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

Uploaded: ISA Pertec Controller MS-DOS drivers + manual. (Catamount/Electrovalue ATC-8, ATC-16, PCT-9 MTC-16)

by tomjmoss＠googlemail.com

Hi All, I've just archived my Catamount Pertec Controller software and manuals as I couldn't find a copy anywhere else. The ATC-8 and ATC-16 series of Pertec controllers are still being sold by Electrovalue, but with a different software package. I personally find the Catamount software much more useful, as it allows for labelled backups, programming tools, and hard drive + serial + parallel device emulation. This is version 3.2F. Software: https://archive.org/details/Catamount_ATC-16 Manuals: https://archive.org/details/3.2Manual The software is in ZIP and IMD format, but I should be able to make IMG dumps if anyone wants them. (not that it's really necessary) Hopefully this will be of use to someone, -Tom

10 years, 9 months

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DECtape reliability?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Tom Moss > I guess I'll have to get myself a TU56 at some point. Good luck with that! They are rare _and_ expensive; I'm trying to find one myself! Do you have a TC11 or TC08 (not sure which kind of system you're working with) already? If not, those are even rarer! :-) Noel

10 years, 9 months

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NeXTSTEP 3.3 Web Browser

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

I recently got a NeXTstation Turbo running NeXTSTEP 3.3 (with patch 2 applied). It's a fresh install, and I have a complete set of floppies and disks, including the development CD. The system seems to be working great! I've burned a CD with OmniWeb 2.7 beta 3 and untar'ed it on the system. Unfortunately, when I try to open an HTML document, it briefly comes up with the browser window, then crashes. You can find OmniWeb here: http://files.omnigroup.com/software/Archive/NEXTSTEP/OmniWeb/ I'm not all too familiar with NeXTSTEP, so I'm not sure how I'd go about debugging this. But I figured I'd check here first to see if anyone has a recommended browser for NeXTSTEP 3.3. I would prefer to keep it at 3.3 and not move onto OPENSTEP if possible, just to keep things original. I also have Nexus, but I can't even seem to get it to open its browser at all. Document -> Open does nothing at all. Any ideas? Thanks, Kyle

10 years, 9 months

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IBM PS/2 memory

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Just dug my IBM 65sx out, which had already lost 2 of its original 6MB due to a bad memory module - but it seems like the remaining 4MB is not very happy, either, and it flakes out at 3.7MB or so. Obviously I need to source some replacement RAM. Does anyone know if the systems are picky about what they'll work with? I believe they have to have parity (unless there's some magic jumper/setting somewhere to make it work with non-parity stuff), but are there any other gotchas involved in terms of DRAM type, capacities etc.? (I'm wondering about trying some of the RAM from my SGI Indigo2, but I think that would mean losing 128MB from the system to give up a 32MB module for the IBM, as I believe the SGI needs them to be installed in groups of 4 - that's assuming that it's even compatible, anyway) cheers Jules

10 years, 9 months

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Unusual Altair 8800 power supply. Upgrade kit, factory error, or something else?

by tomjmoss＠googlemail.com

Hi All, I have what appears to be an Altair 8800 with the original Rev 0 front panel, but the rear panel and PSU is a back-to-front version of what's standard on the 8800b. Pictures at http://imgur.com/a/2EVRS I'm guessing this is a factory error, since the bare patch for the bridge rectifier and case holes are inverted too. But I'm aware of an upgrade kit (8800b-PS) that was offered to 8800 owners. So I'm guessing that's where the PSU and panel came from. Can anyone shed some light on this? Are there others like it? Regards, -Tom

10 years, 9 months

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WD9000 Pascal microengine schematics available

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

>Help would be nice reverse-engineering the chipset. >I also picked up some of the Russian versions of the >instruction decode chip. Any idea how one can do it ??? --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier ?lectronique a ?t? v?rifi?e par le logiciel antivirus Avast. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 9 months

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Keshe Plasma Energy (MAGRAV) Blueprints Available For Download

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

This hardware needs to be tested, but I don't have anything like the hardware or the equipment to build and test it. > From: "Starship Earth: The Big Picture" <donotreply at wordpress.com > <mailto:donotreply at wordpress.com>> > Date: Thursday, 5 November, 2015 6:48 PM > To: Steven Goldhar <moegoldhar at rogers.com <mailto:moegoldhar at rogers.com>> > Subject: [New post] Keshe Plasma Energy (MAGRAV) Blueprints Available > For Download > > Starship Earth: The Big Picture posted: " Keshe Plasma Energy (MAGRAV) > Blueprints Available For Download Please go to Deus Nexus for the > details..." > > > New post on Starship Earth: The Big Picture > > > > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?author=1> > > > Keshe Plasma Energy (MAGRAV) Blueprints Available For Download > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/2015/11/05/keshe-plasma-energy-ma…> > > by Starship Earth: The Big Picture > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?author=1> > > > KesheFoundation > > > Keshe Plasma Energy (MAGRAV) Blueprints Available For Download > > Please go to Deus Nexus for the details... > <https://deusnexus.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/plasma-energy-download/> > > Starship Earth: The Big Picture > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?author=1> | November 5, > 2015 at 4:48 pm | Tags: blueprints > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=blueprints>, > distribution > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=distribut…>, > download > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=download>, > electro-gravitics > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=electro-g…>, > free energy > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=free-ener…>, > global > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=global>, > Keshe foundation > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=keshe-fou…>, > magrav > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=magrav>, > Mehran T Keshe > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=mehran-t-…>, > technology > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=post_tag&term=technology> > | Categories: Current Updates > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/?taxonomy=category&term=current-u…> > | URL: http://wp.me/p5mdeR-7pH > > Comment > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/2015/11/05/keshe-plasma-energy-ma…> > See all comments > <http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/2015/11/05/keshe-plasma-energy-ma…> > > > Unsubscribe > <https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=ae58620dacfaf1ada77868c6ca1ae577&email…> > to no longer receive posts from Starship Earth: The Big Picture. > Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions > <https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=ae58620dacfaf1ada77868c6ca1ae577&email…>. > > > Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: > http://www.starshipearththebigpicture.com/2015/11/05/keshe-plasma-energy-ma… > > > > Evidently, this possible technology is so far beyond any current concepts in quantum physics that some individuals refuse to consider that it might work. Just in case anyone is interested and might be able to build, test and evaluate even a small model, I though it might be reasonable to distribute the information more widely. Since a single successful, or even partially successful, test that produces at least some power or energy over a period that would exceed any possible battery capability would point to concepts which can't presently be explained, it seems to me to be worth while to build one. Of course, that is easy for me to say since I will not be spending the time and effort. But please let all of us know the details if anyone tries! Jerome Fine

10 years, 9 months

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Looking for top door, VAX 4000

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Looking for top door for my VAX 4000-200. Any door from a 4000 of similar chassis class should work. Here is the URL of machine missing door: http://vintagecomputer.net/digital/VAX_4000-200/VAX_4000-200.jpg Location Landenberg, PA. Please contact me though vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm to ensure delivery of your message. Location Landenberg, PA -- Bill

10 years, 9 months

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PDP-11/45-55 CPU fan assemblies

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Hi, all: I recently bought a PDP-11/45 [well, a /55, to be technical; the /45, /50 and /55 are completely identical except for i) the memory options installed at purchase, and ii) the printing on the front console :-], but alas, when I looked closely, it is missing both upper and lower CPU fan assemblies. (No doubt, removed to allow cannabilization of the fans, to keep another machine running.) (For those who aren't familiar, these are long brackets to which a number of the usual square fans are bolted; one is placed above, and one below, the cards in the main pull-out rack of the CPU. The one on top is hinged along the long edge, so it can be rolled back out out of the way, for running cables to boards.) So, does anyone i) have a spare set they don't want (I know, I know, I know, p < .00001, but maybe a miracle will happen); ii) have a set they can lend me so that I can get the sheet-metal part copied (I might get a spare or two made at the same time, depending on price, so we have some on hand); iii) failing all of the above, be willing to take lots of pictures, and some measurements, of a set, to aid in making reproductions. Thanks (hopefully :-)! Noel

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim Stephensn > thanks for the help. Eh, always happy to help anyone with PDP-11 stuff. > the buddy mentioned above did a lot of dec maintenance and put these > cables in a pile as he found them.. They're probably worth a good bit now, given how scarce they are! ;-) > Also will order some parts to make the cable off the M7940. You might want to order some 10-pin shells (for the DLV11-J, etc) at the same time, those are really common on later DEC gear - the DLV11/DLV11-J was the transition point. (Actually, although there are only 10 pins, it looks like the connector housings will hold 14-pin shells, so it you want to not have to carefully align the cable before plugging it in, go for 14's. Haven't tried this personally - yet - so take that one with a grain of salt!) I'm off to order some 14-pin shells myself! :-) Noel

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim Stephensn > I'm looking for a cable or cable pinout to get the console of this > 11/03 going. > ... > It has a M7940-YA DLV11 controller. Hmm. I can't find anything online about the -YA variant of the DLV11; the DLV11 prints (MP00055) don't seem to show it. I don't know exactly wqhat the "extra wires to bring out clock & .. 110/300 speed change" entail - and whether you have to have the right jumpers, etc in the Berg connector to make it run? Maybe the easier path would be to buy a different DL-type serial line board (plain DLV11, DLV11-E, DLV11-F, DLV11-J), they're available on eBait for not much money, usually - unless you already have one on hand, of course. (Or did you - for authenticity reasons - _have_ to run the -YA card?) Those are all a known quantity, pinout-wise; the first three all use the standard DL11 cable [same as the UNIBUS one, M7800], the last one uses the smaller header common to the later QBUS machines (e.g. 11/23+, etc). If you have the Berg female shells and pins (not sure if you do; if not, definitely worth getting them, since the cables are basically unobtainable, but fairly easy to make), but don't know the pinout for them, let me know, and I can supply both null-modem and non-null-modem cable diagrams (for DB25 connectors, already worked out; I have made DB9 serial cables, but not for direct connection to a DLV11, but could generate those too). Noel

10 years, 9 months

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scrounging at recyclers

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

+2 with Marc !!!! HP Boards, please, HP boards ;-) --- L'absence de virus dans ce courrier ?lectronique a ?t? v?rifi?e par le logiciel antivirus Avast. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 8E Panel Paint Chipping - How to seal edges

by ian.finder＠gmail.com

Hi all, I've just emailed Rod Smallwood about a replacement panel, but in the meantime, I have some chipping and curling at the edges of the panel paint near the switches which seems to be getting worse and spreading. Is there a way to seal the curling paint edges to prevent further damage? perhaps clear nail polish? thanks, - Ian -- Ian Finder (206) 395-MIPS ian.finder at gmail.com

