test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by peacock＠simconv.com

Kai Kaltenbach wrote: >Other front panels... hmm. > >The Ithaca InterSystems DPS-1 had one. > I still have a DPS-1 in (mostly) good shape. Unlike the IMSAI flat toggle switches it had the triangular ones like DEC PDP-15s. Personally I preferred the IMSAI ones (memories of bloody fingers after toggling in a long binary on an Altair front panel with it's knife edged switches). The DPS-1 works but the motherboard connectors are shot...I got it from a plating/foundry company, covered with crud from the sufuric acid vats next to it. Now if anyone has a nice new pristine Morrow 20 slot motherboard to replace the "etched" one... The other nice feature of the DPS-1 was an o-scope trigger mode on the front panel, sort of a poor man's one channel logic analyzer. If I remember correctly, it also knew something about 24-bit addresses.

28 years, 2 months

Computers that have appreciated (RE: Altair price check)

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Yowza! [SMTP:yowza@yowza.com] > Besides the Apple 1, does anybody know of a computer system that has > actually appreciated in value? :-) > I assume you mean machines that are worth more than their original purchase price. That would be a pretty short list... notably: - IMSAI 8080 (assuming a base system; a fully configured setup would have cost thousands) - MOSTech KIM-1 (it was so cheap originally it can hardly avoid appreciating since it's a significant historical piece) - Rockwell AIM-65 (ditto) - RCA COSMAC VIP (ditto) If we adjust 1970s dollars to today's rate, not even the Altairs go for more than the purchase price. That leaves only the Apple I in the appreciating column. The only other micro systems (besides the Altair 8800s & Apple I) that fetch significant money, but are nowhere near appreciating from original cost, are: - IBM 5100 - Altair 680 - Processor Technology SOL - Commodore PET (chiclet version) - Apple Lisa - Unproduced prototypes of Atari 8-bit or Commodore equipment Kai

28 years, 2 months

Altair price check

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Regarding the three Altair machines that were recently posted to the net auction at ebay.com - they went from $1525 to $2025. Mind you, these weren't complete systems. The software, extra drives, etc. were auctioned separately. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

front panels

by peacock＠simconv.com

On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, Sam Ismail Replied: >> I also had one homebrew S-100 with the Wameco front panel, which used hex >> displays for address and data but otherwise was identical to the IMSAI front >> panel. Does anyone remember other front panel S-100 cards besides MITS, >> IMSAI, Ithaca, and Wameco? Wasn't there a Byte-8 sold by Olson Electronics >> for a while that also had a front panel? >Yes, the Byte-8 had a front panel with, I believe, a hex keypad and a two >digit 7-segment LED display. Was that just a display driven from a boot ROM or was it a real front panel, with displays directly driven from the bus, examine/deposit, single step, etc.? Usually a hex keypad meant a simulated front panel (CPU actually running a debug program in the boot ROM). A true front panel needed 16 LEDs or 4 hex digits for address, 8 LEDs or 2 hex digits for data, and at least 8 status LEDs for bus signals (SINP, SOUT, MEMR, INTA, etc.). All the panels I have seen also had an extra 8 LED latched output port and sense switch input port. >From cad at Mon Feb 23 17:06:14 1998 From: cad at (Charles A. Davis) Date: Sun Feb 27 18:32:11 2005 Subject: front panels References: <61AC5C9A4B9CD11181A200805F57CD54D09C92(a)red-msg-44.dns.microsoft.com> Message-ID: <34F200E6.40C2(a)gamewood.net> And then there is the Astral 2000. Full front panel (16 address/data switches, 16 leds) and a 4 digit hex display also. Switches to 'load' address or data, run/step, int. etc. When the machine is running normaly, the hex display is used as a 'clock' This machine uses a MC6800 chip. Chuck -- ----------------------------------------------------------- He, who will not reason, is a bigot; William Drumond, he, who cannot, is a fool; Scottish writer and he, who dares not, is a slave. (1585-1649) While he that does, is a free man! Joseph P. 1955- ----------------------------------------------------------- (be sure to correct the return address when using 'reply') Chuck Davis / Sutherlin Industries FAX # (804) 799-0940 1973 Reeves Mill Road E-Mail -- cad(a)gamewood.net Sutherlin, Virginia 24594 Voice # (804) 799-5803

