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101090 discussions

Poor Steve is dead, poor Steve Jobs is dead...

by john＠yoyodyne-propulsion.net

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 7:47 AM, Mark Benson <md.benson at gmail.com> wrote: > A lot of people are already touting them as having designs on the TV and entertainment market. > Another Apple TV will go over like a Lead Zeppelin. (Then again, the Newton was a disaster so maybe they will get it right this time.) -- Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems: "The Future Begins Tomorrow" Visit us at: http://www.yoyodyne-propulsion.net -------- Doctor: You know when grownups tell you, "Everything's going to be fine" and you think they're probably lying to make you feel better? Amelia: Yeah. Doctor: Everything's going to be fine.

13 years, 9 months

Today, in the bus to work...

by elson＠pico-systems.com

cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2012 21:07:39 +0100 (BST) > From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Today, in the bus to work... > Message-ID: <m1Sm9Nx-000J4TC at p850ug1> > Content-Type: text/plain > > >> .. I overheard two teenage girls examining each other on tech history. >> >> Girl A : "The first PC was ....?" >> Girl B : "...the Macintosh !" >> Girl A, looking in her textbook : "Correct !" >> >> Sigh....... >> > > ARGH!!!! > > >> Of course "first PC" is open to debate, but a Mac ? >> > > Can anyone give a resonable justification fo that answer. I actualyl > can';t think of anythign the Mac was 'first' for. > The Mac was the first MASS_MARKETED computer to use a mouse to steer a pointer on the screen. Of course, the Xerox Alto was the prototype of that. As for first PC, how about the Bendix G-15? Vacuum tubes, drum memory, and it sure only ran one program at a time, sometimes for weeks! Or, IBM 1620. Then, there was the LINC, about 50 were built in 1965, 2 K 12-bit words of core memory, discrete transistors, and a dot-drawing screen for editing online. Reel-to-reel mag tapes to serve like disks. And then the Altair 8080 and SW Tech 6800 machines. Jon

13 years, 9 months

HP1630D, IBM "M" keyboards, PRO 350 or 380

by useddec＠gmail.com

My sons are helping me clean out one of my 25 foot storage lockers. I knew there was a little computer in this one, but it looks like about 1/3 computer items. Today I found two HP1630D logic analyzers, one of which has 7 pods. 4 IBM "M" keyboards, maybe 5 or 6 caps missing. PRO 350 or 380 missing cover, has RX50. I'll try to look at it tomorrow. I do have other 350 and 380 units and parts. Feel free to contact me off list if you have any interest. Thanks, Paul

13 years, 9 months

Lisa Experts: Lisa 1.8A power supply test?

by wheagy＠gmail.com

Can anyone recommend a quick (safe) way to test a Lisa 1.8 amp power supply outside of the Lisa chassis? It appears that something (maybe pin X) needs to be jumped to make some of the power supply function outside of the Lisa? The only pin I currently get a reading from is pin 20 (~5.62v) which appears correct. I'd like to test more of the supply, if possible, prior to powering up the Lisa. Pointers appreciated. http://imgur.com/idthc http://imgur.com/PcFF6 Thanks, Win

13 years, 9 months

which (Northstar?) computer used the Fujitsu M2551A 360k floppy drive?

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

I have one

13 years, 9 months

DEC Flat Panel

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:24:28 -0700 From: Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: DEC Flat Panel circa 1987 Message-ID: <4FF87EDC.50201 at brouhaha.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Peter C. Wallace wrote: > > Sure its plasma? Planar specialised more in EL and that yellow looks > > like EL to me > > My recollection was that DEC used a plasma panel, but I could be wrong. > I agree that the color in the photo is consistent with EL. Wow, you could be right, I'd completely forgotten about Planar! Jon

13 years, 9 months

Philips P800 progress...

