Marvin Johnston writes:
And that said, how many people will be attending this years VCF at the
Computer
History Museum in Mountain View? I have very much enjoyed being able to put
faces with names, and it is a great social event as well as being
educational!
Since I have a great deal of stuff to sell, I plan on bringing as much as I
can
with me :). It will be *wonderful* when I get the workbenches cleared off
and I
have enough time and room to work with this stuff again.
--------------------
I thought you were making progress with the TRW and Livermore swap meets.
That's a couple of loads a month!
Yes, I will be at Mountain View. And have already lined up a couple of
people who want to see some of the old CDC machines I have. They are too
heavy for the VCF, but can have visitors out to the house.
Won't have much to sell. What is the VCF policy anyway? Can you do some
dealing during the show? Or is it strictly show with the dealing outside or
offline some where? If you can sell, what is the cost for a booth or table?
Billy
The Minimig:
http://home.hetnet.nl/~weeren001/minimig.html
I've read about this before but it all appears to be working now.
Impressive achievement, I feel.
--
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
>
>Subject: Re: 8085 vs 8085A
> From: "Steven Canning" <cannings at earthlink.net>
> Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 01:11:07 -0700
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I was looking through my collection yesterday and was testing out an old
>> Intel SDK85 system. I noticed the main processor is stamped 8085, which
>> means this chip is either an 8085 or the "A" was not printed properly and
>> the chip is really an 8085A.
>>
>> I have a few 8085 systems and a box of 8085 CPUs. I checked them all and
>> every one of them is an 8085A. I don't think I have ever seen an 8085,
>> they've all been 8085A types.
>>
>> Other than the stamp on the chip, is there anyway I can tell the
>difference
>> between an 8085 and an 8085A? Furthermore, is the 8085 rare, and I should
>> put the chip away, or is it nothing special?
>>
>> Why did Intel bring out the 8085A? Were there issues with the 8085?
>>
>> Seeyuzz
>> River
>
>
>There were multiple versions of 8085 microprocessors. The original version
>of the 8085 microprocessor without suffix "A" was manufactured by Intel
>only, and was very quickly replaced with 8085A containing bug fixes. A few
>years after that, around 1980, Intel introduced 8085AH - HMOS version of
>8085A. There was also 80C85A - CMOS version of the 8085A. It's not clear if
>80C85 was ever manufactured by Intel or not, but it was produced by at least
It was. Supposededly the 8085 was used to proto the intel CMOS process
for the 80C48 and 80C188 and later parts.
>two second source manufacturers - OKI and Tundra Semiconductor. Tundra
>Semiconductor manufactured the fastest 8085 microprocessor running at 8 MHz.
I have a few 8mhz intel 8085AH-2s (16mhz clock crystal) HMOSII, those are
scarce but do exist. Intel did make the 8085AH (HMOSII) at 6mhz as well.
>Second source manufacturers: AMD, Mitsubishi, NEC, OKI, Siemens, Toshiba.
I have parts from all of them. I find the 8085 and Z80 to be good workhorse
8 bitters. Both enjoyed long sales lives.
Allison
>Best regards, Steven C.
>
>
>
>Subject: 8085 vs 8085A
> From: "river" <river at zip.com.au>
> Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:48:21 +1000
> To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>Hi,
>
>I was looking through my collection yesterday and was testing out an old
>Intel SDK85 system. I noticed the main processor is stamped 8085, which
>means this chip is either an 8085 or the "A" was not printed properly and
>the chip is really an 8085A.
>
>I have a few 8085 systems and a box of 8085 CPUs. I checked them all and
>every one of them is an 8085A. I don't think I have ever seen an 8085,
>they've all been 8085A types.
>
>Other than the stamp on the chip, is there anyway I can tell the difference
>between an 8085 and an 8085A? Furthermore, is the 8085 rare, and I should
>put the chip away, or is it nothing special?
8085 (non A) is not rare but I have no data in my library for intel
to suggest any differnce between the non-A and the A part.
>Why did Intel bring out the 8085A? Were there issues with the 8085?
8085 was 1977 and the 8085A from what I have was soon before! Date
codes suggest late 1977 (week 52 1977) for one 8085A. I suspect
the differnces are processing only and they are interchangeable.
