test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by jws＠jwsss.com

The discussion thread about the flip chips had a discussion about a spice model. there is a file missing and I wonder if anyone knows where it might be found thanks JIm .INCLUDE ../PDP8/PDP8_COMPONENTS.cir

12 years, 11 months

Who might want my collections (but not yet!)?

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Since my father passed away a couple of months ago I have been giving serious thoguth to making a formal wil myself (when my father was around, he would have known who to contact about various things). My first ;'choice' is to give everything to a personal friend who has been on this list. He shares enough of my interests that he will realise what is valuable and what is perhaps not so valuable. But the problem is tha said friend is about the same age as me, and it is not certainn he wil loutlive me. Of course if he passes away long before me, I can producve a new will, but it is worth putting a clause in the one I am currently writing to say what happens if he is not around. Now, as well as my classic computers there's also cmaeras, books, tools, test gear, other electronci stuff, etc. I would rather leave everything to one person/orgnaisation (rather than say 'the classic computers go to <a>, the tools go to <b>, etc) or worse still 'I leave my PDP11/45 system to <foo>', etc. In the latter case if I have, say, swapped my 11/45 for an 11/790 at some point then <foo> gets nothing, even though it was probably my intention that he would get the 11/70. In the former case, there could be disputes as to what category certain things fall into -- is the 'Datacopy 300' (an early digital camera that needs a classic PERQ to run it) a 'classic computer peripheral' or a 'camera', for example. Does anyone have any serious suggestions for an organisation (and yes, I am considering computer museums here, no matyter what I may have said i nthe past) who would be prepared to take the lot and pass on that which was of no use to them to other organisations or enthusiasts? -tony

12 years, 11 months

Computer ASCII Text Art from the 1970's

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 12:39 PM 4/11/2013, Sam O'nella wrote: >http://www.vintage.org/exhibit99.html has a better picture of it from the >now CHM. "Better" as in that one is 320 x 240 pixels and mine was 122 x 184? :) - John

12 years, 11 months

looking for Daisy Wheel Printer

by tom_a_sparks＠yahoo.com.au

> >>? I am looking for a daisy wheel printer to buy >> > >> > An odd thing to desire.... >> not really, > >Wel, OK, I regater old computer periphearls as being interesting, but far >too many people think that the CPU is the only bit worth colelcting. > >> I already have two pen plotters (Desktop and cutter) >> I've ordered a dot-matrix printer > >s an? aside, I regard injet and laser printers as being dot-matrix... > yea, but they are not impact based One of those 4-colour pritner/ploters using the Alps mechanism. Everybody >and his dog sold them at some poitn -- Tandy CGP115, Commodore 1520, >there was an Atari oen, a Sharp one, theOric printer, etc. > my Roland plotter has 8 pens slots (DXY-1300) the other plotter is a papercraft cutter -tony >tom PS:? I am using them for art projects

12 years, 11 months

not exactly true vintage...

by sales＠elecplus.com

I have a PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, each with 1 controller, both tested working. $100 plus shipping takes them both home. Cindy Croxton _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6237 - Release Date: 04/10/13