by iamcamiel＠gmail.com

Hi Everyone, I'm making some good progress with the Philips P800 minicomputers. I'm anxious to get an operating system running on them, and lack of working disk drives (I haven't been able to get one of the X1215 cartridge disc drives going yet), has pushed me in a somewhat different direction. I found an image of an X1215 disk pack containing a DOS version 5 installation on Theo Engel's website. I have implemented a very basic X1215 emulator in an FPGA PCIe card. Together with a small piece of software, and a cable with the necessary level converters, the emulator presents the X1215 disk images to the disk controller in the P800. The software is responsible for loading the image into the FPGA's memory buffer one track at a time. This now works to the point where the initial part of the IPL works correctly. Four sectors are read from disk, after which the P800 displays a "MONITOR?" prompt. After typing "DOM", there is another flurry of disk activity, then nothing. No "** DOS 05 **" banner. I noticed that the disk emulator never asks for anything other than track 0, so there is probably an error in the implementation of the SEEK command. To be continued...

13 years, 9 months

AlphaServer 4100

by md.benson＠gmail.com

Not sure if this is 'classic' enough but I figured there are a few people here who might know the system much better than me. I have a AlphaServer 4100 that reached me in slightly rough but internally clean looking condition, it's not been run in a few years. First time I powered it up it it seemed to run through the diagnostics fine on the LCD panel at the front and finished up sat at what I assume was the text that has been programmed into the panel from the SRM (it looked like a hostname or something similar). I didn't have a terminal on the machine at the time so the panel was all I had to go on. I had to leave it for a while so I switched it of and switched off the mains. The next time I fired it up it got some way through the diagnostics and stopped on a message related to testing CPU 3 (the last of 4 numbered 0-3) and seemed to stop. I left it while I grabbed a terminal figuring it needed diagnosing via the terminal read-out. I powered it down, attached the terminal and powered it up and... nothing. The LCD screen sits completely blank, the terminal doesn't display anything apart from dumping a few characters of junk when I power it off. I have tried the following: - Removed all PCI cards. - Reseated all the cabling to the PCI backplane and comm's (serial/parallel) board including the LCD display connector. - Reseated all the RAM and CPU boards - Removed all but 1 CPU and 2 RAM boards (in slots ME0L and MEM0H) - Added a second CPU in case it - Checked the control panel cabling to the LCD panel - swapped the installed CPUs around to test at least 3 in 1 and 2 CPU configs When powered on, the diagnostic LEDs on the power management board look like this (top to bottom) 0 = on - = off * = scan at 1 sec intervals 0 0 - 0 0 0 0 * * * * All CPU cards have the following LEDs displayed 0 - 0 0 As far as I can see 2 LEDs are lit on the PCI bridge card (in the main) chassis (DEC's design failure means you can't actually see these directly) 0 0 I have followed through as best I can the diagnostic procedures in the User's Manual and Service Manual and neither have yielded progress or any obvious sign of fault, aside from the fact that I can't *find* the LEDs that are supposed to indicate 'POWER_FAN_OK' and 'TEMP_OK' on the PCI bridge adapter. If they are there they aren't on but I've no idea a WHERE they are. All three main fans are operating and seem to be shifting plenty of air, as are the CPU fans on the installed CPU cards. Other things that should be mentioned are the PSUs emit a constant 'bubbling' humming noise, but the power management board seems to thing they are fine, I'm a bit skeptical. I also had one PSU blow an input filter cap inside the mains input socket which was a straightforward fix and was replaced. Basically, I don't know the machine well enough to know what it might be. Any help appreciated. -- Mark Benson http://DECtec.info Twitter: @DECtecInfo HECnet: STAR69::MARK Online Resource & Mailing List for DEC Enthusiasts.

13 years, 9 months

looking for a complete Tek Prism 3002 or just keyboard

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

send me e-mail

13 years, 9 months

Known failure modes for the DEC H7441 Power Supply?

