test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by mark.darvill＠mac.com

Tommie, Many thanks for the suggestion regarding the guy on ebay. Bruce has also contacted me directly off list. Mark ------------------------------ Message: 22 Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:44:23 +0200 From: Tommie Mademark<tommie at fox.se> To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only'" <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: RE: DG Desktop Generation Manuals Message-ID:<40A791DCA605FE468794FC2AE63FA2041EFC827D09 at mail.fox.se> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Signature emlmth1 on eBay.com has a set of 5.25 inch diskettes with AOS install for sale. The floppies are currently not listed but he had them listed a few months back for me, but I was looking for AOS/VS on diskettes, not AOS. Bruce Ray (bruce at Wild-Hare.com) might have the "Desktop Generation Model 20-30 Technical Reference" manual. Tommie Mademark My Data General bloghttp://DataGeneral.org/

12 years, 11 months

Kaypro System disks?

by brain＠jbrain.com

I have been fortunate to acquire a Kaypro system that appears to be in great condition and looks to work. It looks exactly like this: http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Kaypro-I-Micro.htm Thus, it says Kaypro 1 on the artwork Still, the sticker on the rear says Kaypro 2, so I'm confused. In any event, I have no system disks for it (There is a slight possibility they are part of the stash with which the Kaypro was bundled, but it's 100 sq ft of stuff). Thus, I'm wondering if there is a kind soul who might be able to ship me a set of disks. (I'll pay shipping, of course). I also am the proud owner of 2 Obsorne machines (one works, the other seems to have drive issues. They are the redesigned units, but (as I suspected) the systems disks won't work on the Kaypro. Jim -- Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X) brain at jbrain.com Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times! Home: http://www.jbrain.com

12 years, 11 months

CMD CQD-220 ROM fixes

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

A while back, I mentioned that I'd found and potentially fixed the "bricking" problem with the CQD-220. To recap, for those that werent following, the problem lies in the code for the on-board 8086 when you set the number of both disks and tapes to zero. The 8086, during its routine to load the values from the EEPROM, loads the total number of disks and tapes and executes a loop with a counter predecrement; if the counter is loaded as 0, it effectively runs through the loop 256 times instead of 7 (the max), which spins out of control and blows away some RAM somewhere before crashing. Fortunately, through a compiler bug or some such, there are 5 bytes available from a totally redundant instruction (loading a value into a register where the same value is already loaded) in just the right place to test the total number of devices and jump to the "uninitialized device table in EEPROM" section of the routine if it is zero. With one byte to spare! (good thing NOP is only a byte in 8086) This applies to the A7A revision of the ROM, anyway; I haven't gotten to the A8 version yet, though I know it exhibits the same bug. Hopefully it also has the same redundant instruction. In any case, I should be able to find and fix it quickly once I have the time, because I know where to look. So, here's the thing; I've finally gotten the time to test the fixed ROM image (was temporarily short of 27256 chips, but that's been resolved) and I'd like to get the fixed images somewhere they'll be easy to find if anyone else runs into the same problem (this took me over a year of sporadic attention to fix). Does anyone know where I should post this? There's my own website, which is really not a thing anymore, but there are probably lots of places Google is more likely to find. Also, are there copyright implications to consider? I know CMD is long gone, but I still worry about these things. Last thing: does anyone know the difference between the A7A ROM and the A8? I've not found anything different; I assume it's probably an obscure bugfix. The images are only 64K total, so I shouldn't imagine they'll be bandwidth intensive. - Dave

12 years, 11 months

Mac Performa 6400/200VEE

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

I found a Mac Performa 6400/200VEE at the dump today, but no keyboard / rodent / display. It seems to have 128MB of RAM installed, along with a video I/O board (the 'VEE' bit, I suppose) and Ethernet board. The downside is that there's some significant battery corrosion toward the bottom of the system board PCB. I'll try some vinegar and see how it goes, but obviously it doesn't make sense to source a keyboard, mouse and display from anywhere if the system's toast. 1) Is it possible to wire the 15-pin monitor connector up to a PC's VGA monitor? Or, 2) Can I hook the composite out on the video I/O board up to a TV and expect to be able to see something at boot time? (I'm not sure if that board's only initialized after the system's booted) Done with hard disk disconnected, obviously - but will the system even output anything to the display with no keyboard or mouse present? cheers Jules

12 years, 11 months

What's this 88000 based qbus cpu about ?

by seefriek＠gmail.com

As it happens, I have one of these with manual and VMS drivers/libraries. Nothing currently to put it in, though. KJ

12 years, 11 months

Northstar C5 Bus - Any interest or any details on what this is?

by arrowrunner＠gmail.com

A member from the vintage computer forum suggested that I post this here before throwing it in the scrap pile. I'd much rather make a couple dollars or trade and see it go to someone that might use it or need it anyway. http://s253.photobucket.com/user/arrow_runner/media/20130408_175701_zps5d7b… http://s253.photobucket.com/user/arrow_runner/media/20130408_175710_zpsb4ff…

12 years, 11 months

8mm Movie to Digital Service?