12 years, 11 months

pdp-11/23 config

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote: > > On 04/09/2013 12:08 PM, Arno Kletzander wrote: > > I'm not sure what I'd need it for? There is no other system within walking distance that would understand the floppy format natively. > > Any file I/O thus most likely will happen across the Internet (involving a PC anyway), so I hoped I'd be fine with the TU58 emulation software discussed below. > > I use the PC to make floppies (RX50, RX33 and RX23) and my S100 CP/M system will do RX01 transfers. > But, I have multiple Qbus 11s and most all have floppies so portability between them is handy. (or a 50ft serial cable). > >> If anything the floppy is always a must on my systems as all my diags and > >> base RT11 systems are on that media (RX01, RX02, RX50, RX33, RX23). > > Are they also available in TU58 (file) format? > Generally yes. TU58 file format is variable in that the device appears to the system as > a blocked volume like disk (though slower). The transfer between the TU58 and > its host is serial data and the host request block(s) N and not that > much different than IDE or other intelligent disk system that uses a logial block numbering > system. The tu58 does not know nor care what is in the 512 byte block. I've run CP/M from TU58. ok, then TU58 emulation is, as I had hoped, going to float the boat for me, at least until either more machines or media to be read crop up here. > >> A viable uVAX is more than 150mb, (more like 300-500 for V7), > >> a loaded PDP11 is 30MB. Just difference is OS utilization. > > So I guess it all boils down on what one wants to run on it. > > I've got one functional RD53 in it right now, and a second one I hope to revive at some point in the future. > > Thats plenty of space for PDP-11 OSs. Unfortunately I have no sound way to (mechanically) _mount_ and power those tiny little 5,25" disks in the '11 rack, that's why they're staying in the BA123. I forgot the 300MB ESDI disk I got from a listmember together with a Webster Qbus controller, I'll use that one if I ever want to run a large OS on the VSII. > Likely the bad one has the stuck head problem > easy to fix. just upen it up and unstick it. There are more detailed instruction out there. > I'v edone it many times and forget the whole you need a clean room thing, My first > salvage is near 25years old now. I'd not want to try my luck, I'll work on that one once I've got an aquarium type glove box set up. [large drives] > You can till you have to format or defrag it. I keep a stack of sub 1gb > (from 50mb and up) SCSI drives for that reasonas well as a major > heap of MFM drives (St412s 10mb, St225s 20mb and Quantum > D540s 31mb). I just insert them and image copy to them as backup. OK, seems we mixed up logically and physically large drives here. I have about none of the first, but several of the latter category amongst those in question for the machines we're discussing here: 1(2)x RD53 5,25" MFM 1x 300MB 5,25" ESDI, 3x 5MB 14" RL01, 1x 10MB 14" RL02, (2x 80MB 14" SMD) (I just have a lead on those yet) [TK50 tape subsystem] > I meant save it for backups or other large data needs as running diags > off it will be painfully slow. If its bad save it for parts, they are scarce, > usually the controller is fine and the drive is borked. Understood. I'll find out once I have a drive and media for it. > I've also already found out that the memory board I'll be getting is 512k_Bytes_ (256kW) and does _not_ have BBU support. ?? BBU?? Unless you mean BBS7 (Io tends to use that). Battery backup. Feeding it from an alternate 5V source to keep RAM content intact when mains power is off. > One last thing... > > Heat! Qbus 11s produce a bit of that. That means fans must all work, > the location must not be dusty enough to load up the boards and local > temperature not excessively hot. > I fried a 11/23 board while working at the DEC Mill when they had an air > conditioner fail for the office area, when the room hit 96 (36c), cpu > went away, I had plenty of spares. So reliability and room temps are > coupled. Qbus 11s are fairly tolerent of conditions but any you find > are going to be old and may not like additional stress. A hard "CPU dead" damage without any warning? That's bad. Good to know anyway, makes me want to add a system monitoring function (temp and air flow) for emergency shutdown. Maybe something to design a CD slot board for after all ;), at least before I'll run the machine unattended. I also forgot something: I myself wouldn't have thought of putting a NIC (DEQNA or similar) in a pdp-11, probably just for the notion that back in those days, computers were too few and far between to come up with the concept of a Local Area Network. Obviously I was mistaken here, too. Arno

12 years, 11 months

Tech is the biggest problem facing archiving • The Register

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

And interesting (and seemingly straight-forward) article about issues we face & discussed: Tech is the biggest problem facing archiving Mountains of unreadable obsolete magnetic tapes! By Chris Mellor http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/03/archive_technology_problem/ -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- AIM - woyciesjes --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/ --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." "The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." - from some guy on the internet.

