- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Hi All, I got a lovely Televideo 970 terminal from another list-member over the weekend. Aside from some PSU capacitor issues, it needs a little TLC: 1) The EMI filter had gone open-circuit - it's one of those metal can types which is integrated with the IEC power input connector. Are these still obtainable anywhere? It seems like equipment these days just has the filtering directly on the PSU board, rather than as a separate module. I've just bypassed it for testing, but I don't want to leave it like that. 2) I have a faulty back-tab, left shift and return key (return's simply unresponsive, while the other two stick down). Do the keycaps on these terminals simply pull off, or is there some trick to removal? I did some experimental prying, but didn't want to try too hard and risk snapping the switch stem. I don't know if switches are still available, but worst-case I can swap the faulty ones with ones for some of the 'special' keys that I'm extremely unlikely to ever use. cheers Jules

8 years, 4 months

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Sun3 valuations?

by kevin.bowling＠kev009.com

I have some sun3/vme systems Several 3/60 3/260 sparcstation 4/370 SMD disk array for 3/260 The 3/260 and 4/370 have some oddball boards for data (cosys) and video acquisition (Aviv). I also have some spare sparcstation 10s and 20s. I haven't seen sun3 stuff for sale much. Does anyone know approximate valuations for tested systems? Regards, Kevin

8 years, 4 months

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Keyboard "enthusiasts"

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chuck Guzis > Really, is this any worse than the gold bugs scrapping whole systems > for the prospective precious metal content? Well, the latter are presumably in it as a business, whereas it seems these people do it for 'fun'. Now there's an idea: perhaps we could convince them that pulling the wings off flies is a more entertaining hobby? Noel

8 years, 4 months

8
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ISO 9816 small keyboard

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I acquired a copy of CP/M-68K and am trying to pull together the parts for a 9816 to run it. I have Nimitz keyboards, but would like to find its little brother that matches the size of the 9816

8 years, 4 months

5
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Ethernet cable (Was: Sun3 valuations?)

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > The nominal OD of RG-8/U is .. within spec for Ethernet cable. Oh, OK. I was just used to the 10Mb cable we used being slightly larger than the 3Mb cable we used. > Also, Ethernet requires a solid inner conductor (for the tap) while > RG-8/U may come stranded. (Maybe only in some variants, I'm not sure.) As can be seen in the photos, the 3Mb stuff (at least, the stuff we used) was also solid. The diameter of the center was a little smaller on the 3Mb than on the 10Mb; .16mm versus .23mm; not sure if that was just happenstance, or what. Noel

8 years, 4 months

4
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Experimental Ethernet, XGP, etc.

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

A few notes: The experimental Ethernet speed was in fact 2.94 MHz: It's the Alto clock divided by 2. The Alto based printer was called "SLOT" -- Scanning Laser Output Terminal. It was plugged into the Alto backplane and presented itself as a hardware peripheral controlled by microcode (as was the case for all Alto I/O). It was an Alto task, of course. The vampire tap transceiver used RG-8 cable originally. That's before they added the lines around the cable and added additional shielding. The XGP was used at the Stanford AI Lab and was, as mentioned early, a dry process. And it did use a roll of paper.

8 years, 4 months

4
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Apollo Software

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > I[t] just dawned on me that the subject is Apollo the company bought by > HP, not Apollo the spacecraft. Oh well... Actually, that stuff has all been saved, and run under simulators; there's a very comprehensive site here: http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/index.html which will keep anyone entertained for hours. (I have this bit set that at one point there was a 'project history' page, but I don't see it, looking quickly now.) Noel

8 years, 4 months

4
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SCSI Controller Hanging...

by harper＠secureoutcomes.net

Greetings to the List from the Snowy Rocky Mountains. Beautiful clear sunny day here at +9F :) The SCSI controller on the 68K development system (VMEbus) that I have cobbled together occasionally hangs after I reset one of the processor boards (there are four MVME177-005 68060 boards in the VME rack). The hang then happens when my software touches the SCSI drives via the ROM'd 68K/Bug I/O primitives and the hang will not go away even after another reset until I cycle power. I have never before dealt with SCSI as a programmer - does this sound like something is configured incorrectly? There is not much to configure. I point out that I am not certain that I have the termination resistors correct. Thoughts? I appreciate any advice. Regards, Jack Evergreen Colorado ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Harper, President Secure Outcomes Inc 2942 Evergreen Parkway, Suite 300 Evergreen, Colorado 80439 USA 303.670.8375 303.670.3750 (fax) http://www.secureoutcomes.net for Product Info.