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim Stephensn > The 9400-YE has the cables that formerly went to the 11-780. I'm not > sure what it does. ... I'm not sure if the M9400 needs to be pulled or > not to run the system. This one I actually can answer, since I've been looking for /780 documentation: found some, but nothing on the hardware config of the console front end, alas. But I did discover about how the LSI-11 is interfaced to the VAX! The M9400-YE is a standard QBUS card for doing QBUS extension boxes; the QBUS leaves the M9400-YE (at the end of one box) on a couple of cables, which normally go to a M9401 (the sister card to the M9400) in the first slot of the next box. In the /780, the cables from the M9400-YE instead go to a card in the VAX CPU, an M8236 (the CIB - CPU Console Interface Board, I think). That board contains i) a bunch of ROM for the LSI-11, and ii) registers which allow the LSI-11 access to the inside of the /780 CPU - all of which are actually on the LSI-11's QBUS, logically/electrically. So, as to the M9400 - you can pull it, or leave it - there are no active components on it (although it does have termination pull-ups). Do pull the cables, though - they'd be un-terminated antennas... > The M9400 seems to possibly be the Floppy boot and some other logic. There are some versions of the M9400 which contain ROM chips with a bootstrap. The M9400-YE, which you have, does not have these; it only has the headers for the cables, and the pull-up resistors. > The line below that I clipped out, about the M7940-YA is for the > adjacent card, and has no cable, just the open blue one waiting for an > IDE cable to the back for serial connections. Err, it's not an IDE cable, although it is a 40-pin connector; it is used with special round cables, the wiring of which I described in an earlier message. > A post by Tony Duell some years back states that the M7940-YA may have > both a current loop and RS232 drivers for the port. That ... might > explain the puzzling extra bit in the Dec module description about > extra wires. No, the stock M7940 _already_ has support for both EIA and 20mA; see the DLV11 prints (MP-00055), pg. 6; the EIA stuff is in the top right-hand corner, the 20mA in the bottom right-hand. On that same page, lower left, note the baud rate clock generation; note that's entirely set by jumpers, so if there's some off-board way to set it in the M9740-YA, they must have modified this area of the board. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim Stephensn >> "extra wires to bring out clock & .. 110/300 speed change" > I am mainly asking if I want to hook up a terminal, can I get it going > with TD, RD and GND (or 2 3 7 on a DB25), or do I need to loop back any > of the other pins. Well, without knowing how those extra pins work, it's very hard to say. Given that _apparently_ one could change the baud rate externally (which means that there's something in the cable - or at its other end - to do baud rate selection), I'd _guess_ that a stock cable probably wouldn't work. If you find a set of 11/780 prints, that _might_ include the specialized cable for this beast, but short of that, you're talking signal trace/etc time. > I have several 4 port DLV boards, but want to go with this as a > reference. I paid a bit too much for it because it was "working" Yes, but it doesn't have the cable! Trust me, swapping to a DLV11-J is a fully known, simple, approach - not like trying to work with a serial board with an unknown header pinout! And that 'working' was some decades back! Who knows what the situation is now! > I don't want to screw it up by replacing cards. If all you do is replace the M7940 with an M8043 in the same slot, that shouldn't present a problem (make sure the M8043 is configured properly to be the console, though; it is, however, very well documented). > I know even less about loading the backplane than I do about hooking up > a serial cable. That's OK, I have recently run both M7940's and M8043's in my QBUS systems here; they are a straight replacement (albeit using different cables - a 40-pin Berg/DuPont connector on the former, and 10-pin Berg/DuPont on the second one). > I was hoping to get some idea whether the correct cable might be > available from someone on the list first, and buy it, or better, find > out how to spot them on ebay. I've had a lot of luck with the boards, > but none with finding listings for cabling. Like I say, I expect the cable for the M7940-YA is a special item. As for cables on eBay - fuhgeddabahtit! Well, that's not quite true: seller 'conflandard' has some console cables for sale, but I think only DLV11-J/11-23+ type (they are the same cable, basically - the header pinout on the two cards is the same, the difference is that the stock 11/23+ cable allows baud rate selection on the back panel - but an 11/23+ _will_ work with a stock DLV11-J cable, provided the board is jumpered correctly). I've _never_ seen a DL11 type cable (with the 40-pin Berg/Du Pont connector) for sale on eBay - well, not EIA ones. I think someone had an 20mA one for sale, once. > and trying the 4 port cards. Most of them came from the cheap scrap > guy, so I don't know the state of them as well. I've seen some people > found there were duds in the pile. _Most_ of the cards I bought from him worked (I haven't been able to try them all, e.g. I don't have a working UNIBUS machine yet). The one exception was a DLV11-J on which two of the four serial ports didn't work. Once you have a working machine/board set, it all becomes much easier, of course - you can swap boards around and see which ones are working. (If you'd like, you can send me the DLV11-J, and I'll either send you a known fully-good one, or test yours and send it back, along with the results. I've done this for other people here.) >> I can supply both null-modem and non-null-modem cable diagrams (for >> DB25 connectors, already worked out; I have made DB9 serial cables, >> but not for direct connection to a DLV11, but could generate those >> too). > I'd love that OK, let me go unearth the cable diagrams - or I suppose I could just look at a cable, I have a couple of mostly-finished ones on the workbench at the moment! :-) Noel

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > I doubt the -YA makes any significant difference here. > ... > Note that a -YA normally means it's just a board with a newer revision. > It do not normally means any change in functionality, except perhaps > some improvement. But in general totally compatible. This might be the exception to that rule! Note the description "extra wires to bring out clock & 110/300 speed change"; if one could in fact change the baud rate _off the card_, there's probably some special magic in the interface (and thus the cable). I suggest consulting 11/780 manuals to see how it was used. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim Stephensn >> I can supply both null-modem and non-null-modem cable diagrams (for >> DB25 connectors, already worked out; I have made DB9 serial cables, >> but not for direct connection to a DLV11, but could generate those >> too). > I'd love that OK, here are the bits. For the 40-pin Berg/DuPont male header, when looking at the _header_ (on the board) face-on, component-side up, pin A is in the lower left corner; they then follow the 'DEC Alphabet' (What, you don't have this memorized? For working with DEC gear, it's mandatory: 'ABCDEFHJKLMNPRSTUVWXYZ' - G, I, O and Q are dropped), and then repeated, AA-VV. For the 40-pin connector (M7800 DL11, M7940 DLV11): A - Ground B - Ground E - Interlock IN F - EIA Serial Output J - EIA Serial Input M - EIA Interlock OUT So for a 'normal' serial cable (i.e. DTE, male DB25), connect J to pin 3, and F to 2. For a 'null modem' serial cable (i.e. DCE, female DB25), connect J to pin 2, and F to pin 3. Grounds connect to pins 1/7. Pin E must be connected to M. For other signals, consult the DL11 User's Manual (DEC-11-HDLAA-B-D), it has a full table. For the 10-pin header, when looking at the _header_ face-on, component-side up, pin 1 is in the upper right corner; pin 6 is missing (interlock), and 10 is in the lower left. For the 10-pin connector (M8043 DLV11-J, M8189 11/23+, M8190 11/83-84): 1 - Clock input 2 - Ground 3 - Transmit + 4 - Transmit - 5 - Ground 6 - Index 7 - Receive - 8 - Receive + 9 - Ground 10 - +12V It's set up to do either differential, or single-sided; the usual EIA usage is to ground the - side of the received data, so you can run single-sided. So for a cable _with_ null modem (i.e. DCE, to a female DB25), you want to connect: Header DB25 Signal 2 7 Ground 3 3 Transmit Data 7 Loopback IN 8 2 Receive Data 9 Loopback OUT For a normal DTE cable (to male DB25), swap pins 2 and 3 on the DB25 in the list above. I don't have notes for the cables to a DB9, to connect up directly to a PC's serial input port, but if you want, they are pretty easy to put together a list for. (I did make a female-female DB9-DB9 cable, with null modem built in, to test my serial line program, so I have the pinout for those too - just no PDP-11 direct to PC cables; I had a stack of DB25 to DB9 adaptors that I bought on eBait, and I wanted all my PDP-11 cables wired to DB25's, so I'd be able to interconnect -11's easily.) Noel

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Henk Gooijen > As far as my limited PDP-11 knowledge goes, none of them used > handshake. I'm pretty sure this is true of all the ones that had a hardwired serial console - it's definitely true of the 11/23 and J11 chip ones (/73, etc), and probably the 11/03's too (although it's been 30+ years since I used one of those, so don't hold me to that :-). > So, Rxd, TxD and GND is all you need to connect. Errq, many of them _require_ a loop-back between a pair of pins on the Berg/DuPont connector to operate - this is true of the DL11 (M7800 - UNIBUS), DLV11 (M7940 - QBUS), DLV11-J (M8043) and 11/23+, for instance), and probably the 11/83-84 too. So just connecting up R, X, and Gnd alone won't do it. > Also, common (?) is *no* parity. That, and number of bits, I have no idea about - we always changed things to our local standard (8 bits, no parity, 2 stop bits, IIRC) straight away. Best to check the hardware, and see what it's set to, and either set it to what you're using, or change what you're plugging into it to match. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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What computer is this?

by christian_liendo＠yahoo.com

I saw this and I wanted to know if anyone could tell me what computer is this? http://imgur.com/jfx3XE9

10 years, 9 months

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WD9000 Pascal microengine schematics available

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

Those interested can download schematics for the ACI90 / WD9000 PascalMicroengine from my FTP site : ftp.dreesen.ch/WD9000 You might notice sheet 5 missing, that is just the pinout of the PCB edge connector. AFAIK these are not available elsewhere. More to follow whenever I get around to it. And then around 100 / 150 8" floppies to image.... Jos Dreesen

10 years, 9 months

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youtube video of a runnning XDS Sigma mainframe with lots of nice peripherals