12 years, 11 months

FS: Huge Lot of Vintage Computers- Local Pick up preferred in Flushing Michigan

by slandon110＠gmail.com

Due an unexpected loss of my vehicle and to help with moving expenses I must sell off a good chunk of my collection. I cannot accept PayPal, my account was hacked and overdrafted and PayPal refuses to help. Postal Money Order is acceptable, But if you can come out and get machines that would make life quite easy for me. Best reasonable offers accepted The more you buy the cheaper it gets Complete Systems Apple IIGS ROM 01 with Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, 3.5 Drive, 5.25 Drive, 1MB RAM Expansion, 80MB HDD and SCSI Card $200 IBM PC 5150 256K RAM, 40MB Hardcard, Ethernet Card, Sysdyne RGB Monitor, Keyboard and All original boxes $200 Atari ST520FM, Rough Shape but working Comes with TOS 2.0 ROMs not installed 52MB HDD and Mouse included. The 52MB HDD has an ACSI TO SCSI Adapter in it, so you can use SCSI Devices with the Atari $100 Apple II Plus System Monitor /// with matching monitor stand Dual Disk II Drives Saturn 128k RAM Upgrade Card Super Serial Card Microsoft Softcard Z80 Card ThunderClock Plus Clock Card $250 Apple //e system Apple Color Monitor //e Super Serial Card 64k 80 Col Card Apple 5.25 drive $75 Apple //e System Unidisk 3.5 Drive w/ Apple Liron Card DuoDisk 5.25 Drive Apple RGB Card with Color Monitor 100 Apple //e Workstation Card Apple Super Serial Card Microsoft Softcard Z-80 Card CFFA 3000 Card $300 dollars Apple //c machine ROM 0 Machine with Unidisk 3.5 Support Matching Monitor //c UniDisk 3.5 Drive $100 Bell & Howell Apple II Plus Matching 5.25 drive RCA 9inch B&W Monitor Hayes Smartmodem II 300 Baud Super Serial Card Microsoft Softcard Z80 Card $300 dollars All these machines are tested and working and are from my personal collection. Cheap accessories DaynaPort E/Z Serial To Ethernet Adapter for Mac- Puts your Serial based macs online $30 dollars MicroPrint 2, LocalTalk to Ethernet Bridge- Bridges your localtalk based macs to ethernet 50 pin SCSI Hard Drives, Sizes from 40MB to 500MB $10 dollars each, got hundreds of them These are 20 dollar an item machines. 10 Apple Monitor // 4 Apple Monitor /// 32 Cosmetically damaged IIGS Monitors 10 Nice GS Monitors 8 Mac IIcx 2 Mac IIci 3 Mac IIsi 5 Imagewriter I 3 Beige G3 Minitowers 2 G3 Desktops 5 PowerMac 6100s 1 Centris 610 1 Quadra 610 1 PowerMac 7300/180 1 PowerMac 7500/100 2 PowerMac 7100/66 1 Performa 600 1 Macintosh IIVX 4 Original LCs 3 LC 575s 1 SE FDHD 2 SE 800k 5 Mac Pluses 1 Molar Mac

12 years, 11 months

The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME * The Register

by amh＠POBOX.COM

On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > Honestly, I'm really surprised by the list. I was surprised first by the > C-128, and even more surprised by the time I got to #10. I didn't take time > to see if they listed criteria for the choices, but I find the machines > selected to be odd. I for one would have put a BeBox in the list (and I've > never even seen one). I'd have likely also included the G5 PowerMac (and > current Mac Pro's) for their case. Surely the Connection Machine warrants a spot on that list, as well. -Andy

12 years, 11 months

The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME • The Register

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

Yes, 2 of the computers listed are not on topic (MacBook Air & Playstation 3, which is arguable if it's even a computer); one is barely on topic (Mac Cube). And there is only 1 big computer, the Cray 2. Still an interesting read. But I'm curious as to what others should be on the list? No bickering, we all know everyone has their own opinion... If possible, please include a link to a pic for me to enjoy.... :) The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME Gorgeous kit that looks as good now as it did the day it came out http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/09/feature_ten_sexy_computers_roundup/ -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- AIM - woyciesjes --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/ --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." "The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." - from some guy on the internet.

