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101090 discussions

UK DEC Meeting in North West, Autumn 2009 - expression of interest please

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, Well, I've been banding this idea around to a few fellow DECheads in the UK, and thought it was about time I moved on to stage 2. I am thinking about organising a meeting for people interested in the line of computers created by Digital Equipment Corporation. It is likely that the meeting will be autumn next year, and would be run over a Saturday and Sunday in Windermere, Cumbria, UK. This is in the very early stages of planning, and I'm initially looking to get an idea of numbers who might be interested. This is to ensure that I can organise the event without loss. In terms of numbers I would be looking for between 10 and 20 people to exhibit computers, and then another up to maybe 50 people as non-exhibitors. I'm sure we could get some interesting speakers involved. Cost is likely to be in the order of GBP 10 for the two days, although we can discuss the option of providing catering if there is interest. I would be looking for firm commitment to buy a ticket say 3 months in advance. So in the first instance, could anyone interested email me at: mark at wickensonline dot co dot uk. By emailing you agree for me to keep your email address on file so that I can inform you of any progress. Please feel free to make suggestions either on this mailing list or direct by email. Kind regards, Mark Wickens -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkk3wecACgkQR0vMj/mgdjaeAQCgoiTAk9YqL9PJIbiXFpJxpJgg 8skAoMSCQ0cgLUB6xMiFXxgpSnMmw30J =wa/6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

17 years, 4 months

Paging Al Kossow

by nico＠farumdata.dk

A long time ago, we talked about diagrams for the Qualstar 3412. For some reason or another, they were never sent. Are you still interested? Nico

17 years, 4 months

Making an RT-11 TU58 Image

by toby＠coreware.co.uk

Hi, I've just managed to get a TU58 emulator compiled up and running under Linux and confirmed its working by booting Will Kranz's XXDP images (http://www.fpns.net/willy/pdp11/tu58-emu.htm) I'd now like to get an RT-11 TU58 image so I can run a boot into a real operating system on my disk-less -11s. Whats the best way to go about making a suitable image? I have a working RT11 v5 setup under SIMH. Is it possible to make a suitable image via this? One thought is to make a RX01 boot image and but with a TU58 boot block and then use this on the emulator. Thanks, Toby -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

17 years, 4 months

Making an RT-11 TU58 Image

by oldcpu2＠rogerwilco.org

On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:27:59 Tobias Russell said: > I've just managed to get a TU58 emulator compiled up > and running under Linux and confirmed its working by > booting Will Kranz's XXDP images > (http://www.fpns.net/willy/pdp11/tu58-emu.htm) I use Will's emulator under MSDOS and works great for me too! With my first PDP-11, this was the only means I had for backing up a handful of RL02 disk carts... > > I'd now like to get an RT-11 TU58 image so I can run > a boot into a real operating system on my disk-less > -11s. Whats the best way to go about making a suitable > image? > > I have a working RT11 v5 setup under SIMH. Is it > possible to make a suitable image via this? One > thought is to make a RX01 boot image and but with a > TU58 boot block and then use this on the emulator. Yes, it's quite easy. You can build an RX image, or as hinted at above, you can create an entire RL02-sized image and use it with the TU58 driver (DD). It turns out that RT11's DD driver only cares about size of the media when it *writes*, but it can read any properly initialized media of any size. As you suggest, using SIMH, mount up a blank 'disk' of whatever variety you want (RX01 would be fine, but a little small for working with RT11 easily, I'd suggest an RL01 or RL02), and initialize it, copy over the files you want, and just as you say, do a COPY/BOOT with the TU58 driver (DD), such as: .COPY/BOOT:DD DL0:RT11SJ.SYS DL0: to put the TU58 driver in the boot block of a RL0x. At this point you'll need to physically cable your Linux box running the TU58 emulator and the PDP-11 with a simple null-modem cable. When you fire up the PDP-11 hardware, you'll have to enter the TU58 bootstrap (which Will gives in his emulator documentation). At that point you should be home free. It won't be fast, but it will certainly function fine. If you do create a non-TU58-sized virtual disk image, you'll want to again refer to Will's docs where he gives you a patch to the DD.SYS driver, setting the number of blocks allowed. This will allow you to read and write to a larger (than standard TU58) disk image. Good luck! - Jared

17 years, 4 months

Keyboard model # for Apollo DN 10000?

by legalize＠xmission.com

Does anyone know the model number for a keyboard that goes with an Apollo DN10000? There's a sticker on the back side of the keyboard with a model number like 014555-001. Thanks! -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 4 months

[Sorta/Probably OT] Gmail "Terminal" theme

by eric940＠gmail.com

For those Gmail users out there: Click "Settings" / "Themes" and choose the _Terminal_ theme. It gives you a (kind of) cool terminal looking theme within a web browser when logged in to you Gmail. I know: many purists out there use Pine, Elm, and the like... but there are a few that need to use browsers when reading email for whatever reason (myself included) on occasion. I just enjoy seeing the green font/black background scenario on my monitor whenever possible :-) OK, back to Topic related issues.

