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101090 discussions

Gates and Allen reshoot historic 1981 Microsoft photo • The Register

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

Interesting photo redone, er reshot... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/04/gates_allen_reshoot_photo/ -- --- 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

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. 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

vintage items available

by sales＠elecplus.com

I am NOT associated with the seller or the products; please contact him directly if you are interested. WTS the following items from our inventory: 1 New F209-8925-jrb Vintage Burroughs Computer Co. T1500 Check Encoder Encoding Machine 1 New J205-9505-CR Vintage Heath Computer Component 8 Bit VGA Board 150-307-1 1 New Jrb-C410-124 Vintage Pacific Recorders PR&E TI-2 Tape Interface _____ Mike Zabezhinsky Oceantech 1313 Winter St NE (612) 331-4456 email: mike at oceantechonline.com _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6232 - Release Date: 04/08/13

12 years, 11 months

Festo FPC-202 PLC

by sales＠elecplus.com

What makes 1 machine worth $1000 much more than the other, if they are both identical? http://www.ebay.com/itm/FESTO-ELECTRONICS-FPC-202-TN-008381-TYP-E-FPC-202-PN -31342-/160938881753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0 <http://www.ebay.com/itm/FESTO-ELECTRONICS-FPC-202-TN-008381-TYP-E-FPC-202-P N-31342-/160938881753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2578b472d9> &hash=item2578b472d9 http://www.barcodemuseum.com/Festo/FPC202.html There are several on eBay for $100 or less. _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6231 - Release Date: 04/07/13

12 years, 11 months

Grid Compass I or II CCOS ROMs?

by derschjo＠gmail.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...) I'm looking for either CCOS or GRiD's version of MS-DOS, which I believe were both available as ROMs for this machine. I'm hoping that this machine will boot from internal ROM, and not just bubble memory (otherwise I've basically destroyed any chance of running this machine again...) I've had very little luck tracking down either software or documentation for this thing (found a few disk images on Dave Dunfield's site). TheRuGRiD Yahoo group specializes mostly in later GRiD machines and has basically no Compass information. Knowing if it's even possible to get this to boot from a floppy would be useful as well... Thanks as always, Josh

12 years, 11 months

VAX 11/780

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

I put information on converting an RP06 to 220VAC single-phase here: https://sites.google.com/site/mthompsonorg/Home/pdp-10/rm03-and-rp06-inform… From: John Wilson <wilson at dbit.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" < > cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: VAX 11/780 > On Fri, Apr 05, 2013 at 08:18:20PM -0500, Jon Elson wrote: > > >The RM07 also was 3-phase, I think all the smaller VAX 780 > >disks were single-phase. > > RM02/03/05/80 are definitely single-phase. RP07 is 3-phase as you say, > as is RP06 and I assume therefore RP05. Dunno about RP04. > > >The RM07 was a total monstrosity > >from Burroughs, I hope you don't have one of those. We went through > >a lot of pain as one of the early adopters of that, but in the > >end it was a high performance drive and fairly reliable. > > I've heard you have to pop the RP07's top whenever it's running or it > overheats... otherwise good though, and huge for the time. > > John Wilson > D Bit > -- Michael Thompson

