test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by peter＠vanpeborgh.eu

Following on from my previous post re punched cards, thank you for replying. I am following up where I can. Now, however, I realize that the IBM Port-A-Punch requires a special type of cards. Does anyone have 1 to 3 of these they can spare. (I already have the instrument.) Many thanks, peter || | | | | | | | | Peter Van Peborgh 62 St Mary's Rise Writhlington Radstock Somerset BA3 3PD UK 01761 439 234 "Our times are in God's wise and loving hands" || | | | | | | | |

6 years

Univac 490 Gallery Talk - 1963 Real Time Computer

by rar＠syssrc.com

The System Source Computer Museum is closed due to COVID-19, so we are making some video gallery talks. Here is the first one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq7aVCc2GP8 The video describes some of the applications of this 57 year old computer including it original use at Goddard Space Flight Center Bob Roswell museum at syssrc.com https://museum.syssrc.com

6 years

pdp11/84 PMI memory: What is the problem with Q bus?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > in place of my quad height 11/73 CPU with 2mb memory. Sorry, which exact quad-height CPU card? {As someone else has previously pointed out, the /73 and the /83 are basially the same machine (roughly the same CPU board - KDJ11-B, perhaps with different clock crystals), just with different memories - QBUS in the /73, PMI in the /83. The /84 is an /83 with i) a different backplane and ii) a KTJ11-B UNIBUS adapter.} > On the positive side it's chock full of 256k chips, which I could pull > off and put on the EA board to bring it up to 2mb memory. I have air > heat tools and a pre-heater so getting the chips off should be pretty > basic. I would advise against that. 256K chips are readily available on eBait, and for not much money. Pulling them may damage them, and may well also do some damage to the memory card, in addition to making it useless. > Getting them on the new board though could be a pain since all the > holes are soldered over.... A vacuum desoldering station will easily open them. Used Hakkos can be found on eBait for not too much money. Noel

6 years

Macintosh Programmers Workbench?

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Favor to ask: Would anyone have MPW running in some environment, such that if I give them a PEF file they could run dumppef on it and get the symbol table exports and such? The format is documented and I can write python to pull out what I need, but would be so much quicker if someone had MPW installed and running already.. Thanks in advance! J

6 years

Looking for a document regarding PDP8

by bobsmithofd＠gmail.com

I have posed this question to the 8lovers list, and folks seemed to misunderstand. So let me try here. I believe sometime in the late 70s, maybe as late as 1980, a prof associated with UMass wrote a paper describing an extension of the PDP8 called 8/X or 8X. THIS IS NOT the Pre Nova/DG machine but a completely different concept. THis is not the FPGA pdp8 implmetaton that also has an X in the name. I believe, my memory is fuzzy, that it was a prof nnmed Stone or Stoner (perhaps Harold S) who lead the effort and had his name on the paper. My fuzzy recollection was this was PDP8 with a Cache, an extension of the instruction set, maybe to 24bits, and full compatibility with 8/e-8/a. I recall the spec citing a 10mhz (100NS) cycle time. some sort of start up setting that would make it 8 mode or X mode on start up, don't recall if it could switch modes while running. I had a copy of the papers some where and it is misplaced hiding on one of my computers and I am bout to pull out my BigMac that might have the data in it. THanks for any hints as to the online location, Again, this is NOT the pdpX concept that led to the DG or the FPGA system or the spartan 3 based system, it is just a concept paper. Thanks bob

6 years

World's most frustrating FTGH giveaway - Palm Pilot box

by mark.tapley＠swri.org

All, Next to go is a box in which a Palm Pilot was originally sold. The box is in great shape, shrink-wrap intact except where it was sliced just enough to open the top. The manual is in great shape. The registration card is in great shape. The order receipt is in great shape, name of original owner mis-spelled but otherwise apparently correct. The accessories catalog is in great shape. The software on 3 each 3.5? floppies and on CD appears to be in great shape (not test-read yet). The Now Sync accessory software, on 2 more 3.5? floppies, appears to be in great shape. The leatherette protector is in great shape, with its foam insert still inside keeping it shaped for the Palm Pilot. The DE-9 to DB-25 serial port adaptor is in great shape. For Pete?s sake, the screen protector that peeled off the Palm Pilot screen is in great shape, lovingly tucked into the manual. You have probably noticed what is missing. There are no electronics included. No Palm Pilot, no charging/syncing cradle. Grrrr. You probably want this if you picked up the Palm Pilot at ShopGoodwill somewhere, want to re-create that 1997 ?first on the block with a personal digital accessory? feeling and really enjoy going through the accessory paperwork. https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/87198940 (but I think that is a different model). Free to a Good Home, preferably one with an actual Palm Pilot. Shipping will be from San Antonio TX, 78254. If as I suspect, nobody interested, headed to the trash. Standard rules, I?ll wait for a week or so, ship to the sender of the first email in my in-box or to Al K if he emails before I ship. - Mark 210-522-6025 office 210-379-4635 cell