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > > Stupid question but do those films (8" or 12") have sound on them > > I am puzzled by your reference to 8" and 12" here.... Probably referring to the reel size, which is of minor importance. > like a track or are they purely video slides in a row? (I've really > never seen them up close so hollywood is my only incorrect knowledge of > how it looks). > AFIAK 16mm cine film could have either an optical soundtrack or a > magnetic one. In the former case, the ausio signal modulated a light > source which produced a variable width or density track on the film. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_soundtrack has an example of a 16mm film with variable width/area sound track. I haven't been able to quickly find a reference picture for the variable density (sometimes called "Western Electric") system, but it consists of density gradients along the sound track (think "analogue bar code"). Magnetic sound track gives itself away as a strip of brownish color (like audio cassette tape) that is laminated onto the film along one edge. Sometimes there is a second "balance" strip along the other edge so the film will spool up more evenly. > After processing this was read using a lamp and photocell, the signal > from the latter was the original audio. Or a magnetic soundtrack, an > iron oxide 'stripe' down the film which works like a tape recorder. All three systems were available for 16mm film, my Siemens System 2000 projector would be capable of playing them all back. There is a switch at the amplifier (in the projector base) to select between optical and magnetic audio and a knob on the optical reading head to select width or density modulation. > Super-8 8mm film could have a magnetic soundtrack (I have never heard of > opticla sound on such films). I have also never heard of any soundtrack > on standard 8 ('double run 8(') or single-8 film. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_film#Sound has the following: "Super 8mm was also specified with an optical sound track. This occupied the same location as the magnetic track. Picture to sound separation in this format was just 16 frames. Projectors and cameras obviously could not record sound in this system, but optical sound package movies became briefly popular, particularly in Europe (mainly because they were cheaper to produce - though the projectors cost more). Although the optical sound should have been inferior in quality to magnetic sound (running at 3.6 inches per second for 24 frames per second), in practice it was often much better, largely because packaged movie magnetic sound was often poorly recorded." No mention of audio tracks in any form in the Regular-8 article however. Arno

12 years, 11 months

Mark Crispin and PANDA

by spedraja＠ono.com

Hello. What happened with the PANDA distribution available in PANDA.COM ? The site appears to be down. Regards Sergio

12 years, 11 months

old computer museum in WI

by sales＠elecplus.com

With his permission, I am posting this company's info. They are an electronics recycler, and he has a working computer museum. Greg H. DeVoll First Choice Computer Recycling 525 Park Ridge Court Eau Claire, WI 54703 Phone: 715-833-2005 Fax: 715-833-1944 Email: greg at firstchoicerecycling.com He has doubles, triples, and gaylords of most things. Includes old DEC, Apple, old gaming machines including Pong and Commodore, telephones very old rotary, many styles, many new in the box, old test equip, etc. Emails and calls are welcome, and tours are available. He is willing to sell old stuff, and he can test almost anything. He has 40K sq feet. He does not have a website for the museum. Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 (830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax AOL IM elcpls _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6264 - Release Date: 04/22/13

12 years, 11 months

8mm Movie to Digital Service?

by cfox1＠cogeco.ca

> > > Super-8 8mm film could have a magnetic soundtrack (I have never heard of > > opticla sound on such films). I have also never heard of any soundtrack > > on standard 8 ('double run 8(') or single-8 film. > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_film#Sound has the following: >"Super 8mm was also specified with an optical sound track. This occupied >the same location as the magnetic track. Picture to sound separation in >this format was just 16 frames. Projectors and cameras obviously could >not record sound in this system, but optical sound package movies became >briefly popular, particularly in Europe (mainly because they were cheaper >to produce - though the projectors cost more). Although the optical sound >should have been inferior in quality to magnetic sound (running at 3.6 >inches per second for 24 frames per second), in practice it was often much >better, largely because packaged movie magnetic sound was often poorly >recorded." > >No mention of audio tracks in any form in the Regular-8 article however. > >Arno While there was never a standard for sound on regular 8mm film,there were various attempts at it. I was recently given a Eumig P8M Imperial projector which has a sound deck on the back on which a tape from a 3 3/4 ips reel to reel recorder can be threaded to maintain "sync" with the film and start and stop the projector. The problem is that every time a quarter inch tape is run it stretches a bit and the sync doesn't last. Cheers Charlie Fox Charles E. Fox 793 Argyle Rd. Windsor Ont. 519-254-4991 N8Y3j8 www.chasfoxvideo.com

12 years, 11 months

8mm Movie to Digital Service?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 07:53 AM 4/23/2013, you wrote: >Stupid question but do those films (8" or 12") have sound on them like a track or are they purely video slides in a row? (I've really never seen them up close so hollywood is my only incorrect knowledge of how it looks). Here's a close-up that shows the newer digital methods of putting audio on film, too. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:35mm_film_audio_macro.jpg>http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:35mm_film_audio_macro.jpg - John

12 years, 11 months

8mm Movie to Digital Service?