8 years, 4 months

4
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SCSI

by harper＠secureoutcomes.net

Jim - I appreciate the great SCSI information. The hang is not at all frequent. I do resets many times during a programming session as my "marvelous" code hangs or otherwise goes crazy and into thew weeds :) and I only see a SCSI hang every few days. Regards, Jack At 10:28 AM 1/23/2018, jim stephens wrote: >Scsi controllers are very sensitive to resets >and getting out of step with the state of the bus the initiators they control. > >Scsi can have multiple initiators, and you may >of course have a system which acts as a target, >but i'm guessing since you said drives, you have >a pretty common setup, a system with drives >attached, where the scsi device on your system is the initiator. > >One thing that throws off scsi is to do a reset >which comes from somewhere the initiator doesn't >know about.? many are not friendly when that >happens and just end up hung up.? Reset tells >all the devices to stand down, and it is >expected that an enumeration of the bus will >take place by all the initiator(s). > >That may have happened if you reset your other >processors or did something which affected the >initiator.? And the resets on most systems >usually hit all components, so I'd be surprised >if only the one processor was affected. > >thanks >Jim ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Harper, President Secure Outcomes Inc 2942 Evergreen Parkway, Suite 300 Evergreen, Colorado 80439 USA 303.670.8375 303.670.3750 (fax) http://www.secureoutcomes.net for Product Info.

8 years, 4 months

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SCSI Controller Hanging...

by harper＠secureoutcomes.net

Hello Bill - Yes, there are two 4GB (32-bit addressing) SCSI drives on the system and they do have different drive numbers. I will double check the SCSI termination resistor things. Motorola documentation is very sparse on this - "attach the termination resistor" - nothing on exactly where or what the resistor thing looks like. I am far stronger in software than hardware. I appreciate the adive. Regards, Jack Evergreen, Colorado At 09:47 AM 1/23/2018, william degnan wrote: >On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 11:33 AM, Jack Harper >via cctalk <<mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > >Greetings to the List from the Snowy Rocky Mountains. > >Beautiful clear sunny day here at +9F :) > >The SCSI controller on the 68K development >system (VMEbus) that I have cobbled together >occasionally hangs after I reset one of the >processor boards (there are four MVME177-005 68060 boards in the VME rack). > >The hang then happens when my software touches >the SCSI drives via the ROM'd 68K/Bug I/O >primitives and the hang will not go away even >after another reset until I cycle power. > >I have never before dealt with SCSI as a >programmer - does this sound like something is configured incorrectly? > >There is not much to configure. > >I point out that I am not certain that I have >the termination resistors correct. > > >Thoughts? > >I appreciate any advice. > > >Regards, > >Jack >Evergreen Colorado > > > >Jack, >Yes, two things that I'd be checking >1) Make sure all drives are assigned a different number >2) Make sure you have termination somewhere. > >Depending on the OS there are commands to >display the scsi devices attached, as the OS sees them. > >Bill? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Harper, President Secure Outcomes Inc 2942 Evergreen Parkway, Suite 300 Evergreen, Colorado 80439 USA 303.670.8375 303.670.3750 (fax) http://www.secureoutcomes.net for Product Info.

8 years, 4 months

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Apollo Software

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Daniel Seagraves > The Saturn software, which is what actually flew from Earth to the > moon, was lost. You mean the Instrumentation Unit on top of the S-IVB stage? That was discarded when the S-IVB and CSM separated shortly after leaving Earth orbit (about 6 hours after launch), so I'm not sure it's accurate to say it's "what actually flew from Earth to the moon". Yes, it put the CSM on the injection orbit, but... A very cool computer (the first one to have all its critical components triplicated for reliabilty, I gather), and yes, it would be nice to have its software too. Noel

8 years, 4 months

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VCF PNW 2018 - less than three weeks away!