by jaquinn2001＠gmail.com

I am continuing to make progress with the power supply modules for the PDP 11/04. The previous week involved testing and replacing a few of the electrolytic caps... a few pictures and some comment (although no great technical insights) at http://www.quicktrip.co.nz/jaqblog. Today I got a chance to test the modules. One of the H7441 +5V supplies works fine (http://www.quicktrip.co.nz/jaqblog/images/BLOG_PDP11_5V_2.jpg) ... the output is a little high at 5.5v but that could be my meter calibration. I haven't played with the adjustment pot yet until I can confirm that my meter is reading correctly. The other +5V supply doesn't run ( http://www.quicktrip.co.nz/jaqblog/images/BLOG_PDP11_5V_1.jpg)... goes up to just over 1v as the AC comes up and then settles back to 0.5v. The DC voltage after the rectifier and across the main input capacitor looks OK on the meter. I have the PDP11/34 technical drawings with the schematic for the H7441 so will work though it but to get a head start, are there any common failure modes for these supplies that I should check first? The H745 -15V (http://www.quicktrip.co.nz/jaqblog/images/BLOG_PDP11_-15V.jpg) supply works fine although the Power OK bulb on the back has failed. I will replace it with an LED + resistor like the H7441. And assuming I sort out the last H7441 are then any recommendations on powering up the backplane? It has the following boards installed plus grant continuity cards as appropriate: M7257 RK05 M7256 RK05 M7255 RK05 M7254 RK05 M7258 Printer M7856 RS232/SLU M7860 General Device Interface M7856 RS232/SLU M7847 Memory M7847 Memory M7859 Console Interface M7263 Processor M9301 Unibus Terminator M7850 Parity Board M9202 Unibus Connector I assume it is good practice to draw a map of all the board locations, then remove them all, power up the backplane and check the power... but what is the next step. My guess is that a minimum set of boards would be the following: M7847 Memory M7847 Memory M7859 Console Interface M7263 Processor M9301 Unibus Terminator M7850 Parity Board Any suggestions? Regards Andrew

13 years, 9 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 107, Issue 22

by elson＠pico-systems.com

> Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2012 22:35:02 +0100 > From: Mark Wickens <mark at wickensonline.co.uk> > To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: DEC Flat Panel circa 1987 > Message-ID: <4FF75A06.4000006 at wickensonline.co.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > In the ; > > > Ken Olsen Thank You Employees > > > video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vDjbTuwLqA&feature=related > I noticed this: http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/images/flat-panel.jpg - > the talk around this image is DEC World 1987. > > Of this screen grab I know: VSXXX-GA mouse, LK201-AA keyboard. > Can anyone provide any more information please? > OK, that is almost certainly a Burroughs plasma panel, the orange color is a giveaway, also the date. The technology was partly pioneered by William Papian, who worked with Jay Forrester on coincident current core memory and then worked on gas display panels at Washington University in the 60's and 70's. One of the really unknown pioneers of the early computer days. As for a manufactured product from DEC, I don't recall such a model. Jon

13 years, 9 months

DEC Flat Panel circa 1987

by stsauveur＠desktopint.com

That display is a DEC VRE01 (electroluminescent flat panel) on a VAXstation 3100 I have a new one - still in the box - I haven't tried it yet.. :-) Phil St.Sauveur -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Zane H. Healy Sent: Friday, July 06, 2012 8:18 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: DEC Flat Panel circa 1987 At 10:35 PM +0100 7/6/12, Mark Wickens wrote: >video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vDjbTuwLqA&feature=related >I noticed this: http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/images/flat-panel.jpg >- the talk around this image is DEC World 1987. > >Of this screen grab I know: VSXXX-GA mouse, LK201-AA keyboard. >Can anyone provide any more information please? Unfortunately I can't remember any details, I think I heard about it years ago. It looks a lot like the screen provided to the US Military sometime around 1992 as part of a 3rd party Sparc portable system though. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | | Photographer | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | My flickr Photostream | | http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/ |

13 years, 9 months

DEC Flat Panel circa 1987

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

In the ; Ken Olsen Thank You Employees video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vDjbTuwLqA&feature=related I noticed this: http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/images/flat-panel.jpg - the talk around this image is DEC World 1987. Of this screen grab I know: VSXXX-GA mouse, LK201-AA keyboard. Can anyone provide any more information please? Regards, Mark. -- Mark Wickens http://wickensonline.co.uk http://declegacy.org.uk http://retrochallenge.org https://twitter.com/#!/@urbancamo

