test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

Can someone help me identify this IBM machine?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> So the other pictures in that bunch implies that most (all?) of the > stuff formerly at the museum is now at the offsite warehouse? The space which was formerly large and small storage in Mountain View has been packed and moved offsite to make room for an exhibit which is in development that will take up much of the first floor. This also helped the efforts to get the collection cataloged. Exhibits in the front of house are still there.

17 years, 3 months

Randy Cook, TRSDOS, and Datapoint

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Can anybody here compare the two and find threads of similarity? Gordon P. seems like the guy to ask..

17 years, 3 months

8088 vs. 80c88

by les＠frii.com

I just thought of another intersting example. The version of adventure I used to play (550 point Geotz B01) behaved differently on a Z80 and a 8080. Something happened at the beginning of the game on a Z80 (It asked for your name, or have a version message, or something) which did not happen on an 8080/85. With that exception, it worked fine on either processor. That allways struck me as odd, and became my test for what processor was in a system. Les

17 years, 3 months

Can someone help me identify this IBM machine?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Where is this thing? Do you know if there is any more of it left? At CHM. Apparently one of our volunteers went into storage while the artifacts were still in Mtn View and got creative with his camera. The 610 console was all that was donated.

17 years, 3 months

AAARRGGGHHHH ... people still stealing my work

by evan＠snarc.net

>>> I only questioned the expectation of licensing and control given the original distribution medium and terms As far as the owner and creator am concerned, the original terms were: "This is cost-free to read and to quote for fair use, and I reserve the right to change these terms by making an announcement." "Fair use" doesn't mean "make available wholesale to the world" ... that's one of the (few!) things I think the courts got right about file sharing, for example. Later, I removed it from my site and announced about it.

17 years, 3 months

Powering up a 20-year old MicroVAX II

by js＠cimmeri.com

Message: 20 Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:58:50 -0000 From: "Robert Jarratt" <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> Subject: RE: Powering up a 20-year old MicroVAX II <<Do you mean that it will be difficult to fix, even if I can find someone who really knows what they are doing?>> *Yes, it'll be difficult (but not impossible) to fix. You're probably better off finding another working one. Or trying to find an electronics buff.* <<I only have a basic multimeter so I don't know if I would have had the necessary equipment to do this, do you have any advice on the minimum equipment needed?>> *You don't have the necessary equip. And, No, I don't, because teaching you how to be an electronics technician is a whole other subject and beyond my means. * << Now that there has been some damage is it sensible to replace the blown capacitors and any other ones that don't measure well?>> *Not for you to replace them, no. It needs knowledgeable attention at this point.* << I looked up variacs but there seem to be an awful lot of different ones, again any recommendation as to the minimum I would need?>> *You choose them according to your voltage and amperage needs. I use a 5 amp one for small electronics and computers, 10 amp for larger computers (like my own Microvax). Again, though, unless you already know what you're doing with one, please take the time to learn prior to blowing stuff up. * <<By the way, I am aware that PSUs can be very dangerous to meddle with when you have limited knowledge.>> * Yep! They remain dangerous even when you have knowledge. * << How long should I leave the PSU between any tests to allow the capacitors to discharge? The label on the PSU says to leave it 5 minutes, I suspect it should be longer.>> *Honestly? Don't use time as a safetly measure. Assume the caps are always fully charged. Then test them and discharge them if needed. Again, because you don't know this, you need to get the knowledge or let someone else handle it before meddling with the PSU. Proceed carefully.* On Feb 22, 2009, at 3:33 PM, Gordon JC Pearce wrote: > >> I have to say, for all the talk of failing caps in power supplies >> I've only ever seen one electrolytic cap fail *ever*, and that was >> last week in a one-year-old graphics card that has hardly ever been >> powered off... > > Gordon, you don't mention how many caps you've looked at or tested, or how you've done so, but I encounter them constantly. Not so much in the 1980's vintage DEC equipment YET, but it's no myth that AEC's are electrochemical vats that have a lifespan. The lifespan varies widely depending on many factors, heat being the big one. jS

17 years, 3 months

AAARRGGGHHHH ... people still stealing my work

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Jim writes: > If this were a commercial work then I would obviously see it > differently. Not evaluating it from a commercial sense, but from an academic sense, Evan's work (not just the web page but all the effort and research and deep context behind it) puts it at the top 1% of anything I've ever seen done in the "history of technology" realm. It's far more than a picture of a bunch of old stuff, and it's far more than just scans of old documents. It's truly original work of top-notch caliber. I believe that in a world that is dominated so heavily by the current winners in brand-names that having a deep look at the outfits that may not be current commercial players (but whose ideas did eventually win) is very important. How such deep looks might become commercial ventures of their own... harder for me to say. There's clearly lawsuits flying back and forth about technology where examples of prior art or experts in prior art have value. And there's clearly coffee table books. But there are probably ways to succeed that I've never thought of. Tim.