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

Come join us in Seattle on February 10th and 11th for the first VCF PNW. We have 20 exhibits, six speakers, and a panel discussion planned. There will be a consignment area for buying and selling vintage gear, and of course there is an entire museum (Living Computers:Museum+Labs) to check out as well. The show is free with museum admission. More information can be found at https://goo.gl/AUoLU2 . You can also email questions to me. And lastly, we need your help - spread the word! Thanks, Mike

8 years, 4 months

2
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MY COMPUTER LIKES ME when i speak in BASIC.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I scanned a nice little booklet I found in my fathers stuff. "MY COMPUTER LIKES ME when i speak in BASIC" by Bob Albrecht. http://www.datormuseum.se/documentation-software/my-computer-likes If someone feel like they can straighten it up, please do! I didn't feel like ripping it apart to have it scanned so it was troublesome to scan it perfectly in my page scanner.

8 years, 4 months

5
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Sun3 valuations?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So did we ever get an answer to the original question (the value of a Sun3)? All I saw was 'you'd have to pay to recycle them'. > From: Grant Taylor >> Before that, if you were lucky enough to be at Stanford, MIT, or CMU, >> you could use the Dover and Altos that were part of Xerox's University >> Grant Program. > What made the Dover and Altos special in this context? Sorry, I don't understand the question. (I assume you're not simply asking 'what made the Dover and Altos special'.) Which context? (As in 'what's the connection between the Sun3 query, and Dovers and Altos'? If so, I think it was just thread drift via the laser printers.) > This is the 2nd time I've heard about 3 Mbps Ethernet. That's the 'original' Ethernet; PARC did the 3Mbit one first, and the 10 Mbit one came along quite a few years later. I'm trying to remember what kind of cable it used; IIRC it was black coax, with a woven shield (i.e. not solid like CATV), not quite as large in diameter as the yellow 10Mbit stuff. To connect up to it, one clamped on a connector thingy, which had a threaded hole in it over the cable; one then screwed in a cylindrical cutter which made a hole through the shield, and one then screwed in a transceiver (which was a box about 2"x2"x4", IIRC). Hopefully someone has a picture somewhere? Noel

8 years, 4 months

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Sun3 valuations?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> I just found a piece, I'll put up a photo. Here ya go: http://gunkies.org/wiki/File:3MegEthernetCable.jpg http://gunkies.org/wiki/File:10MegEthernetCable.jpg I should have put a ruler in, for scale. The 3M is about 2/3 of the thickness of the 10M. The center conductor is about 2mm - pretty heavy! > From: Guy Sotomayor Jr > The XGP printed on roll paper. It was a laser type process Plain paper? Well, my memory of it being thermal paper could easily be wrong; it's been a _long_ time, and I didn't use it much. Noel

8 years, 4 months

3
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Sun3 valuations?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Grant Taylor > What makes the copies of papers printed on them special? Well, the Dover was the first device (that I know of) that could print _very_ high-quality graphical/multi-font output, and on ordinary paper. It was also pretty darned fast - a couple of seconds per sheet, IIRC. The whole package just blew us all away (I was a MIT when we got ours). There was a prior device (from quite a few years before) called a 'Xerox Graphics Printer', but i) IIRC it printed on thermal paper (think poor-quality thermal fax paper); ii) the resolution was nothing like as high as that of the Dover (which was, IIRC, in the 100's of DPIs - which it needed to produce the very-high quality printout with type-faces), and iii) it was quite slow. What they did with the Dover was take a high-end Xerox copier (one of the things the size of a couple of desks),and rip out the optical front end (which copied an image of the page being copied, onto the drum), and replaced it with a scanning laser that was fed an amplitude-controlling bit-stream >from an interface card in the Alto. >> That's the 'original' Ethernet; PARC did the 3Mbit one first, and the >> 10 Mbit one came along quite a few years later. > I assume this has something to do with the Digital / Intel / Xerox as > in the DIX connector. Right, a couple of years later Xerox, DEC and Intel did a consortium to make Ethernet widely available, and produced the 10Mbit version. Technically, it was little different from the 3MBit version. The low-level packet format was different (because of the higher speed, and larger maximum size), and the addresses used the later PARC thinking (UID's for interfaces), but those were not major changes. >> I'm trying to remember what kind of cable it used > That sounds like typical Radio Grade cable. Yeah, I just found a piece, I'll put up a photo. > I'm not quite sure what you mean by "solid like CATV". The CATV that used a heavy foil ground layer. > That sounds like a description of what I've heard called a "Vampire > Tap". My understanding is that's the poor way to connect to (what is > effectively) the Ethernet bus. Vampire taps worked fine on 3MB Ethernet. As the speeds went up, less so. > I suspect that Wikipedia's article on 10Base5 has some decent pictures: Nothing of the 3MB, and it doesn't show how the clamp-on connector and vampire worked. Noel