12 years, 11 months

Subject: Re: Mulling a museum

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Will Donzelli is on target with this on Collections Policy... and I will add a few more things to consider also. 1. If you are not a business person find some to collaborate with. Always good to have grant writer as a fried too! Unless you have a funding organization or group you are going to have to support it. I have seem to may people open things with about a business plan or ability to fund it and think that money will just appear. Remember most people on the street probably could care less about what you are displaying and certainly will not throw any money your way. Develop strategic alliances with educational facilities and Hi Tech Businesses in your area. ========================== 2. Hey! You are going to get duplicate material... you can wither take up valuable display space to stash dupes and pay or off site storage... but..... the BEST! is finding a beta site to stash it but... it is on display there.. If it is a cool item like an extra Altair or PDP-8 have a loan agreement.... especially when dealing with schools ... If you give something to a college and the whims of floor space utilization rear their head... the can just send it to state surplus or in some cases I have heard of... throw it away! So to reiterate, Find cool other places to place things on display which can also act as a funnel to lead people to visit you mother load ... and maintain control of material in off site displays ================= 3. From the standpoint of disaster having your collection in diverse physical locations is a consideration. If you have a chance to pick a spot in the nation somewhere ... do a study of the area.. Take time analyze the possibly of earthquakes, flood, fire, theft, tornados, hurricanes etc... get maps study the geography... Think of things like.... if I build a museum in a nice mountain forested area and there is a raging forest fire... what happens? Think of things like ... is this area in a flood plain and the 100 year flood... will it get me? many times these 100 year floods happen sooner than 100 years! Think of things like.... Will the earthquakes throw the artifacts off the shelves? ====================================== I could go on forever... but there are a couple things to consider. Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC Message: 10 Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 17:14:00 -0400 From: William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Mulling a museum Message-ID: <CANij+deAMEjFcgZ+ky-bphcA+5RErFpUKeeC1s4o=CKNnTedCA at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > I'm highjacking this thread. I'm debating starting a museum locally, as we don't have anything like this in the Indianapolis area. > > For those who have started such endeavors, what are your stories in getting the ball rolling? Plan. Plan. Plan some more. Plan for the distant future. Part of this planning involves a Collections Policy. This is a document that defines the collection - what is to be included, and what is to be turned away. It has been said by many folks over the years that artifacts (hardware) are the easiest things to find, and in time, will completely take over any and all space a museum has. A nice, focused Collection Policy THAT IS ADHERED TO will keep things under control, and keep quality high. Yes, quality is better than quantity. I have been part of a decent number of independent little museums over the years (computer and otherwise, but all being tech related), and nearly all of them have let their collections bloat out of control, due to the lack of a Collections Policy. Trust me - you do not want to get in this situation. Think of all the good stuff later on that has to be passed up because there is no room. Think of the infighting and politics when you need to get rid of things. Think of moving the collection with all the excess when you lose your space. Think of what visitors are looking at. -- Will

12 years, 11 months

Tech is the biggest problem facing archiving ? The Register

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message ----- Date: Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:01:36 -0400 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > I WILL try to stop "feeding the troll". Try a little harder! You're the one participant common to almost every one of these ridiculous and absolutely pointless kids-in-a-sandbox pissing contests... Seriously, have you thought about how much time you spend feeding the trolls and how much better you could spend that time (not to mention the time the rest of us waste wading through this dreck)? m

12 years, 11 months

RL drive select plugs. What is magic about 3?

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I've been doing a bit with an 11/23+ setup and a few RL drives, and I've run into something odd. I currently have select plugs 0, 1 and 3. If I plug in two drives, 0 and 1, I can boot from either one, and once in RT11, I can access the other one. Easy. If I connect two drives, 0 and 3, however - I can only use drive 0. All accesses to drive 3 result in an error. Can't boot from it, can't access it from RT11. Thinking that maybe the plugs had to be in order, I connected only one drive, drive 1, and was able to boot it and use it just fine. Then, swapping the 3 plug into that single drive, can't boot from it. And I've shuffled this plug around into a couple of drives, and none of them work with it. There's no damage to the plug itself, and all the drives work otherwise. Unfortunately, I don't have enough cables to connect more than two drives at once. I also don't have a drive 2 plug to try. And yes, I have a terminator. Any ideas? -Ian

12 years, 11 months

Xerox 820-II FDC (was Re: Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> U1 (74S288) and U2 (74S174) together constitute a "finite state machine" (so > they told to me cause I'm not so expert) whose purpose is to provide a read A finite state machine (sometiems shortend to a 'state machine') is a way of designing and building sequential logic circuits -- that is circuits where the outputs(s) depend not only on the inputs now, but also on previous sets of inputs. The basic idea is tha tthe circuit stores internally a 'state', normally as an n-bit binary number in n D-tyoe flip-flopes (that's the 74LS174 in your circuit, a hex D-type flip-flop). All flip-flops are clocked at the same time to change to a new state, Andthen there is a block of combinatorial logic (a cricuit where the outputs depend only o nthe inouts now, not what they were) which has as inputs the external inptus ot the state machine and the outputs of the D type flip-flops and which produces the inputs to the D-type flip-flops to give the new state. Sievn a ROM is a gnneral combinatorial circuit, you can make a stte machine from a ROM and a set of D-type flip-flops, aas here. > Who wrote that article decided to build itself a FDC controller card for his > xerox 820-II extracting a block of its schematic from a Kaypro-II's > schematic really making very few changes and using a FDC WD1793 + WD9216 for > external separator data. > Due to its small number of components, and having already a WD1797 I'd just > need of a WD9216 (i hope to find it on the Internet yet) and wiring it would > be maybe more simple. The 9216 was a very common data separator about 25 eyars ago. It was used on a lot of PC/XT cloen FDC cards (not on the original IBM one though) and in other machines too. I am pretty sure it was made by several manufacturers. > Last suggestion (always from the so expert Chuck that I thanks so much) > would be to use a WD2797 instead of WD1797, but I'm not a designer and while > i can understand something of all those things it's very hard for me to > change schematics or adjust components. The 2979 is essential a 1797 with an intenral data separator. It works well, but IIRC there are 3 analogue adjustments associated with it (a couple of puse widths and the free-running frequency of a VCO). It's not hard to set these up, but you do need a 'socpe or logic anlyser to do it. The 9216 data separator IIRC needs no external adjustments. -tony

