test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by gmast＠polymail.cpunix.calpoly.edu

> >On the other hand, I had a garage sale last weekend. Not one person = > >interested in the piles of Apple, Commodore, Atari stuff. I mean, if you = > >guys aren't going to garage sales to buy stuff, you're missing a lot of = > >deals. Most of the stuff at the Goodwill has an old garage sale sticker = > >on it.< > > Heck, if you're dumping stuff at garage sale prices, post the list here > first! Probably nothing rare or particularly interesting, but you never > know what somebody might be looking for. > > Gil Parrish > 107765.1161(a)compuserve.com = I do post lists of the stuff I'm selling on Auctionweb. Some of that stuff does go really cheap but not all. I do plan to post a big list of the stuff I was selling at the garage sale and the prices should be very reasonable (cheap). You are right in that the G sale stuff isn't rare. I had 3 Apple II+, an Apple IIc, C-64, Piles of C-64 power supplies and cables, joysticks, Atari 2600 consoles and games. Only thing is that they need to be shipped which can be more than the price sometimes. I did manage to give away 4 dead C-64s and a 1541 to a guy who works on them. Give me a month or so.

28 years, 8 months

Info needed: VAXStation 3520 & others...

by IVIE＠cc.usu.edu

>> 2nd: a number of DECStation 2100 and 3100 series units. (along with >> various peripherals and expantion boxes. >> >> What are they, and what do they run? (and docs?) > > I have one, it runs VMS 5.3 (VAXServer 3100) Sorry; it it runs VMS it's a VAXstation, not a DECstation. The DECstations are built on MIPS processors. Roger Ivie ivie(a)cc.usu.edu

28 years, 8 months

Info needed: VAXStation 3520 & others...

by IVIE＠cc.usu.edu

> 1st: (the biggie) VAXStation 3520. 'Cube' configuration, apparently 4 > processors Four processors would make it a 3540... > , 64meg of ram, a TK70 and controller, one board that appears to > be the interface between the processor bus and the three Q-bus slots in > the chassis, How much stuff is on the QBus adapter board? There were two versions: FTAM supports only the TK70 controller (is you TK70 attached to QBus or to SCSI?) and FQAM supports any random QBus module. FTAM is a simple module containing only a few chips; FBIC (interface to the backplane) and CQBIC (CVAX -> QBus adapter) being the only really big ones. I believe there was also a clock generator chip, but not much else. FQAM is chuck full o' goodness. It his a prom-based microcode machine to run the module and lots and lots of PALs. > and a board on the processor bus marked "I/O Module" with two > 50 pin headers on it. The connector which goes out the side of the backplane is SCSI. Although DEC used the DSSI chip on this module, they only supported SCSI; the DSSI chip is capable of doing both. The connector which comes out the front of the backplane goes to a distribution panel which provides: - Four serial ports (console/printer, modem, mouse, keyboard) - Ethernet (AUI and BNC) - Diagnostic code display (one 7-segment LED) Unfortunately, I don't know the pinout of the cable; I don't have a printset for the 3520. > There also appears to be a space for what looks like it would have been a > three board video sub-system (which has been removed). Three boards is correct. For extra fun, it has its own embedded MicroVAX II... > Aside from the basic power/control cabling, and the cable to the TK-70, > there are no other cables in the unit at present. (and no place to plug in > a terminal!) The terminal plugs into the distribution panel which plugs into the I/O module.

28 years, 8 months

(fwd) Model 4 video problems

by bluesky6＠ix.netcom.com

Can any expert out there help me with this? Thanks! In comp.sys.tandy, bluesky6(a)ix.netcom.com (Benedict Chong) wrote: %I just got a Model 4. When I turn it on, the disk drive will spin but %there's no video. % %When the video brightness is increased, I can see a large rectangular %green area where the video would be. % %Instead of video characters, there are lots of zigzag lines across the %screen, with more on the top of the screen than towards the bottom. %The entire screen is stable and does not flicker or move around. % %It has been a good number of years since I last played with this kind %of video (built a 6502/6845 terminal in the mid 80s) so I can't %remember what problem would cause this type of symptoms. % %When I remove the video connector (after opening up the machine), the %screen loses the vertical hold. I guess that would mean that the %vertical sync and circuitry is working. % %Could the problem be due to the monitor circuitry or a problem with %the Horizontal Sync generation? % %Would appreciate all/any pointers. % %Ben %