8 years, 4 months

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Help identifying IC

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I picked up this little toy at VCF West last summer: https://1drv.ms/i/s!Aqb36sqnCIfMouYd0HV0ZThE3FnE_Q As far as I can tell, it's supposed to be a clock and I assume it was a kit -- this one was definitely hand-assembled.? It's powered by two AA's (apparently, there are no markings), has a 4 digit LED display, and at the moment it does not work at all. Can't find anything about this item at all.? At the moment I'm curious what the 28-pin IC at the top is -- there are no markings of any kind anywhere on the chip.? It has an interesting construction -- blue plastic on both sides with a metal cap over the die.? The two other ICs are RCA 3081 and RCA 3082 which are simply transistor arrays for driving the 4-digit LED display.? I assume the 28-pin IC is a simple microcontroller with built-in ROM, or perhaps it's a device specifically designed to run a digital clock.? Whatever it is, I'd love to know what it does so I can debug this thing and possibly source a replacement. I realize this is not a lot of information to go on, but on the off-chance someone's seen something like this before I figured I'd give it a go... Thanks, Josh

8 years, 4 months

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question on hp9000/310

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Hello friends, I am totally ignorant about hp9000 machines. I am considering acquiring this machine for fun and learning about the 9000. It has a 9153A and 9134D with other accessories. The system currently boots up to BASIC 4.0 I have read that this machine can also support HP/UX. Can anyone advise if HP/UX can be installed on such a machine? Perhaps using internal drive for HP/UX and the external hard drive to boot to BASIC? Both hard drives have BASIC 4.0 installed. What would be involved to install HP/UX? Thanks very much Eugene

8 years, 4 months

3
2
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3420 tape drive

by npmungai＠gmail.com

Hey. Am looking for the above tape to read and covert some old tapes from ebcidic to ASCII format. How can I get the tapes in Kenya. Regards Paul Njau

8 years, 4 months

2
1
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ISO: TIPL757A transistor or equivalent

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- I'm in the middle of repairing a console for a Symbolics 3640. This uses the earlier Phillips-based monitor and it employs a TIPL757A transistor in the deflection circuit. The one in mine is toast and I haven't been able to find a suitable replacement. The datasheet (or at least a page of it) is here: http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/108034/TI/TIPL757.html The base current rating seems to be important in this application; I tried replacing it with a BUX48 (which meets the other specs but only has a 4A continuous base current rating) and it blew in a few minutes. I haven't found a source of 757As, and I haven't found another TO-3 transistor that matches its specifications. If anyone's sitting on a pile of these, knows a good source for them, or knows of a transistor to substitute, please let me know. Thanks! Josh

8 years, 4 months

1
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What's this machine?

by anders.k.nelson＠gmail.com

Bouncing from the vintage microcontrollers Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/groups/1233645553343772?view=permalink&id=1867447333… Can anyone help identify this machine?: https://twitter.com/StarringTheComp/status/955244079163564032 =] -- Anders Nelson +1 (517) 775-6129 www.erogear.com

8 years, 4 months

1
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GT-40 etc.

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > vt11 is integrated into the 11/05 backplane on the gt40 Right (although I had forgotten that); I listed the 11/05 separately since I do have data on how much they've been going for - in an attempt to roughly value the lot. The GT40, however, no idea. (I recall one was for sale on eBay for many thousands, but I don't know if that was ever sold, and how much for.) Noel

8 years, 4 months

8
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Adaptec 1522A SCSI Support (was re: New TestFDC Results Registry)

by silent700＠gmail.com

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 6:58 PM, Adrian Graham via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > I could, but I guess by the time I?ve sourced a replacement I might as well have bought an AHA-1522A instead, I have a couple of scouts out looking for them as we speak :) The 1522A is a full pass for TESTFDC. Has anyone using one of these cards made use of the SCSI function? It has a Centronics 50 connector, which isn't terribly useful unless you've got the right cable, but if you're building an all-in-one imaging machine, it might be handy to have SCSI capability as well. It seems the driver hasn't been in Linux for quite a few versions. Not sure about the BSDs.