28 years, 2 months

front panels

by kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com

>Yes, the Byte-8 had a front panel with, I believe, a hex keypad and a two >digit 7-segment LED display. The Byte Systems' BYT-8 didn't have a keypad or LED display, just 24 toggle switches and the usual binary LEDs. The front panel plugs directly into the backplane. > On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, Jack Peacock wrote: > Does anyone remember other front panel S-100 cards besides MITS, > IMSAI, Ithaca, and Wameco? Wasn't there a Byte-8 sold by Olson Electronics > for a while that also had a front panel? Other front panels... hmm. The Ithaca InterSystems DPS-1 had one. Somewhere kicking around I do have another "front panel" card that could hardly have been used as a literal front panel... I believe it was made by Jameco or somesuch. It's a full-and-a-half-length S-100 Z80 single board computer card (it's so long, it couldn't have fit in any case) with several segments of alpha display, and a 24- or 30-key keyboard-style keypad. Kai

28 years, 2 months

Panasonic Exec. Partner information wanted

by Marty＠itgonline.com

I was just given a Panasonic Exec. Partner. It looks like a laptop on stearoids. It should have been called a lugtop. It has a red plasma display, full keyboard, twin 5 1/4" floppy drives and a built-in printer. It comes with a convenient folding handle that swings out of the way (so as to not destroy its sleek lines presumeably) and boots fine. Unfortunately no paper came with it so I'd appreciate any information on when this was marketed. It's PC DOS compatible so that dates it post 1981 at least. Marty Mintzell

28 years, 2 months

KNOXM5 RSTS Rides Again!

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: "Daniel A. Seagraves" <DSEAGRAV(a)toad.xkl.com> <KL0: 176510 300 <<< What is that? real time clock or line time clock <DM0: 170500 440 DH0 DM is the DH mux and is 8lines <KB9:KB24 disabled - no DH0: controller You have to have 3 controllers for that many lines I believe and it only found one. <And wasn't DM0: a disk controller? Am I supposed to reset the CSRs to th Its that DH muxed serial line thing you looking for. you may have set CSRs though Tim S may know the specifics for U-bus. Allison

28 years, 2 months

Modern Minimalism (Was: Future Computing Trends)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Roger Ivie <IVIE(a)cc.usu.edu> wrote: >On the other hand, CP/M-68K is available from http://cdl.uta.edu/cpm/. >A lot of it is written in C; with some work, it can be modernized and >updated. What could be more retro than building the ability to port >CP/M to anything with a C compiler? Darn, I had this idea, too. I was going to port it to the Palm Pilot. I looked at the code, and discovered a few things that the owner of that page (Tim Olmstead) hadn't found. I think CP/M-68K was cross-compiled under Alcyon C on a VAX 11/780. (Alcyon also produced an OS called Regulus that was available for Smoke Signal Broadcasting's 68000 systems.) The source contains the name "Tom Saulpaugh", and a web search turned up a book "The JavaOS? Design and Architecture" he wrote. He's at Sun as the architect of JavaOS for Network Computers. Tom Mason also works at Sun, and he worked at DRI on CPM-86, Concurrent CPM-86, and CP/M-86+. Novell appears willing to release source, but Tim suspects that there's no one around willing to discover or document what's available - if anything. For example, the source to CBASIC should be around, but they haven't released it. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

Found a decent use for a PC...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<No, it's just something about REALLY LARGE frontpanel boxes that rules. <The KA-10 is plain awesome. It's not only a real good hack, but it's <the foundation of timesharing and the ARPAnet. I'll probably never see o <in action, so I'm amassing as much information as I can - maybe it can b I have and it's more than awesome. <re-built? Who knows, they used discrete components... Half the problem is finding one that is complete enough with minimim peripherals. The peripherals also eat power. just the cpu with a hack to use modern disks for power and space savings wouldn't be out of line. As to being discrete, the answer is mostly not completely. It's a hackable machine. <Of course, this is WAY out of my league, but if I keep docs around... You never know. Allison

28 years, 2 months

BBC Model B - video help

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

On the subject of BBC video problems, it occurs to me that the BBC micro does scrolling by moving the pointer to the start of the screen (under some conditions?). If you can get it to do this, and see how the display behaves, you may be able to determine easily if it's an addressing problem. Just a thought. Philip.

28 years, 2 months

Prices & Rants(was: Future Computing Trends. Still is, I g

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

>Oh, and as per a previous mail by someone that you had replied to with a >hotmail.com account (so this isn't at you directly, but I cannot find the >intermediate mail): Last I checked, Russians don't use dollars, they use >Rubles. I have a 1990 5 Ruble proof coin I purchased in East Berlin while I >was there in my collection. (25 years ago, most coins were cheaper than >computers -- now it's the other way around!) So I was making a statement >about the pitiful (IMHO) status of the American dollar, just to clear >things up. Not to go too much off topic, but I made the russia comment, because I was born in the USSR, and it is very apparent to me. They DO use rubles, but before they artificially deflated it (with a clone case :), the xchng rate was something like 5000 Rubles to a US Dollar. I was watching a Russian comedy program a few days ago, and they mentioned that Russia has more dollars than the US, discussing the aid US gives them :) Actually, dollars are pretty much common there now, with slightly greater value. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

Altair price check

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

And I was losing bidder in one on the net recently, consisting of an 8800a and two 8" drives. It went for $1800 A -----Original Message----- From: John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 2:34 AM Subject: Altair price check > >Regarding the three Altair machines that were recently posted >to the net auction at ebay.com - they went from $1525 to $2025. >Mind you, these weren't complete systems. The software, extra >drives, etc. were auctioned separately. > >- John >Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm> > >

28 years, 2 months

dhgf

by rus_wallden＠bc.sympatico.ca

28 years, 2 months

9370 is a dog! Was: Re: Re[2]: Firsts

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

William Donzelli quoted me as having written: >> All 3090 models are indeed water machines. The 3090 was IBM's large >> mainframe of the late 1980s. > > Are you sure that there were not a few air cooled models towards the end? > I have an air-TCM from, I believe, a late 3090. I paid two bucks for it. > In hindsight, I should have purchased all of them in the chassis (25 or > 16, I do not remember offhand. OK. To be strictly accurate, all 3090 models of which I am aware are water cooled machines. I was a student when I worked at IBM - a year before going to university, and two summer vacations - after which I somewhat lost touch with them. My last job with IBM was in 1988, and not at the marketing location where I had worked before, but in a factory building cash dispensers. My last real knowledge of IBM was >from 1987, then. >> involved!) to replace the strange 400Hz thingies. And a little circuit >> to provide a 400Hz heartbeat if the machine uses this at all... > > This is probably the best solution. > > It probably does monitor the 400 Hz, and machine check if it goes away. > Remember, these machine monitor EVERYTHING (like the earthquake sensor in > some of them - give them a good kick and they will report a seismic > check). Ouch! But you may get away with providing a fake "ac good" signal, rather than ac for it to monitor. > The "Mill" was chopped up into smaller rooms - our room just happens not > to have mice power, but the one next door does. Strange - I shouldn't have thought it took much to power a mouse :-) Still, this means you shouldn't have much difficulty with the upgrade. Philip.

28 years, 2 months

Timeline of the Micro

by groberts＠mitre.org

fyi, interesting time line of the microcomputer: "Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers" http://www1.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist.htm - glenn +=========================================================+ | Glenn F. Roberts, Falls Church, VA | Comments are my own and not the opinion of my employer | groberts(a)mitre.org

28 years, 2 months

RQDX3 problem?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Is it possible for a RQDX3 to be bad, and trash a RD53 (Yes, I know what <terrible drives they are) to the extent they can't be formated in a VS200 Yes and no. Yes I've had drives a VS2k would not touch but the drives were otherwise ok. The PDP-11 formatter would however format them. Most of the drives I have that the VS2k didn't like were formatted on my CP/M crate using a teltek card(oddball format) or the older PC mfm controllers. You could have an incorrect hookup, power problems or other things going on. Are the RD5x's powered from the same powersupply as the rest of the system (in the same box)? RQDX3s do fail though the failure modes can be vary varied as they have their own PDP-11/memory/eprom on board. If it passes self diagnostics it's a 98% safe bet, if it's self testable it's ok. That does mean there are parts that selftest cannot verify. <So my question is, am I just having very bad luck or is the controller m <problem? I think your suffering from a multitude of things and with an apparent lack of docs to reference too. Your trying to attack it was if it were a PC and it's not even close. Those drives generally don't fail that suddenly and my expereince is they are generally reliable. But when you start with a box of junk it's hard to get to a know working point. Me I have Q-bus PDP-11s that can boot faster and off a wider variety of devices so any testing is done that using good old RT-11. I also have a set of diags for that platform so testing things like disks, tapes and interfaces is doable either with diags or by using them. At some point I have know good boards and questionable seperated and can move the known good to the uvax. PDP-11 and uvax Qbus commonality can be handy. Allison

28 years, 2 months

Copying TU-58's?

by healyzh＠ix.netcom.com

The person I've been getting a bunch of DEC stuff off of has a whole pile of TU-58 tapes that he would like to get transfered over to something he can read. I'm wondering if there is anyway I can attach the TU58 drive I've got for my PDP-11/44 to my MicroVAX II and copy these tapes for him. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | | For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |

28 years, 2 months

Found a decent use for a PC...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I'd say it's not so much a matter of there being "no need for them" <(front panels), so much as the fact that machines are so fast any more <that I'm not sure how much use they'd be, especially with <multi-tasking operating systems. Before the address and data LEDs <stabilized with any useful information, it would be somewhere else. In some respects that is true even back then when instruction cycle time were in the 2-10uS bracket. You did get to see the average addresses that were freqently accessed. However, front pannels also posessed the ability to stop the cpu, and single step or single instruction advance it. A true front panel on a PC would have to be able to do that and that is no small trick considering the caches, Dram refresh and other dynamic timings. < -Bill Richman < http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r < (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!) Cosmac ELF sim? Humm, I still rin one of those chips for fun. Allison

28 years, 2 months

HP 935

by adam＠merlin.net.au

Hi! Anyone know what a HP 935 is? I assume it to be a Hewlett Packard laptop of some sort, with an LCD display, but I don't know if it is MS-DOS, CPM/M, a full laptop or one of the Tandy Model 100 computers, or what. :( A mining company just offered me a pile of them (along with my choice of their old computers), but I figure I should know something about them before I make the journey. Thanks heaps, Adam.

28 years, 2 months

RQDX3 problem?

by healyzh＠ix.netcom.com

Is it possible for a RQDX3 to be bad, and trash a RD53 (Yes, I know what terrible drives they are) to the extent they can't be formated in a VS2000? I'm still trying to get my VAXstation II/RC up and running, and I was trying to load it with a questionable tape today. I booted with a standalone backup tape and started reloading. I then proceeded to get a parity error, which I told it to ignore. It sat around for a couple of hours not doing much of anything, so I halted the system and unloaded the tape. Then later on today I went to load it from a known good system tape, only this time standalone backup wouldn't see the disk. Thinking the drive needed reformated I pulled it out, and put it in my VS2000, and when I go to format it I get the following. >>> t 70 KA410-A RDRXfmt VSfmt_QUE_unitno (0-2) ? 0 VSfmt_STS_Siz .?? VSfmt_RES_ERR #2 84 FAIL >>> I had formated this same drive in this same system early last week with no problem. I just hadn't had time until today to try loading it. This is the second Hard Drive that has quite working and I've been unable to format after placing it in this system. I have yet to actually get the system to work with a Hard Drive (although the standalone backup recognized the one earlier today). So my question is, am I just having very bad luck or is the controller my problem? Thanks, Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | | For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |

28 years, 2 months

Counterpoint boxen

by adept＠mcs.com

I have two counterpoint unix boxen. I've had these things for years but have never got around to fixing them up. They both have the IO subsystem, but they are also both missing many parts. I was wondering if anyone has experience with these things and mebbe some documentation. I _do_ have an original 60M QIC of counterpoint unix that I could dupe if anyone is interested (although I haven't checked its reliability recently) Cheers, Dan

28 years, 2 months

pong

by chrish＠knet.kootenay.net

sorry about that rus is the game still, avail. At 06:43 PM 22/02/98 -0800, you wrote: >where are you at dan i live in castlegar bc canada i will take it if it >doesent cost to much >At 12:22 PM 22/02/98 -0800, you wrote: >>any body want my coin op pong machine >> >> > > >

28 years, 2 months

TRS-80 Model II

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

Well kids and kiddies I got it functioning. The int. fdd wasn't positioning the heads close enough to the disk to read them. Fired up the various OS -- TRSdos 2.0 A , TRSdos 4.2 , CP/M 2.25 and the apps. Scripsit, Profile+, Visicalc, several terminal programs and some CP/M apps. including MBasic and the C asm. Wheeee !! What fun !! BTW, it says has 64k . Don't know about that upgrade tho. Next step is to check out these HDD s. Thanks to all who contributed. ciao larry lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com

28 years, 2 months

pong

by chrish＠knet.kootenay.net

where are you at dan i live in castlegar bc canada i will take it if it doesent cost to much At 12:22 PM 22/02/98 -0800, you wrote: >any body want my coin op pong machine > >

28 years, 2 months

Moving my Collection?

by chrish＠knet.kootenay.net

found a homepage for the last home computer ti ever produced it wascalled the ti 99/8 it can be seen at http://w3.gwis.com/~polivka/998.html At 10:01 AM 22/02/98 -0500, you wrote: >On Tue, 3 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote: >> On a scarcely related note, has anyone ever seen (or does anyone have) a >> TI-99/4 (no "a")? >Andrew Gurudata has a page devoted entirely to the TI-99/4 at: > >http://www.vex.net/~guru/ti/ti994nota.htm > > >-------------------------------------- >Rich Polivka >Alternate e-mail: copguy(a)geocities.com or ti994a(a)technologist.com >TI Home Computer Page: http://w3.gwis.com/~polivka/994apg.html >My Ohio Police Pages: http://www.cop-spot.com/~OhioBlue >------------------------------------ > > >

28 years, 2 months

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