17 years, 3 months

More on early laser printers...

by kahrs＠caip.rutgers.edu

Given the close connection between Wirth and PARC, perhaps it would be useful to examine the Alto SLOT card? Together with Alto microcode, this drove a very early Xerox printer. (Personal bias: The Alto microtasking is SUCH a clever idea... The SLOT ran fairly high as I recall in the tasking priority...)

17 years, 3 months

AAARRGGGHHHH ... people still stealing my work

by evan＠snarc.net

>>> if it's something you're going to make commercial, stop giving it away for free. I did stop. This is legacy infringement. :) Also: big thanks to everyone for the genuinely helpful replies. I really appreciate it.

17 years, 3 months

VCF's this year

by evan＠snarc.net

>>> VCF East 6.0 is Sept. 12-13. > Is this going to be held in the same location as last year? Yes. InfoAge Science Center, Wall, N.J. Did you go last year? Every year we make a little more progress on the "nice-ification" of our buildings and grounds. Recently we got central HVAC for the computer museum wing.

17 years, 3 months

AAARRGGGHHHH ... people still stealing my work

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

I think it's pretty much a given that anything that hits the web may appear days or months or years later in some form, either an exact mirror or hacked up and without attribution to original sources. I'm pretty sure that what you see was not actually cloned and included by an actual person but by some sort of web-mirror-bot whose purpose is to drive search engines to a site to rack up some clicks and earn some bucks. I've seen some of the stuff that I've written or synthesized get translated, garbled, or even quoted by patent examiners. (The patent examiner thing is weird... what he quoted from my Usenet post has absolutely no applicability to the actual patent. But my words are somehow backing him up even though I actually disagree.) Maybe my years in academia have twisted me, because I still strongly feel that any citation (even cloning or mangling) is in some way a form a citation that will somehow help me get my next job even though that hasn't been true for a long time. I think it's also true that sometimes we get too wrapped up in what we ourselves have done, and sometimes can lose track of the big picture of the larger classic computer community, some of which is not so able at writing or running websites or giving attribution where it is legally needed or just morally deserved. Certainly you are at the top 1 percent at coming up with original work on the subject and making it available; the top 10 percent is good at taking pictures of their stuff and putting it on the web; the rest of us are just sort of plowing through the research others have done. Just being at the top of the heap makes web-cloning inevitable, and I think you should take it as a compliment. And even more... I think that we often forget that the web is "just the web" and someday will seem minor and inconsequential compared to whatever new technology comes down the pike. If you've ever heard the BBC's production of the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy I'm trying to intone in the same voice as Deep Thought when he tells everyone that his work is truly minor compared to the work that will have to be done by the computer that actually computes The Question. Really we're pretty minor compared to The Ancients (the ones that actually constructed the classic computers) and compared to The Future (the ways in which the web will be superseded by something we can't even imagine.) I'm sometimes surprised that the web has been around as long as it has and still is kicking along so well and dominately. I think that someday some little guy in some obscure corner will come up with the next wave, and it won't look AT ALL like Web 2.0 or "The Cloud" or anything that is getting money today. Tim.

17 years, 3 months

AAARRGGGHHHH ... people still stealing my work

by evan＠snarc.net

>>> I do find myself wondering had been on http://israelipda.com with all the supporting text in Hebrew, if there would have been such a screaming about it ;-) Very funny ... you should see the debates I have with Sellam ... It's not enough that my opinions are mainstream American "left"; he wants extreme. :)

17 years, 3 months

8088 vs. 80c88

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: 8088 vs. 80c88 > From: "bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca" <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:54:49 -0700 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Chuck Guzis wrote: >> On 21 Feb 2009 at 15:09, Les Hildenbrandt wrote: >> >>>> The problem with the V20's 8080 emulation was that it was buggy (I >>>> have a few MicroNotes on the subject and can even claim to have >>>> discovered one of the bugs). >>> I wonder if it was only cetain chips. I ran cp/m 80 on a v20 for years. I also ran it on V20 inserted in the Leading Edge model D, not only did it help dos level stuff by a few percent it ran every thing 8080 I'd thrown at it. >> Try running a program in CP/M with JRT Pascal 1.0 on a V20. CPU bugs >> can be very subtle. Your kidding tight? ;) JRT pascal was fairly buggy itself and it was till arond V3 that it stopped being noticalbly so. Allison >Well what are the bugs? > >> Cheers, >> Chuck >> >>

17 years, 3 months

8088 vs. 80c88

by les＠hildenbrandt.com

> The problem with the V20's 8080 emulation was that it was buggy (I > have a few MicroNotes on the subject and can even claim to have > discovered one of the bugs). I wonder if it was only cetain chips. I ran cp/m 80 on a v20 for years.

