw, then use a hacksaw to cut a slot in it. I got a >pile of AT bits at a radio rally, and that's what had been done to the >screws in the PSU. > >> > not to put a nail in the fuseholder, or put unsafe components in the >> > chopper circuit, or whatever. >> >> Uh, penny under the blown screw in fuse, cigarette pack foil around the blown AGC >> fuse. Let's do this right now. > >It's a well-known fact that to the UK public all fuses are 13A (the >standard/maximum one used in our mains plugs). I've seen said fuses in >all sorts of places that they don't belong. > >I've also seen the fuse wrapped in foil - where on earth does that >dangerous trick come from. I can't believe these lusers work it out for >themselves. > >-tony >

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Computer Taxonomy

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<However, some of the very simple controllers in, e.g., lawn sprinkler <timers, etc. could possibly be classified as just programmable logic <elements -not really "computers". I can imagine a simple Epson or whateve <clock chip and a small programmable array logic (PAL) chip of some low co <type being setup with very simple I/O to act as the "programmable" contro <in those types of equipment. Or, rather, an application specific <integrated circuit or ASIC could be specially designed and fabricated to <replace all of this if production quantities are in the many thousands. <Still, no microprocessor chip though. This is not true, many VCRs have version of the NEC ucom75 chips, cmos single chip microprocessor(512b-2kb rom, 128nybbles of ram(max) lots of IO for various purposes). The TI1000 series were used in games and Microwave ovens. Most of the things like lawn spriklers controllers are chips like 8048/9, PIC, or other cheap in volume mask rom single chips micros. The list can go on but true ASICs are expensive to develope and limited in scope. There are an abundance of small very low cost single chip micros that can do tasks like those described. FYI what does seperate most of these from the general taxonomic classes is that the "program" is inaccessable on most of these so altering it is unlikely to impossible. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Computer Taxonomy

by peacock＠simconv.com

> It would be tough (but valuable) to provide a truly comprehensive list. kingdom = {analogue, digital, quantum} Phylum = {silicon, GaAs, Germanium (?), hollow-state, mechanical} Class = {Mainframe, Mini, Workstation, Micro} Order = {Rackmount, deskside, desktop, luggable, laptop, notebook, palmtop} You are leaving out whole categories of computers. Where do VCR and microwave oven controllers fit in? How do you fit in user programmable and non-user programmable? What about digital storage scopes, logic analyzers? What about lawn sprinkler timers, aren't they "programmable"? Jack Peacock

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Funny you should mention the Macquarium. Yesterday on my way home I stopped at a used computer store and found a Mac Plus Macquarium with the original documentation dated 1992 (a mere $60.00 for a butchered Mac... I wouldn't buy one because I don't think it's cute and don't want to encourage this practice). The top of the case had been quite roughly gouged out, a glass tank fitted inside the case. I'd seen this on the web before but thought it was a joke..... Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1) Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 4/30/98 6:45 PM On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Doug Yowza wrote: > > Thankfully, the metal/plastic boxes our old computers were made with have > > virtually no value as 'interior decorations' (yet). However, there could be > > exceptions for maybe a couple of models. I recall some list members here > > had commented upon some as being rather attractive in appearance. I haven't > > come across those yet. > > Hmm, a list of computers that look good enough to display as art? Here's > mine (most are laptops): > > IMSAI 8080 > GRiD Compass > Ampere WS1 > MINDSET PC (good enough for MOMA, anyway) > NeXT Cube > eMate 300 Of course you guys have heard of converting a Mac into a fish tnak? Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! [Last web page update: 04/25/98] ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Apr30.184519.1767.39626; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 18:45:19 -0400 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id PAA27000; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:26 -0700 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id PAA81022 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:21 -0700 Received: from shell.wco.com (shell.wco.com [199.4.94.16]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id PAA26284 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:05 -0700 Received: from shell (dastar@shell [199.4.94.16]) by shell.wco.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/WCO-18jul97) with SMTP id PAA00153 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:15 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980430153749.24738C-100000@shell> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 15:38:10 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1) In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980430164313.14283A-100000(a)behemoth.host4u.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> X-Sender: dastar@shell X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

XT Power Supply help... (More Info)

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

Hmm, must be too early... I suddenly remembered a situation like this I had with a motherboard a few years back... check the ISA slots; make sure nobody's stuck a card in there and mangled a few of the pins. This board I was given had the same trouble, and a couple of the pins were shorting out and the system was shutting it down. Nice three-second fix once I'd found the problem!! :) good luck, Jules >