6 years

Pdp11/05 boot media

by malcolm＠avitech.com.au

> Hi everybody > > I'm the proud owner of a PDP11/05 system with a couple of 8" floppy drives. I believe they are likely to be RX01s. > > Does anybody on the list have some boot media that they could provide. I understand that the controller can't format > the disks so I'm in a frustrating state where I don't know where to start. > > Doug Jackson > > Canberra Australia. Hi Doug, I'm in Melbourne and have several working PDP-11's. I can send you a couple of bootable RT11 8" disks. I'll need to know whether they are RX01s or RX02s though. Perhaps send me an email offline and we can take it from there? Malcolm www.avitech.com.au <http://www.avitech.com.au>

6 years

Motorola EXORciser M6800 System

by osi.superboard＠gmail.com

Since a few days, my EXORciser Development System is finally able to boot from floppy diskettes. Previous attempts have shown that the Motorola EXORciser M68SFDC1 floppy disk board used has a special modified ROM version. This was probably written for an 8-inch drive, in which the Write protect and Direction signal were inverted. For the sake of simplicity, I have used free inverter on the board to invert the signals accordingly. After adjusting the PLL frequency, reads and writes from the card are now error-free. And all without FDC, only clever programming by Motorola software engineers in the early 76? Originally, the EXORdisk system was a dual drive with two 8 "units. This I have replaced with a double drive of two 5.25 inch units. An Epson and a TEAC, which can be jumpered to 360 rpm. Luckily, 2HD floppy disks are easy to R&W. I also got a GOTEK floppy emulator running, which I can boot from. Thanks to Roland Huisman, Bitsaver has some interesting floppy disks that convert to HFE format work perfectly. This format makes the Gotek drive most reliable. Now to my question. The vintage computer forum at http://www.vcfed.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-44638.html mentioned some interesting manuals. Archive.org has some manuals, Bitsaver does not have manuals about the M6800 development system. If someone already owns scanned manuals to the following list M6800 Basic Interpreter Reference Manual M6800 Macro Assembler reference Manual M68SFDU Exordisk 11/111 Disk `Drive Unit Maintenance Manual M6800 Exorciser 11 User's Guide M6800 Exorciser User's Guide MEX68PP1 PROM Programmer Module Supplement M6800 Exorciser User's Guide I would welcome any feedback or questions --THOMAS

6 years

pdp11/84 PMI memory: What is the problem with Q bus?

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> > Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 15:29:44 -0400 > From: Chris Zach <cz at alembic.crystel.com> > To: CCTalk mailing list <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: pdp11/84 PMI memory: What is the problem with Q bus? > Message-ID: <3efa4105-3d3d-bb98-0358-8c46fca0fdcf at alembic.crystel.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > So I picked up an 11/84 CPU, 3mb of memory, and a 11/84 Unibus card on > Ebay. Goal is to speed up my fastest 11 here > > For boot time, the diagnostics run in 13 seconds (from when it starts to > prompt) on the 11/73 board I have and 13 seconds on the 11/84 board. > This is with a camintonn 2mb half height memory board. > > Put in the first PMI module above the 11/84 CPU and tried it out. This > is a CA rev board which apparently only works in a Unibus pdp11 and not > a Q-bus one. Apparently it does work. > > So what exactly was the bug with the older PMI memory? Block mode DMA, > I'm using an MTI ESDI controller which can do 16 word block DMA on Q > Bus. Something else? Chris, Congrats on the PDP-11/84! I also have a PDP-11/84 that uses one of Joerg?s Hoppe?s UniBone devices to simultaneously emulate MSCP disks, RL02 disks (including the RL02 Load/Ready/WriteProtect/ and fault lights) and a DL11. I have a question about something you said above, that you are using a MTI ESDI disk controller and then you mention Qbus block mode DMA. Are you able to use a Qbus MTI controller in the 11/84?s Qbus section of the backplane? This is something I?ve often wondered about but never tried. Also, you mention putting the PMI memory above the 11/84 CPU. In the 11/83 Qbus backplane this is of course determines whether the M8637 memory is accessed via Q22 or PMI. In the 11/84 System Maintenance Guide Figure 2-8 shows the CPU card above the memory which if you were to do this in the 11/83 would mean that the memory will be accessed via Q22 and essentially become an 11/73. In my 11/83 I have run both configurations to understand and measure the benefit of PMI. As has been mentioned the 11/84 can use any of the M8637 memory boards but the 11/83 can only use the M8637-D or -E versions. For anyone who is curious about what Happens when a M8637-C version board is used as PMI memory in an 11/83 I can speak >From experience. This was running RSX11M+ and it boots fine but after a few minutes if The system is active, the console starts to report that various installed tasks are corrupted And the system will XDT a bit later. After this the disk is corrupted and you will need to restore the system disk from backups after you get the correct PMI memory boards. I?m not completely sure how the write DMA operations put bad data through the disk controller (I was using an Emulex UC07 with a SCSI2SD) into the disks but that is what happens. Mark Matlock