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Pierre Gebhardt > Lee and Rich, > thanks a million for sharing .. your memories about George and his > commitment regarding the preservation of these Sigma systems!!! Ditto. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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PILOT (was youtube video of a runnning XDS Sigma mainframe with lots of nice peripherals)

by rickb＠bensene.com

> Brad Parker wrote: > > That, and the newspaper printed versions of DDJ featuring some teaching > language (pilot?) in HP basic, caused me to pursue software with a > vengeance. > Yup, the language was indeed PILOT, which was a language focused on CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction). It was written in BASIC (a pretty large series of programs) on the HP Timeshared BASIC system. It was used quite a bit in the Chemistry and Math curriculums at the high school I went to run courseware for these classes. It annoyed us computer guys, as it meant more kids coming in to compete for the online 33ASR TTYs! Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

10 years, 9 months

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youtube video of a runnning XDS Sigma mainframe with lots of nice peripherals

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello list, spotted this video recently on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzDSOXHd70 It's a Xerox Digital Systems mainframe! Wow, I didn't know that such installations were still running as of 1997! The computer room is quite untidy. Andybody has an idea, where with was filmed? There's also a Data General minicomputer and Honeywell mainframe equipment. Can anybody identify the Honeywell stuff? It's Level 6000 style, but it's strange to me that there seems to be just this one cabinet along the rest of the XDS equipment. Maybe a Datanet option? There are *very* nice close views on running CDC disk drives using the 100/200MB disk packs. I was looking for a long time for a video actually showing how the big head actuator of these drives moves when performing data operations! And there are nice reel tape drives which look to me like rebadged IBM drives (not sure, though). Enjoy watching it! I did! Kind regards, Pierre ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers moved to: http://www.digitalheritage.de

10 years, 9 months

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Front Panels - Pricing

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Ok I now have the pricing for the current run of panels. Featuring all new silk screens. PDP-8/e Type A or B ?65.00 UKP + Ship to US at ?15 UK = ?80.00 = USD $121.00 PDP-8/f or /m ?70.00 UKP + Ship to US at ?15 UK = ?85.00 = USD $130.00 Payment as before to my PayPal account using my email address rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com Regards Rod

10 years, 9 months

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PDP 11/03

by jws＠jwsss.com

I'm looking for a cable or cable pinout to get the console of this 11/03 going. I figure to ask the simple question here rather than dig my self a hole trying to puzzle it out or guess the solution. http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2015/11/pdp-1103-system.html It has a M7940-YA DLV11 controller. I hope to get it working and run thru some testing of the other boards I've accumulated and sell one back off to end up with a working system. I'll probably be in the market or need to try to set up a floppy drive as this appears to have a floppy controller to also have a bit more functionality. Right now ODT and some fun would be nice. thanks Jim http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2015/11/pdp-1103-system.html

10 years, 9 months

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Teletype services

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

>Curious as to the setup you are attempting this with, i.e. exactly what modem are you >using? >One in the base of the 33 or some common external one? > >I'm not familiar with all the possible modem variations one might find in a 33, but >AIUI the modem for the 33 at the standard 110 bps was Bell 101 standard. > >There's not going to be a lot to talk to out there using the old parameters. >Even if someone had an auto-baud dial-in setup out there somewhere, I wouldn't >anticipate it being compatible. > >We have a 101-standard modem (in the base of a 33) around here, but have never tried it >or tried connecting it to a phone line, I'm also not familiar with it enough to know >how originate/answer issues are dealt with (whether it can do both) for such 33 to 33 >communication. Okay, this is where things get cool. For you folks who have issues with javascript heavy pages, I don't recommend clicking the following image links. The teletype is connected to one of the original 300 baud Hayes Smartmodems I had in a box doing nothing which solves a lot of problems with trying to make an older dataset work with the much more plentiful Smartmodems and their later clones by just about everyone. (which as a few have mentioned have no issue working at 110 but with a catch) That I've found so far you can dial pretty much any other hardware modem that isn't relying on a DSP or sound CODEC (so late ISA and all PCI cards don't work) and it will work by pure modulation. You just need to make sure the COM port on the machine is set for (or will automatically detect and switch to) 110 or else it assumes 300 and nothing works. The quirk I added however is that I took the guts of the teletype's UCC6 and a TWX controller and built a custom CCU that gives me feedback on the modem status and lets me control and dial from the front panel. The modem itself now hides in the stand and I don't need to type in commands to do anything. It looks as if it's a factory option. I even added a feature where in Automatic Answer mode the motor is relay controlled by the modem itself. http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/CGS_1118 .jpg http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/IMG_1390 .jpg http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/teletype /CGS_1131.jpg I have a massive writeup and a video that are about ready to go live but I need a set of videos demonstrating the setup connecting to a remote user, connecting to a remote machine and a remote user dialing into the teletype. That's where I was having my troubles. >Why don't you suggest the easiest and obvious: use a small analog PBX. >There are _plenty_ of them floating around, and most can be had for free; >you could for example even use your FritzBox Phone (a DSL WiFi Router with >analog phone ports). Then you can do internal calls from one port to any ?other port (and also use your old rotary dial phone with VoIP if you >like). People have been nagging me for the last year to get a Panasonic 308. I've yet to come across one so far that wasn't weirdly priced, plus my parents aren't interested in a PBX being installed in their house. -John

10 years, 9 months

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scrounging at recyclers

by marc.verdiell＠gmail.com

> Cindy Croxton wrote >This week I passed up a > large (at least 24" per side) HP server mainboard from the 70s Large HP boards from the 70's. This sounds just about perfect. This one would have fit the description of a HP 1000 mainboard pretty well. Medium sized ones too. Anything HP from the 70's or early 80's for that matter. Bring' em home! Marc

10 years, 9 months

2
1
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Front Panel - Update - 4-2-GO

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys 1 Real 8/e panel as absolute check leaves US on its way to me to-day 2. Out of twenty slots sixteen have gone. That leaves four. If they don't go before printing starts I'll have them screened to uncommitted /e (can become A or B) 3. For me its back to PDP11/40 thru 11/70 layouts. 4. Anybody need a one off. I'm trying to find an economic way to handle custom jobs 5. I'm also looking at an option to put manufacturing locations on as found on some systems (default is Maynard) Rod

10 years, 9 months

1
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Is This Optimistic?

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

Drat!? I just bought one for $10,000 last month.? Could have saved enoughfor a $5000 Lisa mouse. -- Bill No u couldn't Bill as that price is in sterling not dollars :)

10 years, 9 months

1
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Is This Optimistic?

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I was just browsing eBay for stuff near me when I came across this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Color-Plotter-/291611803288 I don?t know anything about Apple stuff at all, but surely ?5,000 for this is a bit optimistic, isn?t it? Regards Rob

10 years, 9 months

3
2
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Testing H7864 (MicroVAX II) PSU With No Load

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Some of you may recall I have a faulty H7864 PSU, which failed a while ago with a loud pop, but no obvious physical damage. I replaced the blown transistor (on the primary side of the large transformer), but when I power it on, the transistor does not switch and there is no output, so clearly there is still a problem somewhere. I have been spending some time drawing schematics for almost the whole thing. I am now at the point where I intend to compare it with a working one, probing each one side by side, to see up to where it appears to be working. It would be awkward to have two dummy loads, just for lack of suitable equipment. Does anyone know if it is safe to run these PSUs with no load? Would my testing be valid without a load? Thanks Rob

10 years, 9 months

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WTB: Unix/Solaris Adobe FrameMaker 8

by other＠oryx.us

I am looking to purchase/acquire a copy of Adobe FrameMaker 8 for Unix/Solaris. Straight from Adobe, FrameMaker had always been a pretty pricy item, but I had always managed to acquire a legal copy, sometimes years old and after the fact through eBay, etc. And through that method, I own legal copies+media of 5.x, 6.x and 7.x for Unix and Mac. I had hoped to purchase a copy of version 8 via a similar method, but several years have passed by, and I have never seen a copy of version 8 for sale. After version 8, FrameMaker was significantly changed and released for dos/windows only. I believe that the current version is 11.x or above. Also, in case it isn't obvious, this is for myself for home use only. Jerry

10 years, 9 months

4
4
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RSX-11M-PLUS SYSGEN printouts

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

An 11/84 I bought came with a couple of RSX-11M-PLUS V4.3 SYSGEN printouts; I don't intend to run RSX on the machine, so is there any use to this printout, or should I recycle it? If someone has a use for it, I'd be happy to send it to them. Noel

10 years, 9 months

3
3
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scrounging at recyclers

by sales＠elecplus.com

Often I come across various obsolete boards that SEEM to be what you guys want, but I am never really sure. This week I passed up a large (at least 24" per side) HP server mainboard from the 70s, and some Wang boards from the same period. Since I no longer have the warehouse, I have no way to keep them until somebody says they want it. My question is, what should I bring home? I do not have email access while I am scrounging, so I can't post to this list. What besides old DEC boards are wanted? Cindy --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

10 years, 9 months

2
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PDP-11/45-55 CPU fan assemblies

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Tony Duell > IIRC that 21" mounting box (and I assume therefore the fan assemblies) > was used on other machines like the 11/40 (some versions), the 11/70, > etc. Yes, I _think_ the hardware was identical - I had an 11/40 for a year or two 'back in the day', before I got upgraded to an 11/45, but it's been a _long_ time since I've seen one, so I can't be positive. I tried to find parts numbers in the drawings, but none of them (11/40, /45, or BA11-F) had them. > the bottom one is a right pain, involving removing all the boards and > dismantling the very fragile card guides ??? Mine still has the card guides in place, although the bottom fan assembly is gone? Thanks very much for the offer of help, but let's see what Henk turns up! > From: Henk Gooijen > The colors of the /55 are quite different from the 11/45. Well, I did say that the front console was different! :-) But other than that, I am pretty sure they are otherwise identical: same backplane, same CPU boards (although the /45 can be found with both the KB11-A and KB11-D variants; I _think_ the /55 only comes with the -D), etc. > all 21" boxen (BA11-F ?) My manuals say the 11/40 one is a BA11-FC, and the 11/45 is a BA11-FA. Not sure what the difference is - maybe it's that the /45 has two H742's in it, and the 11/40 has only one? Although I guess those are mounted on the cabinet (although they are in some sense still part of the CPU chassis). Maybe it's the different power harness/etc? > The box is (AFAIR) mounted on the card cage with 4 or 6 (?) screws. Mine looks like it uses 6. Anyway, thanks very much, I have my fingers crossed that you will find both of them when you look! :-) Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Has anyone hear of the Computer History Archives Project?

