< I imagine I was just lucky and the DEC disks came in to the
<shop separately, but a nagging idea of the Rainbows ability to boot
<msdos came to mind. I also finally found a DEC k-b for a long-dormant
<Rainbow which has a 5meg Seagate. When I get the 15-pin video cable
<I'll be able to check further.
Rainbows did run MSdos versions 1.1 and 2.11.. I may even have a copy of
2.11(rx50).
Allison
At 07:46 AM 3/9/98, you wrote:
>>I'll give you $40 for one to kill two birds with one stone: I'll get an
>>HX-20, and we'll establish the going market price for them.
I hate to say it, but there is a market for them, (one of which is right
here) and $40 for a machine as described (assuming it works) is rather on
the cheap side. Probably closer to $75, maybe even $100+ if you put it up
for auction on eBay.
Something tells me I should really be tracking what I pay for my
machines... I guess I'll start doing that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
Found in comp.os.vms:
>Hello all,
>We have several (currently 6, more to come) VaxServer 3100's that
>we have retired from service. They had been doing Macintosh file =
>serving,
>for the last 5 years and have been replaced with NT boxes.
>Our current options are either 1) find them a good home, 2) send them
>to State Surplus Equipment, or 3) throw them out.
>I can offer them FREE to anyone who wants them, PROVIDED you
>arrange to either pick them up or have them shipped to you at no
>cost to us.
>Also available are a couple of Storage Expansion units for these boxes,
>a few VT320's, and 3 TLZ04 tape drives.
>The 3100's are rather minimally configured, nothing beyond the base
>memory (8MB? maybe 16MB?) and a relatively small hard drive
>(250MB?). I'm not primarily a Vax person, so I'm not sure what other
>information anyone might need, but feel free to ask.
>These machines do work. They came out of service between September
>and now, and were under DEC service agreements until June 30th, 1997.
>We intended to donate them to a sister college, who later decided they
>didn't want them, and we tried a used equipment dealer who didn't want
>them either.
>If anyone's interested, please reply to me by email. If we don't get =
>rid
>of them by the end of next week, the whole lot goes to State Surplus.
>Tony Harris
>Network Administrator
>Community College of Vermont
>harrist(a)mail.ccv.vsc.edu
I'm looking for a manual (hardware / service / etc.) for an
HP "9869A Calculator Card Reader". Just for clarification,
this is a 50 pound table-top beast from the mid-70s that
seems to be a full 80/40 column hollerith. Has 117v primary
and a 34pin "ribbon" ("centronics-style") connector for I/O.
I can probably make it "go" without docs, but it will be
easier to repair and adjust if I have the specifics.
Of course, the usual offer of payment for copies or (preferably)
originals is in effect.
Thanks for any info,
Gary
<2)Let's take the GRiD server as an example (I have never seen a GRiD
< machine, BTW). How does it differ from any desktop system?
Too broad a question. What is a desktop system? I can come up with
several that might surprize you.
<3)Have there been any machines that made extensive use of a truly
< unusual architecture? What I am looking for is twofold: I am
< interested if anything ever used a neural network-like arrangement,
< and I am interested in something that had a processor that
< interacted w/the user and a separate one to do the processing
< (ie a real-time system capable of doing all that a normal one can)
IS there one or three questions in there?
yes there have been some very unusual machines like transputers,
connection machines, vector processors, Turing machines.
the latter half of your question is too broad. My z80 s-s100 crate would
qualify as the OS was distributed over several z80s but only on had the
user interface. The Vax-11/780 had a qbuss PDP-11 as a diagnostic fromt
pannel. An xterm on an eithernet to a server could even qualify.
Allison
At 03:55 PM 3/9/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> [Not too heavy?]
>>
>> No, it's just actually not as heavy as it looks. Most of the insides are
>> air.
>
>Well, that is true. Most big IBMs are that way. IBM still managed to use
>some very heavy parts - heavy gauge steel chassis, big stiff transformers,
>and disk drives with really big motors.
>
>Still, once a computer tips the scale over 300 or so pounds, I consider it
>heavy.
>
>William Donzelli
>william(a)ans.net
>
>
Heavy? Not if you add the optional System/34 Transport Attachment (shoulder
harness/hernia belt), IBM PN 74G5666.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
David
dwollmann(a)ibmhelp.com
At 08:54 AM 3/9/98 -0500, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote:
>> Well my 3B2 and 6300 cases match exactly. (Brown bottom, white tops, black
>> inserts, etc.)
>
>Check for the suffix WGS after 6300. The 6300 WGS (_much_ more PC
>compatible than the original) had that color scheme, the original had
>a mostly black front. Does it have the DB-25 video connector? I'll
>accept an interim color change that I might have missed -- I only
>dealt with AT&T equipment when the WGS systems were just appearing
>and the original 6300 and 6300+ had been discontinued -- but the
>store kept so much old stuff in inventory that I shouldn't have
>missed anything like that.
