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101090 discussions

anyone got xylogic terminal server cables?

by legalize＠xmission.com

I have a terminal server (NIB) but it didn't come with any of the cabling for connecting a gaggle of serial devices to the server. I could always make one, but its pretty tedious. I'd consider buying them for a reasonable price from someone who has some they're not using. Thanks! -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>

19 years, 7 months

New monitors on old machines

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I have a question. I'm getting a Tandy 2000 that doesn't have a color monitor (it comes with a VM-1 monochrome). I've read that you could use a third-party (i.e., non-Tandy) color monitor like the old NEC Multi-Sync, but I was wondering if a modern VGA monitor could be used if I made a 9-pin to 15-pin adapter. Thanks for any hints. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator Web site: <http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/> http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ Web site: http://www.altair32.com/ /***************************************************/

19 years, 7 months

new email for william donzelli?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Anyone know if William Donzelli change his email address? Everything I send there bounces... Jay

19 years, 7 months

Discussion of large systems

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 2 Nov, 2006, at 18:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > The Versatec V80 electrostatic printer is another odd beast -- it > builds up a charge image on special paper and then flows liquid toner > over it (yes, I have one, and not just beacuae it was one printer > supported on the PERQ). We used to have a V80 on long term loan from Versatec so we could develop a 'GreenSheet' interface card for the NuBus slots in the older Macs along with driver software to drive their wide (up to six foot) electrostatic and Laser printers. It never gave us any problems, so few moving parts to give trouble. I wonder, can you still get the bottles of toner or do you mix your own? On the subject of peripherals, my 1301 has a card reader, card punch, line printer, paper tape reader (Elliott type) and a non standard paper tape punch (Teletype BRPE). I'm not sure if the drums really count as peripherals, but I have two connected, 12000 words by 48 bits and of course the mag tape drives from my recent e-mail. The second machine has card reader, card punch, printer, one drum and more tape decks (13 in total). More modern, I have an Apple Imagewriter 2 and some of the older Apple parallel printers made by C.Itoh to connect to the Apple 3 and the Lisa. Shortly before I joined the list we chucked out one of the original Apple Laserwriters and their DaisyWheel printer. They both still worked but took up too much space (and the LaserWriter made a lot of Ozone). If anyone has one of the old HP electrostatics printers (A1 size or D size to the guys in the states), I still have some bits from it, the ink pump, the big transformer and some rollers. I have quite a few manuals for pen plotters and some printers from the eighties if anyone is lacking a manual for their plotter.

19 years, 7 months

Classiccmp Wiki

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Jim Battle <frustum at pacbell.net> wrote: > aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk wrote: > ... > > Can we *please* stop acting like kids? As I > > figure (forgive me if I'm wrong) it most of you > > guys are in your 50's/60's. The only exceptions > > I know of are myself (27, before you ask) > > and Cameron Kaiser (Cameron, I got a copy > > of Robert Bernardo's footage from both > > CommVEx 2005 & 2006 and would like to say > > that even though I don't own a C64 I love > > the intro to Geotrope). > > > > Andrew -- > > There are many people (hundreds) under 50 on this > list. A couple years > ago there was a thread about demographics. You > should also be aware > that there are > 1000 people on the list, even if > most don't post very > often. > Ahhh, ok. *feels this >< big* I didn't know the list had >1000 members. I thought it was more around the 500 mark. Either way, it's still alot of people. That said, the demographics have probably changed slightly. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 7 months

Classiccmp Wiki

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> On Nov 2, 2006, at 12:47 PM, woodelf wrote: > >> Not to be argumentative, but you sound exactly like someone who's > >> never > >> really participated in a wiki-centric community. > >> If you tried it (and correct me if you have), you might find you > >> like it. > > > > Well I like email-lists ( other than send.me.spam :) ) since I > > don't have to navigate thru a web site. How soon do you expect the > > wiki will have 'Pee Cee' stuff on it, my guess is 15 minutes or > > a sex ad posted. > > Yep. It's rare for a community survive a mailing list -> wiki > transition. Things that start out as wikis seem to do ok, but they > tend to attract a slightly different crowd...those who think a web > browser is "how you access the Internet". ;) > > -Dave And I think that if those wanting classiccmp to "go wiki" would try some classic computer searches at wikipedia.org (assuming they haven't already done so), they'd find that there's already a tremendous amount of technical and historical information there with more easily added by anyone who desires to. And, of course, new topics can be created if some system you have expertise on isn't represented. Of course, I might be misunderstanding their request since I'm not familiar with wiki sites being used as substitutes for email groups. Perhaps there's some great advantage of which I'm not aware. However, since the wiki topic has apparently been discussed here before at length and didn't meet with approval, I'll go with those previous conclusions. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Check out the New Yahoo! Mail - Fire up a more powerful email and get things done faster. (http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta)

