test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by athornton＠gmail.com

I have been invited out to the site tomorrow morning to take an inventory of what?s there (I live near the machines). I imagine that I may well have a lot of photos that I bring to the list and say ?what is this?? The owner has assured me the machines will not be sent to the scrapper and that there are multiple interested parties, which is good, because I really don?t have a good place to put 8 cabinets of PDP-11. Not that having an 11/40 running Sixth Edition Unix wouldn?t be cool. I?ll report back once I have an inventory. Adam

7 years, 1 month

HP 1000 A900 ("Magic") Questions

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

Aficionados; I'm interested in acquiring an HP1000 A900, in any form-factor. (http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=594) Basic need would be a chassis/backplane/PS and minimal set of CPU/memory/HPIB-controller/terminal-IO PCA, however I'd be interested in simply acquiring a PCA-set and I'll work the chassis/backplane/PS separately. Even single PCAs would give me a helpful push forwards. And I need to stick to my hobby (beer") budget. I'm located in Maryland, USA, and pretty sure that the cost of overseas shipping would be ghastly for a chassis. But maybe not as bad for the tower configuration as for the rack-mount. If I understand correctly, the CPU consists of: 12201A A900 Sequencer Card 12202A A900 Data Path Card 12203A A900 Cache Controller 12204A A900 Memory Controller 12220A 768KB RAM (Or I presume 12103D 1MB, 12221A 3 MB, or 12221B 8 MB.) I imagine that I'll need to synthesize my own OTT "frontplane" for the memory. 12009A HP-IB Controller 12040D Asynchronous Multiplexer interface board Thank you for your insights, and opportunities (I hope), paul (offlist at pbirkel at gmail.com)

7 years, 1 month

DEC disc pack inspection unit on eBay

by bobalan＠sbcglobal.net

There's a mis-categorized? disk pack inspection unit up on eBay. Might be of use to someone. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Early-Digital-Equiment-Corp-DEC-Portable-Briefcase… Bob -- Vintage computers and electronics www.dvq.com www.tekmuseum.com www.decmuseum.org

7 years, 1 month

Possible PUTR bug?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

John Wilson confirmed that his program was designed to work with one floppy and an HDD. He says strange things happen if one tries to use two floppy drives instead... just as I found ;) I removed the second floppy drive, dug out an old 540 MB hard drive (with Win 95 on it) and hooked it up to the PC. Started Win95, then "Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode", copied PUTR to the C: drive and started it. PUTR now works perfectly, transferring files in both directions to an the emulated RX33 (3.5" floppy). The PDP-11 can read and write those disks on its generic 3.5" floppy "RX33", too. :) Now I just have to figure out the PC partitions/hard drives to make using PUTR as simple as possible.

7 years, 1 month

Bug in PUTR?

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I'm having trouble copying files from my PDP-11 (RT-11 format) into an old Windows box using the last version of PUTR. It appears that WinXP does strange things with the hardware (3.5" 1.44 MB drives aren't actually RX33's although my RQDX3 controller believes they are). So I made an MS-DOS boot disk and run PUTR directly on MS-DOS (instead of the WinXP DOS window). Unfortunately MS-DOS 6.22 can't recognize my hard drive since it's NTFS-formatted, so it all has to be done in floppies. Both WinXP and MS-DOS know that A: and B: are two separate drives. Likewise the BIOS settings. I can copy files in DOS and Windows back and forth between the two drives. And I can MOUNT B: as a logical device DU0: (or without a logical device name, as B: /RX33 /RT11), and read its directory. But when I try to copy a file from A: to DU0:, the B: drive light flashes briefly, and then PUTR tries to write over the A: drive (blocked by the write- protect tab once I wised up)! So how on earth can the BIOS, MS-DOS and WinXP all know that A: and B: are two separate drives, but PUTR tries to write to A: even though the command is to write B: ?? I also tried switching the PUTR disk into B: and the RT-11 formatted disk to drive A:. Same problem (tries to write over the source disk which is now B: even though the output filespec is clearly A). I had a look at the code but nothing's leaping out at me. Although it's been many years since I wrote any 8086 code...