6 years

HP 41-CX

by abs＠absd.org

I've come into possession of an HP 41-CX calculator - unfortunately it appears to have had batteries left in it which have left corrosion on the internal contacts. (some pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/48bE7WJZP8R4PF9a9 ) My classic hardware tendencies tend to run more towards the "can run *nix" end, and while I could just clean it up and throw it on eBay I wondered if anyone here has a 41C shaped soft spot and would be interested? (happy to trade/part trade for something they already have for which they are less fond if that works :) David

6 years

pdp11/84 PMI memory: What is the problem with Q bus?

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 15:29:44 -0400 > From: Chris Zach <cz at alembic.crystel.com> > To: CCTalk mailing list <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: pdp11/84 PMI memory: What is the problem with Q bus? > Message-ID: <3efa4105-3d3d-bb98-0358-8c46fca0fdcf at alembic.crystel.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > So I picked up an 11/84 CPU, 3mb of memory, and a 11/84 Unibus card on > Ebay. Goal is to speed up my fastest 11 here > > For boot time, the diagnostics run in 13 seconds (from when it starts to > prompt) on the 11/73 board I have and 13 seconds on the 11/84 board. > This is with a camintonn 2mb half height memory board. > > Put in the first PMI module above the 11/84 CPU and tried it out. This > is a CA rev board which apparently only works in a Unibus pdp11 and not > a Q-bus one. Apparently it does work. > > So what exactly was the bug with the older PMI memory? Block mode DMA, > I'm using an MTI ESDI controller which can do 16 word block DMA on Q > Bus. Something else? Chris, Congrats on the PDP-11/84! I also have a PDP-11/84 that uses one of Joerg?s Hoppe?s UniBone devices to simultaneously emulate MSCP disks, RL02 disks (including the RL02 Load/Ready/WriteProtect/ and fault lights) and a DL11. I have a question about something you said above, that you are using a MTI ESDI disk controller and then you mention Qbus block mode DMA. Are you able to use a Qbus MTI controller in the 11/84?s Qbus section of the backplane? This is something I?ve often wondered about but never tried. Also, you mention putting the PMI memory above the 11/84 CPU. In the 11/83 Qbus backplane this is of course determines whether the M8637 memory is accessed via Q22 or PMI. In the 11/84 System Maintenance Guide Figure 2-8 shows the CPU card above the memory which if you were to do this in the 11/83 would mean that the memory will be accessed via Q22 and essentially become an 11/73. In my 11/83 I have run both configurations to understand and measure the benefit of PMI. As has been mentioned the 11/84 can use any of the M8637 memory boards but the 11/83 can only use the M8637-D or -E versions. For anyone who is curious about what Happens when a M8637-C version board is used as PMI memory in an 11/83 I can speak >From experience. This was running RSX11M+ and it boots fine but after a few minutes if The system is active, the console starts to report that various installed tasks are corrupted And the system will XDT a bit later. After this the disk is corrupted and you will need to restore the system disk from backups after you get the correct PMI memory boards. I?m not completely sure how the write DMA operations put bad data through the disk controller (I was using an Emulex UC07 with a SCSI2SD) into the disks but that is what happens. Mark Matlock

6 years

Wanted for non-profit public museum: DEC VT100

by bbortnick＠2bcool.ca

Old IBM magnetic media I am hoping someone can help me with a project. I?m volunteer at our local music museum (National Music Centre/Studio Bell.) They are restoring a vintage Synclavier, an early digital audio workstation, which happens to have an embedded DEC PDP 11/23. Part of the museums purpose is to restore, maintain and make available these instruments for musicians to use in addition to static displays. The Synclavier should have a matching VT100, but that is the only component the museum does not currently have for this functioning device. Yes, the VT100 can be easily emulated, but as a museum, historical accuracy is also vital. I was wondering if anybody had any leads on a VT100 that might be donated? Thanks for any help!

