test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

"Rawn's Buy & Sell Network" in Burnaby BC (Canada), says he has a warehouse fill of old computers to hopefully sell as a lot. Consists of mostly 80s and 90s systems, like Apple, Macs, IBMs, Next, Commodore, Atari, Tandy, Hyperion, etc. as well as tons of software. Here are some pics he sent me: http://members.cox.net/oldcomputerads/oldpics/old.html Do not contact me, please contact: rawnsbuysell at lightspeed.ca Enjoy! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121

18 years, 4 months

Homebrew Drum Computer

by bnansel＠bigpond.net.au

I'm looking at what it would take to make a barebones "museum piece" bit-serial computer along the lines of an LGP-30 or maybe a Bendix G-15. I don't want to do the whole vacuum-tube-computing trip, so I'm limiting my madness to discrete bipolar transistors, specifically the 2n2222. To keep it interesting, I want to use only components available to mortals in 1963. And the keep the project within budget (i.e. none to speak of), I'm further limiting the number of transistors semi-arbitrarily to 256. Of course there will be a pile of si diodes, resistors and capacitors involved, but the idea is to keep the number of active components down -- if only so this beast will fit in the boot of my car! I've scavenged the web for information on bit-serial magnetic drum machines of the Elder Years, and I think I have a pretty good notion of how they worked (mostly very slowly). What I haven't been able to get a handle on is how to make a serviceable magnetic drum. I reckon I can do some simple prototyping with some CMOS 64-bit shift registers so I don't have to debug both the logic and the magnetic read/write electronics, but beyond that I have only a hazy idea how to proceed. Certainly I could trash a few old cassette decks, or even get some floppy R/W heads to experiment with audio recording tape super-glued to a soda can, but I really want to get at least the performance the old machines could produce, so that means a reasonably fast drum RPM, somewhere around 6000 RPM, say. Any ideas?

18 years, 4 months

need info on old eprom programmer

by dc.hunt＠worldnet.att.net

We have one that does not work as well as the original manuals. We cannot get ours to work as we do not have the breakout cards for troublreshooting thi unit.Contact us if we can possible help you.

18 years, 4 months

Homebrew Drum Computer (magnetic heads)

by cclist＠sydex.com

> Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:31:49 +1030 > From: Robert Nansel <bnansel at bigpond.net.au> > I think I might have a whack at making R/W heads using small ferrite > cores/beads, the kind used in radio work. ...lots of detail... > So, aside from the mumbles, does this sound like a workable plan? I'd think that you'd want the head characteristics to be a very close match if you intend to employ more than one head per track--and I can't see how you'd get the head gaps remotely close in characteristics with one another. On the local Freecycle, I see VHS recorders hitting the landfill with incredible regularity. Why not simply scavenge the heads from a few of these? Certainly, the frequency response should be good enough. As far as the disk goes, that should work. It seems to me that some of the Shugard SA-4000 models even had a track or two of fixed heads as an option. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 4 months

Shift Registers as Delay Lines (was Delay lines in TV sets)

by dm561＠torfree.net

Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:03:34 +0000 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at usap.gov> Subject: Re: Shift Registers as Delay Lines (was Delay lines in TV sets) On Mon, Dec 17, 2007 at 06:52:59PM -0500, Allison wrote: >> MOS shift registers of lengths greater than a few bits are very late >> 60s (after 67 or so). By early 70s parts 1024 long ere not uncommon. >I think I have a couple of old SAD1024 MOS shift registers from when I >was collecting deeply discounted items from the local Radio Shack >"Manager's Table" as a kid. >I had thought one day to make the audio echo/delay circuit I think I >saw in an old Forrest Mims circuit book, but a solid-state acoustic >delay line emulator sounds like a much cooler place to put them. >-ethan ___________ Sounds like our shopping habits were the same in those golden days at the 'shack ;-); I've still got a couple waiting for me to get a round tuit (the data sheet also has the bucket brigade audio delay schematic). As a digital delay line I guess you could even use it word-wise since it's analog; you'd need some pretty fast DAC/ADCs though. mike

18 years, 4 months

green-bar paper

by shumaker＠att.net

Wasn't someone on the list looking for wide format green-bar paper a while back? PublicSurplus.com has several boxes listed. Items 228477, 228478, 228480 s shumaker

18 years, 4 months

PDP Collectors Group on LinkedIn

by root＠parse.com

If you're a linkedin user, there's a PDP Minicomputer Collectors Group that I created last week. You're all invited to join. Details can be found at: www.parse.com/~museum/linkedin.html (While the PDP-10 isn't a "minicomputer", we'll let PDP-10 people join anyway :-)) Cheers, -RK -- Robert Krten, PARSE Software Devices, http://www.parse.com/resume.html Wanted: DEC minis: http://www.parse.com/~museum/admin/wanted.html

18 years, 4 months

CrayLink connections between Origin 2000s

by jvdg＠sparcpark.net

> Sounds like an ordinary (for SGI types of ordinary) Onyx2. That has the > framebuffer hardware in the upper module, and CPUs in the lower; one > framebuffer module per machine, but up to 7 (IIRC) CPU modules in > multi-rack configurations. Seven CPU modules is unpossible. The (hyper)cube topology nust be maintained, so you can only expand a machine by doubling the number of modules connected together. Powers of two. ,xtG tsooJ

18 years, 4 months

IBM 8-inch diskette

by c.heidelmeyer＠excite.com

I have three old 8-inch diskettes with graphic files on them from an old MRI machine, probably a Siemens Magnetom 1 using a VAX computer. I would like to compare the old pictures with modern MRI or CT scans or X-rays taken of the same person. Would someone in the UK be able to read them and store the files on a modern diskette or CD? I can read 5 1/4, 3 1/2 or CD. Kind regards Carl Heidelmeyer Consultant Anaesthetist Portishead UK

18 years, 4 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 52, Issue 36

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

On Dec 17, 2007, at 10:42 PM, Dave wrote: > > Hmm, the only difference I was aware of was the I/O > module...keyboard/mouse interface or not. > > -Dave For Onyx2 Deskside, the midplane is indeed different (has an XIO connection to the graphics side, and a graphics side). Onyx2 rack uses standard Origin2000 compute modules with the Xtown external XIO interface linking the compute modules to the graphics module(s), which in the case of a rack support 2 pipelines. Deskside Onyx2 also comes with only null routers, so 4 procs is the max. Some people have tried putting in full routers, but I don't recall having heard any success. I don't think O2000 has this issue (except for one model of IP31 (one of the 250MHz boards, I think) that has a hard limit in the PROM about how many other nodes it will work with before becoming sulky. Marketing department at work.

18 years, 4 months

Shift Registers as Delay Lines (was Delay lines in TV sets)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Shift Registers as Delay Lines (was Delay lines in TV sets) > From: "Rick Bensene" <rickb at bensene.com> > Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:06:38 -0800 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Tom Watson wrote: >> If you decide to make up a delay line to hold CPU data, try a >> prototype using shift registers. They are a bit easier to >> make up, and often the chips are available. The problem is >> that they come in weird (at times) sizes (132, 80, and the >> like). I'll leave it to the reader to determine the >> usability of odd sizes and their original use. >> Msot of those are later designs and tended to be for line printer, CRT and other displey and printing systems. Common sizes for that were line printer 132, CRT 80 and 72 (tty was 72!) and the true oddball lengths were the 1024, 224, 192 and 56. MOS shift registers of lengths greater than a few bits are very late 60s (after 67 or so). By early 70s parts 1024 long ere not uncommon. What makes them interesting is you can use them word or digit parallel and very deep by cascading them serially. For lesser registers older 4 and 8bit TTL devices in parallel can be very effecive in providing a digit wide by 8 digits deep register in a small space. This is truely getting into late 60s early 70s serial compurer design right on the cusp of the days of the last serial drums or disks for local store and the drums would then be for the larger program store. Allison >A lot of early MOS shift registers were developed specifically for use >in electronic calculators, as solid-state replacements for magnetic core >memory or magnetostrictive delay lines. Since most all electronic >calculators in the mid-'60's through the late 70's operated in BCD or >some alternate four (or sometimes five)-bit representation of decimal >digits, the shift registers were usually made with a number of stages >that was a multiple of four or five, with a few extra bits here and >there for timing and synchronization. That's why many of these devices >as an unusual number of stages. In some calculators from the late >'60's, as IC logic had pretty much replaced discrete transistor designs, >there were different versions of the same machine, earlier machines >which used a magnetostrictive delay line, and "updated" versions which >dispensed with the delay line, and replaced it with a number of MOS IC >shift register devices. Functionally, the machines were identical. As >far as the digital logic section of the machine went, also identical. >The only real changes were the removal of the read amplifier and write >driver for the delay line, and replacement with some simple >level-shifting and power supply circuitry to properly drive the shift >register chain. > >Rick Bensene >The Old Calculator Museum >http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

18 years, 4 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 52, Issue 34

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

On Dec 16, 2007, at 11:19 PM, Richard wrote: > OK, we talked earlier about how high this architecture could go and > there was some mention of 256 and 512 processor systems. However, I > just stumbled across a press release at LANL describing their > installation of a massive 6144 processor system consisting of 48 sets > of 128 nodes all arranged as a giant supercomputer: > Above 128 processors you need a special "Cray" router. Above either 512 or 1024 you'll probably need custom SGI setup, possibly a custom IRIX. At any rate, 32 or 64 processors are pretty fast (remember as you scale it's harder and harder to get parallel code to run across all processors), and don't forget to factor in electricity and cooling. Most hobbyists only run one or two racks.

18 years, 4 months

cctech Digest, Vol 52, Issue 29

by Bob.Adamson＠sli-institute.ac.uk

The first LSI tester I ever worked on (manufactured by, I think, LSI Testing Inc of Utah) used triple-66 bit MOS shift registers to store the digital stimuli and compare patterns (3x64-bit registers plus 2 bits used as control). Around 1970 or so at Hughes Microelectronics. Since we manufactured MOS ICs (PMOS at the time) and the shift registers became obsolete after a few years we designed our own as spares. The tester itself used a PDP-8/L as the controller and was soon after replaced by a bigger one which used a PDP8/I - my first contact with SEC PDP8 computers. regards Bob Adamson > From: "Rick Bensene" <rickb at bensene.com> > > A lot of early MOS shift registers were developed specifically for use > in electronic calculators, as solid-state replacements for magnetic core > memory or magnetostrictive delay lines. Since most all electronic > calculators in the mid-'60's through the late 70's operated in BCD or > some alternate four (or sometimes five)-bit representation of decimal > digits, the shift registers were usually made with a number of stages > that was a multiple of four or five, with a few extra bits here and > there for timing and synchronization. That's why many of these devices > as an unusual number of stages. In some calculators from the late > '60's, as IC logic had pretty much replaced discrete transistor designs, > there were different versions of the same machine, earlier machines > which used a magnetostrictive delay line, and "updated" versions which > dispensed with the delay line, and replaced it with a number of MOS IC > shift register devices. Functionally, the machines were identical. As > far as the digital logic section of the machine went, also identical. > The only real changes were the removal of the read amplifier and write > driver for the delay line, and replacement with some simple > level-shifting and power supply circuitry to properly drive the shift > register chain. > > Rick Bensene > The Old Calculator Museum > http://oldcalculatormuseum.com >

18 years, 4 months

Save Computer books from the years 1970-1990

by janprunk＠gmail.com

Hello ! Save some old computer books, before they go for paper recycling. I still have most of the collection available. The books vary from the years 1970-1990 The collection contains books about: LISP, Data management, Artificial Intelligence, Automatic data processing, Computer programming etc. >From publishers like: McGraw Hill, M&T Books, Wiley Press, Microsoft They are all in English language and in good condition. You can get them for FREE, only pay for post delivery. The books are shipped >from Slovenia, Europe. The link to the list is available at: http://yang.mtveurope.org/books.html If you are interested, contact me to my private email address. Kind regards, Jan Prunk -- Jan Prunk <janprunk at gmail.com> http://www.prunk.si GnuPG: 1024D/00E80E86 77C5 156E 29A4 EB6C 1C4A 5EBA 414A 29F5 00E8 0E86

18 years, 4 months

Couple of "classic" printers available for pickup (UK)

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Second call.... Anyone interested in an HP "LaserJet+" for the cost of merely coming and picking it up from Birmingham? Also available, one IBM "ProPrinter XL24". Same deal. The HP works but the IBM is in unknown condition. These both need to be picked up by the end of January or they *WILL* get dumped....same goes for the rest of my computer collection (more "free for collection" postings to follow soon). Contact me off-list if interested. Thanks. TTFN - Pete.

18 years, 4 months

have you seen www.fortran.com?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

There is a lot of really cool source code here; a DXF vector library, math and graphics libraries..... Randy _________________________________________________________________ Get the power of Windows + Web with the new Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_powerofwindows_122007

18 years, 4 months

Found thhe source to MS Basic

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

This may be of interest to the group, on the Nascom web page, I found the Microsoft 8K basic source: http://www.nascomhomepage.com/lang/8kbasic.asm Randy _________________________________________________________________ i?m is proud to present Cause Effect, a series about real people making a difference. http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/MTV/?source=text_Cause_Effect

18 years, 4 months

Homebrew Drum Computer

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Homebrew Drum Computer > From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:20:38 +0000 (GMT) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >> >I didn't think the NTSC system used a delay line at the receiver, but I >> >must admit I've never repaired a US TV set. >> >> Yes they did/do but is was not ultrasonic. The common ones were basically >> the same as LONG (4.5us?) transmission lines. > >Is that a luminance deleay line, to compensate for the different >bandwidths of the luminance and chromanance channels? PAL sets have those >as well, > >The delay line I was sgggesting for use as a computer memory device is a >glass block wioth untrasonic transducers on it. It's got a delay period >of almost one complete line-time, and is used to store one of the >chromanace signals as part of the PAL decoding process. I don't know about PAL but one line for NTSC is only 63us and thats not enough delay. Computers that used delay lines were in the milliseconds range as they needed to store a lot of bits/digit/words. Allison > >-tony

18 years, 4 months

have you seen www.fortran.com?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Performance. These are generally the best compilers around, with support for parallelism, distributed memory, loop unrolling, support for vector hardware.... Even using the GPU as a general purpose processor. High performance parallel computing with Fortran 90 and HPF. Real men code in FORTRAN ;) > Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:05:14 -0800 > From: chrism3667 at yahoo.com > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: have you seen www.fortran.com? > > I realize that old doggies die hard, but who except > for the scientific/engineering crowd would want to > create new apps, and for what reason? I imagine there > could be some good reasons to port old (iron?) code to > peecees, but gcc can compile FORTRAN already (albeit > only F77). > > --- Randy Dawson <rdawson16 at hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > > There is a lot of really cool source code here; a > > DXF vector library, math and graphics libraries..... > > > > Randy > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Get the power of Windows + Web with the new Windows > > Live. > > > http://www.windowslive.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_powerofwindows_122007 > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________________ > Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. > http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs _________________________________________________________________ i?m is proud to present Cause Effect, a series about real people making a difference. http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/MTV/?source=text_Cause_Effect

18 years, 4 months

SGI drive sleds and interfaces?

by legalize＠xmission.com

OK, with my new Origin 2000 machines, I was thinking that I could use these SGI drives+sleds that I had purchased previously, where the seller said they would work in Onyx2/Origin machines. However, while the sleds appear compatible, the drive interface is not. Is there any online guide that compares the different drive sled designs for SGI machines so that I can compare what's being offered on ebay to identify the machines that can use it? For instance, my drives have a high density connector that is only about 1" long, but the Origin 2000 has a high density connector that looks to be about 2-2.5" long. Is my only recourse to scrape through individual manuals to try and find diagrams? -- "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/>

18 years, 4 months

Max configuration of SGI Origin 2000/Onyx2 architecture

by legalize＠xmission.com

OK, we talked earlier about how high this architecture could go and there was some mention of 256 and 512 processor systems. However, I just stumbled across a press release at LANL describing their installation of a massive 6144 processor system consisting of 48 sets of 128 nodes all arranged as a giant supercomputer: <http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/1846> This machine was decomissioned in 2004: <http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/home.story/story_id/5836> Something tells me that I won't be able to afford 6144 processors without a grant and a lot of scrounging :-) -- "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/>