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Yes they are doing some good things! check out the video on the Librascope! Ed# In a message dated 10/20/2015 3:39:37 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, chrise at pobox.com writes: On Tuesday (10/20/2015 at 04:57PM -0500), Jay Jaeger wrote: > On 10/20/2015 1:35 PM, Christian Liendo wrote: > > I found a channel that's about a Month old, but no real information as to who they are. > > > > > > Computer History Archives > > Educational Vintage Computer Films > > View on www.youtube.com > > > > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOyJD0RHtF_77_oAf5tT1nQ > > > > Nice narration... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KuoZ6cades I have two Vicalloy tapes from a UNIVAC I. Anybody have a UNISERVO drive we could read them on? ;-) Chris -- Chris Elmquist

10 years, 9 months

1
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IBM System/32 available

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

>I think I found Mike's Youtube videos of one of his other System/23. It even has >blinkenlights! Dang it, now I'm trying to figure out where I'd hypothetically stick a >System/23 in my little house. Probably in the breakfast nook, assuming it would even >fit through the front door. I doubt it could make the turns into my computer room. If I >call it a "desk" and then put more computers on top of it, then does it really occupy >any space? :) I remember trying to figure out logistics on that System/32 that was on ebay out east for like $50 on ebay a few years ago. Don't remember if it sold or not butabsolutely nothing I could come up with made transporting it out west affordable. -John

10 years, 9 months

1
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usb-to-parallel port solutions

by dave＠661.org

Can somone recommend a good USB-to-parallel port solution that will easily work with Linux? -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

10 years, 9 months

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RK07 Manual Dual Port?

by cube1＠charter.net

After seeing an M7706 on eBay (and realizing I already have a spare), but no dual-port card (M7730), and reading instructions in the maintenance manual regarding placement of a single M7706 drive interface card in either slot, depending upon whether A or B is selected I began to wonder... Is there any reason one cannot do a manual dual port on an RK07 by having both M7706 slots populated, but then only ever selecting A or B using the buttons on the RK07? Has anyone ever done that? The existence of two separate wire list pages in the schematic, and a quick look at the M7706 diagram output signals suggests that this would *not* work - that the output lines of the two M7706 cards are wired together on a single-port drive and driven by ordinary TTL, and that a dual-port drive had different wiring on the backplane, even though the card cages are the same and the backplane itself is the same. JRJ

10 years, 9 months

2
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Front Panels - Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Things are proceeding well. The girls are deciding the best way to do the matte finish layer I'm confirming exactly where the hole for the lock should be to be so the panel can be pre-drilled. One kind list member is shipping me an old damaged panel in from the US which will help with both of the above. Rod

10 years, 9 months

1
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ID-ing a PC backup format

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've got a set of mystery 5.25" DD floppies that appear to be a backup of some sort. 10 x 512 byte sectors per track, 40 cylinders, double-sided. Normal sector IDs (Side 0: 0/ Side 1: 1), 1-10. No, it's not FASTBACK nor does it appear to be Central Point's PC Backup. The start of the first sector of the first floppy looks like this: 000000 50 43 42 41 43 4B 55 50-2E 01 00 50 43 42 00 06 000010 04 00 69 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 01 01 01 01 000040 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01-01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 000050 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01-01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 000060 01 01 01 01 01 5A 5A 5A-5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 000070 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A-5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 000080 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 5A-5A 5A 5A 5A 5A 52 13 C5 000090 9A 01 00 1E 00 01 00 54-55 52 42 4F 43 5C 00 00 Note that it starts off with 'PCBACKUP'. This doesn't seem to match anything in my library. Anyone got any ideas. Oh yeah, this would be circa 1989 or so. --Chuck

10 years, 9 months

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Teletype services

by ball.of.john＠gmail.com

I've been trying for the past week to verify that telephony on my teletype machine (model 33) is functioning properly but the biggest hurdle I am running into is I have nothing to easily dial into. Everyone I know off hand either don't have a modem anymore or theirs is a Winmodem which won't work. There's only one phone line into the residence here and those bluetooth to cellular POTS bridges are too lossy to make do and connect to a machine here. There is that youtube video of the model 37 apparently connecting to a system at the Living Computer Museum in 2013 (MikoF6KZjm0) where they dialed into a BBS I've never seen listed anywhere but the number listed no longer seems to work and in the description it states the service is no longer available. What other public systems are still out there that will work this speed or possibly better yet, is there anyone out there willing to try a teletype-to-teletype conversation? -John

10 years, 9 months

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Front Panels - Location Check

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys If you had one of the first batch of panels back in the Summer. Please can you confirm it for my records. Regards Rod

10 years, 9 months

1
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ISO: PDP-11/05 top cover

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Subject line says it all -- I'm looking for the top/side cover for the "slim" PDP-11/05. Probably not infeasible to build one, but I figured I'd ask around first. Got lucky on a cheap 8KW core plane (H214) on eBay to replace the damaged one the /05 came with (which we had a discussion about last year), and everything seems to be working fine other than a completely dead Boxer fan (a replacement is on the way), I'd like to find the top cover to help with air flow/cooling. And so I can put things on top of it :). Thanks, Josh

10 years, 9 months

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DG S/130 progress

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Pictures of the S/130 system I'm building up are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/131070638 at N02 I think the last I posted here... the cpu was up and running, that was the first piece I refurbished. I took everything out of the rack and cleaned that up well, and the cpu has been remounted there. Yesterday I mounted the 6030 dual 8" floppy drive. It was squeaky clean inside and at power up everything does what it should. However, I can't proceed further with it as I have no media. The docs say it uses hard sector 8" floppies, which I believe I can find. However, it specifies 8 sectors/track hard sector floppies - and those I've never heard of. Maybe DG made them special just for their gear, or, maybe the drive or controller or software was smart enough to expect the more common 32 hard sector floppies and knew to only pay attention to every 4th sector hole ;) In any case, before I spend "real dollar$" on media, if anyone has a single piece of 8 sector hard sectored 8" media I'd love to get one for testing :) Getting the 6030 connected to the cpu took a lot of documentation reading. It would seem that DG didn't believe in anything plugging in to interface boards. Instead, interface boards went in the cpu with no external connectors. Then you wirewrap from the backplane from a given slot to one (of a stack) of paddle boards bolted to the rear of the cpu chassis. Those paddleboards have edge connectors, and that's where you connect the device cable. Fun stuff. I started digging in to refurbishing a 6125 mag tape unit to go with the above system. It has power supply issues. The schematics I have are similar but not 100% correct so some guessing was involved. Whenever I turned on the tape unit, any other things (shop light, oscilloscope, etc.) plugged in to the same circuit would start randomly turning off and on. That is not a good sign ;) Earth leakage... Checking the snubber circuit on the mains side of the transformer led me to suspect a mylar that sat between hot and neutral. I lifted one leg of it (just for testing) and that problem is definitely gone. Next problem is the power supply makes a loud ringing noise. I believe that's usually either ceramic disc capacitors or transformers, but I'm having a really hard time locating the exact source of the sound. I'm going to remove the power supply from the metal chassis and hook it up externally (that's how it goes in the rack anyways) and see if I can tell for sure that is the issue. Other than that, offline tests all work, so that will be racked up shortly and cabled to the S/130 cpu. Next on the list is refurbishing the DG 4084 dual cassette tape unit and racking that. Something tells me media will be unobtainium for that. Last step will be to refurbish and install a hard drive, most likely I'll use a 6050. So... some progress at least :) J

10 years, 9 months

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VCF-Berlin, 2015

by j＠ckrubin.us

Here are some of my photos from VCF-Berlin - http://tinyurl.com/vcfb-2015 . More narrative is at the Vintage Computer Forum - http://tinyurl.com/vcfb-vcfd . Enjoy - I certainly did! Jack

10 years, 9 months

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VCF-Berlin, 2015

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> now that I have the better picture, let me see what I can turn up. Got it! It's the _bottom_ indicator panel from an RP15 disk controller - from a PDP-15. I think that's the only DEC controller I've ever seen with _two_ indictor panels on it! And no, the one in the back is not the other RP15 indicator panel; it really is an RP11. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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VCF-Berlin, 2015

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Johnny Billquist > They could be from a PDP-11 or PDP-8 as well. Not _impossible_ (since the RP11 does have one row of 36 lights - no doubt because it can be used to read packs written by PDP-10's - it's the shift register for reading the bit stream off the drive) but I'd say less likely, given the two rows of 36 bits. Or maybe not; one is a shift register, the other is a Longitudinal Parity accumulator, which would also naturally be the same word length. > The RP11 controller, for example, I seem to remember had panels like > that. In fact, I have a picture of an RP11 panel, and... the one in the back _is_ an RP11! Well, knock me over with a feather! > Can't recall any PDP-8 stuff at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I've > seen something like that for a PDP-8 as well. I've seen images of (or worked out the light pattern for) two, the TS08 and the RK08, and this isn't either one. (Both have only two rows of lights.) I wonder if there's an RP08? {Checks} Yes, there is. Do we have prints? {Checks} Yes. Alas, the scans of the connector pages of the prints are pretty bad, but it doesn't seem to support a display panel. > From: Vincent Slyngstad > A higher resolution picture Oooh, thanks very much, that will be _very_ helpful. > From: Al Kossow > They are both disk controller panels. > The one marked tape controller has "sector word count" Hmm. Could be; now that I have the better picture, let me see what I can turn up. I note the 'sector word count' has 7 bits in it, which kind of implies a PDP-10 - most PDP-11 disks had 512 bytes / 256 words -> 8 bits. Although maybe there are a few early ones that had 256 byte sectors, I have this vague bit set that there were; will have to check that. I think I'm going to have to create a page for DEC indicator pabels! Noel

10 years, 9 months

1
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VCF-Berlin, 2015

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Degnan > Of note... Anyone know what the two indicator panels on top of the large blue box in the center of this one: ftp://jhoppe.ddns.net/vcfb2105/content/TB8A3377_large.html are? They look to be PDP-10 {something}, given what appear to be two rows of 36 lights on the bottom (although they are hard to see clearly), but I couldn't find a panel like that in my PDP-10 manual. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Terminology [was RE: IBM z890]

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Rich Alderson > You know, the same company that does not have dis[kc]s, but DASD. Some guy from IBM came to MIT to give a talk about some database system that they had, and he kept referring to 'DASD'. Puzzled looks. Finally some brave soul stuck up his hand, and asked was a DASD might be. Quoth the guy, 'round brown'! :-) He was actually very sharp, and we liked his system, but I don't recall anything about it, other than that line! Noel