12 years, 11 months

looking for Daisy Wheel Printer

by tom_a_sparks＠yahoo.com.au

----- Original Message ----- >> I am looking for a daisy wheel printer to buy > > An odd thing to desire.... not really, I already have two pen plotters (Desktop and cutter) I've ordered a dot-matrix printer > >> >> I know I need one with a parallel/ Centronics port >> but what else should I get? > > There were quite a few models with RS232 interfaces (including some 'KSR@ > models with keyboards, effectively printing terminals). I would suggest > that if the model you want turns up with an RS232 prt ratehr than a > Centronics port, you grab it and eitehr link it to a serial port on your > host or get a parallel-serial converter. I suspect those are lot easier > to find than a partivular model of daisywheel printer. thanks for the info > > The famous models were the Diablo 630 and the Qume Sprint 5. Both are > prett soild. <snip> > > If possible get some spare Daisywheels and ribbons. The formerare > certainly not easy to get now, the latter may be getting rarer. ok, the supplies could issue :( I dont really need a daisywheel printer, but something like currently on ebay are trash-80/Atari daisywheel printers :( > > -tony --- tom_a_sparks "It's a nerdy thing I like to do" Child of the Internet born 1983 PGP ID: A7EF6006 Please use ISO approved file formats excluding Office Open XML - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html Ubuntu wiki page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/tomsparks

12 years, 11 months

H780 power supply

by bobvines00＠gmail.com

> Message: 9 > Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 03:46:39 -0700 (PDT) > From: Brian Roth <abacos_98 at yahoo.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: H780 power supply > Message-ID: > <1365590799.18092.YahooMailNeo at web141406.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > > Thanks Dave, > > ?? I checked first with a load and then without. I have the main board out of it now so I was going to replace the transistors and caps. The problem is the schematics on Bitsavers is just a little blurry so I cannot make out the names and the transistors themselves(a few of them) are unreadable. > > Brian. Brian, I have a 174-page ~15.8MB PDF entitled ""1103_Schematics.pdf" that appears to be clear enough to read the H780 power supply pages (parts of the pages are blurry, but most areas seem to be readable). The PS schematics are drawing number D-CS-5411776-0-1, Rev. M, dated 7-22-77, and are three pages. I'll go ahead and send them to you (~154KB). Or I could email the whole 174-page file. Bob

12 years, 11 months

Automated Paper Tape Punch on Ebay

by technobug＠comcast.net

<Blatant plug for a local scrapper> I was going through Southwest Liquidators back rooms and found an automated paper tape punch on a rack slated for recycling. I talked him into listing it (EPay 370793458493). The beast works. You punch in the code desired and hit perforate. The desired, lighted, programming buttons lock down (most of the bulbs are out) and release when the perforate button is hit. The power cord is new - definitely not original. The tops of the programming buttons are missing their legends? Sweet toy for anyone using paper tape. ->CRC

12 years, 11 months

H780 power supply

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 17:04:30 -0700 (PDT) > From: Brian Roth <abacos_98 at yahoo.com> > To: ClassicCmp <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: H780 power supply > Message-ID: > <1365552270.75693.YahooMailNeo at web141403.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Started tearing into the 11/780 and pulled the 11/03 and the RX01 out to clean and test. Looks like the PS is bad in the 11/03. It powers on and the fans run because they are AC but I am getting sometimes 4.5 volts on the 5v line and 0 volts on the 12v. I have 34 volts coming out of the diode rectifier. I suspect switching transistors. > First, if it has Molex/AMP Mate-n-Lock connectors, check them for bad contact. DEC loved these during the PDP-11 era, and I had a constant battle with our used 11/44 to keep it running. The contacts would develop an oxide film, run hot and eventually burn up the contacts, connectors, wire, etc. Especially with fluctuating output, that soulds very much like poor contacts. I never tore the LSI-11 apart on a 780, so I don't know what the PS looked like, but I would bet there are some of those AMP connectors in it with the crummy tin plating. Jon

