test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Trying to figure out a fair value for the following: Altair 8800b with two Altair floppy drives. System is clean but hasn't been turned on since the 70s. No software or manuals available. Contains the follow boards: 1 CPU 2 Floppy disk controller 3 MITS 16k dynamic memory boards (48k ram total) 1 MITS 8800 Disk BD1 Rev 0 x4 1 SIO board with 2 serial ports 1 MITS 8800 PMC Rev01 2k Prom Board Can reply off list. Thanks. David

6 years, 4 months

Chuck Peddle passed away

by cliendo＠gmail.com

https://www.team6502.org/ This was on the Team 6502 facebook page ==================================================================== I just received an email from Bill Mensch that Chuck Peddle has died. He died on December 15. Chuck Peddle was one of the team of eight Motorola employees and engineers who worked on the 6800 microprocessor and left the company for MOS Technology in 1974 along with Harry Bawcom, Wil Mathys, Rod Orgill, Ray Hirt, Mike Janes, Terry Holdt, and Bill Mensch. Peddle considered the $300 price point of the 6800 a disadvantage, and urged Motorola management to pursue a more affordable microprocessor that could be used in a wider array of applications. When they refused, Peddle convinced seven other Motorola employees, including my father Terry Holdt, to pack up their homes and move across the country to begin work on what would become the 6502 microprocessor at MOS Technology, a wafer-fab company in Valley Forge, PA founded by a former colleague of his from General Electric, John Paivinen. After Commodore Business Machines purchased MOS Technology in 1976, Peddle oversaw the creation of the Commodore PET computer, the predecessor of the Commodore 64, the best-selling personal computer of all time. While curating the information for the team6502.org website, one of my favorite anecdotes comes from MOS Technology employee, Frank Slattery, who wrote: "What a great bunch of guys the Motorola eight were. I was the manager of the layout people and it was my duty to make sure that the Motorola eight had every opportunity to do their design work with no problems. I was standing next to Chuck Peddle when he said to Jack Tramiel, the CEO of Commodore Business Machines, 'With this chip we can build a personal computer.' It was the first time I ever heard the words, 'Personal Computer.'" The rest, as they say, is history... Chuck was one of the giants of the personal computing industry. Now he belongs to the ages.

6 years, 4 months

8048 Family Applications Handbook

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

Hi All, I have a copy of this Intel book, 8048 Family Applications Handbook, January 1980. Does anyone know if scans of this book are online anywhere? I did a quick Google search and didn't find this particular book. If it isn't available anywhere I would like to get it scanned and posted somewhere (bitsavers?), but the only way I have to do a decent scan is destructive. A picture of the cover is here: http://wrcooke.net/DSC01633.JPG Thanks, Will "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The names of global variables should start with // " -- https://isocpp.org

6 years, 4 months

FW: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

I wonder if there is any interest here... -----Original Message----- From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net <greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of John Lawson Sent: 10 December 2019 17:41 To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net Subject: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free Greetings List! I have a couple of "DURA" Selectric ASR terminals. I also have some limited documentation on them. Neither of them work as far as I know. I tried to run the one in the pic when I first got it, but it's jammed - so on the shelf it went. They appear to be an 8-level code, dunno if ASCII, EBCDIC, or what. These are joining the ever-expanding list of "Projects Never to be Completed", so if anyone is interested, lemme know. They are free, you pay shipping, they are about 50 pounds each and will require some thoughtful packing. Local pickup is happily offered, and I could possibly be bribed into delivering them within a day's drive of Carson City (weather permitting). Cheers John KB6SCO Carson City

6 years, 4 months

Bad heads on RL02: Worth replacing

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So one of my RL02 drives (bought on Ebay years ago) is eating RL02 packs. Makes tings, then the disks have errors in my other RL02 drive. Took a bit to figure out which drive was eating what, but I'm 100% certain it's this newer drive. So pulled the heads. The top one had significant gunk on it, the bottom one a bit. Pics below. Top: https://i.imgur.com/FELhF9X.jpg Bottom: https://i.imgur.com/Tmsf5Nd.jpg With alcohol and lintless swabs I managed to clean both of the heads up. Top: https://i.imgur.com/gmACM4R.jpg Bottom: https://i.imgur.com/SfZQV5F.jpg Then put them back in the drive and mounted a scratch pack. With finger on the load/run I let the drive spin up and when I heard tinging I immediately spun down. Hopefully I didn't trash my scratch pack. Top head has gunk, bottom one had a few flecks, but looks pretty ok. Top: https://i.imgur.com/EAvgmuH.jpg Bottom: (picture didn't upload) Obviously the head is crashing, any idea why and if it's worth replacing the head or should I put this drive out for parts? Yes I cleaned the RL02 pack before putting it in. Never dull. CZ