I should note that I only have a few intel 8085s in ceramic and
8085As in both ceramic and plastic. So there may be insignificant
process differnces. Also only the 8085A appears elsewhere (NEC, AMD)
so the upgrade may be a license issue.
Allison
>
>Seeyuzz
>River
>
At 07:01 AM 8/9/2007, Liam Proven wrote:
>I've tried to make a couple of points which seem to have sunk unnoticed.
>While you're all happily arguing about the comparative virtues of
>various models of generator, I have pointed out that there are already
>very large-scale computer shows happening in the UK on a regular
>basis: the commercial LAN parties.
Yes, you're right - classic computers can tag along at many sorts
of events. I recently attended the Midwest Gaming Classic:
http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/
Most of the place was jammed with delightful old pinball and
stand-up arcade machines, and exhibitors selling parts to
rebuild the same, but they also had a side event with a
display of many 70s and 80s PCs and gaming consoles.
It was quite well done. There were many models I hadn't seen in
person before. Some were running, some under glass. The web
site reminds me that at least
And both the young kids and the old-timers seemed to be enjoying
that part of the exhibit. (I was baffled to see my own boys
(9, 10, 12) to spend a half hour cheerfully playing Doom on
a network of old G3 Macs.)
It was held in several ballrooms of a hotel / conference center.
Loading docks were available and apparently they handled the
power concerns.
For the non-USAians, Oconomowoc (pop. 12,000, my old home town)
is about 30 minutes from Milwaukee (pop. ~1.7M region) in the Midwest.
Exhibitors and attendees drew from Chicago as well, roughly two hours away.
Gaming is huge, and there's always a game or two you can run on
a classic machine, so there's historical overlap and I'm sure
the gamers would be very receptive. Retro is cool and you guys
are holding the keys.
- John
This is getting boring!
American law stops at the twelve mile limit anyway.
Unless somebody has a trademark registered in the UK then this whole
thing is nonsense.
If somebody wants to organize shall we say an 'Elderly Electronics Expo'
in the UK then good.
Rod Smallwood
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Liam Proven
Sent: 09 August 2007 12:47
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: UK VCF or equivalent
On 07/08/07, Gordon JC Pearce <gordon at gjcp.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-08-06 at 16:28 -0700, Sellam Ismail wrote:
>
> Incidentally:
>
> > *IF* you put on an event of your own and choose to call it the
> > "Vintage Computer Festival", *THEN* I will bury your event. Do what
> > you like, but find your own name.
>
> This is why I wouldn't call it VCF or have anything to do with the US
> VCFs in any case. The mere fact that someone has enough ego to go
> "It's
> *MY* name and if you use it I'll *crush* you, muahahahaha" puts me off
> any further involvement.
Actually, you have my pretty much complete agreement on that point.
Saying "look, it's my name, I run a business, please talk to me about
using it", fine, no problem.
Saying "it's mine, you want to steal it, I will hunt you down" - well,
that bespeaks some very poor things about the person making the
statement.
--
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
Hi all --
My dad's had an IME 86s calculator in his office for years, since he rescued
it from his school's surplus sale a dozen years back. Cool old desktop
unit: 16 nixie tubes for the display, and a square root function! :)
He's interested in finding a copy of the manual for it -- anyone out there
have a lead?
Thanks in advance...
Josh
Ok, back again to clear up some misperceptions.
1) Yes, I am subscribed to the list, but I have message delivery turned
off. I still just don't have time to plow through the dozens of messages
a day this list generates. I really would like to re-join the discussion
as a regular but time prevents this.
2) I do scan the archives regularly to see what people are discussing.
>From time to time I chime in. Invariably, someone (willfully or
otherwise) misinterprets what I say, and chaos ensues. Sigh.
3) Gordon Pearce:
> I would call it something completely different if I was going to run
> one. If people are going to get all precious about their valuable
> trademarks then sod 'em.
I'm not getting "precious". I've put a lot of time, energy and MONEY into
developing the Vintage Computer Festival. If someone wants to put on an
event that celebrates vintage computers, fine! More power to you!!! Just
don't use the name "Vintage Computer Festival" unless it's actually
organized under the tutelage of the VCF.
*IF* you put on an event of your own and choose to call it the "Vintage
Computer Festival", *THEN* I will bury your event. Do what you like, but
find your own name.