13 years, 9 months

Apple's Smalltalk-80 on Mac - Re: Smalltalk history

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

On 06/07/12 8:32 PM, Jecel Assumpcao Jr. wrote: > Toby Thain wrote: >> Jecel, >> >> Then you will be aware that Apple themselves made several releases of a >> mature Smalltalk-80 system for Macintosh. The project was led, at one >> time, by Harvey Alcabes. I still have his business card in that role, >> from when I met him at the Apple Developer Conference where HyperCard >> (then codenamed Silver Surfer) was revealed. > > I have the 400KB floppy disks of version 0.7 of that system. ... I think I have the floppies somewhere too :) > > Lots of technical details about this system are available in the "green > book" ("Smalltalk-80, Bits of History, Words of Advice" Yes I owned that book, and "The Language and its Implementation". I used the Apple system for a while. --Toby > edited by Glen > Krasner), which like many other classic Smalltalk books can be found for > free at > > http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html > > -- Jecel > >

13 years, 9 months

DECNIS Information

by iamcamiel＠gmail.com

Hi All, I was looking for information on the DECNIS 600 router, and found this hilarious review, no doubt generated by a highly intelligent computer algorithm ;-) " DEC - DECNIS 600 B1201-MN - DNSAF-MN - - Review by Christopher I was given DEC - DECNIS 600 B1201-MN - DNSAF-MN - item yesterday. It has worked exactly as advertised. Good unit. User friendly to the position that I did not want to look over any information to operate. Checked the distances with other items and feels to be very right. Beaming I made the buy. I would recommend highly this unit to you. " "User friendly to the position that I did not want to look over any information to operate" is what cracked me up. Cheers, Camiel.

13 years, 9 months

Zenith Minisport

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

anyone have a pinout for the power connector. I don't know what I did in the past, I know at least one of my 2 work. I think I put juice on the battery terminals to get a rudimentary display. Heard a buzzing too ick.

13 years, 9 months

Smalltalk history

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 13:31:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Smalltalk history (was: Jobs - what's he done for us lately?) Message-ID: <20120705132617.F34140 at shell.lmi.net> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I don't have much of any details, but I can point you where to find out. My cousin, David Ungar, was involved in it, and in "Smalltalk on a Risc", while he was getting his PhD at berkeley. One time, when I visited him in Evans hall, they had a Lisa (with hard disk!, and twiggy drive (with the double set of access holes in the floppy to make it easier to put thumbprints on the media)). HAH! Small World! Long ago, Dave was a good friend of mine at Washington University, haven't seen him in a few years. I used to go out to Berkeley on experiments, and dropped in for a chat several times while he was at Sun in Mountain View. One time Dave took me down the hall and introduced me to John Ousterholt. I didn't really know who he was at the time, but I do now. Of course, everything they did there was WAY ahead of its time. Jon

13 years, 9 months

Free for pickup AEG/Telefunken Terminal

by hp-fix＠xs4all.nl

I've a AEG/Telefunken M28-12W (1974) terminal, it's free but local pickup only. I'm located in the Netherlands.. -Rik

13 years, 9 months

Lenovo Laptops

by jon＠jonworld.com

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 12:20 PM, Alexandre Souza - Listas <pu1bzz.listas at gmail.com> wrote: >>> Want a sturdy computer? Buy an IBM machine. Ops, Lenovo :P >> >> Lenovo Thinkpad laptops sadly are sliding towards 'plastic crap' and >> away from the 'solid built IBM quality' end of the scale. I have 3 Lenovo laptops in my possession, a T61 (from a former employer) a T420 (on-loan from a current customer) and a G550. They have consumer-grade and commercial-grade lines, with the T-series being the commercial-grade. The T420 still seems of excellent quality, even when compared to the T60/T61-era machines, and the T43 (T60 precursor and last of the IBM-branded stuff.) It has been sad to see them go from metal (magnesium?) casing to plastic over the years, but IBM had already initiated that change, IIRC. Given the abuse I've put my T61 through (weekly commutes from IND to YUL, IND to MSP, etc.) it has my vote of being a solid laptop. I don't see the T420 (current Lenovo) straying too far from that mark. Both my "T" systems run Windows 7. The "G" system is running Windows 8 preview. The G550 is another story. It's a consumer-grade system with a 16:9 screen and 1366x768 resolution. It's body is solid enough, but I've managed to have my DVD-ROM drive bezel pop off and go MIA. I can use it for browsing the internet, but not much else.

