test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by frustum＠pacbell.net

Sorry for contributing to the spam level, but you have to break an egg, etc. I promise that if anybody replies, I won't reply to the classiccmp list. There are hundreds of people on this list; most post infrequently, if at all. It seems that 5% of the list have a hair trigger that demands that they respond to every message. That would be fine, but it seems like at least 50% of such messages are WAY OFF TOPIC. Yes, I'm shouting, and yes I'm making up numbers. All of these hundreds of people are very smart and know many things. Most of the sense to exercise some self control and not jump in at every opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, or worse, their unsupported opinions. The ONLY thing that gives cctalk value is that it has a charter. There are untold avenues on the internet if you want to have free ranging discourse. Before you hit send on your next message to cctalk, ask yourself these intertwined questions: (1) Why am I not sending this as a private reply? Is it just your ego wanting to be seen as a smart person that needs a large audience? If John Public says cheese tastes bad, send John Public a private message if you want to tell him he is wrong; the rest of us don't need to know about it. (2) What new information is this message offering? Is it worth the time of 600 people (or whatever) even if all they need to do his scan the subject line and hit delete? This isn't IRC, so hopefully posts will be more thoughtful than that. (3) Is this message still about classic computers? Yes, the guy you are responding to might have thought it was OK, but that doesn't mean it was. Fight the drift. If you must reply, see #1. (4) If you still can't help yourself, do the next best thing, a practice that has seems to have disappeared. Reply with your marginal response, then add some on-topic tidbit to at least give a little nourishment to the list. "Obligatory classiccmp content: blah blah" for example. (5) Even if you ignore #1-#4, recognize subject drift and change the subject line. The "scanning formats" thread, which started on-topic, is now an umbrella for six different (mostly off-topic) threads. Yup, some of those off-topic threads had interesting content, but this is not the forum for it. If you want to argue it, then imagine if everyone who was into photography wanted to talk about interesting techniques, or everyone interested in politics wanted to talk about interesting power plays and developments, etc, etc.

19 years, 9 months

definitive ruling needed on OT

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

I've seen it used to seemingly mean both OnTopic and OffTopic. Which is it? What is the abbreviation of the other term?

19 years, 9 months

Recommendations for operating system

by bob099＠centurytel.net

My little question generated a lot more heat than I expected. I will be going with my original ideal of using DOS with GEM as the GUI. Too many acronyms there? A lot of software avaliable for DOS and GEM provides a "different" shell. OS/2 sounds interesting, I have Warp 3 in a box somewhere, with many disc to install with, want to bet that the last one or two would be bad? I am already running Linux, Win XP, and WIN 2000 on other machines, home and work. Maybe I should have asked about a Laser 128 (Apple II clone) or maybe a DecMate III?

19 years, 9 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 36, Issue 86

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------Original message From: Don <THX1138 at dakotacom.net> Subject: Votrax TNT, PSS, et al. "bricks" Hi, Has anyone reverse engineered any of these products requiring *external* power supplies (bricks)? E.g., *not* the VS6.x devices but, rather, the "consumer-ish" devices mentioned in the subject line? I have several and wonder if the different models share a common power supply design. Or, if I'll have to disembowel a few of them to sort it all out. Thanks! --don ----------Reply: Coincidentally, I've got a VSS on the desk in front of me without a PS and was just investigating the same thing. There was a post here a while back very helpfully listing the pins & voltages (20VDC & 28VAC IIRC); I believe it also said that the PSs were _not_ the same for various different models. Let me know what you find pls. TNX, mike

19 years, 9 months

ebay bet pays off (Ohio Scientific)

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I have to crow a little about this... There was an auction last week of Ohio Scientific literature on ebay. I looked at it and, at first, I thought I had everything in the lot. Then I looked again and realized that I didn't recognize the little (difficult to see) pamphlet in the upper right corner of the lot photo. I thought about it for a few days and wondered whether it could be one of their first pamphlets. I decided "what the heck" I'll bid if it doesn't get too expensive. Well, I won the lot. It just arrived today and sure enough that little pamphlet is one of the first (if not the first) ad pamphlets from OSI. It introduces the original Challenger (no 1, 2, etc.) available with 6502 or 6800 processors, the original Superboard (Model 400, not the SuperboardII Model 600) and the Model 300 6502 trainer with the Superboard upgrade program (buy a fully assembled Model 300, keep it for up to two months and then trade it in for a Model 400 kit). Happy, happy, happy! -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.6/428 - Release Date: 8/25/2006

19 years, 9 months

C64 Packet carts

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I have a pair of cartridges for the C64, headed to the trash: AEA Com Fax AEA Com Pakratt I have not looked into these, but AEA makes packet stuff for ham radio. Anyone want these things for postage? Obviously very light and small. -- Will

19 years, 9 months

Age cutoff, was: Recommendations for operating system

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote: > > Both places have noise problems. On the web > forums it is generally a 'less > > professional' audience > > That is an interesting use of the word > "professional". I find the > members of this list extremely non-professional in > their list conduct, > and yes, it all comes down to the noise level. The re > are way too many > people here that like to post off topic threads, o r > steer threads very > off topic. Sure, a little happens - even I have do ne > my bit - but not > stretching out OT threads for days at a time, with > dozens of messages. > The > people on this list > are by far the worst offenders for disregarding li st > charters and > rules. Very little self control, and too lazy to > post off topic > questions on the myriad of other lists that are > online. Why is this? > Also, does it not bother these people > that obviously the > whole OT issue has been brought up before, and > generates flames and > anger for many list members? > > -- > Will > Sheesh. All you had to do was say a line or two, but no you had to write several paragraphs rambling on. Also, the main point of me posting, this IS CCtalk, that is designed to cover *on topic* AND *off topic* posts, so why all this fuss. If you wanted *on topic* posts ONLY then why didn't you sign up for CCtech, which only deals with *on topic* posts. If his reply was to cctech and was sent to us cctalk members, then I apologise. If that was the case then perhaps cctech members should be asked (or nudged) onto the cctalk list? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 9 months

INS8073 interface?

by jwhitton＠bellsouth.net

On the off chance that this address is still good.., I'm seeking app. notes for the INS8073 Tiny Basic chip. Thanks, John

19 years, 9 months

Votrax TNT, PSS, et al. "bricks"

by THX1138＠dakotacom.net

Hi, Has anyone reverse engineered any of these products requiring *external* power supplies (bricks)? E.g., *not* the VS6.x devices but, rather, the "consumer-ish" devices mentioned in the subject line? I have several and wonder if the different models share a common power supply design. Or, if I'll have to disembowel a few of them to sort it all out. Thanks! --don

19 years, 9 months

Age cutoff, was: Recommendations for operating system

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------Original message: Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:32:30 -0400 From: "Evan Koblentz" <evan at snarc.net> Subject: RE: Age cutoff, was: Recommendations for operating system But communities like the web forum at www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum and the group blog at http://community.livejournal.com/vintagecomputer/ are growing faster than classiccmp, at least to my perception. Why? ---------Reply: The elitism and inflexibility seen in the current discussion perhaps? More dross on the pile... m

19 years, 9 months

Age cutoff, was: Recommendations for operating system

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> A Google > search for a specific item will show hits on the vcforum and most likely the > livejournal site you listed, but nothing would come up for an email list. classiccmp.org archives all of the mail through a web interface (which is how I QUICKLY scan over all the drek, I NEVER actually receive it as mail) and Google picks posting here just fine, thank you.

19 years, 9 months

Recommendations for operating system

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 7:25 -0500 8/28/06, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: >I am looking for suggestions for an operating system for a PC, specs 75 >MHZ Pentium, 16 MB Ram, 4 GB HD, currently running PC-DOS Ver 7. Depending very heavily on what motherboard, video card, etc. you have, NeXTStep 3.3. 16MB is thinner than what you'd like, but 4 G hard drive is fine and if the disk is fast enough, swap should not be a horrible problem. -- - Mark Cell Phone: 210-379-4635 office: 210-522-6025

19 years, 9 months

Recommendations for operating system

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Look at BeOS Max or BeOS DevEd. Good, fast OSes, and downloadable freely. Application availability is somewhat on the spotty end, though. OS/2 (not sure about the UNIX environment) doesn't come with headers/compilers, and IBM doesn't sell the devel kit anymore (and it was very pricy when they did). I think you can get StarOffice, though.

19 years, 9 months

Recommendations for operating system

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

> >Subject: Re: Recommendations for operating system > From: "Hans Franke" <Hans.Franke at siemens.com> > Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:19:15 +0200 > To: Choctaw Bob <bob099 at centurytel.net>, > "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Now, coming back to systems, I still give out P166-P233MMX systems to >people. A good configuration to run Office I found would be: > >P200 >64 MB RAM >4+ Gig drive as C with all Apps >4+ Gig drive partitioned as Z/D where Z is a 512 MB dedicated swap. >1 DVD drive (if possible a writer at 40 Euro) >WindowsXP >Office2003 >Firefox > --------------- I suggest Warp connect in the blue box with win3.1 support built in. It would be pretty snappy on a P200 and there's plenty of apps to run, although later developed programs want version 4.0 however. You can use IBM peer on 3.0 to share files, and if you use a 3com NIC, NDIS drivers are available. Installing fixpaks is not that bad either if you use some of the free fixpak installation programs. Google for OS/2 device driver pak online and you can see what kind of hardware has drivers for it.

19 years, 9 months

Recommendations for operating system

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Recommendations for operating system > From: "Hans Franke" <Hans.Franke at siemens.com> > Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:19:15 +0200 > To: Choctaw Bob <bob099 at centurytel.net>, > "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Now, coming back to systems, I still give out P166-P233MMX systems to >people. A good configuration to run Office I found would be: > >P200 >64 MB RAM >4+ Gig drive as C with all Apps >4+ Gig drive partitioned as Z/D where Z is a 512 MB dedicated swap. >1 DVD drive (if possible a writer at 40 Euro) >WindowsXP >Office2003 >Firefox > I'm not fond of MS software or OS but since it's pervasive having a good system running it for compatability is handy. The work a day box here is P166, 128mb 4.3gb, 20gb, SCSI CD writer(plextor) running NT4server no MS apps though. All the apps are non MS including Firefox and Thunderbird. Usual uptime for the system is months of 7x24 then I shutdown to clean dust of of the fans and the like. Reliability beats speed as reboots take a long time. Allison

19 years, 9 months

Recommendations for operating system

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Recommendations for operating system > From: Choctaw Bob <bob099 at centurytel.net> > Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:13:57 -0500 > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > >I think that this just squeaks in as being on topic. > >I am looking for suggestions for an operating system for a PC, specs 75 >MHZ Pentium, 16 MB Ram, 4 GB HD, currently running PC-DOS Ver 7. >Original IBM PC-DOS right out of the factory sealed box. I am thinking >about putting GEM on the machine, maybe CP/M-86. Thought about GEOS, >but rejected it, too closed. >Specs seem too tight for Linux or BSD, or at least little advantage over >DOS or CP/M. > >Anyone have experience with an operating system that might work, and be >capable of useful work? On boxes of that scale I've run DOS3.11->6.22, W3.11 W95, w98, NT4*, ConcurrentDos, and OS2/Warp3. I'll add linux but stick to older distros as the newer ones are big. NT4 wants at least 32mb of ram but runs smoothly even on 33mhz 486s. However as a useful box DOS, w3.11, W95 and NT4 were the most useful as I could run a wider range of available apps. I have a p100 with 32m running w98se with two disks, boot is 500mb and D: is 4.3gb and it's a useful tool. Allison

19 years, 9 months

Paper tape and 8th bit?

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, I'm attempting to recover some software from paper-tape. Never actually had a PT reader in my "altair days", I fooled around with magnetic tape systems (audio and 9-track), and later went to the NorthStar disk system... Did a bit of paper-tape stuff with the university systems, but I don't recall any real details. Anyway - I'm using an OP-80A which is a very simple manual feed reader - you position a light over the unit and pull the tape through wire guides over an optical sensor and it provides parallel data. This all appears to work OK. The tape I've been testing with is a Processor Technology "BASIC VDM DRIVER" - it contains driver software for the PT VDM-1 video board. My question - Does anyone know what they are using the 8th bit for? - I get nicely readable ASCII BASIC source out of it, except that the 8th bit seems to be somewhat randomly set on certain characters. If I strip the 8th bit I get what appears to be legit BASIC code. I thought it might be parity, however this does not appear to be the case - the codes 0A (00001010) and 0D (00001101) both appear with the 8th bit clear - If the 8th bit were parity, one or the other should have it set. Other characters always have it set, for example 'T' (54) seems to always appears as (D4). I checked the tape and it's not a read-error the 9th bit is punched on certain characters.. Anyone shed some light? Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

19 years, 9 months

Good deals on PC100/133 DIMMs?

by cclist＠sydex.com

I'm upgrading some systems here and am looking for some good deals on 256MB PC100 or PC133 DIMMs. Any suggestions? (The systems are just 10 years old, so it's OT) Cheers, Chuck

19 years, 9 months

I think everything's working now...