19 years, 7 months

SCSI-I cables; 10Base2 cables

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've got a bunch (maybe 10) of the 50 pin blue-ribbon connector SCSI- 1 cables. Most are about a foot long, though some are longer. I've also got a bunch of 10base2 50 ohm RG-58/U coax cables with BNC's on each end. Several are 10 foot, a couple are longer. Heck, I'll even throw in a bunch of terminators and tees. Anyone interested in the whole lot for the cost of postage? Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 7 months

Discussion of large systems

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

> > Tony Duell wrote: > > > > > You do. It saved them having to fit a tokenising routine into the ROM. > > > > > > So how do you distinguish 'calculator' from 'computer'? > > They work better as a door jam. :) > > Except that a common name for the ZX81 over here was the 'black > doorwedge' :-) > > -tony That's what Commodore used them for: "Under this steady promotional blitz [of the C64], plus a trade-in option that offered a $100 rebate on any other computer or video game console (a clever New York chain called Crazy Eddy started selling the cheap Timex Sinclair 1000, an Americanised Sinclair ZX-81, for $10 so that users could get the rebate; Commodore donated most of them to charity but kept some, reportedly, for doorstops!), sales skyrocketed and the C64 eclipsed its older sibling within a short time." http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/ckb/secret/history.html ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get your email and see which of your friends are online - Right on the New Yahoo.com (http://www.yahoo.com/preview)

19 years, 7 months

Classiccmp Wiki

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Julian Wolfe <fireflyst at earthlink.net> wrote: > > > > NO ONE SAID THAT CLASSICCMP WAS GOING TO BECOME A > WIKI, AND > > STOP BEING A MAILING LIST. > > > > NO ONE. > > Starting Monday, it will only be available via WAI S. > Huh?! I hope you are joking Julian, as it is Jay in charge of this list. I have no desire to move to Wiki. I enjoy reading emails from the list. Can we *please* stop acting like kids? As I figure (forgive me if I'm wrong) it most of you guys are in your 50's/60's. The only exceptions I know of are myself (27, before you ask) and Cameron Kaiser (Cameron, I got a copy of Robert Bernardo's footage from both CommVEx 2005 & 2006 and would like to say that even though I don't own a C64 I love the intro to Geotrope). Sheesh...... Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 7 months

Laserwriter select paper tray

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I have a paper tray for an Apple Laserwriter Select, free for price of postage. -- 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?

19 years, 7 months

Classiccmp Wiki

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I think a wiki would be a nice adjunct. It could become something like > an "annotated bitsavers" if we all put things there. I have been thinking of something like that for a long time. There are lots of little tidbits I've collected on systems that aren't documents. A few show up in the 'pdf' directory because I think they're important (like histories and bibliographies). Problem is I have so many documents backlogged that I never get around to creating the commentary (with REFERENCES d**m it!). That's pretty much why I just update related entries on wikipedia and add pointers to the source documentation on bitsavers. This does bring up the point that expanding the wikipedia entries is a good thing too, and would have a wider audience than a specialty wiki. There is the start of a software related wiki on the Computer History Museum's Software Preservation SIG http://community.computerhistory.org/scc/scwiki But there isn't any content there yet.

19 years, 7 months

Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2

by erik＠baigar.de

Hi Cosmac experts, recently I got hands on a Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2 (CDP18S020). There is a a "Cosmac CDP18S021 Micro Terminal" as well. I want to restore this kit and would be very happy to get hands on a user manual with schematics for this! Google did not bring up the desired result. In powering up the unit, the 1802 executes "Wait for DMA or IRQ (0x00)" permanently and thus the micro terminal stays black as well. There is a firmware ROM CDPR522 on the unit and all datasheets are available on the www. Only the chip labeled "RCA 640" within the micro terminal are mystic, but a schematic might help here, too. Any hints where to get the user manual or a copy of it? Best regards, Erik.