6 years, 4 months

Odd Symptom PDP 8e Running Programs

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Hi - I am looking for some help. I have had a PDP 8e with RK05 drives that has run pretty reliably for many years, but after moving it a strange symptom has come up, preventing it >from operating correctly. I am hoping someone can advise. Here is an example 1. Power up drives and PDP 8e 2. Load OS/8 3. Load ADVENT 4. Program loads, asks if I want instructions. I can enter Y or N and the system responds. The familiar scrolling light pattern appears on the front panel to indicate awaiting input 5. As soon as I attempt an action such as "S" (with no quotes) the front panel freezes and I have to CTRL+C to exit ADVENT, dumping me to the dot prompt. Similar issue when running the MUSIC.SV program. I can load the program and get up to the point of entering a song, but when I enter a song name the system freezes on the first note. BASIC works fine however. Which tells me that I have a CPU problem, not a RAM problem but this is just my hunch. Any ideas how to diagnose this? Running MAINDEC programs is always frustrating. I am attempting to load the main DECX8 SYSTEM EXERCISER to see if there are any clues from this as to the cause of the freezing system. . https://www.pdp8online.com/os/os8/os8_cmd.shtml#DECX8 Thanks Bill

6 years, 4 months

ISO: Service info for an ADDS Envoy 580

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Got me an ADDS Envoy 580 (at least, I'm pretty sure it is -- it has no model designation apart from "Envoy" but looks identical to Jim's pictures at http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/05/adds-envoy-portable-terminal.html ). It's non-functional at the moment so it's going to need some repairs, and I can't find much on it -- anyone have anything? Thanks, Josh

6 years, 4 months

RCA 1802s available

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Harris still manufactures the RCA/Intersil/Harris 1802 processor. I do not know if the Silicon on Sapphire (SoS) process versions (Sandia Labs, radiation hardened) are still used by DoD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_1802 Alltronics Harris CDP1802ACE (3.2 MHz, 5 Volts) $4.95 https://www.alltronics.com//cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=CDP1802ACE Harris CDP1852CE, Parallel, 8-bit, PIO : $3.95 https://www.alltronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=CDP1852CE Intersil CDP1802 Spec Sheet (1997) https://www.alltronics.com/alltronics_assets/acrobat/CDP1802ACE.pdf Lee Hart sells the Bare PC boards for his 1802 Membership Card. Josh Bensadon has ELF-LINK for parallel port control/access http://www.sunrise-ev.com/1802.htm For the 40th anniversary, in 2016, VCF Midwest hosted the VCF ?COSMIC ELF project? with generous donations of time and materials by Lee A. Hart, Josh Bensadon, Ed Keefe, Dave Ruske, Walter Miraglia, Chuck Yakym, Bill Rowe, and Norm Nelson; and to our many advisors and volunteer builders. http://www.sunrise-ev.com/vcf-elf.htm After 18 years, Dave Ruske announced in October that maintenance of the Cosmic ELF group (cosmic elf.com) is being assumed by Josh Bensadon. http://www.cosmacelf.com/news/new-cosmac-elf-group-owner.html greg, w9gb chicago == Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:30:55 -0600 (CST) From: wrcooke at wrcooke.net To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: RCA 1802s available An ad was emailed to me today with an interesting item: RCA 1802 processors. I thought there may be some folks here interested: https://www.bgmicro.com/9z1509.aspx Not affiliated in any way other than a customer. Will ==

6 years, 4 months

RCA 1802s available

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

An ad was emailed to me today with an interesting item: RCA 1802 processors. I thought there may be some folks here interested: https://www.bgmicro.com/9z1509.aspx Not affiliated in any way other than a customer. Will

6 years, 4 months

Tap, tap, tap, is this working???