13 years, 9 months

IBM docs in Chicago are safe

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

I have now confirmed that one of the mainframe guys has rescued the IBM docs. Thanks all for offers of help. You may eventually be called for duty again, as there is apparently a whole bunch of microfiche there than needs to be rescued as well. I do not know the details, nor the urgency. -- Will

13 years, 9 months

Today, in the bus to work...

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 4:19 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > At 11:40 AM -0700 7/3/12, Chuck Guzis wrote: >> I figure it's just a matter of a short time before the view held >> among young-uns is that Steve Jobs invented the computer. > > But... But... He did! And Paul McCartney is rumoured to have been in a band before "Wings". -ethan

13 years, 9 months

Free to a Good Home (was Re: Megahaul on July 4th)

by iamcamiel＠gmail.com

On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 8:52 PM, Camiel Vanderhoeven <iamcamiel at gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Guys, > > Today me and my brother (truck driving license, no interest in old > iron) had the biggest haul of DEC stuff I ever had (ex-collector > moving to a smaller apartment). I'm picking up a second load in a week > or two. Pictures at > http://www.flickr.com/photos/7816395 at N04/sets/72157630422540146/ I did a little first sorting today, and have the following to offer for free to a good home (pickup in Wageningen, the Netherlands only!!!) - Bunch (15 or so) of BA350xx disk cabinets; some with personality module, some without; some with disks, some without; some with skins, some without. See this picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7816395 at N04/7507055270/ - New-in-box US Robotics modem - Complete VMS 4.4 documentation set (orange wall) - Presumed complete VMS 7.1 documentation set (paperback) - Complete RSX-11M 4.2 documentation set (orange wall) Of the BA350's, I already have way too many. The manual sets are those I already have. Contact me off-list to arrange pickup. If these aren't gone before the end of the month, they'll end up at the scrapper's (frankly, I don't expect much interest in this). Camiel.

13 years, 9 months

Raspberry Pi and America, was Re: ST-506/412 to IDE/ATA/SCSI/? adaptor

by md.benson＠gmail.com

The key point behind it is the price is well on the right side of the price threshold between 'I'd like one but it's a bit too much' (about 40-50 GBP in my case) and 'That's cheap and looks good, I'll have one' (about 25GBP in my case). That's an important factor and why demand is so high (a little too high at the moment). Also yep there's more cost for extras but they, as many pointed out, are requisite for any board you buy, so a more expensive board shoves the total price point up by the comparative amount. In this case cheap means 'less than most other equivalents' not 'it's only 35 bucks!!'. The third factor is that by the time I had mine all the files, tutorials, etc. I meeded to get it going inside 2 hours were on hand. Last time I bought a minature ARM dev board I paid a lit more and it went back in the box after a couple of days because I couldn't find the stuff I needed to get it going (it was a few years ago) Raspberry Pi has been the dismetric opposite. Satisfyingly inexpensive, easy to setup and use. Now mine is running 24/7 pretending to be a VAX. The whole lot including extras cost me less than 50 GBP. Mark me satisfied. -- Mark Benson http://markbenson.org/blog http://twitter.com/MDBenson

13 years, 9 months

IBM (Sony) 6091 19 monitor

by rampaginggreenhulk＠yahoo.com

I figured I'd pay my last respects before these got chucked. Could be in better shape cosmetically (but, uh, everything about a monitor is cosmetic, no?), but they were working the last time I turned them on. I used to get big bucks for these bad boys. But their day has long come and gone :(. Damned LCDs!

13 years, 9 months

IMSAI switch paddle replacements

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

Can someone point me to a source for replacement switch paddles for the IMSAI 8080? Todd Fischer of imsai.net tells me that he has red ones, but no blue ones left. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

13 years, 9 months

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