17 years, 4 months

Arcade games

by philip＠axeside.co.uk

Just curious... There's a shop in Coalville, I'm not sure what it sells (maybe it sells games consoles; maybe it's an amusement arcade; maybe both). In the window this weekend were two machines that caught my eye: an original Space Invaders machine from 1978, priced at 895 pounds; and a pinball machine from 1979 (branded "Gottlieb") for an almost-as-unreasonable 495 pounds. (I think at current exchange rates that's about $1300 and $700 US) As I was walking home, failing to hum the Space Invaders song, I wondered what sort of an active market is there for such machines? The prices looked high enough that they must be aiming at serious collectors, or possibly innkeepers who want to create a retro-seventies atmosphere. So do people here know about the classic arcade game market? Are my neighbours of a couple of blocks away being overoptimistic with their prices? Philip. PS What I remember from the period was the many, many attempts to write Invaders-style games in BASIC on the PET and other home computers. And my friend Matthew, after we'd borrowed a Sinclair ZX81 and experimented for a week or two, shutting himself away and writing a quite good one for that machine in machine code - I helped with the BASIC shell that built the initial screen display. And wiring a phone earpiece to the PET user port to hear the sound effects on the Commodore invaders program. And so on... PPS has anyone preserved the Space Invaders song? I sincerely hope not.

17 years, 5 months

Tragedy in our hobby: Jay West ....

by evan＠snarc.net

Hi all, Every few months Jay gets busy at work and disappears. That's been a regular cycle for several years, so personally I don't get too worried. However, I did start to wonder recently because he's been gone for longer than usual. Personally I last spoke with him at VCF West in 2007. Christian wrote >>> where is Jay? I've tried to contact him via email but haven't got any response yet. His last post to this list was at the end of May. Ethan aded >>> I'm guessing, though, that nobody has heard from Jay himself in quite some time now. Sridhard noted >>> I hope he's ok. So I decided to pick up the phone today even though Jay usually doesn't answer his phone, preferring email. Alas, I'm very sorry to report this tragic news to the list .... .... "Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated." Jay had a very sturdy laugh (for a supposed cadaver) when I mentioned sending an email with the "tragedy" subject line. :-) He's just busy at work. As usual. - Evan

17 years, 5 months

sometimes you win, and sometrimes...

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

..you loose, like today, when I found out that on the, literally, 7581 files I transferred between the Lilith and my Linux box, each last byte has been corrupted..... Sigh... Either the Linux or the Lilith Kermit must have had a bug. Small wonder the emulated Modula compiler hat problems. Jos

17 years, 5 months

Plug-n-Play for vintage machines?

by brain＠jbrain.com

I'm considering designing some cartridges for the CBM line of computers, but I'd prefer to skip masses of jumper blocks and move to a soft-config option. I know, some of you love jumpers, but for carts, it's more important to offer flexible options so that the SW can reconfigure carts on load. I have no issues with adding a small uC to a cart to do the heavy lifting, but I'm struggling with a way to communicate with the uC from the CBM machine. In the past, people have added config registers to a IO space, but that introduces its own issues (how to hide the registers, what about conflicts, etc.) Ideally, I'd like to use an approach that: * works via the existing address/chip select/data lines of the cart ports * will handle multiple equipped carts on the same port (port expanders) * uses as few lines as possible to communicate with the host machine * will not affect non-equipped cartridges * not require major amount of horsepower from the uC side. I thought using and SPI/I2C-like approach using an address line or two and a data line to communicate with the cartridges. But, that approach requires something to "unlock" the config system and lock it again. Any alternative ideas? Is there any prior work in this area I should re-use? -- Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X) brain at jbrain.com Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Home: http://www.jbrain.com

17 years, 5 months

Omnibus core memory compatibility?

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, I have the following stuff: G104 X/Y drivers G227 Sense/Inhibit G619A 4K core stack The 4K stack is broken and lost forever. But I have a spare G646C "4K or 8" Stack sitting around. I *think* it has 8K. Does anyone know if I could use that stack with the rest of the package, using only 4K of the memory? Does anyone have schematics for the 8K core system? In my documentation I have only information about the 4K system. On Doug Jones' module list, there are mentioned 4K and 8K sense/inhibit boards. And there are mentioned X/Y driver boards, without 4K or 8K written on them. I would like to know how DEC expanded the core. Doubling X or Y lines would be the easiest. But why should that result in different sense/inhibit circuitry? The sense/inhibit connections look quite similar on both of my stacks... Or does everything change? Thanks for clarification :-) And if someone has a spare 4K stack, please contact me! The same for 8K sense/inhibit and X/Y drivers. Best wishes, Philipp :-)

17 years, 5 months

Micros I

by nico＠farumdata.dk

Hello all While doing a "minor" clean-up, I found "A guide to the construction and use of the Micros I", first revision, juni 1978. The company was located in Twickenham, Middlesex It contains full diagrams, BIOS listning, parts list, character generator details, etc. Anyone interested, or should I bin it ? Nico

17 years, 5 months

The drift of a knowledge-based societ to a gadget-value-based society.

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I think the clever society is getting burned down as we know it Clever is now content, not the tool. Computers and other electronic devices, and the communications infrastructure are a given. The invention now is what can be done with this hardware, which is now generally too complicated to build yourself, and as a result has just moved up a level. Even software tools are now pretty much taken for granted. You just program to fill in holes in the already existing tool space. This shift pretty much defines what I see coming out of people fresh out of college now, and most things dot-com and forward.

17 years, 5 months

Reading an MFM hard drive with a floppy disc analyser

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Aside: I'm not sure if it's beneficial having a number of buffers and > reading/writing multiple head data in parallel? This came up in one of the threads about the topic of either simulating Massbus or HP 790x disk, I think. The problem was the controller timed out if the head-head switching time wasn't fast enough.

17 years, 5 months

#classiccmp irc

by halarewich＠gmail.com

Hey what is the cc irc address

17 years, 5 months

Problems with VAX 11/750 console

by fireflyst＠earthlink.net

Hi all, I'm trying again to get my 11/750 running. It turns on, power lights are green, machine comes up halted with the dim error light as it should. THe problem I am having is, I get no console...I get an echo back of the characters I type, but nothing else. Doing a BREAK command or a Ctrl-P does nothing. The closest thing I can find to this problem is in the 11/50 FAQ, found here: http://www.vaxarchive.org/hw/750faq.html Here is what the FAQ states: "Help! My machine isn't listening to the console! Symptoms: machine starts up normally and prints the successful microverify double percent and the console prompt, but ignores console input. This may be because the RS232 line receiver on the console port has given up the ghost. I've had to replace the one on mine twice. Note that it isn't a good idea to leave the console terminal switched on if the machine is switched off -- the line receiver chip doesn't like this and tends to fail eventually. To replace the line receiver: a) Locate and remove the L0004 UBI module. b) Hold the UBI component-side up with the edge connectors down the RHS. c) Locate E53, a 1489, at the right-hand side of the board, near the top of the second edge connector. This is the only 1489 on the board. d) Replace E53. I strongly recommend using a socket for the replacement. " Now, this does not sound similar to my problem. I have indeed verified that all the jumpers on the backplane are in the right place, and so are the connectors. The jumper is set to 300 baud, and that is indeed the only setting I get a clean echo back without garbage on. Any suggestions? I'm out of ideas at this point. Julian

17 years, 5 months

Cat manuals

by dwight＠svdc-imap00.amd.com

Hi Al I forgot to mention that the Technical manual seems to be missing page 93. This is the same as I have. It might be interesting to make a trip to the Stanford library and see if they have this page in their copy. I'm not sure when I'd be able to do that. Looking at the manual, there doesn't seem to be any context missing but a single page section could have been missed. For non-students and non-graduates, one is limited to 3 sessions a year at the special collections section of the library. One still has to reserve the document a few days in advance. If you are interested in researching other documents from Jef's collection or anything else in there vast collection, I can point you to their information. I wonder if the CHM might already have some special arrangement with the Standford library on shared information for research purposes. Jeff left quite a bit of stuff related to early Apple days. Dwight

17 years, 5 months

WTD: MPF-I/88 documentation

by stephen.johns＠hp.com

Do you have a scanner yet? I could use copies of the schems and code ;-)

17 years, 5 months

Making an RT-11 TU58 Image

by oldcpu2＠rogerwilco.org

On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:26:40 -0500, "Curt @ Atari Museum" said: > I've got a large box of TU-58's with boot up and diags > for a Vax 11/750, any out there want to make archives > of them or has that already been done? Definitely want to help!!! I'm always looking out for this kind of thing. My 11/750[1] came with a handful of TU58 carts and I've still got the TU58 drive fixture that I cobbled up to my PDP-11 to make images. I'd be more than happy to image what you have. I've located a few (maybe 10 or so) 11/750 diag cart images in the past, but I'm still looking for that "full set" of standard 11/750 diag tapes. If you have them (or, even if not) I'm game for imaging what you've got. I'm in Utah, so there's probably some shipping involved, but I'd probably be able to cover charges both ways to help with getting these imaged. How big is that "large box" you've got? ;-) - Jared [1] After a year I'm still struggling with bringing my 11/750's 5V power supply back to life. Tony A., look for me to come begging some help, probably after the holidays.

17 years, 5 months

Hard disk material

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> I have no idea about the material, but I can tell you about one application method you may not have considered. I have mentioned it here before but maybe you have joined the list recently. Similar drums were made by ICT/ICL from 1962 to 1965 for the 1300 series, and probably for the 1200 series drum based computers in the 50s. They too had fixed heads with set screw adjustment, which was carried out by monitoring the pressure of compressed air blown through a venturi in each head while moving an Allen screw. The 1300 drums were 12000 48bit word capacity, driven by a 3/4 horsepower motor geared up to 5240rpm at the drum spindle for lower access times. After many experiments they found they could not beat the human hand applying a magnetisable compound like a potter making a pot. Sounds very low tech but apparently it works, and I have drums which have not been touched since manufacture and they still work 46 years on. Of course for you, low tech could be a bonus as it means low cost. Maybe your local educational establishment has a skilled potter who could do a great job for a reasonable price, or just for interest. > The drum is quite low density, and does not have air bearing heads. > The head heights are actually adjustable with a bunch of set screws. > The heads themselves are also pretty big. This is a late 1950s drum, > not a 1970s era hard disk - there is a world of difference. I would > bet the heads ride a few thousands above the surface. > > The whole assembly is in a very rigid cast chassis, driven by a > relatively low-frills AC motor, apparently. > > My thinking is that the drum could be recoated (this is assuming it is > indeed shot), and using the rigid cast chassis, ground down to a > smooth surface with a custom made tool. This is much like a "poor mans > wheel lathe" used on railroad wheels. As long as the bearings are > still pretty tight, there should be very little wobble between the > drum and chassis. With each head being adjustable for height, much > inaccuracy across the drum becomes fairly unimportant. Inaccuracy > around the drum is more of an issue, but I suspect it will not be too > bad if the correct tool material and magnetic coating is used, and the > drum ground down gently. I will ask my real machinist friends about > the tooling, as I doubt I (or any of us) could make it.

17 years, 5 months

Sony MP-F52W-00D needed

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

what is this unit for? If that *someone* isn't interested in all 10, I could be, given someone tells me what it's for. I'm getting my hands on some SONY equipment and I'm a little nervous you see! --- On Wed, 12/3/08, Kathy Galvin <kathy.galvin at advantageic.com> wrote: > From: Kathy Galvin <kathy.galvin at advantageic.com> > Subject: Sony MP-F52W-00D needed > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 2:32 PM > Hello > > Did you find the drive you were looking for > > SONY MP-F52W-00D I have qty 10 of them. > > Make me a offer on all 10 > > > > Email: Kathy at advantageic.com > > Phone: 978-568-0899 ask for Kathy

17 years, 5 months

AT&T 7300/3B1's (was: Re: Who is vintagecomputermuseum?)

by micheladam＠theedge.ca

Does anyone know of a 'bridge' converter that would allow a scsi disk to interface to an MFM controller? Michel Adam ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 8:38 am Subject: Re: AT&T 7300/3B1's (was: Re: Who is vintagecomputermuseum?) > On Aug 18, 2008, at 10:26 AM, Mark Tapley wrote: > > I'll hunt for mice. I don't think I kept a spare, but if I did, > > I'll let you know. > > [old message referring to 3B1 mice, I couldn't find mine] > > I found my 3B1 mice. I hope to get the machine running soon, > but > I seem to have a shortage of functional MFM drives. Ugh. > > -Dave > > -- > Dave McGuire > Port Charlotte, FL > > >

17 years, 5 months

Australian ex-DEC Director has large museum in his home

by legalize＠xmission.com

Slideshow: <http://tinyurl.com/6f7kte> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

17 years, 5 months

one more qume dt8 related question

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

The Qume DT8 I have has only the HL line cut on the programmable shunt block at 1E. This doesn't match any configuration shown in the usage or service manual. Also, it has the SS trace (between U3E and U3D) cut. This trace is not explained anywhere in the user or service manual except that it is shown to exist. The schematic at the end of the latest rev manual at bitsavers shows that it has something to do with whether head 0 or head 1 is selected (or perhaps loaded) in regards to the READY and INDEX signals on the shugart interface. Does anyone know exactly what it is supposed to do? I got lost in all the logic. Thanks, -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(@t)hotmail(d0t)com jzg22(@t)drexel(d0t)edu

17 years, 5 months

VAXdoors

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

RCS picked up the ex-Sikorski VAX-11/785 today, and much to our delight, the cabinet does indeed still have wheels. It, however, does not have doors. By any chance, do any people out there have a set of doors (front and back) for the larger DEC corporate cabinet? Closer to New England would be a plus. Thanks! -- Will

17 years, 5 months

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