17 years, 3 months

Wanted: DEC Computer Lab manuals

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, I was one of the ones lucky enough to get one of the DEC Computer Labs on ePay last month. Mine finally showed up, and after a quick inspection, I'm ready to make some cables and hook up some circuits. Somewhere, I do have the teacher's manual. It was given to me nearly 30 years ago, a thoughtful gift from my step-dad's mother who was the local high school chem teacher. I haven't seen my copy in years, and I'm worried it was one of the things I lost in a basement flood in the 1980s. I did a google search and a look through bitsavers and didn't see anything to download, but I did see that this topic has come up on the list before. There was a call for scanning the docs some time back (6 years ago?) but no posting of where said scans might be. Also, there are Phillip's pictures of the cables on grid paper, so they look like pretty ordinary crimp pins, but I'm having to guess at the nominal diameter... 3mm? From the cover of the student manual, it looks like there are 25-ish of the shortest (brown) jumpers, and fewer of each longer length, but if anyone has a documented count of the number of each length of jumper wire, that'd be really nice to know. So are there scans of the student and teacher's manuals for the Computer Lab anywhere, and does anyone have a list (including in one of the manuals) of the normal inventory of jumper leads? Oh... one more thing... does anyone have any idea which bi-pin bulbs DEC used on this? I didn 't tear mine apart far enough tonight to get bulb details. Thanks, -ethan

17 years, 3 months

PDP 11/35 EIS option

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi, Does anyone have a KE11-E (or KE11-F for that matter) available. This is a UNIBUS board for the PDP 11/35 or 11/40 which provides the extended instruction set. Part number is M7238 Thanks Ian.

17 years, 3 months

Powering up a 20-year old MicroVAX II

by gordonjcp＠gjcp.net

Robert Jarratt wrote: > The question is, could it be that I had not made the switch to 240 > correctly, or could this just be down to the age of the PSU? > Mains filter cap. Gordon

17 years, 3 months

Canon LPB-10 info sought.

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

I am looking for info on this very early (1979) laserprinter. In particular I need to know the electrical and software interface. Jos

17 years, 3 months

Searching for Disassembly pods for Tek 1230 Logic Analyzer

by ragooman＠comcast.net

Just wondering if anyone might know of any Disassembly pods for a Tek 1230 Logic Analyzer lying around somewhere. I keep searching the usual places online--but maybe someone knows a better place. I'm currently using the 6502 Disassembly pod and 48 channels, I like to try and get the Z80 pod or others if available. thanks =Dan -- [ = http://www2.applegate.org/~ragooman/ ]

17 years, 3 months

Powering up a 20-year old MicroVAX II

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> After removing all the boards and leaving just the disk and tape drive for > load I impetuously decided to try powering it up. I knew the PSU (model Personally, I'd not have used a disk drive (presumably a winchester-type hard disk) as a dummy load. If might well contain interesting software. But anywy, I would be very suprised if anything on the output side of the PSU has been damaged, > H7864) was set for 110V and made the switch to 240V (I am in the UK). When I > connected the power cord, after a few moments there was a loud pop, followed > by another before I could pull out the power cord, smoke rose from the PSU. > This sounded just like when I had once accidentally made a 110/240 mix-up. > > The question is, could it be that I had not made the switch to 240 > correctly, or could this just be down to the age of the PSU? I don't know the MicroVAX PSU that well (another list member wants me to dig mine out, take it apart and work out how to repair said PSU...) but my experience of DEC hardware is that if there's an obvious external voltage selector switch, that's all that needs to be changed. If there isn't (at least on older machines) there may be one or more sets of terminals inside to rewire. But I've never seen both. Of course on large systems there may be voltage selectors for each sub-unit (CPU, expansion box, drives, etc), but the Microvax II is in one cainet with one PSU. My guess is that it was just bad luck. Something in the PSU decided to fail. The next thign to do is to open up that PSU and see what has failed. Often it'll e obvious now. Look for burnt reisstors, exploded capacitors, blown PCB tracks, etc. -tony

17 years, 3 months

CiscoPro 761 ISDN router

by lproven＠gmail.com

Standalone ISDN to Ethernet router. Like a modern ADSL one, but this is for digital dialup. Handy for a relative with no ADSL coverage, perhaps? Bare unit - no PSU. Offered for free to anyone who will pay postage or can collect. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat, Yahoo & Skype: liamproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