10 years, 9 months

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VCF-Berlin, 2015

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Rich Alderson > I've .. eliminated the following possibilities: Using the decsystem10 System Reference Manual (3rd Edition, August '74), I can additionally eliminate: Only 2 rows of lights: DC10 (picture here doesn't have 5 rows, per below?) > Only 3 rows of lights: > ME10 memory > MF10 memory > TD10 DECtape controller DA10 MA10 MB10 MD10 > 5 rows of lights: > KI-10 CPU bays Would love a picture of these; see pg. F1-5 for why! :-) > RH10 Massbus interface > DAS33 memory buffer > DL10 > DC10 KA10 CPU bays > 4 rows of lights, but do not match: > RP10C disk controller > DF10C > DA28-C > RC10 BA10 DS10 TM10 That's getting to be a pretty complete list... Noel

10 years, 9 months

1
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VCF-Berlin, 2015

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

> ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jack Rubin" <j at ckrubin.us> > Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2015 10:13 PM > > Here are some of my photos from VCF-Berlin - > http://tinyurl.com/vcfb-2015 . More narrative is > at the Vintage Computer Forum - > http://tinyurl.com/vcfb-vcfd . Enjoy - I > certainly did! > > Jack > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Stein" <mhs.stein at gmail.com> Sent: Friday, October 30, 2015 11:30 AM > Hi Jack, > > Unfortunately I can't access the pictures on VCF ... etc. Getting back to the point before this went seriously off-topic, are other non-VCF-members also unable to see these pictures on VCF? If so, would it make sense when posting things like this on VCF to use links instead of or in addition to uploading and embedding them there? m

10 years, 9 months

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2
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Chuck Forsberg died on 9/24. :(

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

Here's the obituary: http://www.anewtradition.com/obituaries/obituary/12060_Charles_Alton_Forsbe… g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

10 years, 9 months

11
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Micro-Altair tape interface

by dave＠661.org

As I finally complete my Micro-Altair kit from Briel Computers, my thoughts turn to the question of how I can get an audio tape interface working on this machine. I understand that the MITS tape controller is essentially a serial port with a simple modem bolted on the rear. The Micro-Altair has only one serial port, coming off the ramdisk board, which will be used for the console (no, I don't want to use the built-in terminal). How can a second serial port be added to this machine? Then for recognizing Kansas City tape tones, I suppose I could clone the circuitry of the tape drive modem. Then I realized I could make an Arduino do this with a handful of other common parts. I could make it recognize Tarbell and other tape formats. Has anyone else done this sort of thing? -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

10 years, 9 months

3
2
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Vintage Mac & PC sale @ VCF recycling warehouse

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

After a dozen years I'm shutting down my e-waste recycling business. In that time I managed to accumulate a lot of interesting things, including a lot of vintage PCs that are from a bygone era and have enough unique features to make them collectible. I have models from various brands including Packard Bell, Acer, HP, Compaq, Leading Edge, etc. There's also a stack of at least half a dozen restorable IBM PCs (model 5150). I also have a huge selection of Macs, from some 90s and even 80s models (Mac SE) all the way through the return of Jobs era with the iMac and the G3's, G4's (aluminum case servers), etc., plus laptops. I have every iMac color. I was planning to ripen these to 20 years old before I sold them on eBay for silly sums but I'll start letting them go still green and you can ripen them in your garage. Keyboards and mice also available to make complete systems. I also have lots of other vintage electronics, including whole items and parts, like test equipment, some older radio stuff (tubes), &c. Plus a lot of other cool/useful/practical stuff. Of course there will be some much more vintagey computers available as well but those will be selling for "real" money. Everything above is offered for cheap. If you'd like to come roam the warehouse in Livermore and shop for bargains then send me an e-mail and we'll set up an appointment. At this point I'm available through November 15th here. After that, everyone just goes away. Thanks! -- Sellam ibn Abraham VintageTech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintagetech.com Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The truth is always simple. * * * NOTICE * * * Due to the insecure nature of the medium over which this message has been transmitted, no statement made in this writing may be considered reliable for any purpose either express or implied. The contents of this message are appropriate for entertainment and/or informational purposes only. The right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.

10 years, 9 months

2
1
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IBM z890

by connork＠connorsdomain.com

I recently won an IBM z890 via auction for $237. It was a very interesting adventure to retrieve this machine since it weighs 1500LBS on a good day, and well myself only clocking in around 115LBS I needed the help of a few friends and family to get this thing into the basement... I stripped the machine down to its bare rack to get it into the basement safely, although the rack itself I calculated to weigh about 800LBS itself. I'd say the most difficult part was the excavation we had to do to get it to fit under the deck! It was a REALLY tight fit as you will see in the photos. It took two trips to get it all, one with the truck alone to remove most of the innards and another with the trailer to grab the rest out of the rack and the rack itself. Its already in the basement and most of the way back together, just running the wiring internally for it then I need to wire up a 240v 30a outlet once we get the new breaker box in since there is no more room in the current box. Photos of the whole adventure: http://imgur.com/a/5uWit I plan to pickup an SAN based SCSI box to install Linux and play with. As far as I know I can't install any IBM OS' this way, I would need FICON or ESCON type storage to boot anything like z/OS. (Read EXPENSIVE!) As far as I know I can grab one of these boxes: http://www.ebay.com/itm/201459314771 And hook this up to a FICON interface and it will act as storage via FCP as a SAN. This 'should' allow me to use SCSI devices like an array of hard drives to install Linux. I'm obviously not very familiar with the z-series but I have been trying to read up and learn about everything. Let me know if my thought process and info are correct, also any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated! -Connor K

10 years, 9 months

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sort by date back in google groups searches

by aek＠bitsavers.org

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/classiccmp|sort:date for example

10 years, 9 months

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Terminology [was RE: IBM z890]

by RichA＠LivingComputerMuseum.org

Mike Ross Sent: Monday, November 02, 2015 7:15 PM > One does not boot a mainframe; one IPLs it. :) Only if said mainframe is from a company with HQ in Armonk, NY. ;-> You know, the same company that does not have dis[kc]s, but DASD. Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

10 years, 9 months

3
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Xerox 6085 and Intel MDS II - Value?

by tomjmoss＠googlemail.com

Hi all, I'm in need of a new cabin and might be willing to part with a couple of my more unusual systems to fund it. I have a complete Xerox 6085 with monitor, keyboard, mouse, and tape drive in very good visual condition, with only a few scuffs on the case and some minor yellowing on the keyboard and mouse. The card slots are fully populated, but I haven't check how much RAM is installed yet. It has a working hard drive but no OS. It boots up and IIRC passes the self test. I don't have a floppy drive for it but could wire one up to further test if anyone has a diagram. I also have two Intel MDS IIs, the one I'm thinking of selling currently lights up but doesn't display anything on the monitor. I also have various boxed ICE devices (8085/6/8), software (haven't tried reading it, some of which isn't on bitsavers yet), and manuals for everything. Has anyone seen these sell in the past? All I could find was an ebay listing for a badly damaged Xerox base unit for $500. I live in England, but would be willing to ship worldwide. Regards, -Tom

10 years, 9 months

1
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Fw: SCA drives - any interest?

by mhs.stein＠gmail.com

Duh! In the immortal words of Emily Litella: Never mind. I keep forgetting that I still have a couple of Proliants, ML370s as it turns out; not quite the same bay, but probably close enough. m ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Stein" <mhs.stein at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2015 12:23 AM Subject: Re: SCA drives - any interest? >I have a couple of 6-drive hot swap bays that some of these drives came out of; >unfortunately I didn't make a note of what systems they came out of but they >look like the bay in this Proliant ML370: > http://techtradepartners.squarespace.com/blog/2011/1/3/we-practice-what-we-… > > although this 5500 looks vaguely familiar and there are two of these bays...: > http://tempcomgauper.blog.com/2014/04/06/compaq-proliant-5500-server/ > > In any case, they interface through a 68-pin SCSI connector and a 6-pin power > connector; by any chance would anyone know where I could find the pinout for > that power connector? > > Maybe this isn't the best place to ask; is there a forum where server fans > hang out? > > Thanks, > > mike > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Zane Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Sent: Monday, November 02, 2015 8:21 PM > Subject: Re: SCA drives - any interest? > > > > On Nov 2, 2015, at 10:42 AM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: > >> On 11/02/2015 08:54 AM, Mike Stein wrote: >> >>> In case anyone is looking for the 'caddies' it looks like they're >>> mostly HP/Compaq, including several dummies; I scrapped more IBM >>> servers than HP, but to my surprise I only found two IBM units. >> >> The nice thing about SCA drives is that adapters for narrow- or wide-SCSI >> are/used to be available. I've run SCA drives with old Power Macintoshes, >> for example. >> >> I don't know if it's still true, but high-performance SCA drives do tend to >> run pretty hot. >> >> --Chuck > > I have one or two of those adapters somewhere. Any SCA drives I've used, have > been quite hot, which is why I run them in external enclosures intended for > them. It's rare to find ones that run at less than 7200rpm, most are 10k or > 15k. > > Zane > > >

10 years, 9 months

1
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Front panels

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:11:29 -0700 > From: Charles Anthony <charles.unix.pro at gmail.com> > Subject: Front panels > > The front panel I want to build is for my DPS8-M (aka Honeywell 6180) > emulator. > > > http://8bitaficionado.com/2010/09/22/multics-honeywell-6180-mainframe-panel… > > > TIA, > > -- Charles > That is only one of two panels on the Honeywell processors. There was another one on the other CPU door. There is are three rollers with an encoding switchs to change what the lights were displaying. Moving the roller changed the text that was visible in the window below the light bulbs and told you what each light meant. -- Michael Thompson

10 years, 9 months

3
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youtube video of a runnning XDS Sigma mainframe with lots of nice periphe...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Be good to see this all live again! \ Kudos to Allen and LCM! Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 11/2/2015 5:48:04 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, p.gebhardt at ymail.com writes: All the HW and SW that >> was in running condition was rescued by the LCM in Seattle. I know LCM has >> had someone with Sigma experience working on and off on the Sigma to get it >> running again. Not sure of the current status. But, that would be an >> awesome time-sharing system alongside the DEC-20 they have.