> Sellam, if you're so enthusiastic as to set up a "rival" VCF to spite
> someone setting up a VCF-a-like, why not just set up a VCF in the UK?
I would love to, Gordon. Perhaps you'd like to offer to be the local
coordinator?
As I've said numerous times previously (why do some people seem to miss
this part?) I am always happy to expand the VCF to locations throughout
the world, where ever there is enough interest to have an event where
enough people will attend to justify the enormous commitment of time and
money that is involved. I will share with you my hard won experience and
secrets in pulling off a successful event, share my large list of contacts
to help book speakers, help attract and organize exhibitors and vendors,
get the word out through the VCF mailing list, help with advertising, and
even help with financing.
4) Jules Richardson:
> I suspect a lot of people will underestimate the time, money and effort
> needed to organise and promote something like this. Anything making that
> a little easier seems invaluable.
Indeed. Between the first two events I lost something like US$5,000.
Aside from some occasional monetary sponsorship throughout the years
(totalling maybe US$3,000) the event is completely financed by me and/or
the local coordinators. The key is to find a venue sponsor: i.e. someone
that would be willing to give you a space to hold the event for free or
for very cheap. Otherwise, the admission you have to charge regular
attendees and the fees you would have to charge exhibitors and vendors
would be too high. Even in the early days I didn't believe charging too
much for admission because I want as many people to attend as possible.
Admission to the VCF has always been cheap (I think the most ever charged
was $15 per person per day).
The matter of TIME is the bigger expense. People don't realize how many
little things need to get done, and how all those little things add up to
hours and days and sometimes weeks of time.
As an aside, I've had numerous discussions with Jules and Adrian Graham
over the years regarding a VCF UK, but so far the stars have not aligned
properly due to various issues and constraints (usually those dealing with
TIME).
All it takes is one person to say, "I will do it". Once that happens,
the ball starts rolling: a date is selected, an announcement is made, and
then it's just a matter of filling the blanks. So, again, if anyone is
interested, just say the magic phrase ;)
--
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 ]
According to a book I just read, the model of the fuse used on the German WWII V-1 Flying Bombs
was the "Z80A."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Got a little couch potato?
Check out fun summer activities for kids.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&…
Hi,
I am restoring some S-100 boards and am looking for documentation.
Specifically, for these S-100 boards:
Bob Mullen TB-1 (bus extender with logic probe)
Morrow's Microstuff MMSP2 (serial/parallel ports)
Measurement Systems and Controls Inc, Model DMB-6400 (64K DRAM)
Matrox ALT 512-AS (video graphics)
VectorGraphics Flash-Writer (video text, *not* the Flash-Writer II)
If anyone has documentation, especially schematics, for any or all of
the above, please contact me. I think Herb as one of them which I
will be ordering soon but the rest appear to be unavailable on the
internet as best I can tell.
I am able to scan documentation so if you have paper copies and could
either make a copy or send me the original and I will return it as you
request. I will pay for shipping, handling fees, as appropriate etc.
Your help is much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Andrew Lynch
PS, I posted this on comp.os.cpm but no responses yet. I will send any
copies I get to the usual S-100 archives assuming I get sender's permission
to do so.
>
> If Bletchley Park might be able to do a VCF in two or three years
>> time, maybe we could do something much simpler in the mean time,
>> without using the VCF name. Just a get together of anyone in the UK
>> with an interest in old computers and hopefully a few who would want
>> to exhibit theirs. Who would be interested and about how much space,
>> if any would they want?
>
>
> My thoughts were developing along the same lines, the key question
> surely is
> numbers.
7 replies so far from the UK.
> How many do we think would attend, and could some core events be
> lined up to to ensure a worthwhile experience? I'm thinking here of
> the
> datacentre visits that (I think) were run from VCF Europe last year
I see. Probably the biggest concentration of these in the UK is still
central London, though I'm out of touch with that side of things.
> and the involvement of industry alumni that the US events have
> enjoyed.
Many of the real pioneers (who are still alive) are in the Computer
Conservation Society. Maybe we could involve them, I am a member but
I don't attend meetings (except one as a speaker).
> It's not like we don't have a few home-grown pioneers - Clive
> Sinclair and various Acorn people spring to mind.