17 years, 3 months

Powering up a 20-year old MicroVAX II

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: Powering up a 20-year old MicroVAX II > From: <arcarlini at iee.org> > Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:04:43 +0000 > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org wrote: >> IMHO the most important thing to do after checking for >> obvious problems >> -- loose parts, evidence of overheating/burning, etc, is to test the >> power supply (PSU) on a dummy load. A defective PSU could >> wipe out every >> chip in the machine!. > >In addition, pay particular attention to the PSU wiring harness. > >The early rev of harness on (iirc) the BA23 had a habit of >catching light. I think it was slightly underrated for the >maximum power load and so would deteriorate over time. It >would eventually reach the point where one of the N conductors >would fail, leaving N-1 carrying way too much load and smoke >ensued. > Correct the worng harness has unequal length wires and the correct one has equal length wires. The harness in question goes from the Backplane to the PS. The problem is with unequal length wires the connectors were sharing the load unequaly and the connecotr would overheat and fail sequentially. It was more of a problem on highly loaded boxes. >Field service were (again, iirc) supposed to swap these out if >they came across them. But if your machine has truly not been used >for twenty years, it ended up in storage relatively eraly in its >life and so may not have had a chance for some FS TLC. 20 years is maybe on the wire. It may have been already replaced. > >A little bit of googling should find you the relevant details >(or you could wait for the next post which will no doubt be >from someone with much better memory than me :-)). > >The only other thing I would add to Tony's post is that once >you think it isn't going to fry your boards (or burst into flames) >then you only need the CPU and one memory board in. Then you hook >up a terminal to the console (9600-8-N), set the switch properly >and check that you get some kind of life on the console. It doesnt bust into flames, it can overheat to the extent of destroying the connectors and smoke some. In this day and age cookingthe backplane connector is a real pain as spares are getting scarce. Allison >At that point you can start to add the remaining boards (checking >that Qbus grant continuity is OK as you go) and build your system >back up again. > >There are plenty of docs you can track down on Manx >(http:://vt100.net/manx). >You can google for the various Micronotes too, some of them are relevant >to the MicroVAX, others to the Qbus, and all of them are interesting >background reading. > >Antonio >arcarlini at iee.org > >

17 years, 3 months

WTS: AT&T 3B1 Olivetti branded with manuals and DEC Vaxstation 2000 storage box.

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I'm concentrating my collection on HP, so before I put it on epay: I want to sell or trade my working AT&T 3B1 Unix PC this one is co-branded with the Olivetti logo. I'm selling it together with 5 manuals and the original installation software (only disk two diagdisk is missing) The 3B1 is equiped with the DOS73 Co-processor board. Also I'm selling a VaxStation 2000 storage box inside is disc but I won't spin when power was applied. This could be a jumper issue but I sell it as non working. Photo's can be found at flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/35618294 at N03/ Please contact me off-list . -Rik I'm located in the Netherlands.

17 years, 3 months

Powering up a 20-year old MicroVAX II

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > I have just collected a MicroVAX II which has been in storage and has not > been powered on for 20 years. This is my first machine of such an age, > unfortunately I am not particularly knowledgeable at the electronics level > (I studied circuits academically 25+ years ago and can solder a bit, but > that is as far as it goes). I know I will need to treat it carefully in > order to get it working again. I plan to open it up and make sure I clear > out any debris etc, but beyond that I need advice from those with the > experience and knowledge that I lack on how to go about powering it up > carefully. IMHO the most important thing to do after checking for obvious problems -- loose parts, evidence of overheating/burning, etc, is to test the power supply (PSU) on a dummy load. A defective PSU could wipe out every chip in the machine!. Since you're happy to dismantle the machine anyway, this should be quite easy. With all the PCBs out of the backplane (make notes/diagrams as to what goes where), and with the power cables unplugged from the drives, connect a 6V car bulb between the +5V line and the 0V line (you can find these by tracing back from the known Q-bus pinouts if you can't find them any other way) and power up. Mearue the 5V line with a voltmeter, and if possible the other power lines (if you can find them). Only when you know they're correct should you plug the logic boards in. Oh, I would recomend opening up the PSU (mains disconnected, of course), and looking for signs of trouble in there. And check all the fans are rotatig when you turn it all on -tony

17 years, 3 months

HP 64000 state analyzer manuals?

by jdbryan＠acm.org

Would anyone have any of the following HP 64000 logic development system manuals: 64635-90901 64635A State Data Probe Service Manual 64636-90901 64636A State Clock Probe Service Manual 64650-90905 General Purpose Preprocessor Service Manual 64650-90906 General Purpose Preprocessor Operating/Service Manual I have a 64000 and the 64620 state analyzer cards, and I want to build an HP-IB preprocessor interface. The theories of operation and schematics in the above manuals will help me with this. Thanks! -- Dave

17 years, 3 months

Jump to page:

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb