test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

> And what's special about that? Historically a "computer" is a person who > does computations (what else?), this job description may well originate > from the 19th century. Yes, it does. I believe it was in use in Babbage's time. France did a really big project to compute sets of tables, and they had a big workforce of computers to draw on. It seems that a lot of hairdressers were idle because the powdered wigs had fallen out of favor. BLS

18 years, 1 month

Oldest operational computer

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:58:20 -0600 > From: Jules Richardson > Interesting - I need to properly digest that (and see if I can get at the > diagrams anywhere; maybe that's a pay service). Interesting that it was > from the Long Now lot, too. It's all online at http://www.uspto.gov Don't fall for those services offering to sell you copy. It's all there on the gummint site. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 1 month

EPROM programmer

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:57:08 -0500 From: "Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at verizon.net> Subject: Re: EPROM programmer On Friday 15 February 2008 01:46, Ethan Dicks wrote: > On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 01:11:23AM -0500, Roy J. Tellason wrote: > > I have the 8052-BASIC based one that Steve Ciarcia had in an article in > > Byte, and that uses a serial connection. Only at 1200 baud, though, > > for some reason. > > 4K doesn't take _that_ long to push over 1200 bps... No, it doesn't. It's just a minor annoyance, which is probably why I only gripe about it every now and then nad hvaen't really gotten around to doing anything about it... :-) ----------------- The manual has pretty clear instructions for changing the baud rate, up to 19.2 (pp. 8&9); you'll need 2x27128 unless you have a second programmer. ======== > > Replacing a CBM Kernal ROM is going to need an adapter, as the eprom has > > more pins. Are you into making those or do you know of a source for > > them? > > Depending on which model of CBM you have, there's a no-adapter solution: > for PETs that take 2332 ROMs (i.e., *not* the old Static PETs), the 2532 > is a drop-in EPROM. Not the 2732... the 2532. I have a few of them, some > from the old days (with PET firmware on them) and a few blanks that I've > picked up over the years when I was already ordering from some place like > B.G. Micro. > > I had a $C000 BASIC ROM die in my first PET (the one I got new, when I was > a kid)... there's now a 2532 in its place. Hmm. I wasn't thinking PET as much as C64, when I wrote that. The ROMs in that one were all 24-pin parts, a 4K character rom and the BASIC and Kernal being 8K, which would need a 2764. -------------- See MCM68764 & MCM68766 (24 pin 8Kx8) mike

18 years, 1 month

Vector Graphics / Vector 4 on e-bay.

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

For those interested in S-100 stuff, I stumbled across this on e-bay - 270210911327 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270210911327 As info. . . . ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AIM(R) Mail ! - http://webmail.aim.com

18 years, 1 month

Yamaha MSX CX5M Mouse

by jzg22＠drexel.edu

Afaik the MSX ports, while also DE9, are NOT compatible with the standard atari/commodore/sega joystick ports. A few pins were moved around. Blame Microsoft. (from http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/JoystickMsx_pinout.shtml) Pin MSX Atari/Commodore/etc 1 /FORWARD /FORWARD or mouse XA* 2 /BACK /BACK or mouse XB* 3 /LEFT /LEFT or mouse YB* 4 /RIGHT /RIGHT or mouse YA* 5 +5V POT Y 6 /BTN1 or OUT1 /BTN1 or Light Pen 7 /BTN2 or OUT2 +5V 8 OUT3 GND 9 GND /BTN2 or POT X * the encoding of these 4 bits for mice-trackball varied between manufacturer and sometimes even between products (see CX-44 vs CX-80 trackballs by atari) -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(@t)hotmail(d0t)com jzg22(@t)drexel(d0t)edu

18 years, 1 month

Vintage Computer Marketplace. . .

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

Actually, I was only aware of http://www.vintagecomputermarketplace.com . . . Never heard of the shortened version. . . . ;-) ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AIM(R) Mail ! - http://webmail.aim.com

18 years, 1 month

doppleganger.org, c4expo2007

by fu3.org＠gmail.com

Just in case this hasn't been through the circulation, or this isn't someone already on the list: http://www.doppleganger.org/c4expo2007.html (Nice pictures. Too modern, perhaps.) -- < http://whorehou.se/ >

18 years, 1 month

Vintage Computer Marketplace. . .

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

The domain registration expired on February 5th, and hasn't been (posted as) renewed as of yet. At least that's what the nice little page says when you try to go there. ;-) Just thought I'd mention it, since I hadn't heard any updates in a while. At least now we know. . . T ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AIM(R) Mail ! - http://webmail.aim.com

18 years, 1 month

Vintage Computer Marketplace. . .

by marvin＠west.net

I told Sellam that bringing it up sooner rather than later would be good, especially with the new uproar at ebay about both outrageous fee increases for most sellers, and the new feedback perversion as dictated by ebay. A number of sellers (and buyer/sellers) are looking for other venues (again) and this would be a *VERY* appropriate time to be up, running, and advertising!!! > From: Lyle Bickley <lbickley at bickleywest.com> > On Wednesday 13 February 2008 22:45, tiggerlasv at aim.com wrote: > > It looks like the domain name registration for VCM hasn't been > > renewed. > > There's no problem with the domain registration. As Sellam mentioned > a while back on this list, he's in the process of completely redoing > the Vintage Computer Marketplace site. > > > Is it coming back? > > In about a month...

18 years, 1 month

PIC history

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Do you have a cite that states that the PIC1640 is a direct > descendent of the SMS 300? That seems highly unlikely. The PIC was being worked on at GI on Long Island when I was doing a project for GI in the late 70's on a CP-1600 system. The designers were Scottish. I tried to convince them to make the architecture more like the 1600's (ie. PDP-11 like) because I thought the 11 was a better architecture than what they were coming up with.

18 years, 1 month

Vintage Computer Marketplace. . .

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

It looks like the domain name registration for VCM hasn't been renewed. Is it coming back? ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AIM(R) Mail ! - http://webmail.aim.com

18 years, 1 month

IBM 6094 Lighted Programmable Function Keypad - bulk buy on eBay

by us21090＠yahoo.com

I'd be interested in a couple and could probably swing the purchase of the lot. Now of course, it all depends on: How high the auction price goes. How much the interested cctalkers are willing to pay for their X number of units. There's a some discussion needed, so we ought to take this off list, right? Scott Austin us21090 at yahoo.com ----- Original Message ---- From: "listmailgoeshere at gmail.com" <listmailgoeshere at gmail.com> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 1:00:35 PM Subject: IBM 6094 Lighted Programmable Function Keypad - bulk buy on eBay Hi cctalkers, The 6094 LPFK has been discussed on this list before (see thread "IBM 6094-020 Lighted Program Function Keys"). I notice that there's a bulk lot of 19 of them on ePay (see 180215874744) - now, I don't want 19, but I'd like one. I'm sure there are others on this list who would as well. Who else is game? This seller will only ship to the US, so someone within the US (I'm not) would need to receive them and reship - I'll happily pay a few $ on top of the onward postage for the trouble. Any volunteers? Ed. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

18 years, 1 month

HP1000/A600 Help and docs and sw needed!

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, I have a HP1000/A600 machine sitting here at my place. And no clue where to start using it. I have the following stuff: - A600CPU, containing: * 2 serial interfaces (12005/...10) * 1 sandwich "32 channel MUX/12 bit ADC" * parallel port * HPIB interface * some other serial MUXes - 7908 HPIB Tape cartridge/Disk combination - 9133 HPIB 3,5" Floppy (with disk inside as well??) - 3292A serial Terminal (newer) - 2648A serial Terminal (older) - 12966-60008 serial cable for the terminal (is that right?) - 7978 HPIB 9-Track 1/2" tape drive - 7958B HPIB disk drive - HP6000 670H HPIB disk drive - A LOT of software manuals but no hardware manual. I have already found the only document at hp.com that told me something about select codes, switch settings etc. But nothing about cable pinouts etc. I tried my 2648 terminal with the cable, without success. Perhaps my terminal is broken or - what I think - the cable pinout is incompatible to the "new" A600. What should I do with all that stuff? I will have to decide what to do with my HP stuff, because I need to reassign my collection's priorities with respect to the LAB 8/e that will drop in next week. If I don't have any fun with the stuff, it will go to eBay/scrapyard (the latter is where I got most of it). Who knows how to make a serial cable? Who has software for me? Who knows how to get software from my PC/Sparc (short: modern world) into the HP gear? Who has docs? Bitsavers seems to have nothing about the A series. I powered up the CPU. Depending on the switch settings, the diagnostic LEDs say "bootloader running" or "VCP running". So the system should be in a somewhat usable state. Further when I remove the first serial card (which is in nearly factory settings, including VCP break enabled), the diagnostic LEDs tell me about some error. So I hope that the system already talks to the right port. I also powered up the 7906 tape/disk cobination. It makes some funny sounds and after a while, it shows me a "P" on its little LED display in the back. Some HP manual told me that this is a good sign, "P" for "passed". Also I have been told that there is an installed RTE on the disk. But I have no GPIB cable yet. And the GPIB connector looks rather different than on my HP1000/E (for which I have a cable). Thank you for every kind of information, I am excitedly looking forward for replies. Best wishes from Alfeld/Germany, Philipp :-) P.S.: I also have two HP1000/E machines and a lot of cards sitting around here. Perhaps I could hook the disks up to them? I never did anything useful with them - except hooking up a terminal and entering 4-word test programs via front panel (which worked). Any other ideas what to do with these machines?

18 years, 1 month

Oldest operational computer

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:56:25 -0500 My vote, considering old technology would be for mechanical (and possibly pneumatic). Mechanical read-write memories have existed for a long time (think about the adjustable combination action on a pipe organ). Read-only memories are possibly even older (Jacquard looms, player pianos, music boxes). Mechanisms for performing addition and subtraction are also very old. By 1850, fine precision machining had progressed pretty far along. But Will's right--in 1906, electronics was very primitive, particularly in terms of controlling device characteristics. Remember that spark-gap transmitters overlapped the discovery of thermionic electronic devices by quite a few years, mostly due to--I suspect--power-handling capabilities and general reliability. Incidentally, I ran across a 2001 US patent for a mechanical bit- serial adder (6249485). Very clever. But could one have a computer that could execute conditional branches and modify its own program? Yes, I think so--consider program storage arranged as pins set in concentric circles on the surface of a rotating disc. One could certainly devise a method of skipping instructions until a certain pin had been encountered. Similarly, if a register could be implemented to hold a single instruction word, instructions could be implemented to store into it and execute it. For what little it's worth. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 2 months

Digitalker, SP0256, and SC-01 speech chips (was Re: Digitalker Information)

by dm561＠torfree.net

--------Original Message: Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 07:53:22 +0000 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at usap.gov> Subject: Re: Digitalker, SP0256, and SC-01 speech chips (was Re: Digitalker Information) On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 01:33:42AM -0500, Roy J. Tellason wrote: > On Sunday 03 February 2008 16:54, Scanning wrote: > > Pete, > > > > The SP0256 had the best sounding speech I think ( it uses twice as many > > speech sounds ( 128 allophones ? ) as the SC-01 only had 64 phonemes )). 59 Allophones plus 6 pauses, according to the datasheet. <snip> -ethan ---------Reply: I built a speech synthesizer for my PETs many years ago using the SP2056; nothing to it. I also used a Votrax PSS to announce users logging in to a Cromemco "BBS" and today still have a PC with an SP0256 announcing Caller ID info on incoming calls; not really that much difference in the sound. Keep in mind that the SP0256 is only an allophone generator; although there were expansion ROMs available, for text-to-speech you needed something like the CTS256-AL2, which was a PIC (yes, GI made PICs in the '70s!) programmed as an ASCII > allophone processor (unless you were only speaking pre-programmed sequences which you could hard-code in your program). mike

18 years, 2 months

Oldest operational computer

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:58:35 -0500 From: "William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Oldest operational computer >I am sitting here, reading this thread, and am astounded by what >people think tubes could do back in 1906. It would have been >*impossible* to make any sort of computing device using the technology >of the time. You would have better luck porting OS/2 to a 709. --- Are you sure it hasn't been done? After all, apparently OS/2 was ported to some other unlikely platforms...;-) m

18 years, 2 months

Oldest operational computer was Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 54,

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

From: bpope at wordstock.com (Bryan Pope) > > So if one or more of its lights are burnt out, is it no longer operational? > <ducks, runs and hides under the nearest flameproof and > thermonuclearproof boulder> Well, now that you mention it... It's probably been several years since I bored everyone with this story. Way back when I was in college a large electronics company donated an old hybrid computer. I was the only person on campus who had much interest in it, so I started working to get it up and running. I started with the analog computer, and things seemed to go pretty well. But there was one problem. It would never switch from initial condition mode to operate mode. So I'm sitting there pouring over the schematics trying to figure out what could be wrong, when it hit me, and I sat there saying, "no, they didn't." I had realized that one of the indicator lamps had burned out, but I figured that'd be something I'd worry about once it was up and running. But they used the voltage drop across the bulb as a pull-up. So the computer literally did not operate because of a burned out light bulb. When I replaced the bulb, it worked just fine. BLS

18 years, 2 months

MSX Joystick

by sbolton＠bfree.on.ca

I see the pinouts online but haven't checked to > see if it's compatible with a standard Atari type joystick. >Sure it is! > Interesting how MSX devices are unknown here...They are so popular in >Brazil! That's just how it goes! OK second part of my question then: what about the mouse? What other more easily obtainable mouse would work on the MSX machine? Commodore made mice with 9-pin connectors for the C64 but I doubt it would work or the Amiga one .... and of course, the "serial" mouse from a PC I would expect won't work as well. Or....I guess more easily does anyone out there have an MSX compatible mouse they'd like to sell me for the museum? Thanks No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.4/1277 - Release Date: 2/13/2008 8:00 PM

18 years, 2 months

Heath ET-3400 Trainer Simulator SW

by James＠jdfogg.com

> Dave, > > He's probably a starving student like we were at one time and doesn't have > a > lot of disposable cash. And beer is expensive. > > I sent him the "free" simulator. An ET-3400A un-built kit just sold for > $355 > on Ebay ! The " A" has 1024 bytes of RAM vs 256. > > I think your price is off by about a factor of 10 based on what I've seen. > If you find one that cheap ( $10 - $20 ) I'll buy it ! > > Best regards, Steven > I believe the premium for this particular deal was its un-built state. The ET-3400 is common and inexpensive. I think I'll go buy one myself, since I have a fondness for them since my freshman college course used one. I find any un-built Heathkit has significantly more value.

18 years, 2 months

Oldest operational computer was Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 54, Issue 23

by evan＠snarc.net

Assuming Charles meant a "real" computer -- not a human or slide rule -- then I bet the answer is some kind of analog computer. -----Original Message----- From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subj: Re: Oldest operational computer was Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 54, Issue 23 Date: Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:31 pm Size: 173 bytes To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> On Wed, 13 Feb 2008, Charles H Dickman wrote: > So what is the oldest computer still operational? Meaningless question, until you DEFINE: "Oldest" "computer" "operational"

18 years, 2 months

PC-magazine and Byte still need to go

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I've contacted someone (you know who you are) with contact information to pick up this collection of PC-magazine and Byte in Pasadena. I just got an email from the owner's widow that this someone has not yet phoned her. They need to be gone by the 16th or else they get recycled. I'm sorry to have to do it this way, but I need someone on this list who lives in the Los Angeles area who wants the mags to contact me ASAP so we can get these magazines picked up. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu 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?

18 years, 2 months

Heath ET-3400 Trainer Simulator SW

by ddb77＠iinet.net.au

Steven I have recently started to study microprocessor fundamentals and have been trying to find this simulator. Would it be possible for you to send me a copy of it if you still have it. Kind Regards Daniel Baldacchino

18 years, 2 months

Oldest operational computer was Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 54, Issue

by blstuart＠bellsouth.net

> Not completely on topic, but my boss wishes to build a computer using > modern knowledge, but only materials, IO etc that existed as at 1st Jan > 1900. The basic premise is that had a need existed, and they knew how > to make one, could have it been done. Well, if 1900 isn't on topic, I don't know what is :-) >... > This is to be a real computer, stored program, RAM, ALU etc. Ian has > already built 2 of those by hand, one with TTL and one with 4000A CMOS, > so has some idea of how to do it (personally I'd just get a micro), but > he has the determination and the resources complete this. I'll keep > the list posted if there is any interest. I'll bet there are several of us that are interested. But beyond that, I think you win the award for the coolest job. Now, if I could only figure out how to get FedEx to want to do something like that... BLS

18 years, 2 months

Varisystems, Compugraphic

by gavon.balharry＠idi-middleware.com

Hi Bill, I am Gavon Balharry. I was at a customer site in Switzerland, where we took delivery of a Varisystems 16K system in 1974. In May 1976 we bought two 32K Varicomposers. I dumped out the program and decoded it (P16 assembler language) - managed to fix various problems it had and extended the system with some new functionality. Bob Shevlin, who had created it, and was the only one really able to program it hired me in September 1996. I worked for 13 months full time for him at Shefra Graphics out of Slough in the UK. I travelled all over Europe, and even to NZ, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Hawaii - customizing systems wherever I went. I returned to work with Bobst Graphics in USA starting 4th July 1979. There I wrote the Arabic/English or French version. I was one of three who remained with Bobst Graphics when they closed the American plant at the end of February 1981. I stayed on with Bobst Graphics at Mex, near Lausanne in Switzerland. Before long we were taken over by Autologic from California. I lasted till May 1984, having written front-end systems for typesetting most of the languages of India - using the 1200 system, programming in Z80. I guess I know about as much as anyone could (after Bob Shevlin) about the system, its programs, and all. I even have quite a library of program listings. Just that it has been a while ago. Please contact me, and I can fill you in with whatever details you may need. Best regards, Gavon Balharry Managing director Information Design Ltd Liab Co (registered in Switzerland)

18 years, 2 months

Yamaha CX5 stash on eBay

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

you won't have any competition from me at least :( http://cgi.ebay.com/Yamaha-MSX-CX5M-FD-05-Drives-Discs-in-Original-Box_W0QQ… ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

18 years, 2 months

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