12 years, 11 months

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

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote: > Look uo the backplan to find out its configuration. >From my initial posting: > > It is the BA11 variety and contains a H9273 backplane, which as far as I could find out is QQ-CD Am I missing something here? > Also read the fine manual for the quad width 11/23 you will find there > are jumpers/switches for use in AB/CD backplanes. Most quad width cards also conform to that. Also from my initial posting: > > The M8189 is a quad-width board, but with the CD part configured > > for a serpentine backplane (the manual mentions two jumpers to be removed when using in another > > environment to avoid shorting signals together) Am I missing something here? > CD lines are needed for RL11 controller (two board RL01/02 controller). Ah, thanks. Alas I've already been promised the single board variety of that option. > And if all else fails you can replace the backplane with one that is > AB/AB as I've done that many times. Thereby sacrificing the option of integrating any CD-dependent boards I might happen across in the future. Best idea I could think of until now would be a mixed (Q/CD - Q/Q) layout backplane, but I do not know whether these even exist in the required 9-slot form factor. Anyway, I think I'll treat the backplane as a given constant right now (except from probably expanding it to Q-22, see below) and look for the "right" boards to populate it. David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote: > The H9273 is perfectly compatible with an 11/23 CPU; there > is a jumper you can set for 18-bit use. Obviously, though, > turning it into a 22-bit backplane is preferable. > Fortunately, that's pretty easy. Meh...I've been hearing that I might run into problems with some other processors (LSI-11(/2), very early KDF11-A versions), should I ever need to use the backplane as a test platform for one of those in the future. Is that problem the one simply worked around with some insulating tape over the BDAL18:21 connector pads? > > The M8189 is a quad-width board, but with the CD part configured > > for a serpentine backplane (the manual mentions two jumpers to be removed when using in another > > environment to avoid shorting signals together), so again no "meaningful" use of the CD lanes. > Correct. The Qbus PDP-11s only used the CD lane for PMI > (or custom logic, if you had that). Sounds interesting, could you elaborate? > I'd get the M8189 if you > can, because it saves you the hassle of finding boot ROM > and serial cards for the console. Good, as it seems someone found one of these for me. > > What are these intended for anyway (I was thinking of some sort of PMI predecessor, probably > > wrong by now), and what boards do I need to take advantage of them in this machine? > > For an 11/23, those lanes will just go unused. It's not > so bad, really; you have to try pretty hard to fill up 9 > slots. I'd thought so; perhaps I'll happen across some esoteric cards that use them, or I'll hack something custom in there. > If it's in > a box labelled 11/23, though, check to make sure someone > hasn't already performed the modification. OK, thanks! Arno

12 years, 11 months

Apple Quicktake camera Windows software?

by wheagy＠gmail.com

I picked up a Quicktake 100 camera this weekend for cheap and am trying to get it working under Windows so I can easily get pictures to my Website, but I am unable to locate the Windows software. Anyone have a link? An hour on Google has yielded little except the driverguide website which was very frustrating. Tks...Win

12 years, 11 months

Looking for Apple Lisa 2/5 parts

by santo.nucifora＠gmail.com

I'm trying to restore an Apple Lisa 2/5 that has been hit with battery corrosion. I'm looking for the following parts, if anyone has any they'd like to sell: - Lisa 2/5 I/O board - Lisa motherboard - Lisa CPU board While I'm at it: - Lisa keyboard - Lisa 1 mouse (the kind with the long button and not the Mac 128 mice). I am primarily looking for working/tested items but I may be interested in something that was not as damaged as mine that is restorable. Please contact me off-list with these or any other parts you may have. I am in Canada and would need to have them shipped there. I'll cross-post this to the LisaList too. Thank you.