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Fellow techies (and Tekkies), Thanks to a very generous (and anonymous by request) donation of a replacement firewall/router (a Watchguard Firebox 1000), my domain and FTP archive should all be fully functional once again. Those who have been patiently (or not) to download something from the archive, please give it a try now. ftp.bluefeathertech.com User ID: Either ftp or anonymous Password: Anything you want, though I'd prefer you use your E-mail address. Thanks to all for your patience during this nasty little outage, and special thanks to our anonymous donor (you know who you are). ;-) Keep the peace(es). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy, Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"

19 years, 9 months

SGI stuff (maybe) available

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

I am in multiparty talks with a gentleman in the Seattle area who has a number of SGI machines in a storage area that he is interested in getting rid of. These include several Indigos, Indigo2s, Personal IRISes, and Crimsons (AFAIK, I am not the person in direct contact). The word is he's ready to deal on them. If anyone in the Seattle area is interested, I'm going to be going over with someone (who initiated this), probably next weekend, with a pickup to get some stuff. If something strikes your fancy, send me a offlist-message with what you want and your offer, and I can try to get it stuffed in (might not be able to get more Crimsons, we're taking 3 and an Onyx already - so those will be "space-available").

19 years, 9 months

Sinclair ZX80 questions

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

I've got a ZX80 here (issue 2A) which has a keyboard overlay attached that looks very like that of a Sinclair ZX81. The ROM in the machine is dated week 16 of 1981, and carries the marking C77018, and a 1981 copyright. Is this a machine that's been subjected to a ZX81 upgrade kit or something? I wasn't aware that such a thing existed. Now, the keyboard overlay's actually removable, revealing a pristine original ZX80 legend underneath. However, two black press-fittings attach it to the PCB at the corners of the front edge - are these press fittings there on all ZX80s, or have these been added in order to secure the overlay in place? The machine came with a "ZX 16K RAM" module (red lettering) which I assume is later and more in keeping with a ZX81? Separately though I do have a module marked as "ZX80 16K Byte RAM Pack" (white lettering). Question is, are they interchangeable and the lettering was altered - or does the ZX80 variant map memory to a different location than the later red-lettered type? (I'm assuming that the expansion bus pinouts didn't change between ZX80 and the later machines!) I've also got a ROM marked as: "ROM contents copyright 1980 Sinclair Research Ltd" - is this the original ZX80 ROM (and the ROM in the machine is an upgrade), or is this likely something else entirely? Curiously there are a few stray fibres glued to the underside of the PCB - presumably these are a left-over of cheap PCB manufacture and Sinclair's horrible quality control! :-) cheers Jules -- A. Because it destroys the natural flow of conversation. Q. What's wrong with top posting ?

19 years, 9 months

Paper tape and 8th bit?

by bqt＠softjar.se

"Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com> wrote: >>> If you look at the preceding character, is there any correlation to the 8th >>> bit of the next one? The 8th bit just might be garbage left over and not >>> masked out. > > >None that I can tell - Also, the 8th bit is punched on the tape with the >character - It seems unlikely that PT would have punched a tape in error >that way (with garbage left over from the previous character in the >8th bit) - although stranger things HAVE happened... > > > >>> It could be binary.The driver is loaded in the top of memory, and >>> seems to patch over a TTY driver. I don't have manual handy >>> but it does have a bootstrap loader @ 80H I think, the first >>> 256 bytes to load in a hex loader. > > >I have the manuals as well - this is the BASIC VDM driver, which I >don't believe has a loader. > >Here is a HEX dump of the first 256 bytes retrieved from the tape >(after the string of 00s occuring in the leader). > >0000 0D 0A 00 00 0D 0A 00 00 30 20 52 45 CD 0D 0A 00 ........0 RE.... >0010 00 32 20 52 45 CD 20 20 3C 3C 3C 20 20 42 41 53 .2 RE. <<< BAS >0020 49 43 20 54 4F 20 56 44 4D 2D 31 20 4C 49 4E 4B IC TO VDM-1 LINK >0030 20 50 52 4F 47 52 41 4D 20 20 3E 3E 3E 0D 0A 00 PROGRAM >>>... >0040 00 34 20 52 45 CD 0D 0A 00 00 36 20 52 45 CD 20 .4 RE.....6 RE. >0050 20 20 20 20 20 20 50 52 4F 43 45 53 53 4F 52 20 PROCESSOR >0060 54 45 43 48 4E 4F 4C 4F 47 59 20 43 4F 52 50 2E TECHNOLOGY CORP. >0070 0D 0A 00 00 38 20 52 45 CD 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 ....8 RE. >0080 36 32 30 30 20 48 4F 4C 4C 49 53 20 53 54 52 45 6200 HOLLIS STRE >0090 45 54 0D 0A 00 00 31 30 20 52 45 CD 20 20 20 20 ET....10 RE. >00A0 20 20 45 4D 45 52 59 56 49 4C 4C 45 2C 20 43 41 EMERYVILLE, CA >00B0 4C 49 46 4F 52 4E 49 41 20 20 20 39 34 36 30 38 LIFORNIA 94608 >00C0 0D 0A 00 00 31 32 20 50 52 49 4E D4 0D 0A 00 00 ....12 PRIN..... >00D0 31 34 20 41 24 BD 22 28 48 45 58 29 20 49 53 20 14 A$."(HEX) IS >00E0 59 4F 55 52 20 4C 41 53 54 20 41 44 44 52 45 53 YOUR LAST ADDRES >00F0 53 2C 20 49 4E 50 55 54 3A 22 0D 0A 00 00 31 36 S, INPUT:"....16 > >I have visually verified that the tape contains the binary values for the first >16 bytes as punched dots - (ie, it starts with 0D 0A 00 00 twice), then >20 20 54 45 CD 0D 0A 00 > >This is the line '0 REM', however the 'M' has the eight bit set, which makes >the code CD instead of 4D. You can see this in the remaining comments >which are visible as well. However the 'M' in 'EMERYVILLE' appears with >the high bit clear. > >You can also see that the 'T' in 'PRINT' has the high bit set. > >This is supposed to be loaded under Altair BASIC somehow (I'll have to >dig out the Altair BASIC manuals and if it sheds any light) - I thought that >perhaps this in an internal representation, and that AB sets the high bit >on the last character of reserved words ... except that 'INPUT' does not >have the high bit set on it's last character... > >I have the machine code driver as well, and I will try reading that and >see if the code disassembles into something that makes sense. > >Ultimately I will read these and other tapes and archive the code as a >raw binary dump of the tape content, however I'm trying to understand >what is recorded on the tapes so that I can verify my setup. Ho ho ho... Well, it looks pretty clear that the high bit is set at the final character of BASIC keywords. Token marker, so to speak. You've just made a big miss. The "INPUT" you're speaking of is a string constant... Look again. :-) 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

19 years, 9 months

Data General Nova/Eclipse Software download

by cube1＠charter.net

I have some 9 Track images that might work. They are not distribution tapes, though. (I have some hard sector distribution floppies, but the floppy drive and controller are not hooked up -- a project for another day) These tape images are in AWS format (such as that used by the Hercules mainframe emulator), so someone would need to reformat the files -- but it shouldn't take more than a few hours of "C" coding). I have LOTS more, but need to read those pesky floppies. Jay 2363 MT CC0028 NOVA RDOS "STARTER" 12/30/88 NOVA 3/4, 1 Extra file @ end rdos_starter Memorex 35CWA1 8/7/2000 ? 2364 MT CC0029 NOVA RDOS66 "STARTER TAPE" 12/31/88 NOVA 4/X, Last file BAD rdos_66_star Memorex 27JHA9 8/7/2000 Y 2365 MT CC0030 NOVA RDOS 6.6 NOVA 4/x FDUMP Reel 1 of 2 12/31/88 rdos_66_fdum Memorex 35JWA9 8/7/2000 2366 MT CC0031 NOVA RDOS 6.6 NOVA 4/x FDUMP Reel 2 of 2 12/31/88 rdos_66_fdum Wabash 87623#1511 8/7/2000 At 08:40 AM 8/16/2006 -0400, Madcrow Maxwell wrote: >I've decided to try out the Data General emulation in SIMH and am >looking for software. Is there any place that has software for RDOS >like extra programming languages, games and productivity-type stuff? >If not is anybody willing to share? > >Mike "Madcrow" K. --- Jay R. Jaeger The Computer Collection cube1 at charter.net

19 years, 9 months

KEGS Apple IIgs emulator

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I was playing around with the KEGS emulator and I wanted to get GS/OS working on an emulated hard disk partition. I can't seem to get the emulator to recognize the 32mb container file which is supposed to be the hard drive. Has anyone tackled this before and can give me a few pointers? Thanks. 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, 9 months

Paper tape and 8th bit?

by dm561＠torfree.net

Looks like it marks the last (or only) byte of a BASIC keyword all right; I think the "Input" is part of the text, not a keyword. mike ------------Original messsage: Message: 32 Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 19:33:49 -0500 From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com> Subject: Re: Paper tape and 8th bit? To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <200608262337.k7QNbHXI004269 at hosting.monisys.ca> > If you look at the preceding character, is there any correlation to the 8th > bit of the next one? The 8th bit just might be garbage left over and not > masked out. None that I can tell - Also, the 8th bit is punched on the tape with the character - It seems unlikely that PT would have punched a tape in error that way (with garbage left over from the previous character in the 8th bit) - although stranger things HAVE happened... > It could be binary.The driver is loaded in the top of memory, and > seems to patch over a TTY driver. I don't have manual handy > but it does have a bootstrap loader @ 80H I think, the first > 256 bytes to load in a hex loader. I have the manuals as well - this is the BASIC VDM driver, which I don't believe has a loader. Here is a HEX dump of the first 256 bytes retrieved from the tape (after the string of 00s occuring in the leader). 0000 0D 0A 00 00 0D 0A 00 00 30 20 52 45 CD 0D 0A 00 ........0 RE.... 0010 00 32 20 52 45 CD 20 20 3C 3C 3C 20 20 42 41 53 .2 RE. <<< BAS 0020 49 43 20 54 4F 20 56 44 4D 2D 31 20 4C 49 4E 4B IC TO VDM-1 LINK 0030 20 50 52 4F 47 52 41 4D 20 20 3E 3E 3E 0D 0A 00 PROGRAM >>>... 0040 00 34 20 52 45 CD 0D 0A 00 00 36 20 52 45 CD 20 .4 RE.....6 RE. 0050 20 20 20 20 20 20 50 52 4F 43 45 53 53 4F 52 20 PROCESSOR 0060 54 45 43 48 4E 4F 4C 4F 47 59 20 43 4F 52 50 2E TECHNOLOGY CORP. 0070 0D 0A 00 00 38 20 52 45 CD 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 ....8 RE. 0080 36 32 30 30 20 48 4F 4C 4C 49 53 20 53 54 52 45 6200 HOLLIS STRE 0090 45 54 0D 0A 00 00 31 30 20 52 45 CD 20 20 20 20 ET....10 RE. 00A0 20 20 45 4D 45 52 59 56 49 4C 4C 45 2C 20 43 41 EMERYVILLE, CA 00B0 4C 49 46 4F 52 4E 49 41 20 20 20 39 34 36 30 38 LIFORNIA 94608 00C0 0D 0A 00 00 31 32 20 50 52 49 4E D4 0D 0A 00 00 ....12 PRIN..... 00D0 31 34 20 41 24 BD 22 28 48 45 58 29 20 49 53 20 14 A$."(HEX) IS 00E0 59 4F 55 52 20 4C 41 53 54 20 41 44 44 52 45 53 YOUR LAST ADDRES 00F0 53 2C 20 49 4E 50 55 54 3A 22 0D 0A 00 00 31 36 S, INPUT:"....16 I have visually verified that the tape contains the binary values for the first 16 bytes as punched dots - (ie, it starts with 0D 0A 00 00 twice), then 20 20 54 45 CD 0D 0A 00 This is the line '0 REM', however the 'M' has the eight bit set, which makes the code CD instead of 4D. You can see this in the remaining comments which are visible as well. However the 'M' in 'EMERYVILLE' appears with the high bit clear. You can also see that the 'T' in 'PRINT' has the high bit set. This is supposed to be loaded under Altair BASIC somehow (I'll have to dig out the Altair BASIC manuals and if it sheds any light) - I thought that perhaps this in an internal representation, and that AB sets the high bit on the last character of reserved words ... except that 'INPUT' does not have the high bit set on it's last character... I have the machine code driver as well, and I will try reading that and see if the code disassembles into something that makes sense. Ultimately I will read these and other tapes and archive the code as a raw binary dump of the tape content, however I'm trying to understand what is recorded on the tapes so that I can verify my setup. Regards, Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

19 years, 9 months

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test-drb