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Introduction

by fauradon＠pclink.com

Off Topic posts are the worst, second comes discussions about computers less than ten years old (which eventually fall in the off topic category) Try to locate the List FAQ to find out more (it doesn't list the flame war starters but if you can stick to the guidelines you'll be OK). Then again I'm not in charge of this list either. As a general rule this is a list for the discussion of more than ten year old computer equipment. Use plain text to send messages. Be nice and have fun. >Thanks for the tip. Let me know if there are any other no-no's or flame bait. > Francois ------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the Sanctuary at: http://www.pclink.com/fauradon

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Tony Cole's Cray-1

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Doug: > Is the reason those old radio/phonograph boxes are not being thrown > away is that noone notice the cover and thinks it's just a pretty > dresser w/o drawers :)? Also hideaway sewing machines. :-) I doubt it... The real crime is those who buy sewing machines with pedestals and treadles, throw away the sewing machine and turn the pedestal into an olde worlde iron framed coffee table. I am told by a friend in the trade that this is v. common. > Of course, the System/36 (I think, maybe not) was built into a desk. There was a system/36 that was the size of a desk pedestal but I never saw that particular variant. The system/32 (and possibly the s/38?) had a desk built into _it_... > And then there were the teletypes (are the ones that are mostly used > as examples of teletypes ASR-33?), printers, etc. Yes. Philip.

28 years, 1 month

12
18
0 0

Tony Cole's Cray-1

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<VU = Valve, Rectifying (don't ask me to explain that one). Unidirectional...diode for dummies. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Actually, the VT100 does have a rather nice look to it. If you insist <that only computers go on the above list, I'll list it as a VT103. If it has to be a computer bow about a VT180 (CP/M) or PDT-11/130? Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Tony Cole's Cray-1

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Apr 30, 9:40, Christian Fandt wrote: > By the way, a second, more minor problem was my wife. When I was describing > the size of the 9370 system before I brought it home, here eyes got real > big and she stated: "Just where are you going to put that!??!" This sounds familiar :-) > And when I > got two six foot tall 19"rack cabinets from an old machine controller at > work that I tore down, I temporarily set them in the new garage sometime > before we moved in. She spied them, stared at them for a few seconds and > asked "What are _those_ monstrosities?" I had to do some quick explaining Even more familair :-) > Wish I could afford a heated, insulated garage. Just leave one or two running, like I do. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

The speakers MIGHT be the problem. There is a pair of them, each twice the size of an IMSAI, right beneath the macintosh > >> >> I posted this a few weeks back, but noone answered, so I'll ask it >> again. > >Oh, what the heck, I'll make a few guesses... > >> There is a certain Macintosh 5400/180 at my school whose hard drive >> crashed about a month and a half ago. When it tried to start, it >> wouldn't really seek, just made a ticking noise and the LED would > >Is the disk spinning at this point? (feel the drive itself). Is it just >that the positioner is not geting the heads where they should be? > >> flash. So, we took it out, ordered another one. A few days later, >> it died the same death. So now we have another one. My ethics don't >> allow me to just put in a hard drive knowing it will be destroyed. >> What should I do? One hint is that the Macintosh is in a soundproof >> booth, and is powered from the booth, which is plugged in. But, the >> mac is plugged in via a "surge protector". >> Ideas? Could it be bad power? Any way to check? > >It _could_ be a PSU problem, but IMHO it's unlikely, unless other parts >of the mac are failing as well. If the disk is spinning and the rest of >the mac is OK, I'd not suspect power problems at this time. > >Are there any strong magnetic fields (say _large_ speakers) very close to >it? I'm wondering if the servo information on the disks is being >corrupted so the positioner can't lock onto a track. > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by peacock＠simconv.com

>Some sick minded person might gut a NeXT cube and use it as >a little stool for flowers at an exhibit of abstract art ;) > In the early S-100 days (1975) the engineering lab I worked in got an early Altair (we needed small cheap computers to embed in environmental monitoring instruments). A few months later we got one of the first IMSAIs. After about 3 minutes of comparing the two, we voted to use IMSAIs and the Altair was relegated to being the doorstop for the lab doors. I assume it wound up in a surplus action some number of years after I left. BTW, the embedded controller we actually used in the instruments was a single board Intel 8080, their evaluation kit board, the precursor to Multibus. We used the IMSAIs to develop and test the code in the lab. Jack Peacock