19 years, 7 months

Apple Laserwriters

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

I saw a mention of the laserwriters by Roger Holmes in his posting, and remembered I have some to get rid of as well. I have them in Anaheim, Ca. They are free take if you pick them up. Probably no interest for the same reason he chucked his (size and ozone) but better to ask before the act. I originally planned to use them with older sun systems, since they could substitute for the Sun laserwriters, but since have gone to the freebie ghostscript stack to print what .ps files I need. The larger sun laserwriters were fast and clean, but not for the faint hearted to set up. The apple writers matched the lower end ones with the movement similar to the HP laserwriter 2's. I'm also inclined to chuck the Laserwriter 2 I have, if there is interest in that. The Apple laserwriters are untested. The Laserwriter moves paper, but is in need of attention to work. Jim

19 years, 7 months

DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I've just uploaded the quadrasync and quadrasync/e manuals to bitsavers.org/pdf/able

19 years, 7 months

Mac II's available (Cradley Heath / West Midlands, UK)

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Just had this offer from someone: "I am having a clear out and have a couple of Mac IIs, 2 good colour monitors and various peripherals including a b/w laserwriter and scanner." We've got all the Apple stuff that we need (with the exception of a Lisa 1 ;) but maybe someone else on the list can rescue these. They're free for pickup >from Cradley Heath - yell at me off-list if you want them and I'll pass on contact details... cheers Jules

19 years, 7 months

Discussion of large systems

by dm561＠torfree.net

------------Original Message: From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> Subject: Re: Discussion of large systems >On 2 Nov 2006 at 10:25, M H Stein wrote: > And considering the cost of CPU time and the fact that input data was > still on punched cards in most cases, it was usually more efficient and > cost-effective to still sort the cards off-line and then copy/merge to/with > tape. I suppose that relibility was about the same--the chance of creating a mangled card in unit-record gear was probably about the same as that of mangling it in a 1442. ------------Reply: Reminds me of my very first night working in a unit record shop: Was running an invoicing job on a 402 with a 514 punching the new summary cards; loaded the feed hoppers with cards and went upstairs for a smoke and a chat with my new boss. Came back down to reload the hoppers about a half hour later, but there were only two or three cards punched in the 514 instead of the 200 or so expected, and one card sticking out from under the machine cover. Opened the cover and the other 197 or so cards literally exploded out of the machine, torn, accordioned and with nice black stripes where they'd passed through the drive gears into the machine's innards instead of into the output stacker. Figured it was going to be a good place to work when the boss joined me in the keypunch room and helped with finding and putting the torn fragments back together in order to manually repunch them. Got pretty good at reading cards that night... m

19 years, 7 months

Terminal needed for commercial shoot this Saturday in NYC

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

Some TV bonehead (I've come to realize that anyone who works in TV is a bonehead) e-mailed me last night to tell me he "desperately" needs a "cool looking" computer terminal for a commercial shoot this weekend. If anyone has a terminal they think looks "cool" and would like to earn some cash, e-mail me prontolitiously. Do not reply to this message because I'm not subscribed to the list. If you do reply even after having just been told that I'm not subscribed, you too will be deemed a bonehead. Contact me directly. -- 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 ]

19 years, 7 months

Discussion of large systems

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

On 2 Nov, 2006, at 18:00, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >>> Does anyone have enough tape drives that they can do the >>> multi-drive merge/sort tape algorithms described in Knuth's >>> Art of Computer Programming? >> >> >> That would be six, I believe. But, why? Just to say one did it? >> In today's world, the way to implement the same algorithm would be to >> use disk files; MUCH faster. With a TERABYTE of screaming fast disk An ICT 1301 can support up to eight half inch tape decks. I actually have 13 decks in total, though currently I only have three of them running. Only one of them can both read and write, though that is the next thing on the list to be sorted out. We need to write an 'All Ones' tape to re- calibrate the read amplifiers (ten per deck). Then hopefully we will not be relying on the error correction circuitry to correct the single bit errors we are currently getting almost all the time. Maybe next year I could get six or seven decks working but our priority is to read the libraries of software recorded on the very old tapes. Surprisingly this seems to be possible, we have already read some data off a tape written 30 years ago or more. At only 300 frames per inch the bits are so much bigger they are less likely to degrade (I hope). There is an engineer's facility to 'Read All Tracks' which we will use to read the entire tape, hopefully without stopping and send all 40MB to a parallel port we are building with a built in FIFO. The data will then hopefully be captured onto a modern machine. We will repeat this two or three times on different decks and then analyse the data to produce the original (up to 10MB of data per reel). There may be some digits we will not be sure of due to multiple bit failures in a single frame, but we will at least know which ones they are. The regular read hardware just says which blocks have one of more frames with multi bit failures. I am hoping to extend the computer room, get both my 1301s assembled and have all 13 decks in a row. There's no plans yet to get the second 1301 running but I want to get it at least bolted together whilst there is a glimmer of a memory in my head as to how to do it. I have a quite a few years to go before senility (I hope), but it is already 30 years since I took that beast apart and the ink on the labels I carefully applied has now faded away to almost nothing. There will be room for a small exhibition of other stuff, props used in the making of the 'Darling Buds of May', some old Apple computers, ][, ][e, ///, Lisa and some older Macs, plus a mechanical calculator, a wind up gramaphone, a 19th century pounds shillings and pence till made by NCR, an Eddison drum (grooves not magnetic) dictating machine and player, and maybe some stuff which is currently in my office, an HP7475 plotter, a big old HP DraftMaster MX+ plotter and various other items I have not had the heart to throw in the skip over the years. Oh and my UK101 computer maybe. It'll only be open one day a year to the general public when we hold a classic car show at the farm.