28 years, 8 months

HHCs

by bwit＠pobox.com

I must've fell off the list last week when the Internet went haywire and I've just resubscribed. From the tone of this message it would seem that the HHC deal fell thru. Would someone mind bringing me up to date? Thanks, Bob ---------- From: Sam Ismail[SMTP:dastar@crl.com] Sent: Thursday, July 24, 1997 6:15 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: re: HHCs On Thu, 24 Jul 1997, Gil Parrish wrote: > Message text written by Sam: > >I should have mentioned that in a couple months when the remaining units > are liberated, they will be up for grabs.< > > A suggestion. Why don't you start with the existing list of people who > were willing to pay for the units, and allocate one to each. If there > aren't enough to go around, then delete names in some random manner. If > there are units left over, then take the list of folks who requested more > than one and allocate them to those folks in some sort of random manner, > and so on. This is what I planned to do. I have retained the list. There were a total of 53 interested persons, so hopefully there will be enough for everyone. If there are extras then maybe we'll just hold a lottery.

28 years, 8 months

VIC-20 Kernel Project

by 107765.1161＠compuserve.com

Message text written by "Richard A. Cini, Jr." > For the last two years, I have been working on making a recompilable version of the VIC-20 Kernel ROM.< OK, I'm not afraid to ask the amateur question: Why? I'd love to see someone with good programming skills write some sophisticated software for the VIC-20, likely requiring at least a 16K expander or something. If your project will help lead to that, I'm all for it. Gil Parrish 107765.1161(a)compuserve.com

28 years, 8 months

Some Great Deals

by 107765.1161＠compuserve.com

Message text written by Greg Mast >On the other hand, I had a garage sale last weekend. Not one person interested in the piles of Apple, Commodore, Atari stuff. I mean, if you guys aren't going to garage sales to buy stuff, you're missing a lot of deals. Most of the stuff at the Goodwill has an old garage sale sticker on it.< Heck, if you're dumping stuff at garage sale prices, post the list here first! Probably nothing rare or particularly interesting, but you never know what somebody might be looking for. Gil Parrish 107765.1161(a)compuserve.com

28 years, 8 months

CLASSICCMP digest 124

by allisonp＠world.std.com

Bruse Lane queried: <The VS2000 is the little square 'cube,' is it not? If so, I have a pair. <was planning on using one for a disk formatter. Yep the 1cuft vax., Has MFM disk interface for hds and 5.25" 1.2meg floppies and on the mainboard there is a 50 pin connector for SCSI. Plug a cable with 50pin berg into it and bring it out the bottom. The only SCSI device it will boot is TZK50 (TK50 with SCSI adaptor). However if you can get ultrix or VMS on a disk it both can use the SCSI to access otehr devices other tha boot. Also the printer port(9pin) if you pull pin 9to ground and boot it becomes the console for a terminal. FYI the disks that work with the vs2000 are st225/20meg HH, st251/40meg, RD52(quantum q540 31mb), RD53(micropolus 1325/71meg) and RD54(maxtor2190/150meg). Other drives with the same geometry can be used if you want to use it with media the rom knows. <??? How so? I've not worked enough with the stuff to guess at that one. Boot the OS, build a single user system on disk and use that to build a bootable tape. <A! That's IT!! Yes, I can do this! I can build Ultrix onto one of my <3100/M38's then, and use it for netbooting the VAXStation! Yes you can as most of the vaxen will mop boot if the NI is there. <Allison, if you were within range, you'd get a big hug! I even have an <honest-to-DEC RRD42 SCSI CD drive just waiting to be used. <If you could outline the steps for me, so I can have a printout to refer <to, I'd appreciate it. Thanks again! Wish I could. I know the outline only and that the capability is there. <BTW, can I also do the remote boot with OpenVMS? I picked up a Ver. 6.2 <distribution kit while I was in the Bay Area. Yes, and depending on the license you have with it(must have) you can also cluster them using NI. The cluster host can be any vaxen, the higest performing one you have is the logical choice. The alternate is booting as a diskless workstation or remote boot(localdisk for swapfiles). Vs2000s were commonly used as workstations with local swapdisks (rd52s or rd31s) or as decwindows terminals. FYI: vms without the license pak for it is marginally useful. Brief explanation of MOP boot. This is a DEC protocal that goes back to PDP-11s(they used serial lines for this!) and it was Maintenance Operations Protocal. It allowed one system to push code into another. It's protocal is fairly simple, the boot requestor puts a message on the NI that says BOOT ME and it's Eithernet hardware ID. The host is tasked with recognizing the address and feeding back the correct file usually a boot loader. The boot loader is more sophisticated and will then respond back saying ok lets use a better protocal and it then loads the one of three things, another bigger loader, VMSboot or untrixboot. After that point the protocal is usually either IP or DECnet though user selected protocals are possible. The actual application loaded is up the the designer/user and examples I've worked with were DIAGS, PrintServer (lps40/20/32), DECwindows, VMSworkstation remote boot and VMS cluster. Doing this on unix systems means you must have a operating host with networking running. The boot process from the requestor is the same but the host must have a daemon to handle the booting process. USually there are config files to manage this. Allison