12 years, 11 months

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

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 00:10:24 +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: <975726A4-6B0E-4EE6-BB5E-B518CAA638B6 at isallthat.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 If you don't have a alignment tape, you might try simply creating a /dev/zero tape from a known good drive. No, this won't work. It will only have transitions in the parity channel, all other channels (0-7) will have no transitions at all except at the end of the block (CRC and LRCC). Writing all 1's will have transitions on all data channels AND the parity channel (to get odd parity on each byte). Drives made for alignment with a scope have a resistor summing network that sums the bit detector on each channel. With bad alignment you see a wave with lots of stairsteps up and down the side. With correct alignment, it becomes almost a perfect square wave, with at most one narrow step on the sides. Jon Jon

12 years, 11 months

VAX 11/780

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:58:25 -0400 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> I don't remember the RM07. I remember the RM05 (CDC 9766) and the RP07, which I _thought_ was a 100% DEC design (that resembled a white washing machine with no access panels), but I could be wrong about that. My memory may be slipping. We had a 500 MB drive that fits the description, MASSBus only, and just a couple buttons on the front. You had to open the back to flip the circuit breaker off to reset the drive - which I had to do a LOT until they fixed some of the firmware bugs. I THOUGHT the model was RM07, but maybe it was an RP07. I thought RP was for removable disk packs, and the RM was for fixed HDAs. The drive we had was definitely made by Burroughs, it had Burroughs labels on the boards ons other parts inside. I gather it never was very popular due to price, and so I can't find much online. But, I did find one pic with a readable RP07 label and it looks like I remember. We never had to leave covers open on ours, and had no overheating problems, although the HDA did run hot enough to almost burn your hand! We did have under floor cold air supply in our machine room. Jon

12 years, 11 months

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

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 14:00:06 +0100 (BST) From: P Gebhardt <p.gebhardt at ymail.com> To: cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: 9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment Message-ID: <1365253206.48217.YahooMailNeo at web133105.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Hi everybody, I had a look through my tapes and found one from Control Data being labeled "Total Service Tape". Does anybody know, if this tape also serves as an alignment tape? I couldn't find any information about that on the Net so far. I used to make my own skew tapes by just writing a program to write out huge blocks (8K or more) of all 1's. That worked fine for using a scope to check the skew. Not sure if a drive diagnostic would accept such a pattern as a skew tape, though. Jon

12 years, 11 months

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

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote: > The H9275 can be fitted, the standard connecting cables may or may not > match up but can be had made easily. > > I've even put the backplane from the BA32 in a BA11. The form caxtor is > very standardized though the interconnect for power varies with molex or > terminal barrier strips being used. Ah, good data point to have if I ever get into the situation for a similar operation. > Yes, some of the backplanes and the cpu board have jumpesr that need to > be correct and matching. Alas I don't have any DEC Processor and Peripherals Handbook covering QBUS in dead tree format, just UNIBUS stuff which is of about zilch use to me in this case, but I got myself the BA11-N (which includes details on the backplane) and KDF11-BA manuals from bitsavers. Yes, I also already perused them to a certain extent, and yes, I was aware of the jumper issue (which is why I even _mentioned_ it. Duh.) > I have full sets spanning the years and it fills about 5 ft (1.5M) of > linear shelf space. I consider > them as more important than the hardware. While much of it is on the > net I find it harder to > scan for a specific item like the default jumpers for DLV11J. The books > have a bit of wear > from actual use. Not having worked for DEC and being a bit younger than most of the hardware in question, I'm not that lucky. I could get myself some doubles that were culled from a university collection ('76 peripherals manual, 11/45 and 11/60 processor manuals...) which unfortunately do not cover the era and range of hardware I'm dealing with here. > [boot rom / mass storage issues] I'm not yet holding the CPU card in question in my hands so I don't know the exact variety. I have RL01 (three) and RL02 drives (one) which I would like to use with this system, as they seem appropriate for the era. > The only common card set that depends on CD is RL11 The two board > RL01/02 controller > and it's only 18bit capable, if you working with 22bit system (fully > populated with ram) > then you need the RLV21 which is a single quad board and works in all > backplanes... > > oh and also RL02 drives, a 40" rack minimum, plus a good back! ...not to mention at least one good _pack_, which is (for the RL01) what I'm missing. > In the end the whole Q22 this is only an issue when you exceed 256Kbytes > of memory > as the Q22 allowed the MMU to reach 4MB of ram. I will also be provided with a 512kW MOS memory board, so I will need 22-bit addressing to take full advantage of that, and therefore the (22-bit clean) RLV_12_ single-board controller. So no CD lanes needed here. > PPS oh, I have at least two that have all slots filled! Its way to easy > to plug in IO. > For example RLV21 quad width, RQDX3 dual, TKQ50 (dual) TK50, > RXV21 (dual) RX02 drive controller, DZV11 serial IO(quad), > LPV11 parallel printer (dual), DEQNA (dual), > full 4mb memory (3 quad boards). don't forget the CPU, > 11/23B+ also a quad board. > Thats 16 slots filled plus two grant cards total 18 making a full box. > The grant cards allow for optimal board placement and are required to > keep the DMA and interrupt vector chain complete. Was it indeed usual to build such large configurations based on an 11/23 back then? 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? 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. Arno