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, I recall from The Secret Guide To Computers that early Timex Sinclairs were used as doorstops at Timex (or whatever). Some sick minded person might gut a NeXT cube and use it as a little stool for flowers at an exhibit of abstract art ;) > >At 08:56 30-04-98 -0600, "Jeff Kaneko" <Jeff.Kaneko(a)ifrsys.com> wrote: >> >>> At 17:30 29-04-98 +0000, Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk wrote: >>> >Doug: >>> > >>> >> Is the reason those old radio/phonograph boxes are not being thrown >>> >> away is that noone notice the cover and thinks it's just a pretty > --- snippers --- > >>> There were folks who took a late-20's/early 30's radio which was built into >>> a beautiful wooden cabinet and turned it into a piece of furniture by >>> gutting it. Then there were the late 40's and early 50's TV cabinets which >>> met the same fate. At least I've rescued several of each of these kinds of >>> receivers for my collection. >> >>Then there was this girl I was dating while I lived in Baltimore in >>the early 80's. Her dad had a vintage (early 20th cent.)'magneto' >>(u-crank-it) telephone he mounted on the wall in their basement as a >>conversation piece. He felt it was 'too heavy' so before mounting >>it he gutted the thing. So many historic relics have been destroyed >>in the name of 'interior decoration'. > >Some people have no clue. But in retrospect to that statement, those people >are probably not technically oriented like we are so there is no awareness >of anything's actual worth as a technological collectable. > >Thankfully, the metal/plastic boxes our old computers were made with have >virtually no value as 'interior decorations' (yet). However, there could be >exceptions for maybe a couple of models. I recall some list members here >had commented upon some as being rather attractive in appearance. I haven't >come across those yet. > > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Production figures?

by altair8800＠hotmail.com

Does anyone know the production figures for either the Altair 8800, the Imsai 8080 or the Processor Tech SOL 20? If actual numbers are not available I would really appreciate getting an educated guess. Thanks much, Bob ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

FS: Mac 128

by gmast＠polymail.cpunix.calpoly.edu

I used to subscribe to this list but my mailbox couldn't take it. I guess if you'reading this, it got through. I'm selling a Mac 128 on eBay. The bid is up to about $60 and the auction ends today. If anyone is interested in it just go to the link below and bid through the auction. You will have to pay shipping so keep that in mind. 11941337: Original Macintosh! 128K / KB / FD / More! Current bid: $51.00 Auction ends on: 04/30/98 18:31:45 PDT http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=11941337 I also have another 128 that seems to work but has a dead screen. And a pile of the external floppy drives (3 I think). Includes keyboard and mouse. Accepting offers.

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

XT Power Supply help...

by Marty＠itgonline.com

I've never seen an 80W power supply. All original IBM 5150 PC's I worked on had a 63W power supply and the IBM XT's all had a 130W power supply. You mentioned your supply has a 220V selection? If so and you are stateside, make certain it is in the 110V position. If you have a 220V power supply that doesn't have a 110V selection and you're stateside... you're out of luck. I concur with all those previous respondents that this supply of yours is most likely good but loaded down either by excessive loading (more cards/memory/drives than the P/S can service) or a short circuit in one of the add-on boards or drives. Just unload until you find the cause. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 4/29/98 11:34 PM That's odd. My power supply's 130W. It's also the 220v variety, as that's what's available here. It was made in Dublin, Ireland. It really looks like it was how it was made, as it looks REALLY built-in to the case. Anyway, I can't see any reason that it would be dememanding too much power, all I have connected is a XT clone motherboard, (however, it WAS sitting in an XT case) and a XT floppy drive connected. So, any ideas? I think that it was just this PS's time to go.... and it was two weeks one day older than I am! Thanks for the help. I might need a new PSU, as I'm not good at this type of thing. After testing it with a dummy load, just a HDD, and a FDD (one at a time), and rechecking all my power connections, I think that it REALLY is dead. Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: SUPRDAVE <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 5:06 AM Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... >In a message dated 98-04-29 16:12:26 EDT, you write: > ><< > >> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I >found > > >>that > > >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, > > >>moves > > >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. > > > > Could you simply be overloading it? >> >as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should be >no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy >drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply so there shouldnt be any danger of >overloading unless it was dodgy to begin with. ive a loaded up xt and the >power supply handles it just fine. > >david ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists4.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Apr29.233404.1767.39454; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 23:34:05 -0400 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id UAA06172; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 20:27:07 -0700 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id UAA63124 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 20:27:01 -0700 Received: from sv10.batelco.com.bh (sv10.batelco.com.bh [193.188.97.227]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id UAA30480 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 20:26:58 -0700 Received: from hotze ([193.188.103.36]) by sv10.batelco.com.bh (post.office MTA v1.9.3b ID# 0-13092) with SMTP id AAA21936 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 06:26:53 +0300 Message-Id: <001601bd73e7$d6fd3540$2467bcc1@hotze> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 06:25:48 +0300 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: "Hotze" <photze(a)batelco.com.bh> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-To: <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