19 years, 7 months

Discussion of large systems

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Surprisingly this seems to be possible, we have already read some data off a tape written 30 years ago or more. At only 300 frames Per inch the bits are so much bigger they are less likely to degrade (I hope). There is an engineer's facility to 'Read All Tracks' which we will use to read the entire tape, hopefully without stopping and send all 40MB to a parallel port we are building with a built in FIFO. The data will then hopefully be captured onto a modern machine. -- If you are interested, I could probably get you one of these when they're available http://bitsavers.org/tools/wizl/tapewizl/ Paul Pierce built something similar to what you did for recovering 7-track data, and discovered that you really need to recover the data using analog techniques to get any reliability. http://www.piercefuller.com/collect/proj.html

19 years, 7 months

DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Jay West wrote: > I posted about this board before and one or more people said they had one. > Now I'm curious if anyone has documentation for it :) Ooh, if only you had asked me a few years ago! > This is a 3rd party quad height unibus board and appears to be a 4 port SLU. > The manufacturer is ACT, and the only part numbers I can find on the board > are 10015000, 10015001, and 10015002. These were very common for 20 years as DL11-alikes. You might have better luck if you identified the manufacturer as "Able" instead of "ACT". They call it a "Quadrasync". Tim.

19 years, 7 months

DEC Unibus 4-SLU (ACT 10015000)

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I posted about this board before and one or more people said they had one. Now I'm curious if anyone has documentation for it :) This is a 3rd party quad height unibus board and appears to be a 4 port SLU. The manufacturer is ACT, and the only part numbers I can find on the board are 10015000, 10015001, and 10015002. There are 4 rotary dials (my guess is baud rate), and one 10 position switch bank (priority & address?). I'm curious what all the dip switch settings are, can it start at the normal console address and thus replace an M7856, does it have an LTC capability, etc. Pinouts for the port (berg) connectors would be good. I can't seem to find anything about it on bitsavers or googling. Any pointers appreciated! Jay West

19 years, 7 months

"All in one" Early PCs

by cclist＠sydex.com

All: Since I couldn't find much on the web about it, I decided to snap a couple of photos and put the information on my Durango F-85 system on a web page. http://www.sydex.com/durango/durango.html I've actually got two of these things; the second has the integrated hard disk but is otherwise the same. Does anyone think a photo of the external hard drive (SA-4008) would be worthwhile including? How about an old (and worthless) Durango stock certificate? Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 7 months

FYI: Data General 9-track tape drive (looks like Nova colors?)

by legalize＠xmission.com

Lot description: <http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=1020372&convertTo=USD> Pic: <http://web.govliquidation.com/auction/view_photo?eventId=2607&lotNumber=340…> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>

19 years, 7 months

EBCDIC

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

I was at work and needed an EBCDIC code, came across this. A useful link if you are using the old hardware and need a old code. http://www.lookuptables.com/ Billy

19 years, 7 months

sources for older bipolar proms, etc.

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Since several people have asked... the last batch of 82S131's I bought was >from www.arcadechips.com I also exchanged a few emails with the proprietor. He was very helpful, overly considerate... and emailed me after the order came just to make sure I got it and it was all to my satisfaction. I gotta give this guy a high rating. Prices were good too. As an additional resource, I have also bought fairly large (to me) quantities of the above (and similar) proms from another place at www.mikesarcade.com I received the same unusually high level of service and good prices from the second source as well. Jay West

19 years, 7 months

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