12 years, 11 months

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

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hi everybody, I had a look through my tapes and found one from Control Data being labeled "Total Service Tape". Does anybody know, if this tape also serves as an alignment tape? I couldn't find any information about that on the Net so far. I've been trying to resurrect one of my Fujitsu M2442AC tape drives. Even with heads cleaned,it fails the diagnostics when it comes to writing and reading a tape. It turned out that the drive head being held by a plastic plate was loose due to the plastic plate being broken. I tried to glue the plastic together, mounted the head back into its position, but the drive diagnostics still fails (error: F300 ). Azimuth-adjusting the head after remouting obviously needs an alignment tape. Having quite a collection of reel tape drives, I thought it would in any way make sense to have such a tape for head adjustment procedures, but they some to have become pretty rare these days (at least for 9-track 1/2" drives). Substituting these special tapes by any other tricks or ways seems not to come close to the alignment precision obtained wich alignment tapes. Thanks for any help in advance ! Pierre ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers : http://classic-computing.dyndns.org/

12 years, 11 months

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

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote: > Well, you *could* work around it that way. I guess Kapton would > probably be a good bet. You're very unlikely to be using early LSI-11 > boards unless you're a true masochist (...) Uhm, people have already been calling me that (in a classiccmp context!), so... > Be aware that if you're using the system as 18-bit, you'll > need to make sure that your peripheral cards are jumpered to 18-bit if > necessary (boards that use DMA often need to know). > The 22-bit conversion is also easy to undo, assuming you're handy with > a soldering iron (...) For me, undoing that would be about as easy as looking up > which pins to cover and then covering them with tape (...) Hmm, I'm just "planning for eventualities"; Basically I want to build a system that runs in a 22-bit configuration, but I'm trying to make sure I can still stick in 18-bit CPUs (or other cards) for a quick test after I do the conversion. >> (or custom logic, if you had that). > Sounds interesting, could you elaborate? > > (...) There were probably quite a few other board sets that used > the CD lines for inter-board communication (...) > (very nice description of CD interconnect principles) Definitly an option I would want to keep. Too bad there aren't any 9-slot mixed layout backplanes, but as DEC compatible backplane connectors seem to surface sometimes, so I see at least the possibility of constructing one, should the need materialize. > I wouldn't swear to the fact that there weren't 11/23s sold as 18-bit > systems; my fuzzy memory says that 11/23 might have been 18-bit while > 11/23+ would have been 22-bit. Other people doubtless know better > than me; my other recollection is that the "plus" distinction has to > do with the KDF11-B board (which has the boot ROM and SLUs). Christian Gauger-Cosgrove <captainkirk359 at gmail.com> wrote: > I don't know anything about how DEC sold their machines, but I do believe > they did sell the 11/23 as an 18-bit system (even though the KDF11A is very > much capable of 22-bit) (...) Hmm, let's see... >From http://www.people.vcu.edu/~agnew/MVAX/9412_DECUSERVE_JNL.HTML (supposedly extracted from Micronote #5 dated 23-Apr-84): > RESTRICTED COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS: > > PROCESSORS: > > KDF11-A M8186 LSI-11/23 CPU > Prior to etch rev. C, 18-bit addressing only, > and use of BC1, BD1, BE1, BF1 for purposes > other than BDAL18-21. ...so the systems using these earlier revisions, while being 11/23s by definition, would have to be based on 18-bit backplanes due to the nonstandard signals. This is also consistent with Christian's statement: > as I remember there is a "PDP-11/23" version of > the BA11-N box (with H9273-A, the BA11-N always has the H9273-A) I think I actually might be having the remains of such an early system, as it says "11/23" on the outside but holds an (18-bit) H9273 backplane inside. Alas I haven't readily found a DEC source on what actually is the PLUS in an 11/23+. Thank you so far, Arno

12 years, 11 months

Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is it?

