test-drb

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101090 discussions

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies > From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:04:51 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Peter C. Wallace wrote: > >> The registers-in-memory architecture might be suitable for a FPGA CPU >> where BlockRAM (as system memory) is almost as fast as registers. Why >> not have registers in memory instead of simulatiing it badly (and >> expensively power wise) via caching, that is, why move data if you dont >> have to? There was a late version of 9900 that was done in I think bipolar or some strange combo process that was many times faster than the earlier machine be they NMOS or TTL. TI was not a MOS house for the most part and were ahead by doing like PDP-8 and PDP11 putting their earlier TTL machine on a chip. What they did wrong was to lag severely in marketing and advancing the technology. The 9900 was slow becuase at the time 2102s (fast ones were 400ns) were slow. By 4 years later ram would be down to 45NS (2147 and 2167 as examples). If the 9900 were to ramp up the clock as did the 8085 and Z80 by 1980 it would have gone from 2mhz to around 6-8mhz and that speed increase would have made it from a pure performance standpoint, fast. The speed would ahve been aciveable as the total transistor count on the die was far lower than most (few registers) and the complexity was fairly low. The sad story is they didn't. The TI99/4a was a sad detour that really didn't show off the CPU but did embody some interesing ideas. Grom was one. >Simple registers are expensive. Look at the PDP-5. This is the 1960's >when most architectures where developed. Even the PDP-10 I think Registers were costly when a FlipFlop was an entire board. Then they started to get two in a 16legged chip the cost was way lower and the advantage of having more registers was nowhere near as costly. Also PDP-5 was mid 60s and and we had PDP-10, PDP-11, CDC monsters UNIVAC 1180s and VAX ahead of us at that date. >was designed to use core memory as registers unless you want the >optional module for F/F registers. >Ben. Your thinking pdp6 and earlier. Allison

18 years, 7 months

Utilogic II (was these RTL or what?)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

>> I ran across some data in the pile of what I've been collecting, and there's >> some stuff there apparently by Signetics (?) referring to what they're >> calling "Utilogic II" -- is this stuff RTL or what? It doesn't say. Dates >> are in the late 1960s, and it looks like it, but I figured I'd ask in >> here... > > Goggle finds only a few hits for utilogic,and is mostly a odd chip for sale. > I suspect more TTL rather than DTL. Ben. look under http://bitsavers.org/pdf/signetics/_dataBooks/

18 years, 7 months

Tribute to Jim Butterfield at the Vintage Computer Festival (VCF X), November 4, 2007

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

There will be a session at the upcoming Vintage Computer Festival in Mountainview, California, to honor Jim's memory and the contributions he made to the community of computer hobbyists. Please join us if you can - http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/session.php#53 I hope this will be a chance to get together and share memories and stories - this will be a "gathering" rather than a "presentation". If you have videos, stories, artifacts, or ??? that you would like to share during this time, please let me know. And of course, please pass this information along to anyone who might be interested in joining us, either in person or in thought. Jack jack.rubin at ameritech.net 847.424.7320 days No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.13.39/1045 - Release Date: 10/2/2007 6:43 PM

18 years, 7 months

Cromemco Z-2D free to a good home

by matt.valerio＠gmail.com

Hey everybody, I acquired a Cromemco Z-2D for $2 at a garage sale a few years ago thinking "Holy cow that's a sweet rack-mount case". It's been sitting in my basement and I could use the space, so I figured I'd look into donating it to a good home where it would be appreciated (instead of just scrapping the parts fot the case like what I was going to do). Being a grad student right now doesn't give me much spare time to futz around with it, either. If there's anyone out there in the Columbus, OH area that wants it, just let me know! Have a good one, -Matt

18 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by kerobaros＠gmail.com

On Oct 3, 2007, at 12:48PM, Dave McGuire wrote: > On Oct 2, 2007, at 3:47 PM, Martin Scott Goldberg wrote: > >> There are really three 99/4 home computers, original with chiclet > >> keys, the > >> second and most common with a really nice keyboard and the whie > >> version that > >> is really the same thing with a few board level cost reductions. > > > > Actually, there's one TI-99/4 and two TI-99/4a models. > > What are the differences between them, does anyone know offhand? > > -Dave Apparently, I'm one of the resident TI-99 experts! The differences are almost exactly as Martin said; the 99/4 is the first computer he described, and the 4As are the second two. The 4's only benefit was the built-in 'Equation Calculator' mode; sure mark of TI's educational division. The 4As had, other than a better keyboard, the ability to use 'lowercase' (just small caps), and not much else. More info can be found at Thierry Nouspikel's pages, which are currently at <http://www.nouspikel.com/ti99/titech.htm>, and at the Mainbyte pages, at <http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/>. And now I'm out the door! ~Matt

18 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies > From: Brent Hilpert <hilpert at cs.ubc.ca> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:35:01 -0700 > To: General at priv-edtnaa06.telusplanet.net, > "Discussion at priv-edtnaa06.telusplanet.net":On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Chuck Guzis wrote: >> >> On 2 Oct 2007 at 2:16, Liam Proven wrote: >> >> > They were pretty much the first ever 16-bit home micro, but it was a >> > crippled 16-bit chip - as detailed in another message in this thread. >> > They did have good keyboards, were solidly built and I believe the >> > graphics chip was, for its time, decent and capable. >> >> Tossing all of the other chips and CROMs and other stuff out, how >> compatible was the TMS9900 with the TI 990 mini? The same or >> considerablly different? > >I can't state so categorically but my understanding is that they were very >much the same. >Going back to a conversation of a few weeks ago, when we were >developing/running Verex/Thoth at UBC ca 1980 it was on a 990/10. The next >major step in the project was to develop a distributed kernel for multiple >processors. To this end, 3 bare single board computers based on the 9900 chip >were ordered and received from TI. Something makes me think they were called >"990/5"s. I remember making up a front panel for the 3 of them with reset >buttons and a few status LEDs to go in the rack with the /10. The idea, of >course, was to use the 9900s because we already had the compilers,etc. >generating code for the 990/10. Actually 1980 was mid to late in the life of the TI9900 chip. The first one I worked with was on a Technico Superstarter System, TI9900, 2k ram, 1k prom (monitor ans line by line asm) and a 2708 eprom programmer on one board. I still have it. I purchased it at PCC '78 in in memory serves Philly. Fir the amount of resource on the board it was pretty capable for systems of that day. >(Cheriton left before we actually got into using them at the software level >and the distributed kernel would become the VKernel at Stanford on other hardware). > >Also, the description of the 9900 in Osborne's "An Introduction to >Microcomputers, Vol II" ('76) fits well with my recollections of the 990/10. > >To my knowledge the 9900 chip was not crippled; rather (going from what others >have described) the design and implementation of the 99/4 home computer failed >to make effective use of it. I didn't follow micros too much in the early 80s >but I remember wondering at the time why the 99/4 was doing so poorly when it >had that great processor in it. There are really three 99/4 home computers, original with chiclet keys, the second and most common with a really nice keyboard and the whie version that is really the same thing with a few board level cost reductions. The 9900 chips is not crippled, for 1976 three voltage NMOS its about as fast as the technology of the time could go. The TI99/4 did however do a nasty to it. One is they muxed the bus down to 8bits wide and that does slow the system some. There were 128 words of ram (6810s) that if you execute there the speed is noticeable. The other is the GROM (sort of an interpreted language with a register point to next instruction) is a bottleneck as well. There was a later 9980 and the 9985 which were a 8bit bus interface and were somewhat crippled but I'd never seen one in a TI99/4A. >I quite liked the 990 architecture with the workspace pointer. Yes, there was >the overhead of accessing registers in memory, but there were also savings. >The workspace pointer essentially became the stack/frame pointer. Procedure >calls, interrupts and process switches were quick because there were only 3 >machine registers to save (PC,WSP,PSW). Stack variables and parameters were >referenced in instructions as registers, thus saving on instruction >length/memory accesses to retrieve addresses/offsets, etc. For use with >"modern software design", i.e.: stack-oriented high-level languages, I thought >it was a quite effective architecture. It was a very minicomputer in look and feel and the addressing modes were on par with PDP11 and other CISC machines. Allison

18 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies > From: "Peter C. Wallace" <pcw at mesanet.com> > Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:13:12 -0700 (PDT) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >> >> Actually 1980 was mid to late in the life of the TI9900 chip. The first >> one I worked with was on a Technico Superstarter System, TI9900, 2k ram, >> 1k prom (monitor ans line by line asm) and a 2708 eprom programmer on >> one board. I still have it. I purchased it at PCC '78 in in memory >> serves Philly. Fir the amount of resource on the board it was pretty >> capable for systems of that day. > > > >That sure brings back memories. I also had a Technico SuperStarter (Two bytes >are better than one!) Eventually made a wire wrapped 32 KByte RAM card (using I still have mine and it's operational. >TMS4060 non muxed 4K DRAMS), a 256x256 graphic display, A wire wrapped floppy >controller (8 inch with 16 KByte DRAM track buffer). The floppy was a >revelation after waiting for the papertape version of EAL (Editor Assembler >Linker?) to load. Did do all that with mine. Mostly used it for small playing and dumping 2708 eproms. >>> (Cheriton left before we actually got into using them at the software level >>> and the distributed kernel would become the VKernel at Stanford on other hardware). >>> >>> Also, the description of the 9900 in Osborne's "An Introduction to >>> Microcomputers, Vol II" ('76) fits well with my recollections of the 990/10. > >I think I chose the 9900 based on the Osborne book, it had the shortest >benchmark program... Strikingly so. >Interestingly TI's MSP430 has an instruction set reminiscent of the 9900 Instruction sets tend to repeat and reoccur. Allison

18 years, 7 months

It's only ontopic(ish) towards the end...

by zmerch-cctalk＠30below.com

... and if you're a "Mac fanboi" don't go here... ;-) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/28/bofh_episode_33/ Laterz, Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers zmerch at 30below.com Hi! I am a .signature virus. Copy me into your .signature to join in!

18 years, 7 months

Looking for OpenMOP for Windows

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Sorry for the double post, not wanting to pester anyone, but I figured I'd better write what I need on the subject line because not everybody might be following the VSII thread. So, I'm looking for the OpenMOP daemon for Windows by Fred N. van Kempen in order to get my newly-acquired VAXstation II/GPX started with NetBSD/vax (or whatever). I didn't find anything on the 'net except for Freds announcing the program and looking for test users here, his homepage is currently down, the program is nowhere to be found on the archived snapshots and it's been a long time since I last remember reading from him here. Anybody know if he's okay? TIA, Arno Kletzander -- GMX FreeMail: 1 GB Postfach, 5 E-Mail-Adressen, 10 Free SMS. Alle Infos und kostenlose Anmeldung: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/freemail

18 years, 7 months

Setting up a VAXstation

by shieldsm＠gmail.com

On 10/2/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > > At 4:54 PM +0100 9/30/07, Jules Richardson wrote: > >Jason T wrote: > >>My 3100/30 boots fine off the Hobbyist VMS disc using my > >>boots-anything Apple CD300 (aka Sony) drive. > > > >You got there first :-) Pulls of drives from old Apple systems seem > >like a good bet - I've used a few on various machines which need a > >512 byte block size. I normally use an Apple CD600, but it isn't > >quite perfect - some SGI systems don't like it for some reason > >(others do, as does everything non-SGI I've hooked it up to) > > I've had very good luck with an external Panasonic 4x CD-ROM drive I > purchased new in '95 for my PowerBook 520c. It has worked on > everything I've connected it to. I've used it on both a Mac and PC > laptop, and on numerous DEC, SUN, and Amiga systems. My only SGI > systems have built in CD-ROM's. Another likely source would be old > Sun Hardware. > Maybe I've just been really lucky, but I've been using a Toshiba 40x SCSI cdrom in Sony external case to boot Suns, SGIs, and Macs for quite some time. It also works great on my Amigas and PCs. I read all this about using old drives, but then just gave the Toshiba a shot, and it's worked ever since. As a bonus, being a (somewhat, maybe 5 or 6 years old) recent drive, it reads CD-R copies of discs so I can leave the originals in safekeeping. Guess I just lucked out and it supports 512-byte blocks? Mike

18 years, 7 months

EPROMS

by pspan＠amerytel.net

Zane, After erasing thousands of eproms, I have not experienced a maximum ttme. You can try to erase them again. I personally have left eproms under an eraser for days, with no ill effects on the eproms. If another tour under the eraser doesn't work, then you have two bad eproms. Over the years, I made a living replacing defective eproms on telecom equipment. If they do erase, mark them, because my experience tells me they will fail when trying to reprogram. Or they would be a good starting point for board failure troubleshooting and repair. phil

18 years, 7 months

VSII/GPX joy (and minor annoyance)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Antonio Carlini wrote: > Arno Kletzander wrote: > > Hmm. One half of the base board does however have circuitry connected > > to those pads that are just linked by grant continuity traces on the > > second half (and the 4-plane memory boards), so I figured it might > > actually be doing something useful with it. Haven't studied the > > technical description yet... > > The QVSS and QDSS will be passing the grant signals along otherwise > boards further down the bus will have issues. That is the very point I am disputing - in order to just _pass along_ the signals, you only need a _trace_ from the pad where the signal enters the board to the one where it leaves again. This is what the video memory boards do. OTOH, if the pads carrying the grant signals in and out aren't just shorted together but _connected to the electronics_, as they are on the video master board, chances are the board is _actually using_, i.e. monitoring or (more likely in this case) influencing those signals at some time. > Don't let me stop you trading up to a TK70, but FWIW I never had an > issue with TK50s. I prefer TK70s but that's because I can get about > three times as much on them! Getting media might end up being more of a problem in both cases, I assume... ISTR that a TK70 should work in place of a TK50, but I assume I won't get the full capacity without the corresponding controller; coming to think of it, I also have use for a TK50 anyway because I have that TK50-Z SCSI enclosure (minus drive) at home and I found out that a TK70's front bezel won't fit into the panel cut-out. -- Arno Kletzander Stud. Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen www.iser.uni-erlangen.de GMX FreeMail: 1 GB Postfach, 5 E-Mail-Adressen, 10 Free SMS. Alle Infos und kostenlose Anmeldung: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/freemail

18 years, 7 months

Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:00:06 +0100 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > > >Now there's a story. ... Only part of it. Both MicroVAX-IIs were enabled by DEC but at the time were minimal machines (BA23 had RD53 and BA123 only had RD54). It was post DEC and many finds later they became filled with ram and better disks. the big thig was not the hardware but a set of TK50s with V5.44 and a nontransferable non expiring license for it and all the layered apps. VIDSYS:: is a 5.44 node for that reason with things like Pathworks and VAXnotes. The 11T03 was exactly that, the big find if one was the RL02/RL21 in it. Years later (post DEC) I put in 11/23B, then 11/73, more ram and built the MFM disk shelf supported by RQDX3. >Luckily (or unluckily) I had moved on from DEC by 1985 so I was not a >witness to its sad demise. It was bloody. >Better made products you could not want for. > >Despite having worked with PC's for many years. I could never see how >they became preferred over central unit plus terminals for general >business use. We agree. IN reality they did exactly that. Save for the central system is now called "server" and the terminals are smarter. >My modest collection has beeen accrued of the last couple of years. >Apart from the 11/94's >(Some potato head stole the CPU cards before I got to the machines) the >rest of it is running/will run. I need KDJ 11 processors for the >11/94's. They are expensive and even those intended for 11/84's are >silly prices. Yes even Qbus J-11 cpus are scarce. >I also have three small Sun systems (I can't resist quality engineering) I had suns as well and gave them away to concentrate more on DEC and the CP/M systems. Allison > >Rod > > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org >[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison >Sent: 02 October 2007 14:46 >To: cctech at classiccmp.org >Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > >> >>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? >> From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> >> Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:08:33 +0100 >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" >><cctech at classiccmp.org> >> >>Hmmm >> Time for a quick 'We are not worthy' ^00^ > >Consider my leg pulled. :) > >> >>What did you do? >>Raid the Mill with a fleet of trucks? > >No. I did get some small amounts of odd items from DEC salvage before >it was shut down. Mostly things like H751A power controllers, power >supplies and TU58 drives and boards. > >The one uVII (BA123 VIDSYS::) was a parting gift(I paid 100$ for it with >DOCS and licenses) during the days of blood. For those that don't >understand the post 1991 sell off of parts of DEC, that's when the >DIGITAL logo went from blue to burgandy. The other was built from >scrounge. VIDSYS:: is still setup for DECnet area 56.920 (one area in >OGO was 56) and HIPPY:: was area 63.390 (hidden area for DECnet >overflow). > >My 11T03 which is now the 11/73 was a gift from my boss at DEC. I kept >it in the lab area for years for those odd projects but by late 80s it >was obvious it was getting used less and less. He suggested "when are >you going to scrap that thing?" I bring it home (on property pass) which >I did. A year later when it was time to confirm and renew the property >pass his answer was "what 11?". > >The remainder were mostly rescues. The bulk of the uVAX3100s came from >UV Waterloo over 10 years ago on a if you take one you take them all and >I was the only one willing to take a huge pile of uVAX3100s plus cables, >VT320s VS2000s, TK50s, several TLZ04s.. Took two seperate 400mile round >trips with a pickup truck filled to capacity. >A fair number of those got redistributed to others as sixteen uVax3100s >take a bit of space. > >The rest are also rescues from various seperate trips. > >Usually if the system is incomplete I jump on it and clean it up and >restore it to life from spares. The few pending systems are due to my >activities in amateur radio this year and now that I'm done with the >bigger projects it's back to machines. > >I don't do Ubus-11s, big VAX (780s and the like) and unfortunately >PDP-10/20s as most are too large to handle or power here. Also I've >reached the point where excess do get passed on to others as I don't >store any large number of systems either. I try to manage my >collection. Those excess sometimes get cleaned up board added and moved >along so they are operable and don't end up in the trash or worse. I >like to power them up and play and that's incompatable with storage. >There are a few small items like extra VT320s (white, green and amber), >VT100s, H19, DECMate-IIIs I keep in the garage on rotation but I can and >do run them there as well as it's warm enough in the winter and very >dry. I keep those out there mostly to make it easier to move other stuff >around in the room. What seperates me from museum is I use them, >reconfigure and expand them them to suit my wishes or for fun. However, >junking them is out of the questionas even basket cases are salvaged for >any and all usable parts. > >FYI: if anyone needs parts for PDT11/1xx systems I have many CPU, memory >and IO boards I'm not ever going to use. Someone took a bunch apart and >then later gave me the box of boards. (ugly mutter mutter cuss cuss.) > >I mostly do DEC and CP/M based systems (s100, totables, SBCs) but I do >have a few oddballs. For some reason the MIPS based DEC hardware never >got my attention nor have the PC/clone(intel) based systems like Rainbow >and VAXmate. I did have PROs (350s and 380s) but gave those away to >concentrate on Qbus. > > >Allison > >> >>Rod >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org >>[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison >>Sent: 01 October 2007 15:47 >>To: cctech at classiccmp.org >>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? >> >>> >>>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? >>> From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> >>> Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:00:44 +0100 >>> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" >>><cctech at classiccmp.org> >>> >>> >>>My list >>> pdp11/94 x 4 R >>> >>> DEC Rainbow 100+ * >>> >>> VAX 300 * >>> VAX 400 * >>> VAX 500 R >>> VAXStation 3100 * >>> >>> DEC 3000 * >>> >>> Multia * >>> >>>* = Working >>>R = Renovation (Mostly missing parts) >>> >>>Rod Smallwood >> >> >>A more detailed list of DEC systems here. :) >> >> >>Collection of operational hardware: >> >>PDP-8 based machines: >>==================== >> PDP-8f, 20k core and 2 serial 8650 and 8652 >>2 Decmate-IIIs OS/278 >> Intersil sampler (6100 chipset) extended to 3k ram >> 6120 based board, homebrew 32kram 8k rom >> >>PDP-11 based machines: >>===================== >>1 LSI-11/03 rx02 >>2 PDP11/23 BA11S boxes, >> 1MB, RQDX2 and RD52 >> 1MB, RQDX2 and RD31, RX50 >>1 pdp11/73 50" RACK SYSTEM (4MB, DLVJ11, DEQNA, RQDX3>> RX02, RD52, >>RX33, RL02). >>1 BA11va with 11/23 +tu58 RT-11 >>1 BA11va with 11/23 +Viking RX02 equivilent RT-11 >> PDT11/130 11/03 with tu58 dectapeII >> OSs in use: RT-11, XXDP-11 and unix V6 >> >>VAX based machines: >>=================== >> Microvax-II (ba23 based) 12mb, RQDX3, RD53, RX33 >> This one lived as HIPSS:: during my days at DEC. >> Microvax-II/GPX (Ba123 based, TK50 and SCSI disks) >> This one was know as VIDSYS:: inside DEC. >>3 Microvax2000 all with 2 RD53, 1 RD54 drive, one with ultrix >>1 Microvax2000 as hard disk formatter and MOP bootable system. >>2 Microvax3100/m76/gpx 32mb 2 each 1gb scsi internal >>3 Microvax3100/server (not M10e) (filled with 400mb and 1gb disks) >>4 BA42 SCSI disk farm for the 3100s populated with RZ56s >> OSs in use VMSv5.4-4,V5.54, V7.2, Ultrix 4.2 >> >>Terminal for the uVAX systems is usually VT1200 via thinnet and the >>PDP-11s the usual terminal is either VT340, VT320 or VT180 in terminal >>mode. >> >>DEC CP/M speaking machines: >>=========================== >>1 Vt180 complete (dual RX180s) >>2 Vt180 CP/M board built up as standalone one modded for 6mhz >>1 Vt185 Thats a Vt125 + Vt180. >> >>In the non operational list: >> >>11/23B uPDP-11 in a BA23 pedestal that while complete with 11/23B, >>M8057 memory, DHV11, RQDX2 and RD52, RX50 it requries cleaning and >>testing. >> >>H11 Backplane complete with LSI-11 CPU, 16k of ram, two serial cards >and >>a parallel card of heath origin. Some day I'll find the case/power >>supply for it. All parts are tested as working. >> >>Small 11/23 system using a H9281-BC (12x2 slots) filled with: >> M8186 1/23 (Overclocked CPU mod) >> 4 M8059 MSV11 ram >> DLV11j, >> RQDX3 with M9058 distribution board. (for RX33 and RD31) >> MRV-11 Eprom card with MSCP boot. >> VK170 with matching LK02 keyboard and a monitor. The VK170 >> is a minimal VT52 on a dual width card for packaged systems >> that communicates via RS232 to system and the bus use is >> power only. >>This is waiting on being packed in a reasonable nonDEC box with a DEC >PS >>and fans. The boards are known working and the backplane is already >>jumpered as Q22. >> >>Generally in my house operational means I can actually turn it on and >>play and it has a permanent spot that is easily accessable. >> >>One project that is in process is a H9800 desk/rack that will replace >>the existing standard steel office desk. the system to be installed >>there will be 11/23B in BA11s with a hand made Disk box for RX33 and >>RD52s. >> >>I have two boxes (Xerox Paper sized) of tested boards enough to build >>another few 11/23s and a few uVAXII as my spares. Failed boards get >>repaird when I feel like it so I have good boards around. >> >>Who was it that has the SIG of >> "DEC had then what you wish you could buy now." ? >> >>Allison >> >> >> >> > > >

18 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies > From: Martin Scott Goldberg <wgungfu at csd.uwm.edu> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:47:46 -0500 (CDT) > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > >>There are really three 99/4 home computers, original with chiclet keys, the >>second and most common with a really nice keyboard and the whie version that >>is really the same thing with a few board level cost reductions. >> > > >Actually, there's one TI-99/4 and two TI-99/4a models. > I know I have them but they are still software compatable and overall similar. Allison

18 years, 7 months

TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: TI 990 architecture / was Re: TI-99/4A Floppies > From: "Liam Proven" <lproven at gmail.com> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:18:00 +0100 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >On 02/10/2007, Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote: > >> The 9900 chips is not crippled, for 1976 three voltage NMOS its about as fast >> as the technology of the time could go. The TI99/4 did however do a nasty to >> it. One is they muxed the bus down to 8bits wide and that does slow the system >> some. There were 128 words of ram (6810s) that if you execute there the speed >> is noticeable. The other is the GROM (sort of an interpreted language with a >> register point to next instruction) is a bottleneck as well. There was a >> later 9980 and the 9985 which were a 8bit bus interface and were somewhat >> crippled but I'd never seen one in a TI99/4A. > >That's probably true, but the 99/4a wasn't a 1976 machine. It was >released in 1981 and withdrawn 1983. A bit unfairly for a tweaked 1979 >machine (the 99/a), the 99/4a's competition was mainly 1982 machines >like the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum, which (based on my >possibly erroneous recollection) outperformed the 99/4a significantly. >The TI99/4 did however do a nasty to >> it. One is they muxed the bus down to 8bits wide and that does slow the system I requote the statement. Why? Because thats what I'd said. The basic 9900 chip was fairly fast the 99/4 computer is _not fast_ and I gave the reasons why. Comparing it to 1980 tech just showed how badly the little console faired. Having a 9900 system without the funky 99/4 hardware I can say the 9900 was still not fast but faired far better against its contemporaries. The reason it did well enough is the archetecture was very good even if 2mhz was somewhat slow. Allison

18 years, 7 months

Boeing Surplus Closing... for the better...........

by g-wright＠att.net

-------------- Original message from Richard <legalize at xmission.com>: -------------- > IMO, its Boeing's store and they can pack it up and ship it to the > moon if they want to. > > Instead of trying to *stop* the closure of the store, IMO it would be > better to lobby for a one-time fire sale "everything must go!" event > with big discounts. > -- > "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download > > > Legalize Adulthood! I have been going there almost daily, since the early 70's. when you could buy Aircraft fasteners, computer hardware, test gear, and anything in between. PDP 8a's where 25.00 and PDP 11's where 45.00. if it was a large rack system, just name your price. ( I have 3 PDP 11/60's, 5 racks each) The store has been going down hill ever since. Most of the good stuff never makes it to surplus. In the past 5 years, only "Boeing has beens" have worked there. I have heard that the system has 175 employees. Over the years this has just been a monkey on Boeings back and they *never* should have been involve in a retail business. They staff this with people that could only function in a Boeing Mold. These folks should never been involved with the public. The folks that did care and wanted to help where stopped by the turf wars and Boeing policy. I tried over the year to at least slow down the trashing of vintage items. No one cared. You could go in there and see carcass of vintage items. They would only put out what would sell quickly. Lately I found 7 HP suite cases with HP 79xx Alignment tools and packs. They where empty. They could get 25.00 for the suite cases. So they trashed the rest. They love to sell 3 ring binders for .25 each. If you watched closely there where 100's of DEC, HP, Cray, TEK, Sun, Motorola binders from the 70's and 80's. covering both computers and test gear. All empty. As for really good test gear, that was offered up to a local company first and what was left went to the store. I could go further on this but won't. As for the things that this "list" would be interested in. They had what they called pre-sort. if it was newer and/or sold quickly, send it to the store, if not scrap it. They would set out DEC and Data General systems, empty. They could sell the boards by the pound and did not have to worry about anything. I saw some Dumb terminals (VT100) setting in the back this summer and asked to make sure the came out to the store. I was told its was easier to scrap them. No TEK or Dumb terminals would be brought out to the retail store. They have a large amount of old computer boards going trough there each month. all go to scrap. You can go in there on a Saturday morning and see 7 to 10 $60,000.00 a year employees setting around drinking coffee and talking to one another with out any care about the customer. How much surplus do you have to sell to cover one Saturday In the last couple of years they basicly have been watching 10-15 ebay sellers that are at the front door each day and catered to them. Putting everthing out first thing and then sat back and watched the rush when the door opened. The best thing that could happen is for the company to put everything in lot bids so someone, that at least cares a little, has the items. As for the fire sale, everyone is headed for the door. Through the 1st of the year all Boeing employees only have 6 to 8 weeks left to work. So I would just wait for the first lot bids and follow the winner home. Just my .02 cents worth - jerry Jerry wright JLC inc g-wrigtht at att.net

18 years, 7 months

IMSAI II - still viable OR has anyone else lost their deposit?

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Whilst I am in no way involved (I'm in the UK and would not know an IMSAI from a busted banjo) I am apalled at what this guy did. Is it not time to use the legal system to bring this guy to book? The English and US legal systems parted company in the late 1700's so I'm not sure how it would work. Suffice to say, in the UK at this stage the court bailiffs would have removed anything of value from his premisis and put it up for sale along with his house and car (if he owned them). The proceeds to go to repaying the swindled customers. Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Robert Stek Sent: 02 October 2007 16:57 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: RE: IMSAI II - still viable OR has anyone else lost their deposit? I don't think he had any bad intentions in the beginning (some 6 years ago), as I said in a related comp.os.cpm post, "Never assume malice when incompetence will suffice." But his actions over the last two years suggest a lot about his integrity now. I have now heard from four individuals (in 24 hours), two of whom paid in full in advance, with the same basic story: after politely asking for updates, we are ignored despite repeated attempts at communication - no updates, no explanation, no 'good faith' offer of partial shipment (Howard Harte's super I/O board was produced, though apparently by Howard directly), no 'good faith' offer of anything, and certainly no offer of refund. I am sure that the project has been a personal nightmare for him. It is a shame to see someone who contributed so much to the development of the microcomputer industry in its early days end up trying to sweep his recent mistakes (and our money) under the rug while still pretending to offer an IMSAI II (and other items) for sale on his website - it's not only unethical but very probably fraudulent as well. I've screwed up in my life (just ask my ex-wife!). But IMHO it's far better to admit defeat and offer whatever atonement you can, than to continue in the self-delusion that the IMSAI II will ever be built and that a bunch of 'cry-babies' (my projection, not his words) who want their money back are stopping forward progress by reducing working capital. rant := off So, any there any others out there who are willing to admit that they lost their front money? Or anyone who actually received any of his other hardware offerings? Or who received a refund? Bob Stek Saver of Lost Sols >From: Grant Stockly <grant at stockly.com> >Subject: RE: IMSAI II - still viable OR has anyone else lost their > deposit? >To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Message-ID: <0JP900ENKGIGSQ80 at msgmmp-1.gci.net> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed > >I've talked to him several times. Before the Altair kit and >after. Very nice guy. I don't think he has any bad intentions at >all. I will buy one the second they become available. I have no >idea what the situation with them is, but I'd have a hard time >thinking he was trying to defraud people or lie (of course, I have >all my money). He has told me of the money, engineering, and time he >has spent. > >Possibly he just isn't a "business" man. That's not a bad thing at >all, we all have our strengths! Engineers aren't good with making >their own due dates... ; ) The Kenbak kit was supposed to be done >by March. I just shipped the first 8 kits a week ago today. ; ) > >When I started selling kits I decided in the beginning not to collect >money until stuff was ready to ship. I wasn't worried too much about >getting lazy, but it made me look forward to shipping and work >towards that goal. > >Grant

18 years, 7 months

IMSAI II - still viable OR has anyone else lost their deposit?

by robert.stek＠gmail.com

I was an early fan of the Todd Fischer's IMSAI II project (www.imsai.net) and sent off a deposit several years ago. I even offered to review it in Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar Ink (I'm a friend of Steve's and formerly lived in Hartford). I understand the problems of a task like re-inventing the IMSAI and think that I have been more than patient. His website is still active, he has a copyright date of 2007 on it, and it appears that you can still order not only an IMSAI II but other items as well. Unfortunately I have emailed him several times over the past 12-18 months and haven't had the courtesy of a response. I know he's there - he posts in comp.os.cpm - but from him to me: nada, zip, zilch, nothing. Is there anyone else on the list who was as retrospectively foolish as I as to trust him with a deposit? It doesn't speak much for his ethics if he advertises and takes orders for non-existent products (who was that guy and his company that advertised in Kilobaud, among others, back in the '70's with full page ads for non-existent products? Remember that?). And his customer service skills are non-existent if he just ignores politely worded inqueries re: progress on the product. So, am I the only one still waiting for an IMSAI II? Bob Stek Saver of Lost Sols

18 years, 7 months

Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen?

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Now there's a story. ... Luckily (or unluckily) I had moved on from DEC by 1985 so I was not a witness to its sad demise. Better made products you could not want for. Despite having worked with PC's for many years. I could never see how they became preferred over central unit plus terminals for general business use. My modest collection has beeen accrued of the last couple of years. Apart from the 11/94's (Some potato head stole the CPU cards before I got to the machines) the rest of it is running/will run. I need KDJ 11 processors for the 11/94's. They are expensive and even those intended for 11/84's are silly prices. I also have three small Sun systems (I can't resist quality engineering) Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison Sent: 02 October 2007 14:46 To: cctech at classiccmp.org Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > >Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:08:33 +0100 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" ><cctech at classiccmp.org> > >Hmmm > Time for a quick 'We are not worthy' ^00^ Consider my leg pulled. :) > >What did you do? >Raid the Mill with a fleet of trucks? No. I did get some small amounts of odd items from DEC salvage before it was shut down. Mostly things like H751A power controllers, power supplies and TU58 drives and boards. The one uVII (BA123 VIDSYS::) was a parting gift(I paid 100$ for it with DOCS and licenses) during the days of blood. For those that don't understand the post 1991 sell off of parts of DEC, that's when the DIGITAL logo went from blue to burgandy. The other was built from scrounge. VIDSYS:: is still setup for DECnet area 56.920 (one area in OGO was 56) and HIPPY:: was area 63.390 (hidden area for DECnet overflow). My 11T03 which is now the 11/73 was a gift from my boss at DEC. I kept it in the lab area for years for those odd projects but by late 80s it was obvious it was getting used less and less. He suggested "when are you going to scrap that thing?" I bring it home (on property pass) which I did. A year later when it was time to confirm and renew the property pass his answer was "what 11?". The remainder were mostly rescues. The bulk of the uVAX3100s came from UV Waterloo over 10 years ago on a if you take one you take them all and I was the only one willing to take a huge pile of uVAX3100s plus cables, VT320s VS2000s, TK50s, several TLZ04s.. Took two seperate 400mile round trips with a pickup truck filled to capacity. A fair number of those got redistributed to others as sixteen uVax3100s take a bit of space. The rest are also rescues from various seperate trips. Usually if the system is incomplete I jump on it and clean it up and restore it to life from spares. The few pending systems are due to my activities in amateur radio this year and now that I'm done with the bigger projects it's back to machines. I don't do Ubus-11s, big VAX (780s and the like) and unfortunately PDP-10/20s as most are too large to handle or power here. Also I've reached the point where excess do get passed on to others as I don't store any large number of systems either. I try to manage my collection. Those excess sometimes get cleaned up board added and moved along so they are operable and don't end up in the trash or worse. I like to power them up and play and that's incompatable with storage. There are a few small items like extra VT320s (white, green and amber), VT100s, H19, DECMate-IIIs I keep in the garage on rotation but I can and do run them there as well as it's warm enough in the winter and very dry. I keep those out there mostly to make it easier to move other stuff around in the room. What seperates me from museum is I use them, reconfigure and expand them them to suit my wishes or for fun. However, junking them is out of the questionas even basket cases are salvaged for any and all usable parts. FYI: if anyone needs parts for PDT11/1xx systems I have many CPU, memory and IO boards I'm not ever going to use. Someone took a bunch apart and then later gave me the box of boards. (ugly mutter mutter cuss cuss.) I mostly do DEC and CP/M based systems (s100, totables, SBCs) but I do have a few oddballs. For some reason the MIPS based DEC hardware never got my attention nor have the PC/clone(intel) based systems like Rainbow and VAXmate. I did have PROs (350s and 380s) but gave those away to concentrate on Qbus. Allison > >Rod > >-----Original Message----- >From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org >[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Allison >Sent: 01 October 2007 15:47 >To: cctech at classiccmp.org >Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? > >> >>Subject: RE: Anyone collect Dec/Compaq Alphaservers or VAXen? >> From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> >> Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:00:44 +0100 >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" >><cctech at classiccmp.org> >> >> >>My list >> pdp11/94 x 4 R >> >> DEC Rainbow 100+ * >> >> VAX 300 * >> VAX 400 * >> VAX 500 R >> VAXStation 3100 * >> >> DEC 3000 * >> >> Multia * >> >>* = Working >>R = Renovation (Mostly missing parts) >> >>Rod Smallwood > > >A more detailed list of DEC systems here. :) > > >Collection of operational hardware: > >PDP-8 based machines: >==================== > PDP-8f, 20k core and 2 serial 8650 and 8652 >2 Decmate-IIIs OS/278 > Intersil sampler (6100 chipset) extended to 3k ram > 6120 based board, homebrew 32kram 8k rom > >PDP-11 based machines: >===================== >1 LSI-11/03 rx02 >2 PDP11/23 BA11S boxes, > 1MB, RQDX2 and RD52 > 1MB, RQDX2 and RD31, RX50 >1 pdp11/73 50" RACK SYSTEM (4MB, DLVJ11, DEQNA, RQDX3>> RX02, RD52, >RX33, RL02). >1 BA11va with 11/23 +tu58 RT-11 >1 BA11va with 11/23 +Viking RX02 equivilent RT-11 > PDT11/130 11/03 with tu58 dectapeII > OSs in use: RT-11, XXDP-11 and unix V6 > >VAX based machines: >=================== > Microvax-II (ba23 based) 12mb, RQDX3, RD53, RX33 > This one lived as HIPSS:: during my days at DEC. > Microvax-II/GPX (Ba123 based, TK50 and SCSI disks) > This one was know as VIDSYS:: inside DEC. >3 Microvax2000 all with 2 RD53, 1 RD54 drive, one with ultrix >1 Microvax2000 as hard disk formatter and MOP bootable system. >2 Microvax3100/m76/gpx 32mb 2 each 1gb scsi internal >3 Microvax3100/server (not M10e) (filled with 400mb and 1gb disks) >4 BA42 SCSI disk farm for the 3100s populated with RZ56s > OSs in use VMSv5.4-4,V5.54, V7.2, Ultrix 4.2 > >Terminal for the uVAX systems is usually VT1200 via thinnet and the >PDP-11s the usual terminal is either VT340, VT320 or VT180 in terminal >mode. > >DEC CP/M speaking machines: >=========================== >1 Vt180 complete (dual RX180s) >2 Vt180 CP/M board built up as standalone one modded for 6mhz >1 Vt185 Thats a Vt125 + Vt180. > >In the non operational list: > >11/23B uPDP-11 in a BA23 pedestal that while complete with 11/23B, >M8057 memory, DHV11, RQDX2 and RD52, RX50 it requries cleaning and >testing. > >H11 Backplane complete with LSI-11 CPU, 16k of ram, two serial cards and >a parallel card of heath origin. Some day I'll find the case/power >supply for it. All parts are tested as working. > >Small 11/23 system using a H9281-BC (12x2 slots) filled with: > M8186 1/23 (Overclocked CPU mod) > 4 M8059 MSV11 ram > DLV11j, > RQDX3 with M9058 distribution board. (for RX33 and RD31) > MRV-11 Eprom card with MSCP boot. > VK170 with matching LK02 keyboard and a monitor. The VK170 > is a minimal VT52 on a dual width card for packaged systems > that communicates via RS232 to system and the bus use is > power only. >This is waiting on being packed in a reasonable nonDEC box with a DEC PS >and fans. The boards are known working and the backplane is already >jumpered as Q22. > >Generally in my house operational means I can actually turn it on and >play and it has a permanent spot that is easily accessable. > >One project that is in process is a H9800 desk/rack that will replace >the existing standard steel office desk. the system to be installed >there will be 11/23B in BA11s with a hand made Disk box for RX33 and >RD52s. > >I have two boxes (Xerox Paper sized) of tested boards enough to build >another few 11/23s and a few uVAXII as my spares. Failed boards get >repaird when I feel like it so I have good boards around. > >Who was it that has the SIG of > "DEC had then what you wish you could buy now." ? > >Allison > > > >