18 years, 4 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 52, Issue 34

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

On Dec 16, 2007, at 11:19 PM, Richard wrote: >> OK, with my new Origin 2000 machines, I was thinking that I could use >> these SGI drives+sleds that I had purchased previously, where the >> seller said they would work in Onyx2/Origin machines. However, while >> the sleds appear compatible, the drive interface is not. >> >> Is there any online guide that compares the different drive sled >> designs for SGI machines so that I can compare what's being offered on >> ebay to identify the machines that can use it? There is, sadly it is at the SGI Addict (www.sgiaddict.net) which is inconsistently up. This is most useful for the older sleds with integral connectors, modern SGI sleds are (I believe) one of three types: O2 (wouldn't come close to fitting), Octane/Origin200/000/Onyx2 (works), and Origin300/000 >> >> For instance, my drives have a high density connector that is only >> about 1" long, but the Origin 2000 has a high density connector that >> looks to be about 2-2.5" long. >> A drive with a 1" long connector very similar to a SCSI SCA connector is probably FC (Fiber Channel). If you have a newish Sun (Blade 1000/2000 era) you can check, as the main interface in these is FC. The FC drives I have (Seagates) have a model number ending in FC. Some of the SGI Vaults/InfiniteStorage arrays do use FC disks, so it's possible that these came out of one of those. Sadly, I'm not sure that the Qlogic FC interfaces are bootable, so you might not be able to use them as a system disk.

18 years, 4 months

Homebrew Drum Computer (magnetic heads)

by bnansel＠bigpond.net.au

With a sharp enough v-notch and very gradual abrasion from the outside, is should be possible to make the gap less than one thou. This is sort of the inverse of the way they made the point contacts for the first transistor at Bell Labs. -Bobby > >So, aside from the mumbles, does this sound like a workable plan? > > Ah no. the gaps have to be narrow less than .001". that hs been done > two peice ferrite heads (half beads) with oe side of the magnetic > circuit > filled with .001" thick brass shim stock. > > Or you could pull the heads from a number of old floppies. > > The 14" platter is a good source for media. > > > Allison >

18 years, 4 months

Homebrew Drum Computer (magnetic heads)

by bnansel＠bigpond.net.au

RIght. But it would be plenty big for registers, say. Those delay lines have 4.5MHz bandwidth (I think...), so they ought to be able to handle a short series of pulses; 16 bits should be easy, and 32 might work, too. An analog guru could probably squeeze more in 64us. -Bobby > > ... > >The delay line I was sgggesting for use as a computer memory > device is a > >glass block wioth untrasonic transducers on it. It's got a delay > period > >of almost one complete line-time, and is used to store one of the > >chromanace signals as part of the PAL decoding process. > > I don't know about PAL but one line for NTSC is only 63us and thats > not enough delay. > > Computers that used delay lines were in the milliseconds range as they > needed to store a lot of bits/digit/words. > > > Allison >

18 years, 4 months

Homebrew Drum Computer Delay Lines

by bnansel＠bigpond.net.au

I've come across a reference to a reverb unit made with a garden hose, speaker, and microphone. Would something as bone-headed as this work as a data delay line? I've read that mercury was used in delay lines because it was a better impedance match with quartz transducers, but wouldn't water work nearly as well? Everything would need to be kept at a constant temperature, and no doubt there would be some dispersion of the compression waves. It's my understanding that a lot of materials were tried for delay lines, but that mercury was the "best." Magnetostrictive delay lines are attractive, though I hear they are more than a little microphonic. I notice that most magnetostrictive delay line designs use the transducers to generate torsional waves, which apparently suffer less from dispersion and have a slower propagation speed to boot. The pictures I've seen show the transductive materials spot welded to the delay wire such that they twist the wire when a magnetic pulse is applied: http://www.science.uva.nl/faculteit/museum/delayline.html Does anybody know how well plain nickel wire would work OK, or would some more exotic like Terfenol-D be required? The delay wire itself need not be magnetostrictive; it's just the storage medium. -Bobby

18 years, 4 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