6 years

paging rik bos

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Anyone seen Rik Bos around? I sent him some 12920/21 mux boards to repair, and he got to keep some but haven?t heard anything in a long time?. I may start playing with the HP2000 again soon ?

6 years

Old IBM magnetic media

by bbortnick＠2bcool.ca

Old IBM magnetic media Yes, two cartridges have a total capacity of 100mb, the same as the staging disks, IBM 3330-1. However, the entire cartridge contents are not staged, only the cylinders that have the requested data. Not sure why your cartridges were empty. Here?s a link to my ?working ? 3850 mass storage robotic arm for your viewing pleasure! *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ifNxDgxuY&pbjreload=10* <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ifNxDgxuY&pbjreload=10> ?\_(?)_/?

6 years

pdp11/84 PMI memory: What is the problem with Q bus?

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So I picked up an 11/84 CPU, 3mb of memory, and a 11/84 Unibus card on Ebay. Goal is to speed up my fastest 11 here For boot time, the diagnostics run in 13 seconds (from when it starts to prompt) on the 11/73 board I have and 13 seconds on the 11/84 board. This is with a camintonn 2mb half height memory board. Put in the first PMI module above the 11/84 CPU and tried it out. This is a CA rev board which apparently only works in a Unibus pdp11 and not a Q-bus one. Apparently it does work. So what exactly was the bug with the older PMI memory? Block mode DMA, I'm using an MTI ESDI controller which can do 16 word block DMA on Q Bus. Something else? Here's the output from RT11. .show all RT-11FB (S) V05.05 Booted from DU6:RT11FB USR is set SWAP EXIT is set SWAP KMON is set NOIND TT is set NOQUIET ERROR is set ERROR SL is set OFF EDIT is set KED FORTRAN is set FORTRA KMON nesting depth is 3 Global .SCCA flag is disabled PDP 11/83 Processor 2048KB of memory Floating Point Accelerator Unit Extended Instruction Set (EIS) Memory Management Unit ECC Memory Cache Memory PMI Memory 60 Cycle System Clock Device I/O time-out support Error logging support Memory parity support System job support Global .SCCA support FPU support Extended unit support Device Status CSR Vector(s) ------ ------ --- --------- EL Not installed 000000 000 LD Installed 000000 000 BA Installed 000000 000 DY Not installed 177170 264 VM Installed 177572 250 SP Installed 000000 110 XL Not installed 176500 300 304 DL Installed 174400 160 MS Not installed 172522 224 DU Resident 172150 154 LS Not installed 176510 310 314 NL Installed 000000 000 TT (Resident) DU (Resident) DU6 = DK , SY MQ (Resident) LD DL VM SP BA NL 9 free slots Job Name Console Level State Low High Impure --- ---- ------- ----- ----- --- ---- ------ 0 RESORC 0 0 Run 000000 103232 105046 No multi-terminal support Address Module Words ------- ------ ----- 160000 IOPAGE 4096. 132174 DU 5570. 103274 RMON 5856. 001000 ..BG.. 16990. LD0 is DU6:RTTST.DSK[6000.]

6 years

Unusual Punched Cards

by cctalk＠emailtoilet.com

This card is shorter than 40 columns but I can't tell if it has been cut off or not. I only have 1 so I can't let it go. http://www.ibmjunkman.com/cards/?Holder=2551 <http://www.ibmjunkman.com/cards/?Holder=2551&Img=0> &Img=0 You can search on Style and select different ones.

6 years

correction OK Looking to purchase "Sensicall" and the ATT Code-Com" bell system attachment that woukd allow deaf to tap morse over phone lines thanks Ed at SMECC

by couryhouse＠aol.com

OK Looking to purchase "Sensicall" and the ATT Code-Com" bell system attachment that woukd allow deaf to tap morse over phone lines? thanks? Ed? at? SMECC

6 years

Looking to purchase CODE A PHONE bell system attachment that woukd allow,deaf to send morse code through bell system phone. Respond off list...... they would tap on litte finger pad . this,was,an attachment to a regular phone,set made in later 60s or 70s. Person on other end would see light flash I guess... drop us a line off list.

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Looking to purchase CODE A PHONE? bell system attachment that woukd allow,deaf to send morse code through bell system phone.? Respond off list...... they would tap on litte finger pad . this,was,an attachment to a regular phone,set made in later 60s or 70s. Person on other end would see light flash I guess... drop us a line off list.