Ah, you're talking more modern pioneers, ones of the microprocessor
era. Yes indeed. Alan Sugar's probably free now :-) Just kidding. Do
we have any contacts or ideas on how to contact them? Isn't it Sir
Clive now by the way, we don't want to put anyone's nose out of joint
>from the first contact.
Roger.
Does anyone make an interface card that will permit a "thumb drive" to be
addressed by the classic machines?
Some time ago, I had a sound card on my Packard-Bell 486SX20 machine. It
plugged into the motherboard. There was no specific provision for it in the
BIOS, but the CD-ROM connected to it acted like a "D" drive from Windows
3.1. I don't remember ever trying to access it from DOS, though.
Perhaps, instead of being plugged into the motherboard, this interface could
have the hard drive's ribbon cable plugged into it.
Does anyone make such a beast?
OK, branching off another thread. There probably aren't many, but there are
a few clones that I'd consider "interesting." I'd say the PCjr counts, it
was a pretty strange system - the unsuccessful IIgs of the PC world. Sidecar
expansion slots, IR keyboard and cartridges...
The last of the PS/2's had some strange designs. The 95 was really strange -
a fold-out power supply design with a spring loaded plunger power supply
connector. C2 level hardware, which meant if you forgot the BIOS password
you're SOL. I'd count the whole MCA based PS/2 line as a string of oddities
in the PC world.
There were some really odd Japanese designs as well. My favorite is the FM
Townes, which was a hybrid PC and game console. It ran a proprietary OS, but
could run language-localized Windows. It also had an oddball graphics system
that could overlay multiple screen modes over each other, so you could play
full-motion video games with text overlay.
"Jerome H. Fine" <jhfinedp3k at compsys.to> skrev:
> Hopefully, this request is clear enough to be understood. Both the
> software and the hardware portion of the questions are independently
> important, so please answer one aspect even if you can't help with
> the other.
>
> Over the past 30 years of using PDP-11 software (RT-11 over 95%)
> and hardware, I have never had occasion to use a Unibus system with
> more than 256 KB of memory (such as a PDP-11/34).
>
> I would appreciate help in understanding the Unibus Map hardware which
> (if I understand its purpose correctly) is to convert 18 bit addresses given
> to a Unibus controller into 22 bit addresses for real physical memory for
> systems like a PDP-11/84 and perform DMA from / to the hard drive.
>
> Also helpful would be an explanation of the related software used under
> RT-11 along with exactly where the Unibus Map hardware is located
> on a real DEC system (on the CPU board I presume) since the identical
> CPU board is used for both the Qbus and the Unibus with both the
> PDP-11/84 and the PDP-11/94.
I can't answer how RT-11 do things, but I can explain the hardware side of it.
First of all, the Unibus map is not in the CPU board of the 11/84 and 11/94.
It's on the Unibus adapter. KT-whatever.
The whole thing works in a rather simple way, actually. All Unibus devices do
DMA to an 18-bit address. That can never change, so think of this 256 K of
memory as a separate memory area, that don't correspond to your actual physical
memory. It's all fake.
Then divide this whole 256K into 32 equal sized pieces. That will give you 32
pieces of 8K memory ranges. The same as a page on a PDP-11, but that's not that
relevant. :-)
Now, when a device will do DMA, it will do DMA to one, or several of these 32
pages. So you'll have an 18-bit address, of which the high 5 bits tells you
which "page" it will go to. The Unibus Map have 32 registers. One for each of
these "pages". So the high 5 bits of the 18-bit DMA address will select a
register in the Unibus map. The Unibus map will in turn give you a 16-bit value
>from this. This will be the high 16 bits of a 22-bit memory address. The 13 low
bits of the DMA address is added to this 22-bit address to give the final
physical address to do DMA to.
So, in essence, what a driver will do when a Unibus map is present, is to find
some free Unibus map registers (free in the meaning that no other driver is
using them, so you need to keep track of these, as a resource). Or you could
statically allocate some map registers for your driver, if you prefer, and if
all drivers combined don't need more than 31 map registers (I think that the
last register might not be usable, but I'm not sure. It basically gives a
mapping for what otherwise is the I/O page).
Once a driver have decided which map register to use, that will decide what
18-bit address range to use for the DMA. So the 18-bit address is calculated
>from the physical address truncated, and the address for the range covered by
the map register. The map register is loaded with the corresponding physical
address high bits, and then you fire the I/O.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
I remember the Havant IBM Disk plant.
