test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: New DSDD 5.25" floppies? > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:41:24 +0200 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 10/5/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: >> And you all seem to have missed what I'm referring to. :^) Note the >> "III" portion of 1541-III. :^) >> http://jderogee.tripod.com/project1541.htm > >I've seen that before, and have often contemplated throwing one together. > >> I'm about ready to start collecting the parts needed and to see about >> getting at least a couple circuit boards made. > >Would you mind sharing where you are getting Nokia 3310 phones (or the >Phillips PDC 8544 LCD display)? > >> BTW, I currently have 3-5 1541's, 1 1571, and 1 or 2 Excelerator+Plus >> (minus power-supplies) drives. I tend to use a pair of the 1541's. >> Though the 1571 is at home rather than lost up in storage. :^) I use >> the 1541's as I don't have a spare 1571. I prefer to only use drives >> if I have a spare. > >I've never had a 1571 - I started with 1540 in 1982 (and wish I could >find it - I think it has my Spartan Apple-II interface mounted inside >it), then acquired a number of 1541s in my C-64 days, but never moved >over to the C-128, so froze there in time (except for the 1581 I have >that came from a defunct Commodore dealer - it works, but I haven't >put more than a couple floppies through it). > >I _am_ interested in the 1541-III, but I'd *really* be interested in a >FLASH-storage-based 2031 - i.e., with an IEEE-488 interface. I still >do lots with PETs, and the .D64 support would solve one of the >problems I have with running old programs - Infocom used "random >files" (unstructured raw block access) for their Zmachine. The games >were very much floppy-based, with no obvious way to migrate them to a >hard disk or other non-floppy medium. > >-ethan Something similar to that would be appealing for my Epson PX-8. Allison

18 years, 7 months

Infant mortality and longevity of DVD media?

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

First, I don't think that DVD media is subject to "infant mortality" at all, which is not to say that a just burned disc can't be defective. Now a couple of things that look like infant mortality are possible, although the mechanisms are not the same as what we usually call infant mortality. One of these is that data written a burner whose laser power is below spec can "fade" over time, but this is mostly a problem when using "RW" media (which should be avoided for archival and backup uses). Also, a media that is subject to bending can delaminate .... DVDs are a sandwich of two layers of plastic glued together, and the data is stored on a dye layer coating on the inside, at the juncture of the two layers. Delamination is fatal to the data, and normally occurs from the outside in .... Good advice is to only use 80% to 90% of the media capacity, leaving the outside edge (which is where the first damage usually occurs) unused for data anyway. Second, there is no doubt, I don't think, that dual layer media is considerably less reliable than single layer media (knowing how dual layer works, it's hard to believe that it works at all). That said, I have not yet had a problem with any of the dual layer backups that I've made. The subject of optical media longevity is one of considerable debate. All studies by the media makers suggest a life of several decades to centuries, but some skeptics insist on saying less than 10 years. I have optical CD media that is now 12 years old that I can still read just fine. I think that some of your practices are excessively conservative (such as only applying power when the drives are being used), but will do no harm. The biggest risk, I think, is burning with a marginal burner (low laser power and/or bad or just dirty optics). Reading the media with a variety of drives other than the one used for burning is certainly not a bad idea, but for most users is unacceptably time consuming.

18 years, 7 months

[Fwd: PDP8 im Ebay]

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Wundebar... That's nearly as bad as Vienna. Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Paul Heller Sent: 05 October 2007 19:57 To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only Subject: Re: [Fwd: PDP8 im Ebay] ---- Original Message ----- From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > I'm a bit confused as to where it is. The only Penzing I know is in > Austria near Vienna. > If it was northern Germany I'd go and get it. The system unit might be > the basis for building up a PDP 8 system. > Google maps shows it near Munich. Paul

18 years, 7 months

New DSDD 5.25" floppies?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 10/5/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > And you all seem to have missed what I'm referring to. :^) Note the > "III" portion of 1541-III. :^) > http://jderogee.tripod.com/project1541.htm I've seen that before, and have often contemplated throwing one together. > I'm about ready to start collecting the parts needed and to see about > getting at least a couple circuit boards made. Would you mind sharing where you are getting Nokia 3310 phones (or the Phillips PDC 8544 LCD display)? > BTW, I currently have 3-5 1541's, 1 1571, and 1 or 2 Excelerator+Plus > (minus power-supplies) drives. I tend to use a pair of the 1541's. > Though the 1571 is at home rather than lost up in storage. :^) I use > the 1541's as I don't have a spare 1571. I prefer to only use drives > if I have a spare. I've never had a 1571 - I started with 1540 in 1982 (and wish I could find it - I think it has my Spartan Apple-II interface mounted inside it), then acquired a number of 1541s in my C-64 days, but never moved over to the C-128, so froze there in time (except for the 1581 I have that came from a defunct Commodore dealer - it works, but I haven't put more than a couple floppies through it). I _am_ interested in the 1541-III, but I'd *really* be interested in a FLASH-storage-based 2031 - i.e., with an IEEE-488 interface. I still do lots with PETs, and the .D64 support would solve one of the problems I have with running old programs - Infocom used "random files" (unstructured raw block access) for their Zmachine. The games were very much floppy-based, with no obvious way to migrate them to a hard disk or other non-floppy medium. -ethan

18 years, 7 months

Xerox Star floppies (was xerox 820-II boot disk)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Hi Dave, I'm also interesting in doing this, but for a Star Imagedisk should work fine. They are double sided, double density disks. Somewhere I have a Unix program that can extract the contents from them. I have at least a hundred 8010 floppies read already with various versions of the Star OS, Interlistp-D, Server software and XDE.

18 years, 7 months

xerox 820-II boot disk

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I've unearthed a Xerox 820-II, the original boot disk to which has gone bad. Is there someone here who can create a copy of the original 8" boot disk and whatever else was shipped with the Xerox 820-II? I have blanks, but no means to write to them. -- 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, 7 months

VAX 11/750 rescued, alas...

by oldcpu2＠rogerwilco.org

The gods smiled upon me, and I was chosen to rescue the DEC VAX 11/750 that Richard alerted us too about a month ago. Yesterday I went up to collect it. I think most of us, during a pickup, are mindful of just getting the load onboard and away, and it was the same way for me with this pickup. Besides, the unit was literally stuffed so tightly into the front corner of their storage that there was no way to examine the innards at that location. A few images can be found at: http://www.rogerwilco.org/VAX11-750 Once back on homebase, I finally got a chance to open up the unit. To my horror (it is October, after all), I find just a single board installed in the CPU backplane, and one loose q-bus board! The first is a System Industries 9700-6301 with the following significant chips: Signetics N8X60N, AMD AM9128 (x2), Motorola MCM93L422PC (x4), TI SN74S181N, and about a dozen TI 82S137s with little numbered stickers on each. Otherwise it's loaded with TTL logic chips. There are no headers or other connectors on board, just the backplane fingers. I have no idea what this board is. I openly admit that I'm a complete {non-uVAX | massbus | unibus} novice. The second board is an MCD MLSI PC-11, which I'm guessing may be some kind of dual parallel interface. I'll have to do a little scouting on Bitsavers and Manx to see if I can turn up anything useful. Anyway, sadly, this box is not much more than an empty carcass, without any brains. It clearly was sacrificed to keep other systems alive. Still, I would dearly love to populate the backplane(s) and light this baby up, but I guessing I'll be hard pressed to find anyone with a whole set of spares that I could somehow convince into letting them go. I don't want to lose an opportunity here, and I'm not saying that I have my eye on the local metal recycler just yet, but what am I going to do with an empty chassis?! Now, I should say that the donor was extremely nice, and offered to pass along anything related that eventually turns up as they dig deeper into their massive pile (12' x 15' x 20', literally boxes/cartons/PCs upon boxes/cartons/PCs), but I'm not sure I should hope for much. Am I foolish to ask? Anyone with a spare set of VAX 11/750 modules? - Jared

18 years, 7 months

DECnet/E and/or can anyone in Australia image a 1600 BPI tape?

by prd＠bur.st

G'day there, Although I've been watching this list for a few months now, this is my first post to the cctech mailing list so I guess I should start by saying hello from Perth, Western Australia. I've been collecting DEC machines and Commodore 8-bitters for about eight years now, and I've recently started collecting members of the Apple ][ and Macintosh family. (While I'm yet to pick up any big iron PDPs, I do have representatives of DEC's PDP-11, VAX, MIPS and Alpha families.) I've also managed to pick up members of the PA-RISC, SGI MIPS, SUN SPARC and IBM RS/6000 families, though this part of my collection is much less comprehensive. Anyway, on to the topic of my message --- currently up for sale on eBay is a set of RSTS/E and DECnet/E tapes. I've been playing around with RSTS/E, TOPS-20, and earlier versions of VAX/VMS, Ultrix and BSD UNIX in the hopes of setting up a limited ARPAnet-era free public access network, and while I do have some RSTS/E 9.2 boxes running under simh, they're basically standalone. Now, some RSTS/E and DECnet/E tapes have come up for auction on eBay (see http://cgi.ebay.com.au/DEC-Software-Kit-RSTS-E-Tapes-More_W0QQitemZ18016620…) but there are at least two problems: (1) the current set of RSTS/E 9.[257] and DECnet/E 4.1 tapes are listed for AUD 595/795 for Buy It Now, and (2) I don't have any tape drives older than a TK50. So, should this auction lapse, and in the off chance that I can obtain just the DECnet/E tape, I was wondering if anyone here (1) has a 1600 BPI tape drive with which they can image a tape or two, and (2) lives in Australia. Of course, if anyone already has a copy of DECnet/E that they're willing to share, I'd appreciate that even more as the seller doesn't make any guarantees about his tapes' quality or usability. Many thanks in advance, Pete

18 years, 7 months

Tektronix 4041 System Controller Docs

by Josef.Deuschinger＠web.de

Hi Richard, I just read your email below, when scanning through the net for more 4041 information. You know, I asked you for the missing page A-10 of your '4041 System Controller' manual a while ago. I am looking for more information about how to get user programs as stand alone units into the ROMs. The Utility package names at page 7-1 the programs PRMBLD for building ROMable tape images and RMXFER for transferring them to the ROMs. I am also interested in a description of how to prepare files to be loaded with the command 'Loadroms'. The programs should be part of an optional accessory package. Do you have them? Are they part of the 'systems verification tape'? The following manuals I don't have: * 4041 Option 10 Graphics, plotting, signal processing & utility routines - programmers reference guide 70-5983-00 (I suppose it's a detailed ROM call description), * Getting Stared With Your 4041, * 4041R03 operation manual with ROM call description 070-4559-00, * 4041 service manual 061-2513-00 In turn, I can give you copies of all ROM packs as files. I have them all verified by programmed MCM68766C EPROMs! I also would be interested in an 4041 experience exchange with other users. Thanks in advance for your help. Best regards, Josef Richard legalize at xmission.com Mon Apr 24 12:28:58 CDT 2006 a.. Previous message: anyone have a terminal server? b.. Next message: Tektronix 4041 System Controller Docs c.. Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since I just acquired one of these new-in-box with all the docs, if someone else out there needs more docs for these let me know and I'll move them to the top of my scanning queue. Of particular interest is the documentation for several of the ROM packs and the complete programmer's reference documentation giving all the details on the BASIC language in the controller. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty

18 years, 7 months

ClarisDraw and ICT1301 (was: Semi-OT: Classic Mac support gone from Leopard (OS X 10.5))

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 6 Oct, 2007, at 02:48, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > > In all fairness I've already started looking into running > ClarisDraw under > emulation since I can't find a replacement I like, in the long run > it is > likely to run better under emulation. There is a glitch or two > with running > it under Classic on my G5. Besides I want to be able to upgrade to > a Mac > Pro one of these days. > > Or, I might just setup my G4/450 running Mac OS 8.6 (I have the > special G4 > version), and use it as an X-Terminal running my old copy of > eXodus. At > which point I'll be able to run ClarisDraw on there. Though at 8 > years old, > I'm not sure I want to depend on it for an app I *need*. Sorry to take this off topic still further. Please excuse me being nosey, but is it a matter of speed , features, user interface, opening ClarisDraw files, price or what? My company took over 'MacDraft' from IDD many years ago and still supply both MacDraft and the cheaper version MacDraft PE (personal edition) which are both universal binaries on OS-X. We get some people complaining that the UI is not modern enough and others that its too modern. We do not currently have any sort of gradient fills, maybe that's what is missing. We are currently working on version 6.0 so would be interested if you or any others on this list would like to tell me what we need to do to meet your needs, though of course we don't make programs for one users needs alone. To bring back on topic, last month we got the core memory of my ICT1301 back to 100% functionality, all 2000 words of 48 bits (1200lbs weight). We're now working on an interface to write data to a parallel port so we can catch it with a modern machine. We're using TTL working from a -5v supply as Vss and ground as Vcc to match up with the -6.3 volt logic levels (with an implicit inversion). We're also using an IDT 7201 FIFO to buffer the rapid supply of 48 bits >from a word against the 8 bit at a time parallel port, and it may also absorbs some of the difference between rapid data transfer of each mag tape block and no data during the inter-block gap with the constant data rate of the parallel port. Roger Holmes

18 years, 7 months

Infant mortality and longevity of DVD media?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Infant mortality and longevity of DVD media? > From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 10:51:30 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Barry Watzman wrote: > Reading the media with a variety of >> drives other than the one used for burning is certainly not a bad idea, but >> for most users is unacceptably time consuming. >Software mortality worries me. Who knows what bugs the next version of >your driver has. Ben. One solution is a few older systems "frozen in time" and not allowed to auto update (if M$). Even if Linux frozen in time is a good idea for backups and archives. This ahs proven successful for me and also give me working systems that are not prone to yet a new set of different bugs or lost capability. Allison

18 years, 7 months

Decmate I

by James＠jdfogg.com

> I have a reasonable Decmate I / PDP8 with dual RX02's in a > tower and spare parts CRT/Keyboard, spare motherboard. It > boots up nicely, includes serial port board and back cover. > I've enjoyed it for the past year, but now have to get it out > of my workspace. Open to a reasonable offer, especially if > the buyer can pick it up in Southern NH. > > - Gary I don't know what "reasonable" would be, but I am "reasonably" close in Northern New Hampshire (New London). Your space woes could be solved today. I need some fiscal guidance or suggested trades.

18 years, 7 months

[Fwd: PDP8 im Ebay]

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

My German Is not that good but the gist of it is that it's a controller for a CNC drill. The 8/f is an Irish made one from the Galway plant. (Whilst working at DEC I visited Galway on a regular basis). I'm a bit confused as to where it is. The only Penzing I know is in Austria near Vienna. If it was northern Germany I'd go and get it. The system unit might be the basis for building up a PDP 8 system. Oh well one day I'll get a PDP-8 from somewhere. I'm sure that 10,000 + where made. Of those probably 3,000 where UK/European voltage models. Rod Smallwood The DECcollector -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Gerold Pauler Sent: 05 October 2007 11:35 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: [Fwd: PDP8 im Ebay] Got an email today, that you can get a complete pdp8/f on ebay. It is located in Germany. Does not mention how much memory it got but seams to be complete with paper tape reader and an atari 140ST as console. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320166292810 I don't have any connection to the seller. And I don't have any more free space for another pdp8 of this era. - Gerold

18 years, 7 months

Setting up a VAXstation

by cctech＠retro.co.za

Hi all >From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > >A friend of mine was nearly killed due to this. He tested some wiring for >voltage-to-earth and the meter said it was essentially dead. SO he >started workign, alas the meter was malfuctioning, and he got the full >mains volatege across him. He imediately went and bought an expensive mad >reliable neter. I always short my screwdriver across the line before fitting, say, a light socket or a switch. This would be after turning the mains off and measuring. Even when it's a brand new installation and the main breaker panel isn't connected to the utility yet. Yea, it might cause a helluva flashbang, but it beats walking that tunnel towards the bright light. W

18 years, 7 months

Semi-OT: Classic Mac support gone from Leopard (OS X 10.5)

by spectre＠floodgap.com

This is semi-OT, but if you use an OS X capable Power Mac to run legacy Mac software, 10.5 apparently no longer supports Classic even on PowerPC machines. http://www.lowendmac.com/mail/mb07/0716.html#2 This is a shame, since a lot of early Mac software will surprisingly still run on my G5 running Tiger. In fact, I use an old System 6-era version of Caere OmniPage for simple OCR tasks since it's so unbelievably fast by comparison. -- ------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- In memory of Howard Caine --------------------------------------------------

18 years, 7 months

Retro-gaming on Mactel/OS 10.4 (was Re: Semi-OT: Classic Mac support gone from Leopard (OS X 10.5))

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 10/6/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > At 9:45 AM +0200 10/6/07, Ethan Dicks wrote: > >X-11 header files on my disk - yes... I _did_ install X)... what I > >would love to do, but don't seem to be able to, is to run some OS 9 > >PPC Mac programs. > > Have you tried? I thought that "carbon" apps should run under > Rosetta. Of course your apps might not be "carbonized" (I think > those are the right terms, it's been years, and it's late). Hmm... I haven't tried screwing with it too much... I tried doing a 'fink' or one of the other distro tools - it fetched the Dosbox source just fine, but the compile stopped when it failed to locate X11.h or something similar. I have it on the system, so it's probably a Makefile assumption as to INCLUDEPATH or something similar. I just haven't had time to dig into it. It's really just to play DOS games ("Master of Orion I", "X-COM", "Colonization", etc.) so I'll probably dig into it in the depths of Winter at Pole, when I'm bored and need a nostalgia fix. It's entirely uncritical for "real" work. > I suspect you are out of luck. Most of us with non-Mac OS X apps are > trying to run stuff so old that they're 68k apps. I've found that > anything I am interested in that had a PPC version now has a Mac OS X > version. As I thought... but I don't think they have released a Mac OS X version of "Starcraft" and "Starcraft: Broodwars" - more unessential retro-gaming. I do have genuine copies of both for Windows, so it's probably easiest to just finish setting up Parallels and run the DOS versions. I was just hoping to stay native where native was possible, but not, apparently, in this case.

18 years, 7 months

CompacTape

by silent700＠gmail.com

I just received my shipment of items from this auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220149564798 which should have been a load of recyclable TK50 media. Instead of CompacTape, however, they are all CompacTape III. I think these were TK85 2.6gb media. Does anyone know if they will still be writable with the standard format in a TK50? Or do I have a bunch of useless DLT I tapes?

18 years, 7 months

EPROM Death?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: EPROM Death? > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:33:11 -0700 > To: classiccmp at classiccmp.org > >How do you tell an over-erased EPROM? > >I finally have my programmer and eraser, and just tried erasing 6 >EPROM's. Four erased just fine, and two are showing weird patterns >of alternating blocks of 04/06 and 14/16. > > Zane > I've seen that when the quartz window isn't really clean and the UV hasn't quite done the full job. I have found some vendors eproms need a little more time to cook. Ove 26 years I think I've only seen one that really had a stuck bit and that was a blown output pin. Allison

18 years, 7 months

Experience with Dysan drive tester?

by trixter＠oldskool.org

A friend might have a Dysan Pat-2+ 5.25" floppy drive tester held for me, but we both have no experience with it. Assuming it comes with the alignment disk and manual, and functions, is it a worthwhile piece of equipment to have? I am not a die-hard techie -- I do not own an oscilloscope -- so I might grab it to keep my drives aligned, but not if it's more placebo than functional. If anyone has had experience using this unit or one like it, I'd like to hear your thoughts. -- Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/ Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/ Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/ A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/

18 years, 7 months

Finally! We have video of Chuck Peddle @ VCF East 4.0

by evan＠snarc.net

Thanks to Dave Haynie and Robert Bernardo. Chuck's talk begins around 15:00 into part 1. Part 4 ends just as he was concluding - and then the Skype PC when blue-screen on us. No video yet of the post-Chuck celebration, which is when the audience got to ask questions of Dave, Bil Herd, and Bob Russell, and when we sang "Happy Birthday to the Pet" with a chocolate chickenhead cake! 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBnmJhEOdC8 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LeMNKHUbs 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm8M5rdrDpA 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_C1j8uSO_I Rumor has it that a DVD may soon be available. - Evan

18 years, 7 months

Decmate I

by gkaufman＠the-planet.org

I have a reasonable Decmate I / PDP8 with dual RX02's in a tower and spare parts CRT/Keyboard, spare motherboard. It boots up nicely, includes serial port board and back cover. I've enjoyed it for the past year, but now have to get it out of my workspace. Open to a reasonable offer, especially if the buyer can pick it up in Southern NH. - Gary

18 years, 7 months

Software Find at Thrift

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

While checking out a old hangout I found a copy of IBM's Hollywood software Version 1.0 (on 3.5 FD), complete in the box for $1.81 plus tax. There was not much else there like it was in the long ago past. Speaking of Hollywood, the Hollywood video store near us is closing and I went dumpster driving the other night and found that they had tossed all the video game cases that had been on display. Most but not all were empty, I found PS2 and PS3 DVD's in some of the cases. It got too dark and I had to stop pulling cases from the dumpster but there was over 150 cases left in the trash. John

18 years, 7 months

SGI Crimson Questions & hardware request...

by derschjo＠msu.edu

Hi all -- Just picked up an SGI Crimson this afternoon, which should prove to be a fun machine to play around with once I get it running... a few questions for those who've dealt with these before... - What kind of power cable does this thing take? I've not yet seen anything like the connector on the back of this thing... can I plug this thing into a regular household outlet (that can supply the massive power requirements) or am I going to have to rewire my house? :) - What version of IRIX do you recommend running? I have a copy of 5.3, and 6.5, but I know that 6.5's too new for this beast. Anyone out there have a keyboard/mouse they're willing to part with (or know where I can find one?). This thing's got a 15-pin D-Sub connector on it and I of course don't have anything compatible... Thanks, as always... - Josh

18 years, 7 months

Looking for Acorn A5000 keyboard & mouse...

by derschjo＠msu.edu

Man, I seem to be asking for a lot of keyboards lately :). Got a working Acorn A5000 sans keyboard and mouse. Connector looks like PS/2, but of course it's not. Anyone have a spare set? Thanks again, Josh

18 years, 7 months

these RTL or what?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Will wrote: > I wrote: > > The ECL technology used in the VAX9000 was gate arrays with roughly the > > same timing parameters as 100K ECL (0.5 to 1.0 ns propogation delays). > Yes, but I do not think that was the cutting edge anymore. Considering > the 9000 was supposed to be the machine that finally convinces the > mainframe world to accept DEC, it may have been a poor choice. We > probably will never know. 9000 may have been as big of an > embarrassment as the KC10. The 9000 was obsoleted by the NVAX chip before the 9000 hit the street. "the mainframe world" acceptance of a CPU is the stupidest-ass thing a company could ever ever want. On a.f.c there were some references to emulating Unisys architectures on Intel hardware, and I followed the links to the trade press rags, and the rags were filled with a bunch of useless self-important balloon-filling about CPU technologies with no evidence that anywhere anyone understood what the emulation layer actually did. I came away not knowing what the emulation layer actually did either (classic CPU-technology-on-the-mind poisoning of those who should know better). There are about ten thousand markets that DEC served quite well, and it's a shame they put all that effort and money into neglecting those markets and trying to do a mainframe. > Even though the 9000s were bombs, they are one of the few VAX machines > I would chase after. Stack it up with all those other CPU's without peripherals, huh? :-). >> Responsiveness of a computer system depends on a lot more than the >> speed of the semiconductors used to build it. Plenty of modern examples >> of how to make fast silicon seem slow are coming out of Redmond I >> notice :-). >I am thinking raw horsepower - all the benchmarking stuff. Looking at >the KL10 (or the other DEC ECL machines), it justs seems like they >should have been better number crunchers. Mainframes are really good at some things, sometimes they are decent number crunchers in terms of pure FLOPS but it has been three to four decades since they delivered any punch in terms of FLOPS per dollar. Tim.

18 years, 7 months

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test-drb