10 years, 9 months

1
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SCA drives - any interest?

by jzatar2＠illinois.edu

>Just asking: Any interest in 80-pin SCA drives, >Ultra 3 and Ultra320 in various capacities, both >IBM and HP/Compaq 'caddies' ? > >m I think you mentioned you had ~150GB drives, but I was wondering if you had some in larger size? I'd take a couple 300GB if the price was right. I bought an LTO-3 drive, but if I want to do any CPU based compression, I'm going to need at least a (400GB) tape's worth of 'tape spooling' buffer space. 3 ~150GB drives would work, but I'd like to cut down on power and noise, and go with a couple 300GB drives if you have them, and the price is right. I'd be willing to do about $40 for the two or three drives, if that's not worth your time, then just let me know and I'll start looking for some drives elsewhere. Thanks, Joseph Zatarski

10 years, 9 months

1
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Front panels

by charles.unix.pro＠gmail.com

The front panel I want to build is for my DPS8-M (aka Honeywell 6180) emulator. http://8bitaficionado.com/2010/09/22/multics-honeywell-6180-mainframe-panel… (Now it's a pretty big panel, so I'm thinking 1/4 scale.) I'm mostly interested in the lights; having functional switches would be nice, but not critical. (My background: good grasp of basic digital electronics; did some wirewrap boards back in the early eighties. Poor soldering skills, no workshop. Mad software skillz.) I would like to build it reasonably cheaply. So I would start with a simple SBC; Beaglebone or the like, that can function as a USB device. I can write the S/W to push a bunch of bits down to it. What I don't know how to do is drive 500 or so LEDs. I am guessing a bunch of shift registers, but I've pretty much reached my design limits. I need some guidance on locating and understanding the technology to run that many LEDs. TIA, -- Charles

10 years, 9 months

9
8
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Emulex QD32

by cc＠informatik.uni-stuttgart.de

Hi all, I'm trying to set up a MicroVAX II that has an SMD disk attached to an Emulex QD32 controller. I need to test and/or format the disk and so I'm looking for images of the Emulex diagnostic floppies (should be RX50 AFAIK). Those found at http://www.headcrashers.org/comp/rx50/ boot, but I have not the faintest idea of how to start anything in there; even a "DIR" gives only an error, so I assume they are faulty/incomplete. That's what I get: >>> b dua0 2..1..0.. Emulex VAX Monitor V1.2 MicroVAX I 16-SEP-1985 09:00:00 uEVM>DIR ---> ERROR: PHYSICAL READ ERROR Is there by any chance also a diagnostic manual for this stuff? Christian

10 years, 9 months

5
8
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Seeking equipment storage help in Phoenix

by drb＠msu.edu

Jay West and I are working on rescuing a minicomputer system in the Phoenix area. The equipment will eventually be shipped to one of us, but for right now we need to get it out of the building where it currently resides, and into temporary storage. If we have to, we'll use a u-store facility, but we're hoping a collector near Phoenix might be willing to store the system for a few months until we can arrange onward movement, to reduce the wallet pain. We think we have transport lined up to move it to your location, though if you happen to have a liftgate truck and be a nice guy or gal, ... ;) Size: the system is basically two racks, plus boxes for cables, manuals, etc. The whole pile should be less than three racks worth of floor space. Total weight is about 1400 pounds. Time frame: the equipment needs to be out of its current location before the end of November. We'll commit to moving the equipment onward within six months. If you think you might be able to help, drop Jay (jwest at classiccmp.org) or me a line. Thanks! De

10 years, 9 months

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dec cabinet part available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I've been away from DEC stuff far too long, so I don't remember what this is called - but I'll describe it. The beige dec cabinets (corp cab?) that are wider than about 19 inches... the ones where there is the "normal" 19" rack and then to the left or the right there is a top to bottom, front to back, "plenum" about maybe 8 inches wide. What I have is the brown cover for that plenum. 52.5 tall, 7.5 wide, hex key quick-release at the top, two ears at the bottom. Come to think of it, I'm not 100% sure it is from a DEC cabinet but I am thinking it came off one of a few five foot tall beige dec racks all stuffed top to bottom with RA81's. Anywho, whatever it is from, I am sure I do not have the rack (nor the RA81's that came with) that it goes with any longer. I'm in a rather non-trivial project to clean out and organize the basement and I'd like to get rid of this. I'd hate to put it in the skip if someone looks at it as "the last unobtainium piece to finish off their restoration". If no one wants it, I'm going to snag the hex key quick-release mech for myself and pitch the rest. J

10 years, 9 months

2
2
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RF08/RS08 photos and panel measurements (Re: RK11-C Panel)

by cube1＠charter.net

Looking at the document at: http://dustyoldcomputers.com/pdp-common/reference/drawings/peripherals/docs… The picture, though extremely fuzzy, matches my panel in the organization of legends and breaks in line. Since I have what I think is a complete RF08, and pieces of the drive (RS08), I think it is safe to conclude that I have the panel from an RF08. However, the panel is designed to actually hold up to 8 lights of 36 bits each. I have to believe that DEC used this setup for any number of light panels. For photos of the drive electronics, controller electronics, power supply, platter and display and display measurements, see: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2v4WRwISEQRTkVRX2NPMThILWM I posted detail display panel photos and measurements in subfolder Display of this Google Drive folder (RF08-RS08) The main folder has photos of the drive (RS08) electronics and the controller (RF08) electronics, etc. (The very first photo shows some mouse droppings / seeds, which I cleaned up (though I did not entirely disassemble the thing), and are less apparent in subsequent photos (I recall there being even more extensive cleaning after the simple vacuuming I did before taking most of the photos). There is also a photo of the power supply and the (now separated from the container) platter and a head or two as well as a photo of the display panel. In the Display sub-folder are photos of the panel and its components, and a text file with measurements. Apologies in advance for the photo quality of the display. I didn't want to use a flash, and so there was some camera shake, even with IS. JRJ On 10/26/2015 7:25 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote: > > I have just worked out the pattern on the cables to the indicator panel, > > which allows me, from the device schematics, to tell which signals are > > shown on which lights on the indicator panel - I can even tell where the > > spaces are between light groups (since those lights are not > > connected). So I know now exactly what the panel shows, and almost > > certainly in which lights (although there might be a left/right swap, > > there are no fields which span the boundary). > > So here's the writeup on the RK11-C insert: > > http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/RK11-C_insert.txt > > The unusual light pattern should allow us to know, instantly, if we see one. > > Noel > >

10 years, 9 months

4
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KIM Uno /PiDP-11 plans...

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> I've ordered 10 7101J50-CQE2's from Online ... _Iff_ they fit into the > old front panels, I'll let the list know. > ... > let's see if the 7101J50-C's fit, then we can discuss how to proceed. So the switches got here Friday, and alas, they are _not quite_ the right thing. They are very close, however - they have the bent face-plate, with the latch, and the triangular side plates with the holes at the tips for the pivots of the toggle (actuator, is I guess the formal name). They are also the same size (facing them - i.e. side-side, both directions). The only thing that's wrong is that the distance between the switch body, and the top of the bent face-plate, is too far. This, alas, means not only that it won't fit into existing holder frames on front consoles, but they also interfere with the installation of the DEC custom toggles (actuators). However, they are _so close_ that it's possible that C+K can produce some semi-custom ones with the right distance. (I've had a good look through the C+K 7000 series catalog, and all of the current snap-in panel ones have the taller offset.) Maybe they even still have the tooling, and it's only a special order. Anyway, I will call C+K on Monday, and see what I can find out. Noel

10 years, 9 months

3
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Front Panels - Thoughts

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys Sitting here doing the overlays for the 8/e silk screen run. I had a thought. Including all makes of computer old and new. What about a front panel with lights and switches for systems that never had one and could have done with one? Which computer would you nominate? I'm not about to do anything about it. But the answers should be interesting Rod Smallwood

10 years, 9 months

11
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Apple II Rev 2 value?

by unclefalter＠yahoo.ca

I have a rev 4 Apple II in the 38000 s/n range. I'm hoping to, over the years, gradually trade my way up to a Rev 0. I've seen Rev 0 units go on ebay recently for around $3000ish. Below that seems to be a jumble, mostly to do with completeness, originality, etc. Although, no always. Some have had motherboards upgraded to newer versions and still gone for $2500. Anyway, I'm looking to move up. My questions (and I realize this is all opinion): 1) What would my Apple II rev 4 be worth? Again it's serial number is in the 38000 range, black label. It was in France and had its original board replaced with a clone board, and some customization including a small switch for power that was drilled into the back of the case was done. I have installed a Rev 4 board with Integer Basic chips. I also did some repairs on the keyboard and it is fully functional, but the repairs involved a couple of jumper wires to deal with bad traces. 2) What would you be willing to pay for a 12000 range s/n Rev 2 that is in so/so condition, some rusty chip legs and non-functional keyboard? Is a Rev 2 anything special? Thanks!

10 years, 9 months

2
8
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Front Panels Update - Lexan and 8/e round hole positions

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys, I got asked if we could do Lexan panels. I think it was for DG. Yes my supplier does Lexan and can laser cut holes etc. So if you need Lexan panels let me know. The next batch of 8/e A & B will have the hole for the selector switch and the one for the lock pre-drilled. We need to come up with an agreement as to the positions of said holes Can we get the coordinates and sizes of the holes from existing panels using identifiable reference points. The more I get the closer it will be. I'm hoping they won't vary and we can go ahead. Please send me any data for existing panels you may have. Rod (PanelMan) Smallwood

10 years, 9 months

1
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State of Illinois auction website Sun SPARC server and Digital line printer

by jzatar2＠illinois.edu

Hey everyone, I was browsing the state of illinois online auction site, iBid, and found these: https://ibid.illinois.gov/item.php?id=155511 https://ibid.illinois.gov/item.php?id=155521 Maybe someone can give one of them a home? I think they'll let a freight company pick it up for you if you can't pick it up in person. Regards, Joe

10 years, 9 months

1
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Lurker no more...

by applecorey＠optonline.net

Well I finally setup a separate email address so I can receive individual messages from cctalk instead of the daily digest which really doesn't lend itself to posting back. Just wanted to say hi. Cheers, Corey corey cohen u??o? ???o?