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

------ Original Message ------ From: "Enrico Lazzerini" <enrico.lazzerini at email.it> To: cctech at classiccmp.org Sent: 04/04/2013 18:15:52 Subject: Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is it? >Is there anybody who knows what is this old chip? And where to try to >find >it? I believe that its a 74S288 which is 256 bit PROM (32x8) bit prom. So even if you find one you need to know its contents. Look for an application note for the 1297. > >If it help what I know is that it used to do somenting like shift data >register or Serial Shift Registers. > Often used for state decoding. From searching the web I can see that there is an FE2100 which is designed to replace the discrete logic on a FDC board and it mentions the 74S288.. >It has a TTL level signal on its pins, it has 14 pins. You can see it >named >U1 in the centre of this schematic: ><https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf> >https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf > > > >Some pins are labelled on a schematics with: > >1=D1, 2=D2, 3=D3, 4=D4, > >10=A1, 11=A2, 12=A3, 13=A4, 14=A4, > >15=ChipEnable (left to GND), > >7=GND, > >14=+5Vcc > > these match the chip outline in my Texas TTL manual (there are 4 more data outs which are unused in this application) > >Thanks > >Enrico > Sorry not 100% of needed info Dave G4UGM

12 years, 11 months

VAX 11/780

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Jon Elson wrote: > Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2013 22:29:04 -0400 > From: Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: VAX 11/780 > Message-ID: <515E36F0.5040101 at telegraphics.com.au> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > On 04/04/13 9:32 PM, Jon Elson wrote: > >> > From: Brian Roth <abacos_98 at yahoo.com> >> > To: "cctech at classiccmp.org" <cctech at classiccmp.org> >> > Subject: VAX 11/780 >> > Message-ID: >> > <1365090232.96105.YahooMailNeo at web141403.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> >> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >> > >> > >> > I just recently acquired a very nearly complete VAX 11/780. I will >> > be spending the next few months in a partial tear down and cleaning >> > and with luck, hopefully little money to get it operational again. I >> > ... >> >> > >> > Good luck restoring this machine! >> > > > > Seconded. I hope you will blog/document the whole process. I own an > 11/750 but haven't started restoring it. > > --Toby > > One huge advantage to the 780 is there are almost no custom parts in > it, other than > the LSI-11 which is still pretty much available, if needed. The whole > 780 CPU > was built out of 74Sxx chips, and could probably be maintained for another > 50 years if one wanted to. The only custom sort of parts would be in the > power supplies, which would be easy to swap out with generic DC supplies > if you couldn't repair them. > > Jon

12 years, 11 months

Need PDP-9 Paper Tapes

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The RICM has the processor of their PDP-9 working fairly well. We have most of the diags for the processor on paper tape. We will make working copies of the tapes and also make images to send to Bitsavers. We have the diag documentation for the TC59/TU20, but we do not have the paper tapes. It would be possible to enter the source from the listing and assemble it using Simh, but that would be a bit of work. I know that it is probably wishful thinking, but does anyone have paper tapes of the TC59/TU20 diags? Paper tapes of the TC02/TU55 diags would be nice to have too. We would eventually like to get an OS running on the system. It looks like the ADSS Input/Output Monitor will run on our configuration, and maybe even the Keyboard Monitor. Does anyone have paper tapes for ADSS or any other monitor that would run on this system? Details of the paper tapes and manuals that we have are at the bottom of this page: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-9 -- Michael Thompson

12 years, 11 months

Xerox 820-II FDC (was Re: Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is)