by ucespamdump＠gmail.com

Signed up this new account exclusively for CCtech and CCchat. Hopefully its working. Why do this? I had to shut off the other subscription for spam reasons. Allison

6 years, 4 months

Tapestar for DOS

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Hello, Can anyone please point me towards a copy of the Tapestar utility package for DOS? I have already contacted Qualstar and they cannot help. TIA! -Ali

6 years, 4 months

Seeking information on the CSTS Timesharing service

by jfehlinger＠comcast.net

On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 8:42 PM jim stephens via cctalk wrote: > > Does anyone have any information on Infonet, which was a timesharing > which CSC put out? I've got some info that it had a timesharing service > called CSTS and would like info on that. https://web.archive.org/web/20170421223052/https://wiki.cc.gatech.edu/folkl… ------ Jerry Reich has brought to my attention the operating systems written by Computer Science Corporation (CSC) for its Infonet time-sharing network. In the late 1960s, CSC developed CSCX, which was a highly modified EXEC II [*] with time-sharing and multiprogramming capabilities. CSCX later evolved into the CSTS time-sharing system used on the Infonet 1100s throughout the 1970s. Commercial time-sharing networks were widespread during the 1960s and 1970s. ==== [*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_EXEC_II ------ EXEC II is a discontinued operating system developed for the UNIVAC 1107 by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) while under contract to UNIVAC to develop the machine's COBOL compiler. They developed EXEC II because Univac's EXEC I operating system development was late. . . EXEC II is a batch processing operating system that supports a single job stream with concurrent spooling. ==== I have reason to believe that my very first exposure to digital computers (in the spring of 1969, at a high school in northern Delaware taking advantage of a Federal grant to equip a room with some teletype machines and acoustic couplers) was to "Conversational Fortran V" running on a Univac 1108 at Computer Sciences Corporation. Presumably the operating system was CSC's own modified version of Exec II (CSCX) rather than Exec 8, but I believe the Fortran V language processor would have been the same in either case. That taste of high-end timesharing was a luxurious experience, never to be repeated -- the following year, those same teletype machines were connected to an overloaded IBM 1130 at the University of Delaware running BASIC. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED126934.pdf ------ Walzl, F. Neil The Development and Implementation of a District Computer Education Program. Final Report. Newark School District, Del. Nov 75 . . . During the 1968-69 school year, three major activities were conducted. . . Computer time was purchased >from the Philco Ford Company, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and the Computer Sciences Corporation, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. . . ==== https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/why-python-best ------ For you Fortran folks, I need to explain Fortran V. Based on Fortran IV, Fortran V was implemented on Univac 1100-series hardware (and probably other Univac systems such as the 494) by Computer Sciences Corporation in the late 1960s. It extended Fortran to include parameter statements?basically a way to define constants, conditional compilation, and statement functions?basically macros that produced in-line code. In 1970, I went to work for Computer Sciences Corporation working on systems testing of a new timesharing system they were developing called CSTS. While some of my work was done in assembly language, the majority was done in Fortran V. For me, it was the "best scripting language" I had available. (It was also the only language I had available on CSTS itself for a while.) ====

6 years, 4 months

Seeking information on the CSTS Timesharing service

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

Does anyone have any information on Infonet, which was a timesharing which CSC put out?? I've got some info that it had a timesharing service called CSTS and would like info on that. I've got info on the original version of the Pick system which IP was owned by TRW and was called GIM.? The CSTS Infonet service provided access in some way to IGIM, which is in a manual I just obtained. So I want to know if there is any CSTS manuals or documents (ideally) anyone may have. Secondly it looks like rather than IBM mainframes for timeshare, the systems that Infonet shared were Univac 1108s.? So looking for verifying that. Especially if the systems were all Univac was IGIM running on the 1108. The time frame for the manual is 1974.? GIM dates from 69 to 70 from a TRW contract.? Actual product was obviously running in one form in 1974.? There is information that it ran on PDP 11s as well in another form. While searching for information with Google, I found some court proceedings, including a precedent related to RICO charges on individuals in Infonet.? If anyone finds the original indictment, or can get to it on pacer, I'd appreciate a copy to read, or send message, I'll supply the citation.? A better source like Pacer probably will retrieve the original indictment.? I only find a decision which was reversed related to the indictment.? I suspect there would be a lot of history in the indictment around the 1980 ish timeframe of the indictment about how CSC ran Infonet. Short story on what you will find online a lot of spots is a precedent set by the 4th Circuit of Appeals which resolved a technicality about whether individuals and corporations were the same WRT charges.? The ruling that RICO applied to individuals and not corporations was filed by a trial court.? But the appeals court said that the actions if they constituted RICO by individuals could be go back on the corporation they operated in was the precedent. Obviously not a good one for corporations. Thanks, Jim

6 years, 4 months

Is IBM RPG classic?