12 years, 11 months

Grid Compass I or II CCOS ROMs?

by dave13＠dunfield.com

>>> I know I've asked about this in the past, butI figured I'd try again: >>> Anyone have any idea where to track down ROMs for the Grid Compass I or >>> II (1101 / 1129)? I accidentally formatted my 1129's internal bubble >>> memory tonight (while intending to format an external floppy) and now of >>> course it won't boot. (Doesn't seem to want to try booting from the >>> floppy drive either, unless there's a magical keysequence...) >> According to the manual: >> >> "To load the operating system from Floppy Disk or Portable Floppy, turn >> on the computer while holding down the F (for Floppy Disk) key. >> >> If both a floppy disk and a portable floppy are attached to your computer >> and you want to start up from the portable floppy, open the door to the >> floppy disk drive before turning on the computer." >> >> You can also use 'H' to force a boot from a hard drive, otherwise it >> boots from configured primary storage which is usually Bubble. > >Excellent -- it looks like I'm up and running again. Thanks! I don't >suppose that manual you're referring to has been scanned? I have yet to >find a copy of the user's manual in any form and it'd be nice to have a >copy... Glad it worked out! Unfortunately the manual that I have is probably not what you are looking for. it is entitled "GRID Management Tools Reference" (1984) and is mainly about the GRID user software. It does have a "System Basics" section which is where I found the information about booting from floppy. This is quite a thick binder - It would take me some time to scan it, and I honestly don't see having the available time to scan all of it in the near future, however I could work away at it slowly... FYI, the sections are named: System Basics GRiDmanager Common Commands GRiDFile Database GRiDPlan Worksheets GRiDPlot Graphics GRiDWrite (Part 1) Text Editing GRiDWrite (Part 2) Text Formatting Error Messages Appendices Glossary Index GRiDVT100/GRiDReformat It also includes original GRiD disks for: GRiD-OS 3.1.0 A GRiD Management Tools 3.1.0 GRiDVT100/GRiDReformat 3.1.5 Images of these disks are already available on my site. Dave -- dave13 (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield System/Firmware development services: www.dunfield.com (dot) com Classic computers: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield

12 years, 11 months

9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 11:13:42 +0100 From: Colin Eby <colineby at isallthat.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: 9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment Message-ID: <B5214C89-7571-4779-B1BC-9DB00FF5B119 at isallthat.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Jon, First, lemme reassert my non-expert status on this. However, my understanding of PE -- phase encoding as a raw signal -- is that a 0 is a low to high transition(Thomas or reversed high to low for IEEE) against a fixed clock time. Successive 0s have to be encoded taking the sign low to high, before going high to low again. The system is to ignore those signals and simply count the transition at the mid-point of the period. Setting the blocking aside, doesn't that mean you end up with two transitions in a period for every zero. And if you write zero to every channel you get a nice sine wave at the pre-amp, with the parity bit being the inverse signal (all ones). NZRI would of course be rather different. But for PE, this is my understand of the signal inside a block. I believe that's the signal form you were thinking of. OH, you meant to write the tape in 1600 BPI (PE) mode! yes, that would put 3200 transitions per inch on all data channels, but the parity channel would have its transitions out of phase with the data channels. PE mode will write two transitions for every bit time when the same bit (1 or zero) is written, but for alternating 1's and zeros, you only get one transition per bit time. The polarity of the transition at the center of the bit time contains the data bit, and additional transition needs to be added when the same data bit follows. See Page 4-11 of this doc for a picture : <ftp://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/digidata/0551711_1140-1640-1740_2-79.pdf> Generally, skew is not worried about so much in PE mode, the drives have FIFOs to resync the data. But, of course after repairing the head mounting, it could be WAY off, too far for the FIFO to correct. They usually only have 9 bit times worth of skew correction. Anyway, most older 800 BPI drives have circuitry built-in to assist in skew adjustment, an analog summing circuit that adds the output of the 9 bit detectors together. The stepped square wave is very easy to interpret and adjust on a scope. I've never done skew adjustment on 1600 or 6250, I think it would be harder than on 800 BPI. I think the best bet is a digital or storage scope, looking at data channels 4 and 5 (the outermost ones on the tape) on two scope channels, and triggering so the first transitions of a block are seen. The preamble is 40 bytes of all zeros, then one 1, followed by the data. Jon