I don't recall if there was a "WGS" or not (in storage now) but it does have
the 25 pin video connector. The color scheme is brownish-black base with
the top being approx 1 1/2" white bordered and about half of the middle
section being black, the other half, or course, depending on the color of
the drives in the system. Sorry the above is so confusing.
Les
>--
>Ward Griffiths
>Dylan: How many years must some people exist,
> before they're allowed to be free?
>WDG3rd: If they "must" exist until they're "allowed",
> they'll never be free.
>
>
I have, at some what short notice, been told I am going to Taiwan
tomorrow (for two weeks). :-(
I shall be able to redirect my e-mail, but past experience of such
things shows that I usually get my list subscription forcibly set to
"postpone" after about a week under such conditions.
However, (and this is the real point of the message), I shall probably
have some space for souvenirs on the return journey. Does anyone on the
list know of _any_ Taiwannese computer equipment which could be
considered a classic? (Preferably not a PC clone!)
Philip.
It looks like I am now the proud owner of a LINC-8 carcass - stripped of
everything but the front panel, backplane, scope, supplies, and core
stack. The LINC-8s are interesting machines in that they are a PDP-8s
(staight-8s) with strapped on LINC processors. They were made for a few
years in the 1960s until the PDP-12 came about.
I am looking for ANY of the small DEC Flip-Chips in the R, S, B, G, A, or
W category (I do not yet have numbers). These are much smaller than the
more common modules found in later PDP-8s and -11s, but still have the
familiar plastic handles found on the M series boards. These have no ICs
on them, but may have weird looking hybrid grey SIP packages (at least I
have seen some on R107 modules).
Any leads would be appreciated. Thank you.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
"Bob Wood" <altair8800(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
>I am in the market for a Sol 20 and and/or an Imsai 8080.
A few weeks ago, a couple Altair systems on ebay.com went for
more than $1500 each. However, an IMSAI was recently sold for
$126 on comp.os.cpm. Prices are all over the map, from $0 to
$1500 it seems.
Aren't you the guy who's always posting messages to newsgroups,
saying you're looking for these machines? Are you a collector
or an arbitrageur? Judging by author profiles at www.dejanews.com,
it looks like you deal in all sorts of collectables. Can you
tell us more about your business?
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
At 06:23 PM 3/3/98 PST, Max Eskin wrote:
>>I'll differ on this point. one of the primary things that killed the
>'6300
>>was that it was NOT totally IBM compatable. The video subsystem (noted
>>below) is a prime example.
>Is it possible to somehow slap a CGA or any standard monitor into
>one of those?
Yup, just set switches 5 and 6 to on dipswitch 1 to disable the video
controller.
>Was the thing designed for UNIX or was it just a plain "enhanced" PC
>clone?
I think it was just meant to be an enhanced PC clone. I have to admit tho,
the 6300 case design is still one of my favorites (looks real purdy sittin' next
to a 3B2) and not a bad overall machine for it's age.
Les
PS If anyone else needs any dipswitch settings, etc. I have the tech manuals.
>Hmm? It must be the contrast between the white 3B2 cases and the black
>fronts of the 6300s, because I've always thought the 6300 was as ugly
>as party politics. The 7300 (and 3B1), now that's another story.
Well my 3B2 and 6300 cases match exactly. (Brown bottom, white tops, black
inserts, etc.)
les
At 11:58 PM 3/8/98 -0600, you wrote:
>On Sun, 8 Mar 1998, Joe wrote:
>
>> >Any additional info (and offers to give me one) appreciated.
>>
>> Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha! Fat chance!
>
>FWIW, I got email earlier today from somebody who threw his IPC away when
>nobody took him up on his offer of taking it away for free....
That's very strange since I frequently see ads from people wanting to
buy them. There was an ad in one of the HP news-groups just a few days ago.
Joe
I'm surprised the IBM drive caused such comment.
All I was re-iterating was what the guy said "an original IBM 10Meg drive" -
and as I saw IBM embossed on the front black plastic cover part, I figured
thats what it was. It's just a 5" or so hard drive, and nothing special.
Unless I'm mistaken, which is possible, as I don't know my stuff!
Add to the list from the other night a mint Z80 Big Board II
Cheers
A
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, March 09, 1998 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: Motherload
>> >> > original IBM 10Meg hard drive
>> >>
>> >> Did IBM make this? I thought it was Seagate...
Hi. I just read about a Tandy 2500 XL with a 286 10MHz, 2MB RAM, MS-DOS and
DeskMate GUI built into ROM.
So, if anyone has one of these that they'd be willing to part with....
Thanks,
Tim D. Hotze
I picked up two cards rather than having them trashed.
They're approximately square in size about mmmh....20cm to a side.
I counted about 73 or 74 pins on the connector on one side of each card, the
other side a solid block connect. The 1st card is labeled "Q050 DUAL TVT"
and has a MCM2708(?) eprom and a 10 pin output port, whilst the 2nd is
labeled "Q025 16K RAM". Were these worth rescuing?
I can do images if really necessary.
Cheers
A
The 2650 card is called a SBC-2650, and the manual does not mention the
vendor, but does mention Microbyte as the supplier of the software (eg: ACOS
operating system).
>> - S100 speech card
>By who? Votrax, by any chance?
Nup, board is labeled "Electric Mouth - 1 NETRONICS R&D Ltd. (c)1981"
>> 4 x 1702A EPROMS that I was after! (whoo hooo)
>Well, if you run out of these, they're readily available here in
>North America, at $1.95 each, from Jameco
Its not so much the value of them, but that I wanted some and *there they
were*
Cheers
A
>> > S100 system with prototype of Signetics 2650 processor board
>> > - this board later went into commercial production
>>
>> Who sold it, out of curiosity?
>>
>> I remember a _Radio-Electronics_ (or was it _Popular Electronics_?)
article
>> from '76 or '77 that had construction plans for a 2650-based machine.
>> I don't remember it being S-100 based, though.
I will put the whole story up on my website as soon as I can. The design
was published either in Electronics Australia or ETI, and basically the gent
was ripped off. However, he told me they sold perhaps 100 of these boards.
I have lots of software for it, both on floppy and casette!! and this
includes... wait for it.... an 8080A emulator. Bizarre.
Cheers
A
The beast runs OK, just a couple of LEDs out on the front panel, it seems.
A brief brief play showed stepping through worked OK - will play with it
more, later.
At least the PSU is OK - next to check the EPROMs.
Cheers
A
The hitherto unseen Matell Aquarius II machine is pictured on the top menu
option on
http://www.comcen.com.au/~adavie/weird/
Enjoy!
A
PS: I have TWO Aquarius II machines.
Dear Friends: I have a TRS-80 Model II, expansion bay with one extra drive,
and a daisy wheel printer. I don't exactly use this equipment much and
would like to ger rid of it. Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Terry Moore
toonsband(a)msn.com
I just found two Epson HX-20 computers with expansion units, plug-in
printers and plug-in micro-cassette drives. I've seen lots of these
computers but not the other items. Can anyone tell me about them? What's
a setup like this worth? Everthing is in PERFECT condtion, but no books,
tapes or anything else included.
Joe
<I've been revising my web site a bit recently. One of the things I've
<added is the entire 1978 Tandy Computers catalog which features such
<things as the IMSAI 8080, Sol-20, Vector 1, etc. I don't know about
<you, but aside from this one catalog, I had no idea that Tandy ever
<sold anything like this. At any rate, the whole thing has been
They didn't! I was working from them from 75 through 79 and help start
the computer repair centers in ALlentown PA and then in Bethpage NY
and while they did sell a few non tandy machines IMSAI, SOL, Vector
were never seen in any of those places save for when I'd bring my altair
or NS* to test out something.
Now it's possible that one of the independently owned dealer stores held
and advertized other machines. Even the Radio Shack computer centers
didn't start opening until the beginning of 78. The trs-80 was mid '77
and Tandy did nothing in computers before that.
Allison
Doug,
At 01:09 AM 3/8/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I've had an HP IPC near the bottom of my wish list for a while, and I
>might be able to get one. The owner wasn't impressed with my first offer,
>but there may still be hope.
>
>Does anybody else have one of these?
Yeap, I have two of them. I love them.
> I've never actually seen one, but
Then go look at "http://www.intellistar.net/~rigdonj/hp9807.htm".
>the thought of an early portable Unix box appeals to me. I seem to
>remember they ran an early (1.0?) version of HP/UX on a 68K (?) from ROM
>(?).
Only a ****VERY*** minimal system was run out of the built-in ROM.
Usually HP-UX was run from an external hard drive or the built-in floppy
drive. There was a plug-in ROM available that contained a complete HP-UX
system. It was called the "Software Engineering ROM". It was optional and
VERY rare. Disk based BASIC was available for the IPC and was also
available in a plug-in ROM.
>
>Any additional info (and offers to give me one) appreciated.
Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha! Fat chance!
Joe
>
>BTW, I also saw a Mentor Graphics box today. It said something like
>series 400, model 425. I vaguely remember that Mentor sold rebadged
>Apollos with their CAD software. I was never crazy about Apollo Domain OS
>from a programmer's perspective, but I do remember it being fairly
>innovative/interesting at the time, so I'm thinking about getting the box.
>Attempts to talk me out of it are warmly welcomed.
>
>Thanks,
>Doug
>
>