8 years, 4 months

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Even old accounting software needs love and rescuing from oblivion

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

Hi folks, On the weekend I rescued some old software. It gave me an excuse to get my first micro out of its box and stretch its legs. Accounting packages hardly set the world alight but being a Dick Smith release for the System 80, it does have its place in Australasian computer history. Anyway, if anyone is interested, here is the URL. http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2018-01-12-rescuing-more-dick-smit… Terry (Tez)

8 years, 4 months

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A walk through of my legendary warehouse sale in the 1990s.

by innfoclassics＠gmail.com

This is a digitized HI8 tape of a walk through of an early Warehouse Sale I ran from 1995 to 1998. There is a small sections of collectable computers in the middle of the tape with a few others scattered through the sale. Fond memories and hard to believe it was 22 years ago. https://youtu.be/8Pme8mZU-Xc -- Paxton Hoag Astoria, OR USA <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

8 years, 4 months

4
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OT - Has anyone seen / have a copy of computer lore story about a DC consolidation?

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

Sorry for the off topic post. I'm hoping that someone here might have seen a (what I consider to be) a computer lore type story about a contractor that was brought in part way through a project to consolidate three DCs into one. - In the end he managed to do it early and under budget. The kicker is that they quite literally physically moved and re-connected everything the way that it was. Meaning that there were still WAN circuits (local only of course) between equipment that was previously in different DCs. I would like to find a copy of this story and save it in my archive. But I've not been able to do so. Thus I'm asking a wider audience to see if anyone might be able to give me a pointer. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

8 years, 4 months

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Power plugs and cables for the IBM 3420

by curiousmarc3＠gmail.com

Can any of you identify which power plugs models these are. They are on my IBM 3420 tapes and connect to the IBM 3803 controller, 3 phase: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ftfpg0owdvb173u/IMG_5066.JPG?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/uyzpwcp6sjkvrpf/IMG_5067.JPG?dl=0 These are for the large vacuum column tapes seen in this video here: https://youtu.be/yaPVkw8dnaI And if anyone knows where to get these power cables... Marc

8 years, 4 months

2
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Early 12-inch WORM disk drives and media

by t.gardner＠computer.org

I'm pulling together a timeline of optical computer data storage and having fun with the early ones. A copy of Rothchild's Optical Memory Report, From the early 80's would be appreciated - hardcopies are at the CHM so maybe I'll have to drive over there I'm told by a reliable source and am trying to confirm that Philips and Toshiba were first circa 1980 so can anyone identify and provide any details about any 12-inch WORM disk drives and media that were shipped by either around 1980. FWIW the earliest WORM I can identify is the OSI Laserdrive 1200 which shipped in 1983. OSI was a joint venture of Philips and CDC and in turn a successor to their earlier joint ventures, Optical Media Laboratory in Holland and Optical Peripherals Laboratory in Colorado. So the Laserdrive might be a rebadged or enhanced version of the earlier Philips product. I have no clue as to any early Toshiba WORM FWIW, in 1981 Matsushita demonstrated of a 200 mm diameter WORM disk with a capacity of 15,000 still pictures but this wasn't a data disk. Not clear when and if it shipped as a product. [source: http://www.wtec.org/loyola/opto/ad_matsu.htm ] There is also an indication that Thompson CF also had an optical data storage system circa 1981 but I can find nothing about it. Any recollections and all literature would be appreciated. Tom

8 years, 4 months

1
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GT-40 etc.

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Kyle Owen > A tenth the price of the Twiggy Lisa makes that auction look almost > affordable! Final price was $5600. Yeah, whoever bought that got, IMO, a pretty good deal (as I predicted). It's a fair amount of money, but they got a _ton_ of stuff (probably literally :-). I mean, look what's included (with rough guesses as the value): $600 H960 rack $600 H960 rack $400 RK05 drive $600? RK03 drive $700? RK11-C controller $2000 PDP-8/F $2000 PDP-11/05 $?? GT40 display hardware $400 BA11-F with ?? inside %? Teletype ------ $7300 Some of the things are so rare (e.g. the RK03 and RK11-C) I don't have any comparables (RK11-D's go for $500 or so, FWTW); and on the GT40 I have no idea whatsoever. (This one doesn't have the usual GT40 display, but a rack-mounted VRxx?) Still, it's pretty clear that whoever bought this got a deal. And I haven't even included the packs ($30 each, another $900 or so), all the Grass analog gear, etc, etc. Noel