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

> Stupid question but do those films (8" or 12") have sound on them like a > track or are they purely video slides in a row? (I've really never seen > them up close so hollywood is my only incorrect knowledge of how it > looks). > > I have one 8mm movie (the original starwars movie) with a single audio track next to the perforations. Running time 15 to 20 minutes if I remember correctly. Never had the opprtunity to hear the sound, as we did not have a sound capable projector. -- Dit is een HTML vrije email / This is an HTML free email. Zeg NEE tegen de 'slimme' meter.

12 years, 11 months

Pics of new shop

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, Here's a link to the pictures of my new shop: http://www.shiresoft.com/new-shop/Shiresoft/New_Shop.html TTFN - Guy

12 years, 11 months

Rumors of the Mainframe's death are greatly exaggerated

by steve＠tronola.com

>Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 10:16:33 -0700 (PDT) >From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> >Ken Olsen (DEC) once said that there was only need for half a dozen. So >long as there is still need for half a dozen, then it ain't dead! --- It sounds like you are referring to the quote which is attributed to Howard Aiken (NOT Ken Olsen): "Only six electronic digital computers would be required to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States." (Aiken was also known for such prescient positions as being religiously opposed to storing instructions and data in the same memory space.) Steve L.

12 years, 11 months

KA655 SLU without proper bulkhead

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

Hey all, I recently acquired a KA655-AA (MicroVAX 3800/3900 CPU) and some appropriate RAM, and I'm having trouble grokking the console SLU output. If I'm reading the docs correctly (and I have to go all the way back to the KA630 docs to find the proper switch polarity), if I'm running it without a bulkhead attached at all, the serial speed should be 300 baud. When my terminal is running at 300, 8 bit, no parity, 1 stop bit, I get some garbage on screen but not much more. Am I missing something? Do I need to do some magic with the front panel ports to make it cooperate? I'm using a DB25 serial cable that I've been using on my KDF11-B CPU board with no trouble; if I look at the docs, it looks like it should be fine assuming I can let DTR float (it's unused in my cable, since it's an external clock pin on the KDF11-B). I can also see the LEDs on the spine of the CPU counting down, though I didn't watch for long enough to see if they ever got to zero. As far as I know, the memory is connected OK and works, though I assume I don't really need that if I just want to see a console prompt. I'm using a very short (~3") 50-pin SCSI ribbon cable, which I assume is OK. And it's an MS650-BA, which the KA655 manual specifically calls out, because the -AA is too slow. - Dave

12 years, 11 months

8mm Movie to Digital Service?

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Stupid question but do those films (8" or 12") have sound on them like a track or are they purely video slides in a row? (I've really never seen them up close so hollywood is my only incorrect knowledge of how it looks).

12 years, 11 months

DECnet MOP download file formats??

by bob＠jfcl.com

I've got a little "satellite" PDP-11/23 with just a CPU, memory , some serial ports and a BDV11 bootstrap card. One of the serial ports is connected to a bigger PDP-11 running RSX-11M+ and DECnet-11M. My goal is to use the DECnet MOP bootstrap built into the BDV11 to download a "bare metal" application from the RSX system on the bigger -11. So far, so good. After a little twiddling with the DECnet configuration I've got it so that I can trigger the BDV11 boot and the host will download the secondary and tertiary loaders to the satellite. Amazing :-) Now the problem is for me to write some application for the tertiary loader to download. Writing a PDP-11 assembly program is not an issue for me, and I've got MACRO-11 and TKB on the host system, but I don't know exactly what DECnet wants. How is the application system image supposed to be made? What's the file format that DECnet wants to download? It's probably made with TKB in some way, but what are the proper TKB options? Where (in memory) does it get loaded on the satellite? What address does it start execution at ? Is the MMU turned on? Is the I/O page mapped? Are any useful values (e.g. a pointer to a valid stack, the address of the download device CSR, etc) passed in the registers? So many questions ! Can anybody point me to documentation on this, or an example of a little program that gets downloaded via DECnet MOP? In the olden days, people probably would have generated an RSX-11S system and downloaded that, but I don't have an 11S kit so that's not an option. Thanks, Bob Armstrong

12 years, 11 months

(US) National Software Reference Library

by jfoust＠threedee.com

A government archive of installable software: <http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/05/life-saving-the-national-s…>http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/05/life-saving-the-national-s… But I found out about it in reference to this: <http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1cvgl6/powered_up_48_tb_raid_afte…>http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1cvgl6/powered_up_48_tb_raid_afte… - John

12 years, 11 months

DG Desktop Generation Manuals

by mark.darvill＠mac.com

Does anyone have any Data General Desktop Generation manuals scanned that they could send me? I am particularly looking for "Desktop Generation Model 20-30 Technical Reference" p/n 014-000767-01 but any other associated DG manuals would be grateful recieved. Also does anyone still have a 16-bit AOS distro, ideally floppy based? I am rebuilding a DG20 and would prefer to install AOS over RDOS. Thanks, Mark

12 years, 11 months

Moving gear

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

While this is mainly for folks in the Bay Area, I'm posting this for informational purposes and if anyone happens to be in the Bay Area to help, I'd appreciate it. As many of you know, a couple of years ago I moved out of my shop and put everything into storage. It dawned on me that what I was paying in storage fees would finance a mortgage (ouch!). After a brutal 6 month search, my wife and I found a property that met all (ok almost all) of our criteria. One of the fundamental criteria (which nixed a number of houses that we liked) was that there be a "shop" on the property. This one does. The main level of the shop is 3 rooms totaling ~1000sq ft. Then there's the upstairs which is another ~400sq ft (with 6' head room) and finally the "basement" which is ~250sq ft (with 5' head room). I'll post a link to pictures once I put them up. Remember, this is the shop. The house is *spectacular* and I'll cover that if folks are interested but I'm not going into detail here since it's off topic. This is our retirement property (yes we're getting to that age unfortunately) and is about 180 miles from our current home. On the plus side, the property is almost 10 acres. I spent this past weekend moving ~150 "totes" from storage up to the new shop. I barely made a dent in my storage units. I need help in moving all of this stuff. Much of it is going up to the new place. However, there is a large quantity of stuff that I've acquired that came along for the ride as I was acquiring other stuff. Some of what will *not* be going (more will follow as I dig out more stuff): - Sun gear. I have a number of IPX's, LX's, SS2's, Ultra5's. I don't know the status of them at this point but many of them (especially the Ultra5's) are in great shape and I expect them to be fully functional. - microVAX. I have fair number of these. From pizza box styles to BA123s. - Q-bus based 11s. I have a number of these, but I didn't run across them this weekend so I can't give a complete inventory - 11/34s. I have 2-3 of these. They're pretty well stuffed. I haven't actually run these and they're still in the rack(s). Here are the rules: - I will *not* ship. I'm under serious time pressure and I have *no* time to pack and ship stuff. - I will *not* look for specific stuff. I'm basically a packing robot at this point. I'm operating on a binary decision: go or not. I'm not looking at stuff in detail, there's no time. - You come and help me move, you get to pick stuff that you want (that I'm not taking). - If you don't want to help move, you will be expected to pay a "nominal" value for the item. - If you come to help, I expect you to work. I don't have time to waste on jaw boning. - If you want stuff, I expect you to come...look, (pay), take and leave. - Tell me your availability. I'm doing this on weekends. I will *not* be doing any of this during the week. My "real" job consumes all of that time. Sorry to be a bit blunt but I'm in a bit of a rush and need to get stuff moved. Ideally, everything will be moved by 6/1. Oh, and for those of you who might ask, anything that's left will be sent to WeirdStuff. If you're interested, please contact me off-list. TTFN - Guy

12 years, 11 months

Looking for...

by roe＠liveblockauctions.com

Anybody out there eBay tvrsales? I'd buy the disk cleaner immediately and cover shipping, but you don't seem to deal with Canadians...

12 years, 11 months

TM100 anywhere? (Kaypro drive woes)

by brain＠jbrain.com

Anyone got a working TM100 in their spare parts box? Or, alternatively, anyone up to diagnose a dead TM100 for a fee? The K4+88 needs one. It drags the PSU down completely when plugged in, and the mech won't read a disk with a known good controller. Also, the drives in the K4 (half height, I forgot to write down the model number) run but are out of alignment. If someone is up to aligning them, I'd pay for the efforts. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

12 years, 11 months

"Don't mess with Texas's old computers" (APR 22 2013)

by lproven＠gmail.com

IBM 402 tabulator still in use today... http://kottke.org/13/04/dont-mess-with-texass-old-computers -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

12 years, 11 months

Who is the moderator of this list?

by barythrin＠gmail.com

Since its already a bit off topic. I was leaving for work this morning and saw my daughters bike which has a little pouch on the front that says "peace" which today I read as "peace sridhar". I guess I should just be happy I'm not seeing "bad wolf". Although I did see that tattooed on a young lady at the local pet store.

12 years, 11 months

Atari DRAM smuggling(?)

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

Interesting read about Atari in the 80's. http://www.atarileaks.org/ g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_!

12 years, 11 months

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