6 years

Unusual Punched Cards (Peter Van Peborgh)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Guys, > > I have been collecting all types of computer punched cards for a few years > now. In the distant past I actually used them! > > I am desperately looking for two types I do not have been able to find a > sample of: > * Jacquard fabric/carpet loom cards. OK, not computer but the > ancestor, for completeness of the history. There may be several formats of > these. > > Something like this? http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/interesting_computer_items/jacquard-lo… -- Michael Thompson

6 years

Unusual Punched Cards

by peter＠vanpeborgh.eu

Guys, I have been collecting all types of computer punched cards for a few years now. In the distant past I actually used them! I am desperately looking for two types I do not have been able to find a sample of: * Jacquard fabric/carpet loom cards. OK, not computer but the ancestor, for completeness of the history. There may be several formats of these. * Original Hollerith card, 12 rows by 24 columns. Once again, this is a long shot. Well if you don't ask, you never get! Thank you for your interest. Peter

6 years

Another Unrelated PSU Question

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have another PSU I have been meaning to look at for a long time. This one has fairly high output ripple and some of the voltages do not appear to be where they should be. I have checked all the capacitors for ESR and they appear to be OK, with the exception of the two big smoothing capacitors on the primary side. One of them appears to be slightly bulging, but has low-ish ESR, the other has a much higher ESR. Is it possible that these capacitors could be the cause of the out-of-spec outputs? Thanks Rob

6 years

VAXmate PSU fixed, but no video

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Some of you may recall seeing me post about the VAXmate PSU failure. Thanks to members of this list I found the failed part in the PSU and the PSU is now working again. However, it looks like the PSU failed because of a failure on the monitor board. There is a burning smell coming from it, possibly the flyback transformer, but I am not 100% sure. I don't see physical damage, but of course that doesn't mean there isn't a problem. When I took the monitor board out again after this, I wasn't sure if the EHT lead was making good contact with the CRT anode. The monitor board is described in section 4.4 of this document: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vaxmate/EK-PC500-TD_VAXmate_Technical_Descripti on_1987.pdf I need some advice on diagnosing the problem, I have a few questions: 1. If the EHT lead was not properly connected to the CRT anode, could that cause problems? 2. Is there anything I can safely do with a bench power supply to isolate the problem? 3. Any other suggestions for diagnosing the problem? 4. There is an outline spec of the flyback transformer in the section 4.4.3.2 of the VAXmate technical description, what chance of finding a "modern" replacement? I have posted about the PSU repair here: https://robs-old-computers.com/2020/04/18/vaxmate-h7270-psu-fixed-but-no-vid eo/ Thanks Rob

6 years

Looking for a document regarding PDP8

by len＠shustek.com

At 10:00 AM 4/17/2020, Bob Smith <bobsmithofd at gmail.com> wrote: >...I believe sometime in the late 70s, maybe as late as 1980, a prof >associated with UMass wrote a paper describing an extension of the >PDP8 called 8/X or 8X. >...I believe, my memory is fuzzy, that it was a prof nnmed Stone or >Stoner (perhaps Harold S) who lead the effort and had his name on the >paper. That is probably Harold S. Stone, whom I knew as a Stanford prof in the early 1970s and did some corporate consulting with. Brilliant guy. From 1974 to 1984 he was at UMass Amherst, so your memory isn't fuzzy at all. He also worked at the IBM Yorktown Heights research center. He was the author of several books and many papers about computer architecture, algorithms, and interfaces. Unfortunately I don't remember him working on a PDP-8 extension, and a quick search of the ACM Digital Library turned up nothing. As far as I know he's still alive at the age of 82.

6 years

DEC QBUS Backplanes

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

I have been sorting thru a bunch of stuff in an effort to clean the place up (Aren't we all doing that now with all this time on our hands?) I found a backplane. It says Digital on it but does not have an H- number. I also don;t find it listed in any of the lists I can find on the web. It has 8 A-B slots and 4 C-D slots. the Four C-D are on the bottom half of the backplane. I am assuming it is 18 bit and the C-D were intended for things like the 2 board RL controller. Anybody familiar with this and able to identify it? Anybody interested in it? It should fit in a USPS Medium Flat Rate Box. bill

6 years

Fwd: ROLM CBX 8000 System Service Manual Vol. 2 Scans Released!

by rgalliett＠surewest.net

Hello. I have both, Rolm CBX System Service Manuals l and ll as well as a Release 8/8001 Student Maintenance Course binder. Are you interested in these??Thank youSent from my LG Phoenix 3, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

6 years

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test-drb