8 years, 4 months

2
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New TestFDC Results Registry

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jonathan > if someone wants to sticky this (here or in other forums), I think this > would be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to use ImageDisk on > non-PC formats. How about someone doing an ImageDisk page on the Computer History Wiki; we could include an 'External link' to the new registry (and also the original one, etc). Noel

8 years, 4 months

1
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GT-40 etc.

by aek＠bitsavers.org

this is going to go for an insane amt of money https://www.ebay.com/itm/232628720694

8 years, 4 months

7
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Yet More S-100 stuff from Sellam's collection listed for sale

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

Hello again, Folks! I've listed yet another batch of S-100 goodies: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?61192-Sellam-s-S-100-Hardware-Sof… The latest batch includes a new Processor Technology kit, a BYT-8 front panel, a Commodore PET to S-100 interface board, a couple Wameco backplanes, a gaggle of Cromemco boards, and much more. Thanks! Sellam

8 years, 4 months

2
1
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Reviving ARPAnet

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Lars Brinkhoff > - Multics NCP has not been located. Really? It wasn't in the code dump at MIT? > - Unix? For V6 NCP, we have several versions: http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=SRI-NOSC http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=BBN-V6 (The latter includes NCP as well as TCP/IP.) > - VMS? I'm not sure a VMS machine was ever on the NCP ARPANet? Hmm, looking at a 'Hosts' table from 3-Mar-82 (NCP was only turned off in January of '83), I see two machines with "xxx-VMS"names, and directly connected to IMPs, _but_ no OS is given. So maybe they were front-ended somehow? > Does anyone have any host tables between 1975 and 1981? There's a July '77 one at the end of this: http://www.walden-family.com/dave/archive/bbn-tip-man.txt and a January '79 copy of the MIT-SAIL one at the end here: https://tools.ietf.org/rfc/rfc752.txt Starting around '82, they are more common: stick a phrase from the header of the above into the "this exact word or phrase" box in Google's Advanced Search, and you get things like this: http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/BB-H137D-BM/06/new-system/hstnam.txt.html https://trac.common-lisp.net/mit-cadr/export/274/trunk/lisp/chaos/hosts.text Noel

8 years, 4 months

9
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New TestFDC Results Registry

by systems.glitch＠gmail.com

I'd been trying to reach Dave Dunfield with new TestFDC results since apparently August with no results. So, I wrote a new TestFDC registry into my site: https://services.theglitchworks.net/ng/testfdc_results This registry currently includes Dave's last registry update from 2007. There's now a form for entering your results, you can find it as a link >from the registry, or here: https://services.theglitchworks.net/ng/testfdc_results/new Result submissions have to be manually approved currently so that the registry doesn't get spammed. Text export forthcoming. Any suggestions welcome! Moderators, if someone wants to sticky this (here or in other forums), I think this would be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to use ImageDisk on non-PC formats. Thanks, Jonathan

8 years, 4 months

6
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Reviving ARPAnet

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Warner Losh > I'm curious: does it inter-operate with modern TCP/IP implementations? This just a guess, but 'sort of'? It _is_ TCP/IPv4, so it's got compatible headers, but I don't know if other parts have changed enough to make it not work. E.g. it probably only supports class A addresses, for instance, which is going to influence the code for picking the first-hop router. Also, the only driver is, IIRC, for an ARPANET interface. Noel

8 years, 4 months

4
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IP address classes vs CIDR (was Re: Reviving ARPAnet)

by spacewar＠gmail.com

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 10:39 AM, Grant Taylor via cctalk < cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > I was not aware that there was code that supported /only/ Class A (/8) > addresses and /not/ Class B (/16) or Class C (/24) addresses. > > I /thought/ that everything was either classful (as in supports all three > classes: A, B, and C) or classless (as in supports CIDR). > Years ago I added a configurable "bozo-arp" feature to the Telebit NetBlazer router, which would respond to ARP requests for non-local addresses and reply with the router's MAC address (on that interface), specifically in order to make classful-only hosts work on a CIDR network. Later someone paid me to write a NetBSD daemon ("anyipd") to do the same thing, though for an entirely different reason. Recently I've needed that functionality on Linux, as I have multiple old systems that only understand classful, including the AT&T UnixPC (7300 or 3B1). I suppose I should rewrite and open-source it.