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

Is it classic enough to ask about on this list? A friend of mine finds himself in the awkward position of being asked to take on some RPG programming, but knows nothing about it. Can anyone here suggest some good resources for a crash course in RPG? Yes, any web search engine will throw up a lot of hits, but I'm hoping someone here can help select the most useful ones.

6 years, 4 months

Zetaco SCSI Controller

by skelly＠bowerandbailey.co.uk

Hi, Would anyone happen to have or know the whereabouts of a technical manual and/or schematics for a Zetaco SCZ-2 controller? Or the same for any other Zetaco SCZ (hoping that they all used the same back-plane presentation :) ) Many thanks Sean (www.datageneral.uk) Bower & Bailey LLP Please don't reply to e-mails purporting to ask for our bank account details to be changed. Always speak to the lawyer acting for you to check any changes to payment arrangements. We will also require independent verification of changes to any bank account to which we are asked to send money. Bower & Bailey LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under registered number OC353093 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, (SRA number 534676). The registered office is at Willow House, 2 Heynes Place, Station Lane, Witney, OX28 4YN at which a full list of members is available for inspection. We use the word 'partner' to refer to a member of Bower & Bailey LLP (or employee of equivalent status). The content of this email (and any attachment) is confidential, may be legally privileged and intended solely for the person or organisation to whom it was addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not copy, distribute, store or take any action in reliance upon it or any attachment. If you have received this email and any attachment in error, please notify the sender by replying by email and then delete the email entirely from your system. Where the content of this email (and any attachment) is personal, or otherwise unconnected with the firm or its business, Bower & Bailey LLP accepts no responsibility or liability for such content. We do not accept service of legal process by email. Whilst Bower & Bailey LLP has anti-virus protection systems installed, we accept no liability for any loss or damage which may be caused by viruses or interception/interruption of this email or any attachments. You should carry out your own virus check before opening any attachment. Personal Information that we obtain or hold about individuals is processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice which is available to view on our website. Offices at: Banbury, Oxford, Swindon and Witney For further information please visit our website: www.bowerandbailey.co.uk

6 years, 4 months

PBX (or something) for modem testing

by brain＠jbrain.com

To continue validating modem functionality, I think it makes sense to set up a closed loop phone system in my lab that will function well enough to allow modems to connect to each other (dial tone, ringing, busy signal, etc.). I know I can probably whip something up with a 9 v battery and a piece of cable with rj11s, but I think that will fall short. That said, I went out to eBay to see if I could source a 2-8 line something to help, and got smacked around with my lack of telephone system knowledge. So, any ideas (or links to eBay auctions) of brands/models/etc. I should focus on? Also, if anyone has any modems lying around gathering dust, I probably should source a few more models. tcpser handles Hayes "+++" spec correctly, but I should probably support TIES as well, to cite one example. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

6 years, 4 months

FS: System/36 Kansas City

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

In case any one is interested.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/retrocomputers/permalink/3042809669082227/ Dave Wade G4UGM & EA7KAE

6 years, 4 months

WANTED: DEC TU56 DECtape drive

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Thomas Moss > Probably a long-shot, but I'm looking for a DECtape drive for my > PDP-8/e. Long shot indeed! DECtape drives are one of the rarest DEC peripheral, and un-surprisingly, one of the most valuable. (A TU56 sold on eBait for $7K back in 2015.) Would a TU55 do, or does it have to be a TU56? (The interface is basically compatible, I think, but I have yet to dig into the details, so I can't say for certain. But I think I recall seeing systems with one or the other, and AFAIK the controllers aren't drive-type specific - the cabling might be, though.) Noel

6 years, 4 months

Looking for a Motorola Universal Data Systems 212A/D manual

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

I ran across this modem (circa 1982) and saved it, but I have no idea on how to control it. Bitsavers doesn't seem to have a manual for it. It's a big, blue plastic box and it looks wonderful. There is an array of 8 lights and 6 buttons; the HS button enables 1200 bps operation, otherwise it is 300 bps. It echoes characters and responds correctly to DataTerminalReady not being asserted, so I think that if I can find the command set it might be functional. It's a little more primitive than my original Hayes 1200 that I first got in 1984. (I'm not expecting a standard command set.) A picture of it can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zWBPimcpZNUch6G28 Thanks, Mike

6 years, 4 months

8 inch floppies

by aek＠bitsavers.org

anyone know what system these floppies are for? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-33-8-034-Floppy-Disks-/184071352445

6 years, 4 months

Mac 3.5" floppies for anyone who wants them

by david＠kdbarto.org

A collection just came to me. These are the original disks, with whatever labels are on them. As a set. First come first served. If you are in San Diego I?ll arrange a swap with you locally. If remote, we can arrange shipping. 1.44MB unless otherwise noted. Copyright years noted so version number might be determined along with what version of Mac it might support. GRAVIS Mac Blackhawk Version 1.0 (2 disk) ClarisWorks 4.0 (6 disks) ClarisWorks Small Business Solutions Pack. Correct Grammar For Mac Version 3.0 (2 disks) APS PowerTools V 1.3.1 Mac ally Port Xpander Driver Program (copyright 1995-1997) Welltris, Spectrum Holobyte (800K disks, S/N 013045, 2 disks) MicroSoft Excel Version 4.0. (800K disks, 7 Disks, copyright 85-92) MicroSoft PowerPoint (800K disks, 4 disks, copyright 87-89) MicroSoft Mail Version 2.0 (800k?, Copyright 85-89) Conflict Catcher 3 (800K 1 disk) dantz Retrospect (2 disks, copyright 97) Suitcase II, (400K disk, S/N 4200-0103685 Copyright 86) Hayden Books - The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh Disk. Contains: Eudora 1.4 Fetch 2.1.1 InterSLIP 1.0 MacTCP 2.2 Stuffit Expander 3.03 TurboGopher 1.07 Nova Development - American Handbook of Business Letters (800k?, Copyright 90) Aladdin Stuffit Lite (800k?, Copyright 87-92) Aladdin Spring Cleaning (Copyright 96) Connectix Ram Doubler (800k?, 1.5.1 hand written on disk, copyright 94) CTSNET Macintosh Internet Signup Since my Father in law as Mac Only, I had no idea where these came from Windows Syquest SCSI installation Diskette 1, copyright 94 Windows 95 Syquest Installation diskette 2 DOS/Windows & OS/2 SCSI installation diskette 3

6 years, 4 months

SMD disk specifications

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I also was searching about a clear SMD specification years ago, I found something in disk documentation from CDC, but doubts remain, because some disks call the interface SMD, some other CMD, never understood the difference... Andrea

6 years, 4 months

SMD disk specifications

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, well maybe my memory has blank spots. I have two CDC Lark Disk modules I would like to revive, they are in good shape, but only one has a cartridge included, and they are not identical. Not sure if the other one could be employed without cartridge. I never found a manual with exact model correspondence, I found years ago a manual for very similar drives. IIRC there was a sort of adapter board between SMD and (xxx blank spot) interface. There was a description of the interface, it was really similar to SMD, but wasn't SMD... Maybe I should check again the Lark model number. Andrea

6 years, 4 months

M906 flip chip boards wanted (2x)

by roelof_klaas＠yahoo.com

Hello everyone,? Can anyone help me to get two M906terminator flip chip boards?? Thanks in advance,?Roland Huisman

6 years, 4 months

SMD disk specifications

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, I?ve been trying to find *detailed* specifications (mainly detailed signal timings) for the SMD disk interface but all I?ve found so far are the interface specifications for individual disks (CDC, Fujitsu, etc). I?ve looked in the usual places (bitsavers mostly) and haven?t found the spec itself. If anyone has any pointers, I?d appreciate it. Thanks. TTFN - Guy

6 years, 4 months

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test-drb