No subject

by bill_r＠inetnebr.com

For your consideration. As always, if you get screwed on this stuff, I will deny any knowledge of your existence. ;-) >For Sale- Collectors Items. > >Osborne 1 and Vixen Computers by owner. > >The ORIGINAL portables. > >Manuals and Software included. > >Make offer. > >Respond to Joe at joab(a)ix.nectom.com > -Bill Richman bill_r(a)inetnebr.com http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!)

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

XT Power Supply help...

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

That's odd. My power supply's 130W. It's also the 220v variety, as that's what's available here. It was made in Dublin, Ireland. It really looks like it was how it was made, as it looks REALLY built-in to the case. Anyway, I can't see any reason that it would be dememanding too much power, all I have connected is a XT clone motherboard, (however, it WAS sitting in an XT case) and a XT floppy drive connected. So, any ideas? I think that it was just this PS's time to go.... and it was two weeks one day older than I am! Thanks for the help. I might need a new PSU, as I'm not good at this type of thing. After testing it with a dummy load, just a HDD, and a FDD (one at a time), and rechecking all my power connections, I think that it REALLY is dead. Thanks, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: SUPRDAVE <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 5:06 AM Subject: Re: XT Power Supply help... >In a message dated 98-04-29 16:12:26 EDT, you write: > ><< > >> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I >found > > >>that > > >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, > > >>moves > > >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. > > > > Could you simply be overloading it? >> >as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should be >no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy >drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply so there shouldnt be any danger of >overloading unless it was dodgy to begin with. ive a loaded up xt and the >power supply handles it just fine. > >david

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

The PC's Soviet?

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Yep, Apple Records. Actually, it was founded by Paul Macarthney (however you spell it) and John Lenon, the Beatles. Their idea was to have people coming in, and doing what they wanted, getting profits for their records, and not having to go beg the brass at some corporation. They lost more and more money, into the 80's, when they were "eaten up" by Capitol records. The Beatles CD's available now from capitol still feature the Apple logo (not Apple Computer), and the CD's also have it. Ciao, Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: SUPRDAVE <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 4:10 PM Subject: Re: The PC's Soviet? >In a message dated 98-04-30 00:39:32 EDT, you write: > ><< Heck, wasn't the name "Apple" licensed from the British record company of > the same name (Apple the computer company could use the name as long as > they didn't get into the music business. . .which made things get > interesting when people started doing MIDI stuff with Macs . . .) > >> > >yea, wasnt it the beatles who had something called apple records or something >like that? i remember reading somewhere sometime long ago about the legalities >of it. obviously, apple records got precedence because they were there first. >did apple computer ever have to pay money for the resolution? > >david

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

The PC's Soviet?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-30 00:39:32 EDT, you write: << Heck, wasn't the name "Apple" licensed from the British record company of the same name (Apple the computer company could use the name as long as they didn't get into the music business. . .which made things get interesting when people started doing MIDI stuff with Macs . . .) >> yea, wasnt it the beatles who had something called apple records or something like that? i remember reading somewhere sometime long ago about the legalities of it. obviously, apple records got precedence because they were there first. did apple computer ever have to pay money for the resolution? david

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

XT Power Supply help...