18 years, 7 months

Burroughs B80 rescued

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 05:35:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Mr Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com> Subject: Burroughs B80 rescued Well, I drove up to Canada yesterday and picked up the Burroughs B80. <snip> I was more concerned with moving the computer than inspecting it, but I don't recall seeing any kind of standard looking interface ports. I believe that the B80 can support extra terminals, but I don't see it. Hopefully, when I get it going, I can connect something external to it and back up the disk packs. I have 11 packs, at least one of which is the operating system, MCP. -------------Reply: Not necessarily; as I recall, things like terminals, line printers, PPT I/O, Datacomm etc. and their interface/controller hardware were all options. The basic machine (which was probably most of them) consisted of the main unit with its dual-forms printer and keyboard and either integrated 8" floppies and/or the external dual 14" drive cabinet which could be 2 removable carts or one fixed/one removable; the self-scan display was also an option, but I don't think there was any I/O as standard equipment on the base model, which was essentially the disk-based replacement for the single-user L series ledger-card accounting/posting machines. mike

18 years, 7 months

TI-99/4A Floppies

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: TI-99/4A Floppies > From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:52:04 -0600 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >Brent Hilpert wrote: > >> I guess home computing got tossed over to the consumer products division at >> TI, which always seemed to have a bottom-of-the-line/low-end approach to >> things, too bad they didn't find some middle ground between that and their >> higher-end commercial/military stuff. > >Well the hand writing was on the wall after 1975 since in hindsight >we know that 16 bit computers with 32kw is just too small for any programs >after about 1975. Look how hard it was to cram advent on a 32K pdp8. >Ben. That doesn't apply to the TI9900. the reason is the PDP-8 is a 4k machine with a minimal instruction set and memory extension. The 990/9900 is a 32KW CISC machine that can support memory extension into the megabyte range. You forget the PDP11 was a 16bit 32kW machine too and that was highly successful. Advent fit on Z80 with 48Kb and PDP11 (LSI-11/03)with 28K of ram. The reason the TI990/9900 was not wide spread is TI was not a computer company and despite having something decent they didn't market it until it was way too late. In 1976-77 the 9900 was about one generation ahead of the 8080 and maybe Z80. Maybe the best code example is the line by line assembler along with a simple monitor all in 1K words. It was capable of very dense code. Actually the 64kB limit was not starting to be problematic until around 1978-9{or later} when applications like DBASE and VISICalc started filling ram. Allison

18 years, 7 months

Setting up a VAXstation

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Setting up a VAXstation > From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> > Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:54:17 -0700 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>, > General Discussion: > >At 4:54 PM +0100 9/30/07, Jules Richardson wrote: >>Jason T wrote: >>>My 3100/30 boots fine off the Hobbyist VMS disc using my >>>boots-anything Apple CD300 (aka Sony) drive. >> >>You got there first :-) Pulls of drives from old Apple systems seem >>like a good bet - I've used a few on various machines which need a >>512 byte block size. I normally use an Apple CD600, but it isn't >>quite perfect - some SGI systems don't like it for some reason >>(others do, as does everything non-SGI I've hooked it up to) > >I've had very good luck with an external Panasonic 4x CD-ROM drive I >purchased new in '95 for my PowerBook 520c. It has worked on >everything I've connected it to. I've used it on both a Mac and PC >laptop, and on numerous DEC, SUN, and Amiga systems. My only SGI >systems have built in CD-ROM's. Another likely source would be old >Sun Hardware. > >As I've previously mentioned I'm quite fond of Plextor caddy drives >for my PDP-11's. > >If you're trying to boot an old enough version of VAX/VMS then I >suspect 3rd party drives could cause problems. I know the Hard >Drives will. I'd recommend OpenVMS 7.2 or 7.3 for greatest SCSI >compatibility. I simply only use DEC HD's on VAXen. Even though I >use 3rd party drives on my PDP-11's and Alpha's. > > Zane > I have a few Toshiba 2x SCSI drives that work well for uVAX. The drives are easy to spot as there is a jumper header in the ID select area. Allison

18 years, 7 months

vcf 10

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I may be going to VCF10 - and turning it into a mini-vacation with the wife. I'd appreciate it if anyone familiar with area can email me some non-geek things to see and do around Mountain View on non-show days. It'd be nice to have her not think it's ALL geek stuff on the trip :) Jay

18 years, 7 months

EPROM Death?

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

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 -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

18 years, 7 months

TI-99/4A Floppies

by chaosotter76＠gmail.com

On 9/27/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > > How well has TI-99/4A software on floppies been preserved? We just > received a very large donation. As part of the donation is what > appears to be a complete TI-99/4A system complete with the expansion > box, and a couple other expansions. There is documentation for at > least some of the hardware and software. Preservation for TI-99/4A software on floppies seems to be pretty poor right now, because of (as Jim mentioned) the rarity of the expansion box and third-party software that used it. There are a few large-ish archives, but they're almost entirely unorganized -- nothing remotely approaching the TOSEC sets available for other systems. If you're able to image a significant number of those floppies, that would be a real service to enthusiasts. You might know this already, but you might look to see whether that expansion box houses a MyArc Geneve 9640, or any of the software is for the Geneve rather than the stock TI-99/4A.

18 years, 7 months

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