28 years, 8 months

Is there a DECsystem-ten emulator for free/shareware?

by dseagrav＠bsdserver.tek-star.net

I heard there's 3 DEC-10 emulators, but all are commercial products (And therefore pretty expensive!). Are there any freeware or shareware ones?

28 years, 8 months

Some Great deals on AuctionWeb

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> On the other hand, I had a garage sale last weekend. Not one person > interested in the piles of Apple, Commodore, Atari stuff. I mean, if you > guys aren't going to garage sales to buy stuff, you're missing a lot of > deals. Most of the stuff at the Goodwill has an old garage sale sticker > on it. I don't see many garage sales around here. Sometimes I get to radio rallies (hamfests, I think is the US term). But there is a car boot sale most Sunday mornings in the summer where I call in on the way home from church. Sometimes there is good stuff; sometimes there is awful stuff; last Sunday I saw (in the way of computers) a late model Commodore 64 (which I already have) without a price tag, and next to it a card advertising a Commodore PET (model unspecified) + disk drive + lots of disks, working but needs new cable (also unspecified) hence "low" price of L30 [delete] [delete] 25. Since I have five PETs already, I didn't bite. But even if it's a fat 40 (which I don't have yet) I'd be reluctant to pay as much as L25 (over $40) even in full working order, and certainly not without the disk drive cable (replacement easily obtainable _only_ on the 8032SK AFAIK). Still, enough moaning. I agree, this sort of sale is always worth a visit - you never know what interesting little goodies you might find there... Philip.

28 years, 8 months

Commodore history

by ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca

Does anyone know where Commodore was actually started? I've seen the Bronx and Toronto given as the site of the first Commodore shop, but the Bronx references have been made more recently. Apparently the official Commodore history at the World of Commodore show in Toronto (forget which year - 10th anniversary of the show I think, so 1993?) had a picture of the first little Commodore shop... in Toronto. Also, does anyone know where Commodore had production facilities in Canada? I have a VIC-20 with "Made in Canada" stamped on it, and I didn't realize that Commodore actually _made_ computers here. As another note of interest, both of my "Made in U.S.A." VIC-20s have serial numbers starting with "P". The "Made in Canada" VIC has "CC" instead. Did the letters record what plant the machine was manufactured or assembled in? CC = Canadian plant, P = Philadelphia or something? Heck, while I'm at it, does anyone know the exact date (or even the exact year) that Commodore purchased MOS Technology? I figured it would've been 1976, but I've seen documents referenced as from "Commodore/MOS Technology, Norristown, PA, 1975". Doug Spence ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca

28 years, 8 months

Laser 3000

by ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca

Just on the off chance that there's a different mix of people here now than when I first enquired some months ago... Does anyone here have disk drives, CP/M module, or documentation (especially the tech manual) for the Laser 3000 computer from Video Technology? How about the RS232 adapter, or the RGB cable? Computer Direct also sold these as the "Aplus 3000" (they used a marker to cover over the "Laser 3000" nameplate for the picture in the ad). Doug Spence ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca

28 years, 8 months

HHCs

by dastar＠crl.com

One final word on the Panasonic hand-helds... I should have mentioned that in a couple months when the remaining units are liberated, they will be up for grabs. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but Mike mentioned that he would see if we could just get them for free if we pick up the shipping from Canada, since the company didn't seem interested in making a buck on them anyway. When the time arrives I'll bring it up. Sam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass

28 years, 8 months

I need a Commodore Plus/4 Video Cable

by dastar＠crl.com

Does anyone have a Commodore Plus/4 video cable for sale or trade? Please e-mail me directly if you do. Thanks. Sam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass

28 years, 8 months

HHCs

by 107765.1161＠compuserve.com

Message text written by Sam: >I should have mentioned that in a couple months when the remaining units are liberated, they will be up for grabs.< A suggestion. Why don't you start with the existing list of people who were willing to pay for the units, and allocate one to each. If there aren't enough to go around, then delete names in some random manner. If there are units left over, then take the list of folks who requested more than one and allocate them to those folks in some sort of random manner, and so on. Anybody will take a "freebie", but the folks who committed to make this deal work ought to have the first shot at them. I'm just sorry the deal didn't work out as anticipated. And by the way-- if these aren't new-in-the-box units, I assume they won't be coming with an instruction manual? Gil Parrish 107765.1161(a)compuserve.com

28 years, 8 months

The Rescuer's Conundrum

by jruschme＠hiway1.exit109.com

Or otherwise stated: What to do when the cost of reviving a rescued computer is as much as buying one of the same model? To explain, I recently rescued a Mac+ (2.5/40) which was being thrown out by my employer. When I got it, it would give intermittant Sad Mac errors. No problem, I figure I can replace the RAM with some surplus PC SIMMs. This fixes the Sad Macs, but after it heats up it dies with an "Address Error" bomb. Some board switching points to the motherboard (more specifically, the ROMs) as being the fault. Checking around, I see that the most common price for a Mac+ system board is $15 + shipping. As a last check, I call Intragate (intramac(a)aol.com), who has had good prices in the past, to find out their price. It turns our that they won't even quote me a price for the MB as they can get me an entire Mac+ system for $20. This has really left me in a quandry as to what to do. I really don't want to buy *another* one as I already have a working Mac Plus. Besides, what would I then do with *this one*? I suppose I could keep it for parts, but that seems a bit of a waste too. Any suggestions? Anyone with a spare set of Mac+ ROMs? Thanks in advance... <<<John>>> P.S. Anybody also know of a source for a LaserWriter Plus logic board, too?

28 years, 8 months

Getting desperate...!

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Would a VS3100/30 work for you? I don't know how you would then <install on the other machines, though (maybe you know more about <Ultrix than I do. You're guaranteed to know at least as much as I <do :-) ). < If you have a system running the CD then you can build a system to disk and netboot and netcopy the system to other machines. Vaxes will mopboot other vaxes. Allison

28 years, 8 months

VIC-20 Kernel Project

by rcini＠msn.com

For those interested in the Commodore VIC-20... For the last two years, I have been working on making a recompilable version of the VIC-20 Kernel ROM. I started from a scan that I made of a crappy dot-matrix print-out and have a version that compiles with no errors. From this, I developed an assembler variable equates "include" file for all of the VIC-20 RAM and ROM locations. It's a little messy because I preserved the original address and op-code info to match against the assembler listing. So, you have to import it into Excel to strip that info out, save it as text, do some minor double-"double-quote" fixups and re-save it. I have also proven to myself that the compiland is the same as the ROM image by using a simple BASIC program to byte-compare the two files (my ROM image and a ROM image from the Finland Commodore ftp site). There are two versions of the "inc" file. One for recompiling the Kernel and one for ML program writers (to avoid double variable declarations). Right now, I'm working on documenting the code as best as I can. When that's done (I'm up to location $f400), I'll post it and the "inc" files. I would then look for you guys/gals to peer-review it and give me your comments. The finished product can go into our archive. Then, I'll probably work on the BASIC ROM. And so it goes... ------------------------ Rich Cini/WUGNET - ClubWin Charter Member (6) - MCPS Windows 95/Networking

28 years, 8 months

Getting desperate...!

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<From: "Lane, Bruce A" <B.Lane(a)PSS.Boeing.com> < Gad, I'm beginning to get a REALLY good idea of what searching for <tough-to-find's can be like! < < Here's the story. I have several MicroVAX II's. I need a way -- ANY <way! -- to boot from a CD-ROM on one or all of them. < OR (4): A later model of VAXen (maybe a 3500, 4000, or 5000 series) <that is designed to accomodate SCSI from the get-go, and can boot from a <CD-ROM. Or a 3100, or vs2000 they have SCSI. <As a last-gasp possibility, I do have a functional TK30 tape drive. Any <chance that, if I copy the Ultrix distribution CD to a CompacTape II <cartridge, it would be bootable by the MicroVAX? Not likely if it's a copy. Though you likely can build a tape from the copy. <Fellow DEC'ers, I'm getting desperate. Please help me out if you can! <I've got at least three systems sitting idle and gathering dust because <I can't boot a CD on them at the moment. Join the crowd. Of all my time in computers starting back with the PDP-8s I've had the problem of I have W and the machine can read Y. Right now my vaxen know only rx50, rx33, or tk50. My PC knows none of those and the PDP-11 has those and RL02. allison

28 years, 8 months

Getting desperate...!

by B.Lane＠PSS.Boeing.com

Gad, I'm beginning to get a REALLY good idea of what searching for tough-to-find's can be like! Here's the story. I have several MicroVAX II's. I need a way -- ANY way! -- to boot from a CD-ROM on one or all of them. I NEED at least one of the following solutions. 1). (probably a pipe dream) An Andromeda Systems SCDC Q-bus/SCSI host adapter. I don't even care if it doesn't work; I can get it refurbished by the manufacturer. However, $2,500 new is way out of my range. OR (2): ANY QBus-to-SCSI board that can boot from a CD-ROM drive (I have a DEC RRD42). OR (3): A DEC RRD40 CD-ROM drive and controller (the early RRD's used a dedicated controller that, AFAIK, was compatible with any QBUS machine). OR (4): A later model of VAXen (maybe a 3500, 4000, or 5000 series) that is designed to accomodate SCSI from the get-go, and can boot from a CD-ROM. As a last-gasp possibility, I do have a functional TK30 tape drive. Any chance that, if I copy the Ultrix distribution CD to a CompacTape II cartridge, it would be bootable by the MicroVAX? Fellow DEC'ers, I'm getting desperate. Please help me out if you can! I've got at least three systems sitting idle and gathering dust because I can't boot a CD on them at the moment. Thanks in advance. Please reply to my other address: kyrrin(a)wizards.net ==Bruce Lane http://www.wizards.net/technoid

28 years, 8 months

Info needed: VAXStation 3520 & others...

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

28 years, 8 months

Some Great deals on AuctionWeb

by gmast＠polymail.cpunix.calpoly.edu

Here's my update for the stuff I'm selling on AuctionWeb. There are a couple fairly rare items here. I just want to clear stuff out and get what I can for them so they will sell for the high bid. I recently sold a few things there really cheap, like in the $1 - $5 range for new Apple parts so I think overall the prices are down during the Summer. Anyway, here's the list. Just go to the link shown to bid and get more info. And drop me an email if you have a question beyond what's in the listing. Note the Apple Lisa Mouse and Apple III drive! **Note: I mistakenly listed this as an Apple II mouse when, from a couple emails, I was informed that it's actually an Apple Lisa Mouse. There is a picture at the listing. Old Apple Lisa Mouse! *** PHOTO *** Current bid: $15.50 Auction ends on: 07/25/97, 16:45:54 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=zjz242 Apple III External Floppy Drive **PHOTO** Current bid: $7.50 Auction ends on: 07/25/97, 10:43:32 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=nwr8950 Atari 520ST System With Floppy & More! Current bid: $8.50 Auction ends on: 07/25/97, 10:49:56 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=hrc0869 Apple IIe 80 Col/64K Expansion Card Bidding starts at: $1.00 Auction ends on: 07/26/97, 16:35:51 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=eix4345 Timex Sinclair 1000 w/16K Module/Software Current bid: $6.50 Auction ends on: 07/26/97, 16:46:22 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=ytc65252 Brand New Apple IIe Power Supply! Bidding starts at: $1.00 Auction ends on: 07/26/97, 16:59:52 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=ipi2331 Macintosh SE Power Supply! Current bid: $1.00 Auction ends on: 07/26/97, 17:35:06 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=lxm4715 Brand New Apple IIe Replacement Keyboard! Current bid: $5.51 Auction ends on: 07/27/97, 19:00:44 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=qsa5622 Atari Trackball Controller **photo** Bidding starts at: $2.00 Auction ends on: 07/27/97, 20:34:18 PDT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/itemfast.cgi?item=gsi241 Also, I have lots more computer stuff in the garage that has to go. Here's a brief list. I'll be listing everything on the auction in the next month or so. Apple IIe (3 ea) Apple IIc with monitor and power supply Apple IIe Color Monitor Apple Imagewriter II printer (3 ea) Macintosh 512k Pile of new Apple service parts for Mac plus, Mac II, Apple IIe, IIc, Imagewriter, more including power supplies, main boards, disk drives and more. Apple joysticks and paddle controllers Commodore 1702 color monitor Commodore 1541 drive (4 ea) Commodore 64 in box Piles of Commodore power supplies and cables, joysticks, etc Thanks for reading!

28 years, 8 months

CLASSICCMP digest 122

by foxnhare＠goldrush.com

From: Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk Subject: PET FAQ > What about the 8200 Series? I am not sure of the differences between this, the > 8000 series and the 500/700 (B/P) series - see my post earlier this week. I don't have ANY information on the 8200 series, I suspect that it was not widely released (or not at all) in the U.S. The 500/700 series are not in the PET line, those are the B-series machines and would be a separate FAQ - IMO. >> Large Keyboard PETs (no more internal datasette drive): >> PET 2001 xN (x=8,16,or 32 depending on amount or RAM it was shipped with) >> - Full-size key keyboard w/PET graphic symbols imprinted on keys > I dispute this. The 2001 xN, of which we had several at school, had the new > ROMs, the new motherboard (using 2332 ROM chips) but the small keyboard and the > built in C2N. This was the essential difference between the N and B machines. Have to disagree with you on this one, the 'calaulator keyboard' PETs seem to have the designation on 2001-8k or 2001-8/c (c referring to calculator keyboard). The N designation meant [N]on Business and [B]usiness style keyboards, both full-size, can find many sales ads and books to refer to on that one (though if I were running a business on a PET, I would have preferred the keyboard with the most keys...) >> - Upgrade ROMs >> - Many steel cased, some w/molded plastic tops. >> - many with clearer green on black displays >I thought all the N and B machines had green screens - we even had one straight >2001 (old ROM) with a green screen. I think Commodore still had extras in stock (also small yeyboards & tops), the blue screens aren't common but tere are some in later models (kinda like finding VIC-20 keyboards in C-64 units) >> - Later versions had 4.0 ROMs installed > Was this not only available as an upgrade? I am going by personal experience here, there were 8" diaply PETs sold with 4.0, I saw a couple come through our school. >> PET 2001 xB (labeled as CBM, Commodore Business Machine) >> - Full size xx key keyboard (no graphics symbols printed on keys) >> - Upgrade ROMs (powers up in upper/lower case mode) >> - Later versions had 4.0 ROMs installed >> - Many w/molded plastic tops some steel cased. > Our green-screened old-ROM machine was labelled CBM, but was again a small > keyboard/internal tape machine. Otherwise I remember little about the B > machines Hmmm, I have yet to see such an animal... But as I mentioned a few answers back, with Commodore's thriftyness anything was possible. :) >> PET/CBM 40xx Series (PET= N keyboard/ROM, CBM= B keyboard/ROM, xx= RAM) > I wasn't aware of a small keyboard 4000 series. Interesting. Again, N does not mean small keyboard. >> 80 column series (can be set to 40 column mode via software.) >Can it?!? I wasn't aware of this. You can restrict the area in which it prints >on the screen to an arbitrary rectangle, but it doesn't behave like the >40-column machines in that the screen is still physically 80-column, it doesn't >handle wrapped text, etc. On many of the Commodore P.D. disks there is a program called 4032.C (I think there is a .C on it...) it will bump your 8000 into a 40 columns to run the 40 column programs on the disk. > The 8200 series could be set from 80 to 40 columns by unsoldering and moving two > chips. I haven't done this to mine yet... Never heard of 'moving' chips, I read it was one of the ROMs (the one that supplies the startup values...) that determined 40 or 80 column (as well as video RAM memory too.) I guess you mean replacing two chips, then yes. Going back to 40 is a bit easier since you don't have to add RAM like in the 4000 PETs. > At this point you must mention the 8296 and 8296D! I'll have to dig up some solid info on this, as 'I said it is pretty uncommon here. >[... SUPERPET ...] Got one, still puzzles me, also how much space I should devote to it as I have only seen one (the one I bought recently). Will probably add more as I get more time and information not very many people have asked about them. >> MOTHERBOARD SERIES >> >> 2000 series(9" CRT) 3000 & 4000 series (8" CRT) >> IEEE user tape #2 IEEE user tape #1 >> +------####-####--##-+ +------####-####--##-+ >> ! # ! #! >> ! # ! #! >> ! # exp ! #! exp >> ! # bus ! ROMS #! bus >> ! # ! F E D C A B 9 #! >> ! # ! #! >> ! ! ! ! >> ! ! ! ! >> ! ROMS ! ! ! >> ! F E D C A B 9 ! ! ! >> ! ! ! ! >>tape # RAM MEMORY ! tape # RAM MEMORY ! >> #1 # ! #2 # ! >> +--------------------+ +--------------------+ >The left hand board is a hybrid of the original motherboard (of which there were >no fewer than _four_ versions). Remember the original motherboard used 2 >kilobyte (800 Hex) ROM chips (6540s in most, 2316s in some). The ROMS were >therefore not F E D C A B 9 but F8 F0 E D8 D0 C8 C0 'Programming the PET/CBM' gave me those diagrams and you are right about the ROM sizes... Will have to re-do that one. >The righthand motherboard was the 2000B and some of the 3000 - the tape ports >were swapped on the 2000N and other 3000 AFAIK. Will keep with Programming PET/CBMs numbering for now, I'm trying to answer questions not confuse people more... They should suffice all my machines except the original (of course) have the tape #2 on the inside. > 8200 series: Again this basic format, but rearranged so the separate keyboard > mod is sensible. 128k RAM on motherboard of which 96k usable (?). Again I have no data on the 8200 PET/CBMs, point me toward your FAQ on it... *grin* >> WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES AND/OR BUGS OF MY VERSION OF BASIC? >> Original ROMs >> Commodore had not yet implemented the IEEE-488 disk routines. Arrays are >> limited to 256 elements due to a bug in firmware. There is no machine >> language monitor nor could the PEEK command access locations above memory >> location 49152. The upper/lower case character set was inverted (SHIFT for >> lower case) (note: reading my sources there are ALOT of bugs, will take a >> while to compile them) >Some of these were not bugs but features. [so Microsoft would have Commodore believe...] >Peeking and poking in upper memory (thresholds vary!) were disabled to stop people >looking at the ROMS. [Common among early micros fortunately Commodore learend the > 'closed box means no 3rd party support' lesson early] >In the E page are some I/O addresses, so it is re-enabled from there upwards... >The only other genuine bugs I came across on my own machine (my first ever >computer was a PET - original ROMs, 13th birthday present in 1980) were one in >screen editing, and the machine crashes instead of giving the "too many files" >error. Just skimmed a bit about bugs with the Cassette routines. There was some usage problems on the PEEKs warning not to cluster them too close together... Facinating stuff... >> Added screen 'window' formatting control characters. >Only in 8000 series and fat 40, AFAIK. The small screen 4000 series did not >have the new screen controller or many of the new graphics features. I think you're right on that... still have to research that one more. >> HOW DO I ACCESS THE PET's M/L MONITOR? >> The 'timy machine language monitor' (known as TIM to some)... >TIM stood for Terminal Interface Monitor, according to my manual. Jim butterfield referred to it as Tiny Monitor in the First Book of VIC, thanks for the clarification. >> WHAT IS THE 'KILLER POKE' AND SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT IT?..... >[ Explanation with one or too inaccuracies has been snipped ] >The old "video controller" could not be put into a faster or a slower mode. It >was discrete TTL, and simply read the screen memory, shoved it through the >character ROM, and sent it to the monitor. It would not have affected printing >speed even if you had speeded it up. >The old PETs were slow because the SOFTWARE of the print character routine >waited for the interval between screen scans before updating the screen memory. >This reduced conflicts over the screen RAM which would have resulted in random >pixels (snow) being illuminated on the screen. There was an input on one of the >I/O chips which was hooked up to the video circuitry and told the routine when >to access the video RAM. >The famous poke was actually to another register of the I/O chip, and configured >this input as an output. The older pets didn't mind (much!), and the print >character routine saw the screen as always available, but on the later ones with >the new video controller, this conflicted with another output and caused the >video controller chip to do a wobbly (and could even have burnt out one or the >other). Will re-work that one, thanks for the description. >> IF PEEK(50000) THEN POKE 59458,PEEK(59458)OR 32 >NO!!!!!! Peek(50000) will only be zero on the original old ROM pets! Hmmm I know that program works on the big screen units... more research! >> CAN I HOOK UP AN EXTERNAL MONITOR TO MY PET? >> With the help of the following circuit you can get a composite singnal from >> the user port... >> Insert Video Diagram here.... >Don't use the one published in "The PET Revealed" by Nick Hampshire. It doesn't >work. DANG! It was such a neat plan too! Guess I'll have to forget that question for now (until I can find an alternative diagram.) Larry Anderson -- -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Visit our web page at: http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/ Call our BBS (Silicon Realms BBS 300-2400 baud) at: (209) 754-1363 -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