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> > Could you simply be overloading it? >> >> as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should >>be >> no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy >> drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply > ... hmm, I've overloaded a standard XT (80W) supply before trying to run a couple of the original 10MB hard drives (amongst other things!). Guess it depends on what cards and stuff you're running (some of those old full-length boards drew a hell of a lot of power...) I've got an old pre-XT machine somewhere with the 63W supply, I seem to remember it wouldn't even power one 10MB drive with motherboard and a single floppy drive in place... I can't remember why on earth I even tried it though, I don't think the pre-XT machines (what was their proper title btw?) would even run a hard drive... cheers Jules

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

First speaker announced for VCF2

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> > Finally, Sam, could you put me on the VCF mailing list, please. I tried > > to subscribe from the web page but we've just migrated to Lusedoze Not > > Tolerable and Internut Exploder, with the result that I couldn't get it > > to work... > > Hmmmm...I thought I tested it under MSIE and it should be working. I'll > check again. If anyone else is experiencing problems with the forms > features then please let me know. Thanks for the tip. And yes, I will > add you to the notification list. To be addded to the mailing list I'll > need your physical address, unless you just want e-mail updates. Sorry, Sam, what I meant was our systems here are badly set up. And I refuse to spend hours trying to get WNT to do things properly when it's probably not capable of it. When I try to use your forms page, Internut Exploder asks for a directory in which to store outgoing e-mails and then won't accept any that I give it. (For the record, I am _not_ a computing/IT/whatever person at work - it's merely my hobby. Eventually I will get TCP/IP on one of my UNIX boxen at home and get a personal connection...) Physical address will follow by private e-mail. Philip.

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

NEC portable FS

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

I hate to flood all of you with more stuff but this machine is going unused here and collecting dust. It may be of interest to a collector or of use to someone as a Windows portable. NEC APC IV 286-10 processor, HDD, blue EGA LCD screen, CGA/EGA external monitor port, internal modem, 2.6 mb RAM on 640k system memory and AST card, serial and parallel ports, new 1.44m floppy, external "backpack" 5.25" floppy, manual, keyboard, 1 additional open 16 bit ISA slot, power cord, etc. has Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.2 loaded on HDD. . $135 US plus shipping. Excellent condition. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ ICQ UIN #1714857 AOL Instant Messenger "RHBLAKEMAN" * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Grid Laptop FS

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 07:14 PM 4/28/98, you wrote: >GRID 8088 XT Laptop. Rugged Construction. 720k FDD, No HDD, 512k Mem, >SER/PAR, Plasma Screen, AC Adapter Module substitutes battery. Works >Perfectly. Good for diagnostics, automotive, marine, etc. Excellent >condition. Buyer prepays with money order or check and pays shipping. It sounds like a GridCase3. Probably worth $45 easy. That AC module is definitely worth something. If I hadn't just bought a TRS-80 m600 and a Televideo Portable PC, I'd probably go for it, but (luckily?) I already have one. Sure would like that AC Module, though! --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Kaypro 2 update

by ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca

I finally had enough time today to go to Canadian Tire and pick up a set of allen wrenches, so I finally pulled the disk drives out of my ailing Kaypro 2. I moved the resistor pack to what was formerly drive A, and swapped the jumper blocks, put everything back together... and it worked! The Kaypro 2 booted up WordStar with absolutely no problems. Now drive B (formerly drive A) can't be accessed. It gets a "Bdos Err On B: Bad Sector" on known good disks. So it's definitely the drive that's bad. Mechanically the drive seems sound, so I guess I have to assume that there's something wrong with the electronics. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison with a working Tandon drive to see if there's any obvious differences, though. Doug Spence ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

The PC's Soviet?

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

>On Wed, 22 Apr 1998, Doug Spence wrote: >> There were all kinds of small Apple cloners around, with various Apple >> variety and fruit names ("Granny Smith", "McIntosh", "Pear", etc.). The Any lawsuits there with that second item? >> Apple ][+ was the lack of the Apple logo, and usually the presence of >> lower case display (though not necessarily the shift-key mod, which my >> machine lacks). Some had additional stuff, though, like function keys and >> slightly differently shaped cases. Or maybe a different colour of >> plastic. >> >> Maybe I should start collecting Apple clones, seeing as I see them more >> frequently than actual Apples (clones were more affordable). I have seen a Franklin once, and the rest were real Apples. >I think the clones are more interesting than the real Apples at this >point. They are more varied and in most areas are less common. More >importantly they do have a historical significance. So how many of them were there (ballpark)? >> So the Soviets pirated the Apple ][, who didn't? >> >> A shame about the price, though. Why pirate the Apple if your clone is >> going to be even MORE expensive than the real thing? > So that you can sell it back to the US and make a profit! > >> BTW, my clone fell ill a while ago, and I've replaced it with a genuine >> Apple //e (the clone is back in its original box). Thanks to >> depreciation, the //e was *much* less expensive than the clone was. And >> it even had an additional 256K RAM card in it (now populated up to 512K). >> :) >> >> Too bad the //e won't work with any of my Z80 cards. :/ > There has been a Z-80 card made for the Apple //c, which plugged into the processor socket. Has anyone seen it? I only saw it in a catalog. > >Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Don't blame me...I voted for Satan. > > Coming in September...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 > See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! > [Last web page update: 04/13/98] > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

4
4
0 0

XT Power Supply help...