10 years, 9 months

3
3
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Gov. & the machine(s) we love

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Brent Hilpert > - ca. 1970: The well-known story of the 4004 is that Busicom .. asked > Intel to manufacture a set of ASIC LSI chips, of Busicom's design, for > a new calculator. .. Hoff, who looked at the multiple chip designs and > conceived instead of a software (firmware) solution running in a > 'computer' processor .. If I have it right, because the MCS-4 family > was developed under the contract to Busicom, Intel had to do some > business wrangling to get the rights back to their MCS-4 design to sell > it as a general-purpose processor independently of Busicom. According to "The Man Behind the Microchip" (by Berlin, the Noyce bio - can highly recommend), Intel had agreed to a price to produce the ASIC's, and Hoff, who was only supposed to be an advisor to the Japanese engineers designing the ASIC's (they arrived at Intel at the end of June, '69), decided they couldn't meet that price point, and dreamed up the uP. Busicom wasn't impressed, but Noyce told him to go ahead as a backup. Later, Busicom execs over-ruled their engineers and went with Intel's approach. When they started to go into production, there was a lot of competition in the calculator business, and Busicom wanted to cut the price from Intel; Intel agreed (in September '71), if they were given the rights to sell it for non-calculator applications. Noel

10 years, 9 months

1
0
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Gov. & the machine(s) we love

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > Supposedly some of the impetus for integrated circuits came from the > space program -- but I think the first ones (at TI) predate that. "Digital Apollo" (pg. 125) says that Fairchild was first to ship commercially, in 1961 ("Journey to the Moon" puts it in the fall, pg. 19), followed by TI and Signetics. In '62, the Instrumentation Labs produced a prototype AGC using Fairchild ICs (in the To-47 round can - they went to the flat packs in a later version); in November, NASA OK'd their use in the flight computers (replacing discrete transistors). (The Minuteman was also using ICs, but 20 different custom designs - the AGC used all standard NOR gate packages.) In '63, Apollo was using 60% of the ICs produced in the US (pg. 127), both for flight computers, and ground test equipment. "Journey" (pg. 19) says they were the largest consumers of ICs from '61 to '65. Their insistance on quality really helped raise the companies' game (pg. 133); not sure if this also increased yield (and thus lowered costs). Block I (which flew on Apollo's AS-201, 4 and 6; 5, and 7 on used Block II - finally found it, pg. 143) used the round metal cans, Block II used the flat packs; NASA had approved the switch to flat packs for the Block II in December, '63. Both TI and Fairchild had stopped producing the chips Apollo needed before the program ended (they had become obsolete); luckily for Apollo, Philco kept their production line open. "Journey" has a large section on the government's influence on early chip production, see pp. 19-23. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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"Demystification" is just as important as "Abstraction" in "Computer Science" (Was: Know any Fortran

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

> > Our industry is saturated with such refusal to understand. Consider > Microsoft's "throw hardware at the software problems" argument that if > their software runs too slowly on your computer, then that shows that YOUR > COMPUTER (and you) is inadequate, and you should get a faster computer. > Seems perfectly logical to me. Microsoft blames your hardware for their bloatware running slowly. You update the hardware and it solves the problem. Then they can ratchet up the bloat level again and convince you that the reason the new version runs so slowly is because the hardware you are running it on is no longer up to it. They were right the first time, so why wouldn't they be right this time? GOTO 10. Writing efficient software to get the best out of the hardware would sure spoil that business model. Regards, Peter Coghlan.

10 years, 9 months

3
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Up for Auction: Memory from the First Computer in Space

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

A core memory unit from Gemini 3 is up for auction: http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2015/10/auction-memory-first-comput…

10 years, 9 months

5
13
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Gov. & the machine(s) we love

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

What is the role played by the U.S. gov. in helping to create the microcomputer? What money & expertise did it provide? ?Steve Jobs the Movie? doesn?t mention this nor have books written about him and microcomputers in general mentioned this. Not even mine! Do the computers we love owe more to gov. than we care to admit? Granted I'm a Cdn. and 'we' here up north view it somewhat differently than Americans... Happy computing. Murray :)

10 years, 9 months

7
7
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free: Trifold folder "DIGITAL WindowsNT" floppies/CDs & DEC ServerWORKS CDs

by jpeterson＠chinalake.com

Been collecting dust, free for the cost of shipping. *** Item 1: Trifold folder "DIGITAL WindowsNT" Seems like an incomplete or mixed install set. Photos upon request. 3.5 diskettes: - Microsoft WindowsNT x86 V3.51 Boot Disks 1, 2, 3 - Windows NT 3.51/4.0 configuration Guide for DIGITAL Alpha systems (1997) - ECU Disk V1.8 DEC Alpha for OpenVMS and Digital Unix - Alpha Systems H/W RX23, Alpha XL 300/366 Family, Alpha Station 255, Alpha Server 100 5/xx, 1000A, 2100A, 4100 HW support disk for windows 3.51 - MS Windows NT 3.51 Release Notes for digital Alpha System CDs: - Digital Internet Roadmap for Windows NT CD V2 - CD: Digital Windows NT 3.51 Alpha Generation X86 P/N: AG-PYZVD-BH (assuming it is not alpha ver of NT) *** Item 2: In a ServerWORKS labeled envelope, with the usual upgrade kit readme first pages. Digital ServerWORKS *Manager* CDs V3.3 Apt '98 P/N: AG-QURLH-BH and V3.2 P/N: AG-QURLG-BH These were clearly upgrade kits, but the manifest indicates full versions on CD as usual. No lic key -jim/eastern ma/us

10 years, 9 months

1
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Source for 360k drives?

by snhirsch＠gmail.com

I need to pickup a few more 360k drives. Does anyone know of a source besides eBay - or, have a few they can part with? At this point, form-factor is not critical. I could actually use both full-height and half-height units. --

10 years, 9 months

1
0
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Lurker no more...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Welcome Corey! how did you get the upside down font in the email sig? Ed# In a message dated 10/30/2015 9:59:06 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, applecorey at optonline.net writes: Well I finally setup a separate email address so I can receive individual messages from cctalk instead of the daily digest which really doesn't lend itself to posting back. Just wanted to say hi. Cheers, Corey corey cohen u??o? ???o?

10 years, 9 months

5
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Know any Fortran programmers who need a more interesting job?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Fred Cisin > 2 or 3 decades ago, the folk controlling lower division undergraduate > "Computer Science" at UC .. declared, "Assembly language is dead! > Nobody will ever program in it again.", and shifted their program to > Scheme/Lisp. > .. > assembly language may no longer be a great career path, but there will > always be need for some levels of hand optimization. It's worth teaching a bit of machine/assembler language, so that students understand how computers _actually work_, underneath. There's a semi-famous incident from a couple of decades back at MIT: they were teaching a programming course in CLU (an "object-based" language which contributed many ideas to object-oriented programming). So one assignment was to write an assembler - which required being able to print octal numbers. So quite a few of the students wrote 'octal clusters' ('cluster' is CLU jargon for the collection of routines which know-how/are-allowed to operate on members of a class), which used normal decimal read and write to do input/output - and had 'octal add' etc routines which took apart two 'octal numbers' abcdef, stored as the decimal number abcdef, into their constituent digits, added them together individually, did the carries, and then put it all back together. (I am not making this up. This really happened.) Apparently nobody had ever told them that a number in memory is... just a number. At which point it became clear that they needed to know a little more about how a computer actually worked. Noel

10 years, 9 months

10
14
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IBM cluster for auction

by innfoclassics＠gmail.com

May not be old enough but this is the group I think might be interested. I have just started following GovDeals. https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemID=1624&acctID=4788 Cluster is in Ohio. Pax -- Paxton Hoag Astoria, OR USA

10 years, 9 months

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Lurker no more...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

it is pretty neat!!! In a message dated 10/30/2015 1:36:30 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, applecorey at optonline.net writes: I honestly don't remember. I know Woz sent me instructions on how to do it, this was a few years ago. I've just been cutting and pasting the competed signature since then, so I forgot. Maybe I can dig up the instructions over the weekend. FYI. I just got the daily digest on my other email and it apparently strips out the upside down stuff. Cheers, Corey corey cohen u??o? ???o? > On Oct 30, 2015, at 1:27 PM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > > Welcome Corey! how did you get the upside down font in the email > sig? Ed# > > > > > In a message dated 10/30/2015 9:59:06 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, > applecorey at optonline.net writes: > > Well I finally setup a separate email address so I can receive individual > messages from cctalk instead of the daily digest which really doesn't lend > itself to posting back. > > Just wanted to say hi. > > Cheers, > Corey > > corey cohen > u??o? ???o?

10 years, 9 months

1
0
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Know any Fortran programmers who need a more interesting job?

by lproven＠gmail.com

?Why NASA Needs a Programmer Fluent In 60-Year-Old Languages To keep the Voyager 1 and 2 crafts going, NASA's new hire has to know FORTRAN and assembly languages. ? http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a17991/voyager-1-voyager-2-retiring-e… -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

10 years, 9 months

9
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The list seems very quiet today

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

The list seems very quiet to-day. I have had only one post this morning. Anybody know why? Rod Smallwood

10 years, 9 months

7
7
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Know any Fortran programmers who need a more interesting job?

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

>From: "Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> >Does anyone have any idea as to the actual hardware platform? > Jerome Fine >From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/30/has_voyager_1_escaped_the_sun_yet_y…: "250 Khz General Electric 18-bit TTL CPUs, complete with single register accumulator and bit-serial access to 2096-word plated-wire RAM"

10 years, 9 months

1
0
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The list seems very quiet today

by cctalk＠beyondthepale.ie

Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > > On 30 October 2015 at 12:02, rod <rodsmallwood52 at btinternet.com> wrote: > > The list seems very quiet to-day. > > I have had only one post this morning. > > Anybody know why? > > Is everybody off at the top-secret VCF-Paris? > Nah - VCF-Paris is just a decoy to distract the few who might have heard about the ultra secret VCF-Madrid. > On Fri, 30 Oct 2015, Liam Proven wrote: > > No replies to my message about NASA wanting Fortran programmers... > > extinct? or just too shameful? > Too busy trying to contact NASA to see if they are willing to take on someone telecommuting across the Atlantic Ocean (after all, the difference in distance to where the probes are now would not be of any significance). Regards, Peter Coghlan.