8 years, 4 months

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Reviving ARPAnet

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Grant Taylor >> It is TCP/IPv4, so it's got compatible headers > Are you referring to the 802.3 Ethernet (vs Ethernet II) frame type No, I meant the IP and TCP headers. Those are end-end; the Ethernet stuff is just a local wrapping, and can be substituted. > I was not aware that there was code that supported /only/ Class A (/8) > addresses and /not/ Class B (/16) or Class C (/24) addresses. > I /thought/ that everything was either classful (as in supports all > three classes: A, B, and C) or classless (as in supports CIDR). > Is my networking history missing something else? Yes. There was a stage before A/B/C. See RFC-760. > Please clarify ... what you mean by ARPANET interface? Are you > referring to host specific hardware that was used to communicate > with an IMP? Basically, yes. The ARPANET supported several different kinds of interfaces between the IMPs (the switching nodes in the ARPANET) and hosts, but the 'usual' one was either 'Local Host' (LH) or 'Distant Host' (DH) which were _basically_ identical except at the very lowest level - LH was TTL, and DH was differential pair. Those interfaces were a custom bit-serial thing with a handshake (with "there's-your-bit", "ready-for-next-bit" lines, etc); see BBN Report #1822: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/bbn/imp/BBN1822_Jan1976.pdf So the "ARPANET interface" in the host is a piece of custom hardware (some were DMA; I also used one which was interrupt per byte) which went on the host, which talked 1822 (as it was called), of either the DH or LH physical form. (There was also an Host/IMP interface called VDH, but that used a modem, and a _lot_of software; see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Network_Control_Program#Layer_locations for a bit more about it.) > Do the necessary emulators support the ARPANET interface? Dunno, but they shouldn't be too hard to add. The real problem is going to be 'what do you hook the simulated ARPANET interfaces up to, and how'? I know they have IMP code running in simulators: http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/pipermail/simh/2013-November/007672.html but I dunno how one would hook _that_ simulation up to a simulated host running a simulated ARPANET interface. Easier, to get this old TCP/IP running, might be to write a Unix V6 driver for an Ethernet card (one the simulators do support - I know Ersatz-11 does the Interlan NI1010A/2010A, which is nice and simple) and write an Ethernet network interface module for that TCP, which talks to said driver; i.e. just replace the ARPANET interface stuff completely. Noel

8 years, 4 months

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help id a chip

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Can someone tell me what chip this is? http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Objects/P1010114.JPG http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Objects/P1010093.JPG http://vintagecomputer.net/pictures/2017/Objects/P1010094.JPG (note ..94/94 show the item in a sealed in storage material) the underside consists of 4 sets of 12 pins plus the corner 3 pins, as shown on the top of the chip. thanks

8 years, 4 months

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DL10 documentation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Lars Brinkhoff > Richard Cornwell wants to implement DL10 for his KA10/KI10 simulator, > but he doesn't have any documentation for it. Any leads? Well.... The "decsystem10 System Reference Manual (DEC-10-XSRMA-A-D) - available online: http://bitsavers.org/www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/pdf/DEC-10-XSRMA-A-D%20D… has a definition for the -10 side of the interface on pages C-21 and following (page 365 of the PDF). It just specifies the I/O instructions and bits, there's no description of how it works. Still, that will help understand code that uses it; the complete ITS code is available. I couldn't find anything on the PDP-11 side of the interface; ITS' IOELEV > does define a "DLXCSR", and the bits in it, but ... it seems to be a memory location, not a register? The DL10 was used in two DEC system products, the DC76 Asynchronous Communication System, and the DN87 and DN87S Universal Communication System Front Ends. I couldn't find any documentation on the former, but complete prints for the latter are available: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp10/periph/MP00068_DN87_Universal_Comm_S… http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp10/periph/MP00109_DN87S_Universal_Comm_… It includes a complete set of prints for the DL10. From this, and also from: http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/bb-d549g-sb/01/boot11.mem.html it appears that the PDP-11's connected to the DL10 have a special console which has a cable which goes to the DL10 which allows the PDP-10 to start and stop the PDP-11; the PDP-11's UNIBUS runs into the DL10 and is plugged into the DL10. Anyway, it's going to be some hard work to create a DL10 programming manual >from those dribs and drabs, but there is enough info there that it can be done. Noel