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-29 09:23:09 EDT, you write: << Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I found that my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, moves a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. Thanks, >> heres a quick and dirty way to test one: if you have a hard drive, plug that into one of the power connectors, then hit the switch. that will let you know if its working or not. this test will work, as i use an xt supply just to run a scsi drive for my mac when i bring it out for testing once in a while. if not working, i have several extra xt supplies i need to get rid of. message me privately if interested. david

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Kickstart and Workbench 1.2 for Amiga 1000

by jfoust＠threedee.com

"James L. Rice" <jrice(a)texoma.net> wrote: >I've acquired a Amiga 1000 with monitor, mouse, scsi sidecar that try's >to boot up, but after booting kickstart, it asks for the Workbench 1.2 >disk. My disk seems to be defective because the drive cycles and the >picture of the workbench disk comes back up. Does anyone out there have >a copy? The symptoms you describe could also mean that your disk drive is out of alignment. Early Amiga OSes were floppy-bound and did a lot of gronking, which wore out a lot of drives. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Tony Cole's Cray-1

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

William Donzelli: > I do not think the Cray-1s used 10K ECL - I believe they were custom parts > and were faster (10K gates have a delay around 2 nS). Only four types of > chips were used in the whole beast - I think two were OR/NOR gates, one > was a flip-flop, and the other RAM. It is some years since I looked at the Cray 1 in the Deutches Museum in Muenchen (Munich), but I distinctly recall seeing lots of 10xxx chips in it. I remember I had just been given a board from the CPU of a Cyber two-hunderd-and-something (?) that had been thrown out by Muenchen Technical University a few months earlier, and this board has lots of 100xxx chips on it. Philip.

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Suicidal HDD (OT mystery)

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I posted this a few weeks back, but noone answered, so I'll ask it again. There is a certain Macintosh 5400/180 at my school whose hard drive crashed about a month and a half ago. When it tried to start, it wouldn't really seek, just made a ticking noise and the LED would flash. So, we took it out, ordered another one. A few days later, it died the same death. So now we have another one. My ethics don't allow me to just put in a hard drive knowing it will be destroyed. What should I do? One hint is that the Macintosh is in a soundproof booth, and is powered from the booth, which is plugged in. But, the mac is plugged in via a "surge protector". Ideas? Could it be bad power? Any way to check? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

XT Power Supply help...

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-04-29 16:12:26 EDT, you write: << > >> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I found > >>that > >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, > >>moves > >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. > > Could you simply be overloading it? >> as long as its an xt power supply and not one from a 5150 pc, there should be no problems. the 5150 was only 63watts, which was good for maybe floppy drives. the xt has an ~80 watt power supply so there shouldnt be any danger of overloading unless it was dodgy to begin with. ive a loaded up xt and the power supply handles it just fine. david

28 years, 1 month

4
8
0 0

Amstrad PPC640 mains adapter

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 1246 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19980429/2baee4ff/at…

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

XT Power Supply help...

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> Hi. After getting a new M Board for my XT and a load of cards, I found >>that >> my Power Supply's now completely dead. So, where to I start? No fan, >>moves >> a turn or two, I know that the power connections good. Could you simply be overloading it? Seem to remember original IBM XT supplies do this when there's too much load on the system - does the supply seem to work without anything connected to it? The fan should at least spin then... It's equally likely that one of the cards you've got, or the motherboard itself is faulty in some way and is causing the supply to shut down. If you've got a voltmeter try checking the output voltages. Final possibility: did XT supplies have a "power good" reference line that the motherboard tied to +12V to signal that everything was Ok? Can't remember if this was only AT systems that provided this. If they did it may be that your new board doesn't provide it but the power supply expects it to (wait for someone else's words of wisdom I guess, been a while since I've fiddled with these things - if that is the cause though you should be able to simply tie the line to +12V and then everything should work... :) cheers Jules > >

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb