test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: 8-bitters and multi-whatever > From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> > Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:15:21 -0700 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >On 13 Sep 2007 at 13:43, Jules Richardson wrote: > >> I suppose I've always seen it as "electronically connected computers" or >> somesuch - i.e. it doesn't imply anything about what data is shared (or how), >> just that something *can* be transferred without sneakernetting information >> around. > >So my use of the acoustic-coupled modem out of a TI Silent 700 on my >MITS Altair 8800 to a CDC 6600 over phone lines was networking in >1976? I did my source prep and assembly on the mainframe and just >downloaded my programs to run them. Of course, I had to key in the >basic terminal/download code via the front panel switches, but that >wasn't a big deal. > >As far as coupling two computers together--well, that's VERY old. >Goes back to the 1950's at least and probably is older than that. At that time it was a loose term. Alohanet was one of the first that really solidified the term and application. Generally there was/are two basic classes host and client or Peer to Peer. The Altair<>CDC was more like the first than second. When I was doing it I had been attempting to have facilities not unlike VMS/DECnet. The goal was from any one machine I could connect, manage and use files from another machine and the files could exist on any enabled machine (that had the requested resource). The goal I achieved was a diskless machine could boot from one, use files from another and the actual terminal was connected to a third, plus print to a fourth machine that had the printer (and could buffer the transfer). The basic scheme was actually simple but getting CSMA/CD between my ears the hard part. It was node to node (addressed) conectivity with systems added to the net able to broadcast it's presence. The only thing was it was all and only CP/M. Allison

18 years, 9 months

Another (Language) blast from the past

by shumaker＠att.net

all caps because it's an acronym... Jule's Own Version of the International Algorythmic Language developed at SDC in Santa Monica more than a few moons ago s shumaker -------------- Original message from "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>: -------------- > I spotted this in my morning news perusal: > > "Digitization? The entire network runs on software known as Jovial, > so old there are only six programmers in the country who know how to > write it. And incredible as it seems, family minivans with NavStar > have more sophisticated location guidance than some aircraft." > > from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20724859/ > > Well, make that seven. I remember JOVIAL (it's all caps BTW). > Worked on an NWL (or maybe it was NSRDC) project in it. Anyone else? > > Cheers, > Chuck > >

18 years, 9 months

8-bitters and multi-whatever

by dm561＠torfree.net

From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Subject: Re: 8-bitters and multi-whatever On 9/11/07, Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> wrote: > There were a few simple schemes but excluding myself how many hobbiests > back then had two or more systems? >In 1982, the year you quoted for those Arcnet networks, at age 16, I >had 4 systems, a PET, a C-64, a Cosmac Elf, and a PDP-8/L <snip> >Of those, due to minimal I/O and/or functionality, >only the PET and the C-64 were "real" systems. >Since I couldn't afford an IEEE-488 disk drive, rather than just move >files back and forth on tape, basing it upon the cable and software >from a contemporary "Byte" magazine, I fabricated my own >nybble-with-handshake cable between the user ports of the PET and the >C-64, and moved stuff from one to the other over that. I might have >used serial, if I'd had an ACIA-based port for my PET (there were a >couple that sat in an expansion ROM socket), or if I'd understood more >about the nature of serial comms and crufted up my own bit-banging >routines for the PET (the C-64 had that in ROM already). I understood >parallel communications, so a nybble at a time it was. -------- You mean you didn't just make a simple cassette "null modem" cable? I still have the 30 footer that connected my upstairs "play" PET to the downstairs "work" one. Lots of people (especially schools) "networked" them that way in those distant days. mike

18 years, 9 months

8-bitters and multi-whatever

by dm561＠torfree.net

------------Original Message(s): From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Subject: Re: 8-bitters and multi-whatever On 9/12/07, Roy J. Tellason <rtellason at verizon.net> wrote: > On Wednesday 12 September 2007 14:31, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > On 9/12/07, M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> wrote: > > > From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > > > > > > >Since I couldn't afford an IEEE-488 disk drive... I fabricated my own > > > >nybble-with-handshake cable between the user ports of the PET and the > > > >C-64... > > > > > > You mean you didn't just make a simple cassette "null modem" cable? > > > Just a passive cable? Do you have any special notes, or was it just > > SAVE "FOO", 1 and LOAD "FOO", 1? > > I was wondering if you'd want the ",1" in there or not myself. In this case, the '1' is to designate cassette drive 1 (PETs have two, C-64s have one). It's probably optional, but I included it out of habit. -ethan ============= Reply: And of course there's the venerable Shift Run/Stop sequence; I wonder at what point that changed from loading the first tape program to the first one on disk.. m

18 years, 9 months

8-bitters and multi-whatever

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: RE: 8-bitters and multi-whatever > From: "Rod Smallwood" <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> > Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:06:42 +0100 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > >I worked at DEC in '82 at the UK HQ (Decpark) >I'm sure we had more than 50 nodes in the UK alone. >The SET HOST list went on forever. > >Rod Smallwood I used to have the netmap for DECnet/DEC for around '82 and it was by all accounts there at DEC the largest network on the planet but the total node count wasn't that high. The second largest was a DEC custormer Dupont at around 50 nodes. A large portion were phase III nodes. Huge contrast to 1988ish when people started subnetting DECnet as the phase IV address scheme had run out of space. Allison

18 years, 9 months

When it rains, it pours

by aek＠bitsavers.org

William's load came in on Monday, now these just arrived. http://bitsavers.org/microdata/reality Five Microdata Reality systems.

18 years, 9 months

8-bitters and multi-whatever

by pcoghlan+cctech＠vms.eurokom.ie

On 13/09/2007 00:10, Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> wrote: >On 12/09/2007 20:03, Roy J. Tellason wrote: > > On Wednesday 12 September 2007 14:31, Ethan Dicks wrote: > >> On 9/12/07, M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> wrote: > > >>> You mean you didn't just make a simple cassette "null modem" cable? > > >> Until you mentioned it now, I never would have thought of it. > > > I never heard of that either, until I read it in that post... > >ISTR there was some Commodore diagnostic software that you could >transfer that way, and we certainly used the same technique to transfer >diagnostics from a BBC Micro with a disk drive to cassette-based >machines we were testing or repairing. That would be around 1982-85. >We put resistors in the cables to get the levels right. > I went one step further than that. I bought a couple of telephone line isolating transformers with a view to building some modems from magazine projects so that I could exchange programs with a friend who, like myself, had a BBC micro. I took a long time to get around to building the modems but in the meantime, I experimented with hooking the cassette port on the BBC to a phone line via a transformer and put in place a similar setup at my friends house. We used phones to make the initial connection and then switched in the transformers and issued LOAD and SAVE commands to transfer data. It was difficult to get everything synchronised correctly. Block numbers were displayed at the receiving end when data was being received but the sending end had no idea if things were working or not and the voice channel was not available while attempting transfers. As far as I recall though, we did manage to successfully transfer files at 300 baud but we didn't persue the idea further because of the slowness of the transfers and difficulty of setting everything up, not to mention the possibility of an error when transferring a large file requiring us to restart from the beginning. Regards, Peter.

18 years, 9 months

Zen and the art of RL02 maintainance

by derschjo＠msu.edu

Just picked up an RL02 for a song. It's a bit beat up looking, but it seems pretty clean inside, so far. It's kind of a moot point at the moment, since I have no disk packs, cabling, or interface boards (so I can't use the darned thing until I complete a scavenger hunt...) but I'm wondering what I should check out on this machine before I power it on & (eventually) start using it... Any suggestions? Thanks! Josh

18 years, 9 months

8-bitters and multi-whatever

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

I worked at DEC in '82 at the UK HQ (Decpark) I'm sure we had more than 50 nodes in the UK alone. The SET HOST list went on forever. Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Roy J. Tellason Sent: 12 September 2007 20:46 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: 8-bitters and multi-whatever On Wednesday 12 September 2007 15:08, Sridhar Ayengar wrote: > Roy J. Tellason wrote: > >>> I know of ARCnet, went to a short seminar on that once at a trade > >>> show, and in fact even have a couple of ISA cards around here > >>> someplace, though I don't forsee me ever using them. > >> > >> ARCnet and most of the 'nets were in the price range of a hard disk > >> then. Also the whole idea of networking was new. For example in > >> 1982 the two largest networks I knew of were DEC (internal) and > >> Dupont(internal) and they were around 50 nodes! > > > > I remember those days, thinking of 50 nodes as being pretty good-sized. > > :-) > > IBM's internal network was significantly larger than that by '82. 8-) Of that I have no doubt! :-) -- Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters" - Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James M Dakin

18 years, 9 months

Catweasel NorthStar testers wanted

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi, I have been working more on the Catweasel NorthStar project. After much searching, I have found the source of the apparent sector errors while reading good disks and have prepared a new version correcting the bugs. It can now read both of my test disks and make images without errors. Here is a sample of an image I have made of a disk from 1985 which came with my restored NorthStar Horizon: http://www.geocities.com/lynchaj/CWNS-vintage.zip The CWNS project really could use some testers now. It can only make disk images of NorthStar hard sector single sided double density disks (SSDD). You'll need a working Catweasel to use it. Of course, some highly skilled developers would be greatly appreciated as well. Next up on the agenda: Make program read and process individual sectors rather than whole tracks Support more NorthStar hard sector disk formats (ie, DSDD, SSSD, etc) The program is still not ready for public release so any volunteers will have to request the program from me. Please contact me off list. Thanks! Andrew Lynch

18 years, 9 months

FS: Toshiba T1100+ laptop

by charlesmorris＠hughes.net

I'd like to sell a Toshiba T-1100 Plus laptop I've had for a long time but don't need. According to this interesting article http://www.itworld.com/Comp/1355/050420toshibalaptop/ it's considerably over 10 years old, and probably over 20, so hopefully this is the right forum to post this ;) Anyway it has an 8088 processor, 640K RAM ("...should be enough for anyone" according to Bill Gates), two 3.5" floppy drives, an 80x25 monochrome LCD display, built-in modem (probably 1200 baud but maybe faster), AC adapter and the carrying bag. It comes with a Toshiba MS-DOS 3.20 disk and boots up to the A> prompt and will list the directory of that disk. That's as far as I tested it. The internal D-cell NiCd batteries I replaced several years ago with brand-new ones from Mouser and then let it sit, gathering dust... they did take a charge and will run the machine on batteries. I'd like to find it a good home. I figure the fairest way, assuming more than one person is interested ;) is to make "silent auction" bids. Please let me know. thanks Charles

18 years, 9 months

DEC 874D power controller

by oldcpu2＠rogerwilco.org

Charles said: > Does anyone have the schematic for an 874-D power controller? > Or better yet, a good used circuit breaker? Well I don't have a breaker, but at least you can check the print set for the details. I also recently needed to examine the schematic, and found it at: http://www.vt100.net/manx/details/1,3467 > At least one of the three (ganged) breakers is internally flaky > and will turn off if the handle is pushed upward all the way to > "ON" (they work if the handle row is carefully lifted just far > enough but obviously that is not reliable). You're right, not very reliable. > It looks like the (original-type) Heinemann breakers are available > from Newark, and similar ones from Mouser that will probably fit, > but they are *very* expensive new... Well, I haven't checked the prices, but you may find reasonable success by getting another 874D unit. I just saw one trade hands on eBay for around $20. - Jared

18 years, 9 months

One seriously modded C64!

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

This is one impressive series of mod's to turn the C64 into part of a music studio. http://www.bigmech.com/misc/c64mods/ 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, 9 months

Jaguar Blaster (was Re: Ancient 8086/80286 unixes?)

by jba＠sdf.lonestar.org

> There was also an Atari Jaguar on an PCI card, Creative Labs' "Jaguar > Blaster". > > They seem to be pretty thin on the ground though, I'd love to get > one.... The only mention I've ever seen anywhere of a Jaguar Blaster card is here: http://justclaws.atari.org/altatari/dxnews.htm Read some of the other items, and you'll soon get the idea that the stories aren't exactly true. Actually, there was a Jaguar-on-a-PCI-card project called JagPC that was at least announced by Sigma Designs. I don't think a prototype ever existed, but I could be wrong. Jaguars were pretty good 2D pixel-pushers, and would have made a respectable graphics card for the time period. -Jeff jba at sdf.lonestar.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

18 years, 9 months

Spanish speaker for spanish radio interview?

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Does anyone speak fluent Spanish? If so, there's a spanish-language radio station in Florida that wants to do a 7 minute interview about vintage computers today at 2:15PM (Eastern). Contact me ASAP if you'd like to do this and you speak Spanish. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

18 years, 9 months

PS/2 webserver

by lproven＠gmail.com

Merely curious. Does anyone know of any IBM PS/2 machines - the proper Microchannel ones - hosting websites today? I know of a number of very old Macs doing so, including a Mac Plus with a website on floppy, machines running System 6 and AU/X. I've even visited a website hosted on a Commodore 64, I seem to recall. But never a PS/2 one. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com ? MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk ? Skype: liamproven ? ICQ: 73187508

18 years, 9 months

8-bitters and multi-whatever

by dm561＠torfree.net

From: Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> Subject: Re: 8-bitters and multi-whatever <snip> >CP/M or most other OSs for non 8080/z80 could easily be fooled into >redirecting disk IO to a serial port. Though CP/M was modular enough >and most widespread it was most often hacked that way. There is >however no rule that says a OS must talk to a disk as storage and once >that is clear then it's easy to cobble up a packet protocal that transmits >the needed data across a serial or parallel port to a willing and enabled >host. Some systems like the big S100 crates or multibus running MPM used >the bus and some common memory so that multiple CPUs typically z80 with >128k ram, rom and serial IO plus a bus interface and memory manangement >for off board memeory. MPM would be the server and CP/M would be the >local cpus that users interacted with. It wasn't seen often as it was >expensive to ahve the hardware and the average hobbiest at the time >rarely had more than one fully functional system and maybe a SBC >of the KIM-1, EVK68, AIM65 or SDK85 level. ============== Don't forget about external RS-232 Network hubs, like the NetCommanders et al; I had 12 AIM65s and two Cromemcos at a factory site talking to each other back in those days. Also, some of the PC local net software could use the parallel and ethernet ports as well as RS-232 and bridge among them for a peer-peer net, or a client-server model using an external hub. Now there's a question, whether Interserver can handle multiple Interlink clients (one at a time of course); anybody ever try it? mike

18 years, 9 months

Nova 4 has been claimed

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

The Nova 4 that I posted about needing a new home has been claimed. Thanks! I'm sure you'll hear some stories from the new owner in a couple weeks. -- 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, 9 months

Wang 300 Calc --> 0/1 power labels

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

There's a less often used way of avoiding this problem. It's the use of 'one' as in 'If one wants to learn to fly then one should go to a good school' Rod -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Fred Cisin Sent: 11 September 2007 23:05 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Wang 300 Calc --> 0/1 power labels > Oh, FFS! > Hint: the word "you" in colloquial English usage does not always refer > directly to an individual or to the person being addressed. > For example: "If you want to learn to fly a plane, you have to > demonstrate good vision and a degree of numeracy". This would be a > perfectly reasonable statement in a magazine or newspaper article, > without any implication that every reader of that journal is an > aspiring pilot. When you use the "impersonal YOU", you run a risk of offending those who take it personally.

18 years, 9 months

HP 2624B terminal on ebay

by silent700＠gmail.com

Not mine, just thought it rare enough to be worth a link: Item 110169093514 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110169093514

18 years, 9 months

[SPAM(date)] Re: What's the difference between an ARM1 and ARM2?

by stevew＠ka6s.com

Tony Duell asked about the difference between the two processors - here is what I found after a little google work; Steve The stuff below was brazenly copied from: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=ARM2 "As soon as the ARM1 project was completed, work began on its successor, the ARM2, which later in 1985 became the first commercially available RISC processor. This processor was intended to correct some problems noted with the first design, and was aimed specifically for use in the Acorn Archimedes series of personal computers. While the ARM1 was a success as far as it went, there were some performance problems which needed to be fixed before it could be realistically used in the Archimedes. One of the key problems was a lack of hardware multiply support. This led to a software routine being used to do multiplication, using shifts and adds, which was "horribly slow", according to Steve Furber. This was fixed in the ARM2, by adding two instructions: MUL (multiply) and MLA (multiply with accumulate). These allowed the ARM2 to be realistically used for mathematical calculation, and very simple digital signal processing, in particular generating synthesised sound. Another issue which still affects most ARM processors even today is the lack of floating point hardware. Acorn decided to address this problem by adding hardware co-processor support to the ARM2, and at a later date intended to ship an optional floating point accelerator. Ultimately, the ARM2 FPA was never produced, despite demand from the Acorn user community: the first hardware FP came as an option with the ARM3 powered A5000, and around the same time a third party ARM3 and FPA upgrade was marketed by Simtec for all Archimedes computers. Finally, the design team noted that banking only registers R10 to R15 in fast interrupt mode was slightly over-frugal, and added R8 and R9 to that list. This increased performance of the very common FIQ by lowering memory accesses to stack registers. The ARM2 was manufactured at a slightly smaller fabrication size than the ARM1, 2.5?m as opposed to 3.5?m, had just over 25,000 transistors, and ran at 8MHz."

18 years, 9 months

Computer rescue

by oldcpu2＠rogerwilco.org

William Maddox said: > it on such short notice during the week, however all > worked out well in the end. I have some pictures of > the "haul" as > it arrived in San Jose up at www.ddp116.org . Wow! Very, very nice haul. Whatever the expense was, it sure looks like you got your money's worth. Is this system going to be on display somewhere during VCMX timeframe? I don't know if it is going to live in the warehouse where it was deposited by the truck, but it sure would be fun to have a closeup view of the system, blinking lights preferred! ;-) Or, not, even. Congrats on saving a great collection! - Jared

18 years, 9 months

Computer rescue

by oldcpu2＠rogerwilco.org

18 years, 9 months

Moto MVME121 paper

by g-wright＠att.net

-------------- Original message from "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>: -------------- > Under the heading of "where did *that* come from?", I've stumbled on > a loose leaf binder from Motorola titled "MVME121 System Hardware > Manual". There are several publications within, but the bulk of the > binder's taken up by a document called "MVME319 Intelligent Disk/Tape > Controller User's Manual", which contains all sorts of detail, > including principles of operation, command layouts and schematics. > Circa 1986. > > A customer must've sent it to me; I have no use for it. Anyone want > it for the cost of shipping? > > Cheers, > Chuck > Hi Chuck If you have not found a home for this, I will take it. Jerry Wright JLC inc. 1517 So Central Ave Kent, Wa. 98032 Just let me know how much and where to send it. - Jerry

18 years, 9 months

Free: PowerMac 6500/250 (UK)

by classiccmp.org＠stellar.eclipse.co.uk

Any interest in this? It's just come from a customer of mine who's had it from new, with compatible inkjet printer, o/s disks & virtual PC. If I don't hear any responses it'll go on the local Freecycle when I've shredded the disk, but I thought I'd offer here first. Stroller.

18 years, 9 months

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