12 years, 11 months

Plastic Repair

by cool1＠thecoolbears.org

Call me odd, but my absolute, top favorite computer is my MicroVAX in a BA123 chassis. If the house were burning, that would be the one computer I would try to retrieve. Sadly, last night, the daughter snapped the corner off the louvers on the top left of the chassis. Unless some kind sole has a replacement part, I plan on gluing the pieces back on. My question is, cyanoacrylate or epoxy?

12 years, 11 months

pdp-11/23 config

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote: [RX02 or RX50] > > Mass storage for my system is another area I need to spend more thought on, for now I was planning to stay with the RL drives I got with the case. > > > In the PDP11 world its easy to build a system that forgets portable IO. > A reminder PDP-11 as not a PC and even a 256kb floppy is viable storage > as RT11 fits on it. I'm not sure what I'd need it for? There is no other system within walking distance that would understand the floppy format natively. Any file I/O thus most likely will happen across the Internet (involving a PC anyway), so I hoped I'd be fine with the TU58 emulation software discussed below. >> RL packs were over 160$ new (...) > cables, terminators and those annoying and scarce drive ID plugs. Terminator: check. ID plugs 0 and 1: check. Cables: no check yet but inbound. > If anything the floppy is always a must on my systems as all my diags and > base RT11 systems are on that media (RX01, RX02, RX50, RX33, RX23). Are they also available in TU58 (file) format? > A viable uVAX is more than 150mb, (more like 300-500 for V7), > a loaded PDP11 is 30MB. Just difference is OS utilization. So I guess it all boils down on what one wants to run on it. I've got one functional RD53 in it right now, and a second one I hope to revive at some point in the future. > I would not covet a large drive unless you had the application that > required it. I thought that we here run large drives just for the kicks of it?! > > I do have a TQK(mumble) board already (which was originally also intended for the VSII), but no drive yet. > Save it as loading diags from TK50 is both slow and painful assuming the system can boot a tK50 (not guaranteed). ?? (not understanding the above). I should save the controller because the whole subsystem is bad? [core] > The older LSI11 systems had it if there was a call for non volatile > memory, the cost was high. > I happen to have 16KW of qbus core. Also core had a far slower cycle > time than Ram of > the day. Core that ran at 1.5us was fast where ram on the day was > under 1us and dropping. So thus probably not very prevalent and not easy to find nowadays. Ho hum. I've also already found out that the memory board I'll be getting is 512k_Bytes_ (256kW) and does _not_ have BBU support. [OS question] > Start with RT11 as a base os and it will allow you to test and get comfortable at lower > cost to learn. It will be transferable knowledge to RSTS or RSX, may help with getting Unix > on the machine. Agreed, sounds like a good starting point. So long, Arno

12 years, 11 months

System 36 SSP 5.25" Media

by colineby＠isallthat.com

All, Every couple of years I throw this one out there. Would anyone have a copy of the media for an IBM System/36 5363 -- that the second version of the 5.25" distribution. I'd love to get my hands on a copy if anyone has such a thing, either physically or as an image set. -Colin

12 years, 11 months

Identifications sought :¬)

by lproven＠gmail.com

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/04/gates_allen_reshoot_photo/ ? One of the most iconic photos from the history of Microsoft, featuring a lanky young Bill Gates perched next to his coding mentor (the way he tells it) Paul Allen, has been recreated at Seattle's Living Computing Museum. [...] Among the systems still surrounding them are an Apple II with twin drives and an ancient monitor in the top left of the picture, with a Commodore Pet below Bill Gates. Readers who can identify the other systems, please let us know in Comments. ? -- 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

PCjr Telnet Server Test

by mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com

It's running! Telnet to 97.86.233.68 to take a look and help me test it. You can use the standard Windows telnet program, Putty, Linux, or whatever you have handy. Around 10 users can be on at the same time. When you sign on (no password required) there will be a little menu to help you waste some time. Some things you can do are see who else is on the server, view the machine type, ROM BIOS date and DOS version, check the TCP/IP statistics to see how much traffic it is handling, etc. There are some upgrades since the last time I ran this test (in Dec 2007): - The TCP/IP stack is much better - I'm doing 'telnet' negotiation to figure out the terminal type, turn echoing on, etc - Crude line editing has been added Right now it is running on my PCjr using a Xircom PE3 10BT. I plan to leave it up as long as it runs, or three days, whichever comes first. It is a PCjr so if there is a momentary delay, don't panic - it's probably just doing disk I/O. Backspace is a little dodgy .. it really wants ASCII 8 and a lot of terminals and emulators do ASCII 127 instead. Try variations with the shift and control keys if it doesn't work. Thanks, Mike

12 years, 11 months

finding things on the internet

by sales＠elecplus.com

Some things are easy to Google, and you get reasonably appropriate results. Other things give you whacky results! Google HP 700/96, and you get decent results. Google apple, and the first 20 items relate to Apple computers or Apple Corp., not to eating apples. Google Commodore, and surprisingly, the first line is not Commodore computer related. (Interestingly, it seems a company has bought the rights to the Commodore and Amiga names, and will be re-inventing the C64 with nVidia graphics inside) Google wolf cub, and you get everything from animals to Scouting to music to golf clubs! Seems like they need to tweak their algorithms again? _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3267 / Virus Database: 3162/6224 - Release Date: 04/04/13

12 years, 11 months

TSZ07 PSU P/N 29-28461-01 Schematics?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi there, has someone a technical documentation for the PSU of the TSZ07 9 Track tape drive? My PSU is working but some parts are overheating when the drive is in standby mode where no FAN is running. In the technical manual for the TSZ07 from manx for example are no details, only the replacement procedure is described. .. or has anyone one to sell for small money (prefered in europe because of the shipping costs..) There are shopts that want to sell HP/Compaq/DEC 29-28461-01 fpr $200 and more... thats to much. Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

12 years, 11 months

pdp-11/23 config (was: Re: Qbus identification)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote: > > Was it indeed usual to build such large configurations based on an 11/23 back then? > > That was not a small configuration, but it wasn't uncommon. > > [data points for system configurations from Ethan and Allison] allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote: > Not at all uncommon. Usually the disk round out might have left out the > RQDX or the RX02 > but many in the day wanted to move from 8" to 5.25 for space and needed > one system to do both. OK, some more enlightenment absorbed. > You will want RX50 or RX02 as those were and are common media. > Either way a RX02 or RX50 was the common simple and cheap storage > that offered portability. Mass storage for my system is another area I need to spend more thought on, for now I was planning to stay with the RL drives I got with the case. > RL packs were over 160$ new and didn't like to > be bounced. FYI drives like RL02 were nearly as expensive as the base > machine ($8-12K). The drives are not the problem, I have those. I will need to check them out and get myself some more packs though. On second thought, some kind of floppy might be nice, too, but that is not a must now. If pressed for more mass storage, I could always put my QBus SMD controller (and a CMD Phoenix fixed/removable drive combination I was recently offered )to use with this machine, although I had got those rather imagined using them with my VSII/GPX. > Its easier to find Dias on RX50 or RX02 though I've seen them on TK50 > but hated loading them form that (slow!). I do have a TQK(mumble) board already (which was originally also intended for the VSII), but no drive yet. > > TQK50, DEQNA and RQDX3 at least sound sound a bit anachronistic > > to me, there surely must have been newer and more powerful > > processors out at the time those became available? > There were - you could get a MicroPDP-11 with a KDJ11, and lots > of people did, but they cost more. I wouldn't have wanted to run > an RSX-11/M+ system on a KDF11, but I did see plenty of them on > KDJ11 processors (but even more on Unibus machines). > > TK50 was tape DLT tape. DEQNA was ethernet, and RQDX3 was > MSCP floppy and hard disk controller. > > CPU typically was 11/23+ or 11/73 later on for a price. So the distinction between the rackmount and MicroPDP/VAX eras wasn't as sharp as I imagined it. I have such boards (ok, a DELQA in this case) in said VSII. > > I think I'll have a rather minimal system (KDF11-B, 512kW RAM, > > quad SLU, RLV12 + one or drives) for now, not making my first > > foray into pdp technology more complicated than necessary. > > I would call that a mid-range Q-bus PDP-11 myself, not "minimal". > Among other characteristics, I personally think of Q22 as "not minimal". > You can do a lot with RT-11 in 18 bits of memory. My fault, I should have been more specific and included: "in terms of features/peripherals/board count". Also, I was thinking relative to all 11s, not just QBUS. > The fact that it had 4MB of ram was uncommon as back in the day that was > as costly as the base machine if not more. I understand that memory was at a premium back then. Out of interest, how common was core memory (H223 and similar) in QBUS systems? Is BBU supported for the MOS memory options? > > I would call that a mid-range Q-bus PDP-11 myself, not "minimal". > > (...) > > Among other characteristics, I personally think of Q22 as "not minimal". > > You can do a lot with RT-11 in 18 bits of memory. > > Yes, you can even in 16bits. I also have a tiny system using M8186 in a > 12 slot dual wide cage running 512KB ram (4 boards), MRV11 (boot), > DLV11J for serial IO, and TU58 for storage. It boots the TU and copies > it to VM: and reboots from there making for a small but very fast > RT-11 system. The OS only use the 28KW and the rest is a virtual > disk (ram disk) big enough to copy the whole base os and a few > useful apps. What OS to use is yet another undecided question, I haven't even read up on the options. I could also just try out some bare metal programming at the ODT for a start. > I think you meant 150MB for RQDXm for its upper limit. For larger > there were large disks but that was uncommon for Qbus 11s. > RT11 could barely fill (the whole mess) a 20mb drie with much room > left over. For RSTS or RSX a 31mb (RD52) was enough and two > did the trick. So with just 1-2 RL0x drives, I'm pretty much stuck with RT-11? I've read that it has a lot in common with later DOS, so that might not even be a bad thing after all :) > larger systems often had mag tape either DLT (tk50) > or 9track for backup and sneakernet (off site or remote systems > before WAN). No such stuff in sight alas, but ISTR there is some sort of emulator software that makes a PC act as a serially-attached tape device? > When I was using the BA11N system I described, I owned an RL01 > because I couldn't afford an RL02. > > FWIW, I was messing with this system just last month. It's still intact. Nice to hear that. How problematic are the BA11-N power supplies, BTW? > > The system I still use is the tall (50") rack BA-11 CPU I used in my office > > when I was in the Mill (ML03-6/B5) as a utility system for printing and > > off line (non VAX work). Still fun to use and I even have a few > > uVAX3100s running VMS for it to talk to. > > Cool. Seconded :) Arno

12 years, 11 months

Cross country hauling - an update

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Thanks to all so far that have expressed interest in me hauling their computer goodies across the country. As I think most of the interested parties know, my roadtrip has been delayed until June. I am resetting all the deals, as things were just not gelling properly. Anyway, many of you have already been contacted, and may be contacted again, to get the deals restarted, and to finalize the whole roadtrip. I am sorry that I could not do all the hauling requested - not enough space in the van. One thing - for any deal, I need to know exactly who I am dealing with, with *full* contact information. If someone has a deal piggybacking on another deal that I am hauling, I absolutely need to know about it. Basically, I need to know everything. Please keep in mind that I keep all of this information very discrete, and in fact, am under NDAs with some customers. No blabbermouthing from me. -- Will

12 years, 11 months

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