7 years, 1 month

Looking for DEC M7264-CB Troubleshooting Documentation

by vintagecomputersmn＠gmail.com

Hello, As part of my H11A project, I am trying to debug my M7264-CB LSI-11 CPU module. When powered on, the CPU does not respond to the Run/Halt switch either on the front panel or via the console. I found engineering schematics for the M7264 online, but I was wondering if any in depth troubleshooting material existed online (Logic probe points, debugging steps, etc...). Thank You, Gavin

7 years, 1 month

IBM 1052 keyboardless printer on eBay

by steven＠malikoff.com

Sadly, way out of my price range. I'd dearly love it though: https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-1052-Selectric-Keyboardless-Golf-Ball-Console-… Seems to be missing the 1052 / 2741 platen knobs unique to the printer-keyboards and I/O Selectrics BUT if anyone is interested I have almost finished the CAD model for this (measured from the 2741 platen I still have). They just need to be 3D printed off and the aluminium bosses machined and tapped: http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/500/IBM_1052_and_2741_platen_knob.jpg Steve.

7 years, 1 month

Looking for DEC M7264-CB Troubleshooting Documentation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mister PDP > the 'Run' light does not come on when the switch is toggled Yeah, it wouldn't come on full unless it somehow fell into a loop of some kind - very unlikely. (Does that model LSI-11 have the on-board memory? I'm too lazy to look it up! :-) And what do you have the CPU jumpered to do on power-up? (ODT, 173000, etc.) But I would expect to see a brief flash. (Note: I don't have an LSI-11 plugged in to check this, I'm going by memory - the -11/23 certainly does the brief flash; if need be, I can pull out an -11/2 and plug it in, once I figure out if they are safe in Q22 backplanes.) I'd check the power voltages, and the clocks on the CPU board, and then look at BSYNC, etc to see if there's any hint that the ODT ucode is trying to read the console registers. No activity on BSYNC -> the ucode's not running. 'Small' QBUS systems - i.e. a single backplane - are OK to run with no termination on the far end of the bus (the CPU board includes pullups for that end), that shouldn't be an issue. Noel

7 years, 1 month

Looking for DEC M7264-CB Troubleshooting Documentation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Mister PDP > I was wondering if any in depth troubleshooting material existed online I am not aware of any; I would be glad to be corrected. Unlike the early gneration of UNIBUS CPU's, these generally weren't intended for internal fault analysis and repair - module swapping and replacement was the intended approach. The LSI-11 manual (EK-LSI11-TM-003) has a tiny bit of detail on how the CPU board works (pp. 4-3 - 4-13), it's probably worth reading that before diving into the CPU board internals. Things I'd check to start with - all the power voltages, and then the clocks. If those are all OK... BTW, for any serious fault analysis on these things, you'll need a 'scope/logic analyzer. > When powered on, the CPU does not respond to the Run/Halt switch either > on the front panel or via the console. When you say 'does not respond', what's the symptom? Is the console ODT not running (which could have any number of causes)? The whole system has to be more or less running for ODT to work. I'd start elsewhere - e.g. does your mounting box have the 'run' light? (It's driven by an output of the CPU card.) Does that display any activity? Time to look at e.g. BSYNC, etc to see if the CPU is trying to read/write the console registers. Noel

7 years, 1 month

PDP-11/40 available, Arizona

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I have no affiliation with the person who owns these items, I'm merely relaying information. These machines were offered to the LCM+L but we've met our 11/40 quota :). We figured someone here might be able to provide a good home, and the seller asked us to pass the offer along. Contact information is below: Email: kristina.kaur at mac.com List of items offered: DEC PDP 11/40 from approx 1973 Other associated equipment may include punch card machine (key punch), tape drive(s), free standing dot matrix printer, terminals (approx. 12). Condition of items: Very good condition. Running or close to running. Most peripherals have been offline and stored. How have these items been used and/or stored?: Running in filtered air. Desert, dry climate. Extent or weight of these items: The DEC PDP is 6-8 cabinets.

7 years, 1 month

Wanted: SCP-301, Seattle Computer Products 8086 Support Board

by ethan＠757.org

Looking for a SCP-301 S100 board, SCP 8086 Support Board. Have the CPU board. Any leads appreciated! -- : Ethan O'Toole

7 years, 1 month

Greetings

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

On 4/28/19 6:27 PM, Ray Jewhurst wrote: > I already have a Hobbyist License.? I am just interested in > experimenting with different OSes and different versions of OSes. ACK I don't know what VAX hardware VMS 1.5 supported, what VAX hardware that Simh supports, or what the overlap is between the two. There's a reasonable chance that someone will chime in with experience. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

7 years, 1 month

RT-11 doesn't recognize my 3.5" floppy

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

On 06/05/2019 23:38, John Forecast via cctalk wrote: > The release notes on bitsavers indicate that the RX33 was not supported > until RT-11 V5.04. >> On May 6, 2019, at 6:20 PM, Charles via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >> wrote: >> >> I have installed an RQDX3 >> But, when I boot the system (with RT-11SJ V5.01), it can't see the drive >> at all. Not only was the RX33 not supported until 5.04, there's a bug in the MSCP DU driver that wasn't fixed until 5.03 (IIRC) or maybe 5.04, which means nothing on an RQDX3 can be guaranteed to work properly before that. It caused me a lot of grief, way back in 1994. See the files at http://www.dunnington.info/public/RQDX/ and particularly http://www.dunnington.info/public/RQDX/DUX.TXT if you're interested. -- Pete Pete Turnbull ========================================================================= thanks for the additional info. Will check out the links. Meanwhile, I found an RK05 image of RT-11 "5.4" on bitsavers, made an RL02 bootable -SJ image on SIMH, then copied it over to the hardware with VTserver. (I didn't have to wait for the entire 10 MB since the contents were all on the first 3 MB anyway and no bad blocks). The system booted up to a 5.04 prompt and DU0: is fully usable with 2382 blocks on a 3.5" diskette :) My TSX+ 6.50 copy also didn't have DU enabled in TSGEN.MAC so I had to uncomment that DEVDEF line and reassemble/relink. It's SLOW on my 11/23+... we're spoiled with GHz PC's and GB of RAM. Now I can use the floppy under TSX+ too. But the generic 3.5" drive in my WinXP box can't successfully emulate an 3.5" RX33 with PUTR, apparently. (Nor an RX23). I only get read/write/directory errors after several seconds of head activity even with /RX33 and /RT11 switches set. Time for more reading and maybe drive swapping/tweaking...

7 years, 1 month

VMS versions

by raywjewhurst＠gmail.com

Does anyone know if there is a comprehensive list of changes from version to version for VMS? Wikipedia's list only shows the models that were introduced and I am more interested in the evolution of features. If anyone knows a website that shows this it would be much appreciated. Thanks Ray

7 years, 1 month

RT-11 doesn't recognize my 3.5" floppy

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

On 05/07/2019 11:15 AM, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote: > Very interesting , now that you got it to work, what can you use it for? > Will it be an exchange media with PUTR? > > Doug > > On 5/6/2019 6:20 PM, Charles via cctalk wrote: >> I have installed an RQDX3 and the M9058 distribution board in my >> 11/23+. Since I don't have a 5.25" drive yet, I hooked up a 3.5" HD >> (1.44 MB) drive from an old PC. >> After a struggle (which I documented on VCFED's DEC forum), I managed >> to get all the jumpers and cables set correctly, and now my XXDP >> diagnostics (ZRQA?? ... ZRQF??) recognize the drive as an RX33 (DU0:, >> logical drive 0 since no hard disks are attached). It passes all the >> tests, and I can INIT, DIR, and copy files to it using the limited OS >> with the XXDP suite. The LED on the RQDX3 blinks once when the drive >> is accessed. So far so good. >> Did you actually test the drive by formatting, reading and writing? >> But, when I boot the system (with RT-11SJ V5.01), it can't see the >> drive at all. Attempts to access it result in the command hanging >> indefinitely, the drive does not select, and the RQDX3 lamp flashes >> rapidly. SHOW DEV:DU does say that the handler is installed for the >> correct 172150, 154 location. However, SHOW DEV:DUn where n=[0..3] >> displays two blank lines then back to the dot prompt. >> >> Is my version of RT-11 just too old to recognize an RX-33? If so, >> what do I need to fix this? Presumably a later DU.SYS? >> Thanks for any help. Most of my experience is with PDP-8's so this is >> slow going... >> -Charles >> > RT11V5 works for me using RQDX3 and the distribution board in the BA23 box assembled as a MicroPDP-11 with RX33 and RD52 (Quantum 31mb). Never thought much about it other than to make sure the RX33 was jumpers were correct and making a dummy panel for the smaller than RX50 drive. The 11/73 system has the RQDX3 and the signal distribution board (m8058) out of BA123 to hook up RD52, RX33, RX23 and never had issues due to addressing devices under RT11. Is it possible you have a interrupt grant gap between the various boards and the RQDX? That would cause a hang. If you successful it makes using PUTR easier though RX50 works for that too just smaller. =============================================================================== Not a hardware or installation problem (once I got everything hooked up right, that is)... As another member helpfully pointed out, 5.04 is the first version of RT11 that supports RX33. I have 5.01 on my TSX+ RL02 pack. Once I booted with an RT11XM 5.04 disk, I can format, read and write the floppy :) Now I have to figure out how to upgrade to RT11SJ 5.04 or later without bombing the contents of the RL02. Remaking a pack with VTserver is a pain. Yes, the plan is to use PUTR on an old Windows box that I use with my PDP's. I'll probably use Front Panel Express to make a nice rack panel for a 3.5" and a 5.25" drive, instead of having the bare drive sit on top of the RL02 in the corporate cabinet ;)

7 years, 1 month

IBM 4506 Digital TV display unit (System 360 peripheral)

by steven＠malikoff.com

I was going through some items of my fathers-in-law and found a photocopy of a 1972 conference paper that mentions the IBM 4506 Digital TV display unit being used by reporters and editors at the New York Times. These and other terminals (2741 I/O selectric, 2265 VDU) were connected to a 360/40. Apparently they could take a TV camera input as well as output from the Mod 40, and had a keyboard. I found the article pdf online, it was 'System quality through structured programming' by FT Baker, 1972 at https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/afips/1972/5080/00/50800339.pdf My google-fu hasn't found any picture of the IBM 4506 or even a reference outside this article, and I'm mildly curious as to what they looked like. Anyone? Steve.

7 years, 1 month

MPE versions

by couryhouse＠aol.com

I? ?remember? giving the database? some? w/? ?Orley? Larson? ?in Brighton UK? when I was there? giving? invited? paper on? FORUM/USA.... ---Ed Sharpe In a message dated 5/7/2019 1:35:00 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes: Thanks for the awareness. TurboImage Release History - get it while available!https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c020… Keven Miller ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank McConnell via cctech" <cctech at classiccmp.org>To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>Sent: Mon 06 May 2019 05:02 PMSubject: Re: VMS versions On May 6, 2019, at 15:48, Antonio Carlini via cctalk wrote:>> On Mon, May 6, 2019, 5:17 PM Zane Healy <healyzh at avanthar.com> wrote:>>>> It would be nice to see this through 8.4-2L1 (I think that?s the latest>> version).>>>> Zane>>>> There used to be an article about OpenVMS release history, naturally it's > been wiped. Likewise, there used to be an article about MPE release history.? Links I know for it are: <http://community.hpe.com/t5/General/MPE-Release-History/td-p/4075425> (20 Aug 2014)<http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/General/MPE-Release-History/td-p/4075425> (28 Apr 2016) Naturally it?s been wiped, and archive.org *doesn?t* have a copy, even though they have other pages under that t5/General directory in both cases. -Frank McConnell

7 years, 1 month

VCF Southeast Photos

by silent700＠gmail.com

Last weekend I made an unannounced visit out to Roswell, GA to visit our brothers-and-sisters-in-hoarding at the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast. They were hosted by the new location of the Computer Museum of America, not yet open to the public. The show was a solid representation of the hobby, with a wide range of micros, minis and workstations as well as a few calculators and computing ephemera. On the museum side, I've never seen so many Crays in once place - and they're not even done yet! Here is my photo set: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aiKGadREX511xeUt5 (contains computers, computer collectors and one giant rabbit) Big thanks to Earl and the gang for putting on another great VCF and showing me that southern hospitality. More VCF Midwest news coming soon! -j

7 years, 1 month

MPE release history (was: Re: VMS versions)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: R. Stricklin > I saved a copy in 2012. ... Grab them while you still can. The tendency of links to go bad is momumental; the probability of it happening over long time periods seems to asymtotically approach 1.0. So everyone ought to make a habit of down-loading a copy of anything they have an interest in; the existence of multiple copies seems to be the best safeguard that material will not be lost. Noel

7 years, 1 month

LA50 and Computest Docs wanted

by ard.p850ug1＠gmail.com

Firstly, does anyone have the printset (schematic) for the DEC LA50 printer? It's not on Bitsavers and I can't find it anywhere else. Secondly (and more interesting/less likely to be known) I have a thing here called a 'Computest 3020'. It seems to be a luggable data logger. A case, very deep from front to back, with a carrying handle. The front hinges down and contains a keyboard, this reveals a monochrome monitor (about 9" diagonal CRT) and a pair of half-height 5.25" Teac floppy drives. Inside there's a logic board that slides in from the back. It contains a Z80A, boot ROM, 64K DRAM, a pair of 8251 USARTs (oddly, only one is brought out to a connector, there is a single DB25 on the back), Intel 8276 video chip, Western Digital FDC (I think 2797, but don't quote me!) etc. It plugs in on what seems to be separate sets of edge fingers for the floppy drives, keyboard, monitor and a 50 wire link to the motherboard that is located above this logic board. The motherboard has 8 edge connectors for '64 channel switch' PCBs (look to be analogue multiplexers, full of 4052s), a 'measurement PCB' (ADC, etc) and a 'control PCB' which I think is to control the thing you are taking measurements from, it has 3 DE9 connectors). Anyway, I can't find anything about it with Google. Manuals would be useful the software disks (which I don't have) even more so. -tony

7 years, 1 month

RT-11 doesn't recognize my 3.5" floppy

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I have installed an RQDX3 and the M9058 distribution board in my 11/23+. Since I don't have a 5.25" drive yet, I hooked up a 3.5" HD (1.44 MB) drive >from an old PC. After a struggle (which I documented on VCFED's DEC forum), I managed to get all the jumpers and cables set correctly, and now my XXDP diagnostics (ZRQA?? ... ZRQF??) recognize the drive as an RX33 (DU0:, logical drive 0 since no hard disks are attached). It passes all the tests, and I can INIT, DIR, and copy files to it using the limited OS with the XXDP suite. The LED on the RQDX3 blinks once when the drive is accessed. So far so good. But, when I boot the system (with RT-11SJ V5.01), it can't see the drive at all. Attempts to access it result in the command hanging indefinitely, the drive does not select, and the RQDX3 lamp flashes rapidly. SHOW DEV:DU does say that the handler is installed for the correct 172150, 154 location. However, SHOW DEV:DUn where n=[0..3] displays two blank lines then back to the dot prompt. Is my version of RT-11 just too old to recognize an RX-33? If so, what do I need to fix this? Presumably a later DU.SYS? Thanks for any help. Most of my experience is with PDP-8's so this is slow going... -Charles

7 years, 1 month

RCA Spectra 70 manuals on Ebay

by mattislind＠gmail.com

Maybe of interest to someone? I didn't find the Cobol manual on Bitsavers. https://www.ebay.com/itm/372663250835

7 years, 1 month

PM2390 Clock and Sector writer

by anders.k.nelson＠gmail.com

Found on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/223506026636 I suppose Kyroflux and other open-source hardware/software combos can do the same thing? -- Anders Nelson +1 (517) 775-6129 www.erogear.com

7 years, 1 month

1A ESS track writer

by aek＠bitsavers.org

https://www.ebay.com/itm/223506026636 If anyone happens to have a (probably) late model 1A ESS laying around. Note the late 80's date stamps.

7 years, 1 month

Old CE manuals

by cctalk＠emailtoilet.com

I sent a mail to Al at aek at bitsavers.org on 4/11 regarding a bunch of IBM manuals. http://www.myimagecollection.com/manuals/ Never heard back so they went into the trash. These manuals are decades older so I don't want to trash them. If Al jumps in here, fine. He can get them. Otherwise, based on timing, Bob gets them. Donald

7 years, 1 month

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