I went on a visit there once.
It was one enormous clean room.
The drives they made had a name - something like Eagle, Sparrow or Wren
Rod
-----Original Message-----
From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Sridhar Ayengar
Sent: 08 August 2007 04:05
To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: IBM "Type 0667" ESDI disk information?
jim wrote:
> Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
>
>> Mr Ian Primus wrote:
>>
> Is there any country of origin on the 667? There was a division in
> Havant that manufactured drives in this time frame, that IBM sold to
> the plant managers, that is now Xyratex.
If memory serves, those series were made in several different places,
including California and Mexico. Probably one or two other places too.
Peace... Sridhar
Well, I did some checking, and my one vax does _not_
have an Emulex ESDI controller - it's a Dilog. I
downloaded the manual from Bitsavers. I'm going to
start playing with it and see if I can get it to
format some of these spare ESDI disks.
One disk I have a couple of is this IBM drive. It's
labeled as "P/N 90X8528 70MB ESDI", and on the side as
"Type: 0667". Googleing has turned up little, although
I found some info on cyls/heads/sectors. There is a
block of dip switches on the drive, and it would be
nice to figure out what they do...
-Ian
I'm going to risk the rath, but I just know someone on this list has
delt with this.
After replacing my Ryobi 14.4v nicd charger 2 times (yes 2), I discovered
I have a dead battery and it's killing the charger(s). Apparently it can
do this rather quickly, as I only left it on the charger for about an hour.
(one web site says it only takes a matter of minutes - apparently the cheapo
charger does not protect itself)
So, ok. Since I have 2 dead ones I might as well try to fix it. It just
as a simple circuit board with a rectifier, 4 devices, 3 leds and bunch
of discretes.
Q1 A1015 PNP transistor (2SA1015)
Q2 2N3904 NPN transistor
Q3 XL08 ST 40 .8A SCRS
Q4 X0403DE ST SCR
Anyone ever fix one? what fails?
I'm going to guess the big to-225 style SCR failef, since I'll bet that
modulates the current to the battery.
-brad
I have a Heath controller board, 85-2222-1. I think that's an RX01 or RX02
controller for DEC. I was using it with my Shugart 801. Anyone know what it
actually is and if it has any value?
-T
-----
205. [Philosophy] Life: a sexually transmitted disease that is fatal.
--... ...-- -.. . -. ----. --.- --.- -...
tpeters at nospam.mixcom.com (remove "nospam") N9QQB (amateur radio)
"HEY YOU" (loud shouting) WEB: http://www.mixweb.com/tpeters
43? 7' 17.2" N by 88? 6' 28.9" W, Elevation 815', Grid Square EN53wc
WAN/LAN/Telcom Analyst, Tech Writer, MCP, CCNA, Registered Linux User 385531
> Message: 11
> From: Adrian Burgess <classiccmp at discordance.org.uk>
> Subject: Re: UK Classic Computer event (Was VCF UK)
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
>> Can we have a quick poll to see who lives where?
>
> Half way between Nottingham and Lincoln.
>
UK, Aldershot, Hampshire
Mike.
I should know this, but I can't easily find the answer...
I have a BBC B+ with (1770)DFS (V2.x)( and ADFS (V3.5x) (or at least I
think those version numbers are right). It is cabled up to a single 80
cylinder double-sided disk drive.
I wish to read some files of a 40 cylinder (DFS) disk. I seem to remember
there was a command that would cause the drive to double-step, but only
allow reading. What is it?
-tony
Hi,
I was looking through my collection yesterday and was testing out an old
Intel SDK85 system. I noticed the main processor is stamped 8085, which
means this chip is either an 8085 or the "A" was not printed properly and
the chip is really an 8085A.
I have a few 8085 systems and a box of 8085 CPUs. I checked them all and
every one of them is an 8085A. I don't think I have ever seen an 8085,
they've all been 8085A types.
Other than the stamp on the chip, is there anyway I can tell the difference
between an 8085 and an 8085A? Furthermore, is the 8085 rare, and I should
put the chip away, or is it nothing special?
Why did Intel bring out the 8085A? Were there issues with the 8085?
Seeyuzz
River