by enrico.lazzerini＠email.it

Trying to rebuild the FDC card by my xerox 820-II motherboard, I have discovered the presence of an IC named 733w01522 (U1) on the photo of the original PCB which code I cannot read on the schematic not very readable reported at the end of xerox820-II service manual. Sorry, I mistakenly indicated a 14-pin TTL chips even though it was 16 pin. Thanks for contribution of Chuck Guzis from the VCF he told me that the 733w01522 is a PROM and it is equivalent at 74S288 but also to others IC as reported here http://www.hobbyroms.com/proms.html. U1 (74S288) and U2 (74S174) together constitute a "finite state machine" (so they told to me cause I'm not so expert) whose purpose is to provide a read clock and a read data to the chip WD1797 from raw data received from the drive. Then I need to discover the code that the chip could have (without having the original chip programmed with me!). Upon the recommendation of Chuck Guzis I found the code listing on page 12 of the manual of the FDC1797's application notes. At this point, trusting to this code I'd need to buy a programmed 74S288 (or equivalent). After all this I was finally trying to figure out if it sould be better to use of a schematic published on an old issue of Microcornucopia: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4f8kblogrlzdr9m/FDC_from_Micro_Cornucopia_#22_Feb8 5.pdf. Who wrote that article decided to build itself a FDC controller card for his xerox 820-II extracting a block of its schematic from a Kaypro-II's schematic really making very few changes and using a FDC WD1793 + WD9216 for external separator data. Due to its small number of components, and having already a WD1797 I'd just need of a WD9216 (i hope to find it on the Internet yet) and wiring it would be maybe more simple. Last suggestion (always from the so expert Chuck that I thanks so much) would be to use a WD2797 instead of WD1797, but I'm not a designer and while i can understand something of all those things it's very hard for me to change schematics or adjust components. I hope to be able to buy a ready Xerox 820-II FDC board even I know that it's not very easy to find. Thanks anyway for all the support that was given to me. Regards Enrico - Pisa (ITALY)

12 years, 12 months

My IBM 5160 on YouTube

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

My IBM XT captured on YouTube (with a bit of Checkit, PC Tools and Zork 2 thrown in). http://youtu.be/luUPvzx-XWU

12 years, 12 months

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

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Hah, a thread just in time for me! Hello fellow collectors. I got the card-less carcass of a pdp-11/23 (says so on the front and back type labels) some weeks ago. This is going to be my first pdp ever so please be a bit patient with me :) It is the BA11 variety and contains a H9273 backplane, which as far as I could find out is QQ-CD (consistent with your statement below). However the backplane has a sticker on it which is stamped "11/03" (?!) So what kind of CPU (or more generally, kinds of boards) am I looking for to populate this puppy? I've already done some reading on DEC stuff from bitsavers and gleaned that in order to make it an 11/23, it would have to hold either an M8186 (KDF11-A) or an M8189 (KDF11-B) processor. As the M8186 only comes in a dual slot form factor, it clearly can't make use of the CD interconnect on the backplane. The M8189 is a quad-width board, but with the CD part configured for a serpentine backplane (the manual mentions two jumpers to be removed when using in another environment to avoid shorting signals together), so again no "meaningful" use of the CD lanes. What are these intended for anyway (I was thinking of some sort of PMI predecessor, probably wrong by now), and what boards do I need to take advantage of them in this machine? Also, are there any ressources online about the Q-22 upgrade? I might need do do that because I already was promised a 512kw MOS memory board by another German collector. TIA, yours sincerely Arno Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> wrote: Indeed, or as Jerome suggested, looking at the configuration of the cards may give you a clue. So would the type of box: if it's a 3U-high (5.25") grey-fronted-metal-panel rack-mount box with three toggle switches, it's a BA11-N or BA11-S, which have straight backplanes (and are all QQ-CD), if it's a small tabletop box or a 2U (3.5") it's a BA11-V (tabletop) or BA11-M (2U) which have serpentine backplanes, and if it's a floor-standing microPDP-11 (or microVAX) box or a chassis with four or six pushbuttons on the front, it's a BA23 box which is QQ-CD in the top slots and serpentine below. Or count the card slots. All 9-slot backplanes are straight. 8-slot and 13-slot are mixed (for microPDP-11 and microVAX). Anything else is serpentine. BA11-M and BA11-V boxes are relatively uncommon. If it's a BA11-N, although the backplane is 18-bit, it's very easy to upgrade to 22-bit. >> -- which I understand can be serpentine, All Q-Q backplanes are serpentine, and all straight backplanes are QQ-CD. The only odd one is the hex-high DDV11-B, which is a serpentine backplane in the ABCD positions and not bussed at all (except for power in the standard contact positions) in EF - it's meant for custom wiring. Of course we're assuming it's a DEC box with a DEC backplane. A Plessey backplane, for example, might be different, but you'd probably know if it was non-DEC, because it's pretty rare to find DEC's dark green connectors on anything non-DEC. Plessey and GEC ones, again for example, are white. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

12 years, 12 months

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