28 years, 8 months

Minicomputer Storage Myths

by sinasohn＠crl.com

At 12:02 AM 7/23/97 -0400, you wrote: > Offhand, and I may offend a few sensibilities here, that folks who >care for computing's history should be willing to bear such short- >term inconveniences as medium-sized monetary expenditures. If you Well, I would gladly spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars to save computers (and misc. other stuff I collect) from around the world. Problem is, I'm lucky if I've got enough $ to save me from going hungry. I'm not complaining, mind you (it's my own fault, really; spending all this money on silly computers and land rovers and stuff...) but just pointing out that a lot (most?) people simply *CAN'T* blow $200 on shipping a computer or what-have-you. Doesn't do much good to get an HP3000 series 3 if you then have to rip the guts out to live in it. I get the same story from people who say "Oh, you really ought to join the Y/club/whatever, it's not expensive" when what they really mean is "it's not expensive for me, but hey, I just bought a $50K BMW for my kid's 15th birthday." (I think there are those who get BMW's for their birthday, and those who get underwear. I got underwear.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/

28 years, 8 months

Minicomputer Storage Myths

by sinasohn＠crl.com

At 07:00 PM 7/22/97 +0100, you wrote: >Ok, they are a very convenient shape compared with Superbrains, Tandy >Model 4s and PETs. I only have a couple of PETs and they are a real >pain. What do other collectors do with these machines? Shelves. If you face them towards each other: _ _ |_\_ _/_| You can slip light boxes or what-have-you in between. Of course, us really *smart* people concentrate on portables... 8^) --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/

28 years, 8 months

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