10 years, 9 months

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There's hope... and then there's aggressively optimistic

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

I love this person's style: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281835789336 It doesn't sell for $25? Fine, re-list it at $35! Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Front Panel Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys I just got back from the meeting at the silk screen shop. They are going to start by printing ten PDP8/e panels with the details that are common to both A and B. I'm sending them a couple of overlays. One to convert the common panel to an A Type and the other to make it into a B type. Four A type and Three B type are sold. This means I have three slots left that can become either an A or a B. Same goes for 8/f and 8/m . They will print up to the common point and an overlay will turn it into either an /f or /m This time the stock will be a bit better. Two /f have gone so eight slots are available to become a /f or a /m So to be able to make an 8/e Type A or Type B takes One precut perspex sheet, One screen for each color (two) One screen for the white One matte finish coating Two screens for the overlays One screen for the lamp view ports on the back. Total six silk screens Then I'll add in packing and shipping cost. I'll freeze the order on Monday Then work out the unit price and add in packing and shipping cost. Then call for payment from those without prepaid orders. So there are three 8/e A or B slots and eight 8/f or 8/m slots available until Monday Rod Smallwood

10 years, 9 months

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Omnibus TSC8-75 schematic?

by rickb＠bensene.com

While there are documents out there that describe the function of the Educomp/Quodata TSC8-75 Timeshare System Controller for Omnibus PDP 8 machines, I have searched high and low, and there doesn't seem to be /any/ schematics for it anywhere. I know this was a proprietary board that did some pretty interesting things to trap IOT, JMP, JSR, and HLT/OSR instructions on the PDP 8/e/f/m/a machines and provide additional capabilities versus DEC's Memory Extension and Timeshare Control board. I have a fantasy of being able to run ETOS on real PDP 8/e hardware, but I don't have one of these boards, and they seem to be pretty much unobtainium. There are a few of them out there, but obviously, the owners of these aren't in the mood to submit them for reverse engineering. Perhaps someone out there has already done this, or someone has documentation on the board that may include schematics that simply hasn't scanned it yet. Bitsavers comes up with nothing under the DEC archives, and there's no sign of Quodata or Educomp folders. I have read the descriptions of the function of the board, and the IOTs that make it do its things, but I just don't have the expertise on the guts of the Omnibus PDP 8 machines to be able to take this information and create a design for a board that performs these functions. I've also looked at the code in SimH that emulates the functionality of the board, but again, it isn't enough information for me to be able to figure out how to implement it in hardware. In any case, I think it'd be interesting to see if one of these boards could be reproduced. I've found some old ClassicCMP list archives that mention some stuff about ETOS documentation and folks that worked for Educomp/Quodata that were involved in the creation of ETOS and this board, but the thread died over 10 years ago. I am probably wishing for something that doesn't exist, but I figured I'd ask anyway, as maybe someone has stumbled across some of this stuff and just hasn't made it public yet. Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

10 years, 9 months

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The list seems very quiet today

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Rod Smallwood > The list seems very quiet to-day. I have had only one post this > morning. Anybody know why? They're all tired out from the large amount of traffic over the past couple of days? ;-) But seriously, it's not quite 9AM yet now, on the US East Coast (and I would guess the plurality of list members are in the US), so that's almost certainly part of it, too. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Front Panels - Update

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi Guys As per previous update I'm off to my silk screen printers today. Thanks to lots of help from list members I have identified most of the different PDP8/e panel types that exist. 1. PDP-8/e Type A: Selector switch starts from _vertical (12 o'clock)_ position There _is _a white line around the selector switch area. There are _no _vertical dividers between groups of three lamps 2. PDP-8/e Type B: Selector switch starts from _-15deg (11 o'clock)_ position There is _no_ white line around the selector switch area. There _are_ vertical dividing lines between groups of three lamps 3. PDP-8/f: White border and masthead with DEC logo and address Layout differs from 8/e but lamps and switches retain their positions Otherwise color scheme as per 8/e and address Corners on text and color area are rounded off. There is a pdp8/f logo to the right of the RUN light 4. PDP-8/m: White border and masthead with DEC logo and address Layout differs from 8/e but lamps and switches retain their positions Otherwise color scheme as per 8/e Corners on text and color area are rounded off. There is a pdp8/m logo to the right of the RUN light 5. PDP-8/lab (Anybody want one of these?) 6. PDP-8/industrial (Anybody want one of these?) All panels share a common basic clear plastic blank with pre-cut switch positions I intend to have both 8/e and 8/f plus 8/m (ie two designs) printed with just shared features. The detail that makes them different will be added later. I'll ask for a matte finish. I'll tighten up the QA on how the lines delineate the holes. I'll sort out the lock and switch hole positions (coordinates from the cutouts would help if you have them) *_Work in progress_* 11/4X,11/5X,11/6X and 11/7X *_Under consideration_* Best way to produce Large, Custom and non - DEC panels I'm sure I have missed things off and just as sure somebody will tell me! Rod Smallwood

10 years, 9 months

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Honeywell "Teletype"

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

it would only be reasonable if you needed it to compete a display that used that particular cased unit. adn you really had to have it... otherwise as a 33 it is vastly overpriced! Ed# In a message dated 10/29/2015 2:27:54 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, unclefalter at yahoo.ca writes: I was kind of eyeing this too but the shipping is a problem. I didn't know Teletype did the 'private label' kind of thing? So $2500 is reasonable for something like that? -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of David Williams Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 1:02 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Honeywell "Teletype" > > That looks pretty clean. I haven't seen one in the UK at anywhere near that price. Looking at US prices its almost worth shipping if I could find a set of 50hz gears.... > They do pop up now and then. I actually purchased mine though Ebay, last year for ?300. The seller originally had it listed for ?500 but had no bidders. Cheers, Dave ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2015.0.6172 / Virus Database: 4450/10864 - Release Date: 10/21/15 Internal Virus Database is out of date.

10 years, 9 months

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Massey Dickinson - help identify

by mail.nickallen＠gmail.com

Looking for help identifying these 2 pieces of Massey Dickinson equipment. I was told this machine is a trainer of sorts, but have my doubts: https://goo.gl/photos/ktBMTiYXxLZd8dH1A But per the research I have done, the only reference of Massey Dickinson and PDP8s are for Data Acquisition, I assume that is what this machine is for (was interfaced to a PDP8i): https://goo.gl/photos/cqwTHmb6QhGKfgwy9 Thanks everyone! -Nick

10 years, 9 months

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Honeywell "Teletype"

by jws＠jwsss.com

I'm curious. This auction appears to be for an ASR33 in a Honeywell box. If so $1200 is way too much for a funny case unless you like plastic with "Honeywell" on it. Any ideas? RARE-Vintage-Honeywell-Teletype-Machine http://www.ebay.com/itm/201442852051 Thanks Jim

10 years, 9 months

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Trying to get my RLV11 working

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ben Sinclair > A while back I was talking to someone else who suggested using a ribbon > cable from the controller to directly inside the drive. I've heard that suggestion too... > That technically will fit if I remove the ribbon inside the drive that > goes to the external connectors, but then I won't have a terminator > installed. I do have a terminator though! The cable from the CPU would have to have two connectors on the RL02 end; one would plug into the drive's logic board, and the other to the outbound connector, where you can plug in the terminator. AFAIK that cable is purely a bus (i.e. no radial per-drive wires), so you should just be able to run it to the second connector, no issue. However, I'm too lazy to check to make sure that's absolutely 100% accurate. :-) > I think what I really need, since I don't have a cab kit or anything, > is a bc80m, which I believe is a ribbon with a ground lug on the > controller side, and whatever type of connector the drive uses on the > other end. I think you mean a Berg connector which will plug directly into the RLV11, not "ground lug", right? Yes, if you don't have a cab kit, that's the cable you need. It's not a ribbon cable, but a round cable (the connectors the drives use only come in regular cable form, not ribbon cable - AFAIK). > Not that I can even find a cable like that anywhere currently... RLOx cables of _any_ kind are very hard to find. There are discussions under way about making new ones; there is a supply (used) of the wierd-ass connector that plugs into the back of the drive which could be used. > I unfortunately don't have an extender card... Others have pointed you at Douglas; here's the page for all their extender cards: http://www.douglas.com/index.php/off-the-shelf-solutions/bread-boards-by-fu… which includes a hex, but those aren't any use (that I can think of) to people with QBUS machines. (Useful things to have it you're trying to maintain a vintage PDP-11; one is, perforce, forced to become one's own Field Circus person - unless you're lucky and happen to live close to a PDP-11 hardware expert who's willing to come salve one's machine.) > From: Johnny Billquist > Well, not important. We're now beyond that point. The boards are > working well enough that we can address them... Well, but he might still have a problem on them. Although fixing such would be a challenge... Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Trying to get my RLV11 working

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ben Sinclair > the bc80m cable .. which I believe is a ribbon type of connector with a > ground strap on one end, then a round cable to the berg connector for > the back of the RL02. I think it's the cable pictured here: > http://www.cosam.org/computers/dec/pdp11-23/20080403.html Yes, that's the cable. But there's no ribbon cable anywhere in it: the individual wires from the round cable go directly to the Berg (aka Du Pont) female connector, which plugs into the male Berg header on the board. The other end does not have a Berg connector, it's some sort of wierd-ass connector that I don't know the proper name for. (The RK0[67] also uses them, and I think maybe the MASSBUS too?) > The RLV11 and RLV12 seem hard to find, at least on eBay They come by occasionally. I can probably find an RLV12 for you if you want/need one. > so fixing this one might be the way to go! Fixing an RLV11 is not for hardware beginners. Think logic analyzer, at least. > From: Johnny Billquist > I would primarily expect 16 bits addresses to be used on a KDF-11, but > I could be wrong. 11/23 ODT addresses are always 18-bit (whether the MMU chip is installed or not); I don't know if attempting to look at memory above 56KB works without the MMU, though. > Early revisions only supported 18 bit addressing, but later models > supported 22 bit addressing. But how that is reflected in the micro-ODT > on a KDF-11 I don't know. I already bitched about this! Although it supports Q22 _on the bus_, their ODT only supports Q18. There's no way to fiddle with high memory, except via program! > I don't even know if it's actually micro-ODT, or some more primitive > console mode on that CPU. AFAIK, it's the same ODT as all the other QBUS -11's (03, 73, etc - although the /03 has the 'L' bootloader command that none of the others do, along with a couple of other odd minor ones like '@'). Noel

10 years, 9 months

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Trying to get my RLV11 working

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ben Sinclair > According to the Microcomputer Interfaces Handbook, my H9273 backplane > should be all ABCD. Yup, that was one of the first things I checked - whilst realizing that if it wasn't, it was too late... :-) > Am I correct in that I shouldn't have any problem using the RLV11 in > that backplane? Not that I am aware of. Noel

10 years, 9 months

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