8 years, 4 months

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Convergent AWS machines (formerly Sold on eBay: Convergent Technologies S/50 a.k.a. Unix PC, AT&T 3B1 Unix Workstation)

by microtechdart＠gmail.com

Alan, my apologies for the confusion here. The email subject still said S/50, but I believe we had switched topics mid-thread. On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 6:16 AM, dwight <dkelvey at hotmail.com> wrote: > Years ago, we used one of the Convergent machines. I recall playing rats > on it. It had a green screen. It was a 8086 processor and had some > Multibus slots in it. > I was replying to Dwight with a link to my AWS machine when Dominique chipped in with the Burrows comment. I believe that Dominique was referring to my AWS that I show at http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/2017/03/convergent-technolog ies-workstation.html And I agree with you wholeheartedly on your points. They look nothing alike, and are based on totally different processors. |Alan Perry via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> | |As I mentioned elsewhere, I worked on software for them at Burroughs ('86-'89). I |picked up a bunch of B25 stuff in '03, but I could never find any software for |them. In retrospect, I wish that I has stashed away B25 (and B1000 (I was one |of the last people in the office supporting software onthe B1000)) stuff, rather |than return everything, when I left the company. | |alan That's very cool that you worked on the software. And, yes, Alan, agreed about wishing to keep a few of them around...But, I may be able to get the one that I have running soon. I'll be working on it on and off this year. I plan on trying trying to restore the Convergent CTOS on this, rather than the Burroughs BTOS, at least at first anyway... I'll keep you posted here on my progress on that. Thanks, all! Best, -AJ On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 11:02 AM, Alan Perry via cctech < cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Are you sure? > > The B20, B21, B22 looked like this - http://www.computerhistory.org > /collections/catalog/102662660 - and nothing like the 3B1 or the S/50. > The B25 and subsequent models (which are often referred to as B20s) are > modular systems that are box-shaped and got wider as "slices" were added. > The B20s were x86-based and the 3B1 (and presumably the CT S/50) was > 68k-based. > > alan > > > On 1/17/18 2:41 AM, Dominique Carlier via cctech wrote: > >> It's interesting, I had exactly the same machine a long time ago, but >> with a different label. It was a Burroughs B20 distributed by Unisys >> >> Dominique >> >> On 17/01/2018 06:45, AJ Palmgren via cctalk wrote: >> >>> Did it happen to be one of these older-style Convergent AWS machines? >>> >>> http://mightyframe.blogspot.com/2017/03/convergent-technolog >>> ies-workstation.html >>> >>> >>> > -

8 years, 4 months

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Sold on eBay: Convergent Technologies S/50 a.k.a. Unix PC, AT&T 3B1 Unix Workstation

by microtechdart＠gmail.com

I'm just wondering if anybody here did (or knows who) bought this one. http://ebay.to/2DaRr13 Even though these were all manufactured by Convergent Technologies, this one is actually BRANDED by Convergent, as their model S/50. And there's software included here. I tried to buy myself, but just missed it. I'd really like to connect with the buyer here, to see if we can do a more expansive documentation project on this machine, as well as an archival of the software that was included. As far as I know, this is the only Convergent S/50 I've ever seen that has survived, especially with all the CONVERGENT software and manuals (vs the AT&T ones)! Thanks! -AJ http://MightyFrame.com

8 years, 4 months

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Malware history was: Spectre & Meltdown

by rlloken＠telus.net

On Tue, 16 Jan 2018, David C. Jenner via cctalk wrote: > This isn't malware, but back in 1962 when I was taking a college class in > assembly language programming for the IBM 709, my innocence led to the > following. We might as well all contribute. Back in college in 1969 we would submit our Fortran IV assignments on punched card of course. One day I got back junk and discovered that it was not my card deck under the account ID card so I went through the pile of returned decks and printouts and found that another student had swiped my deck and put his name on top so I took back the deck and shuffled his deck well before returning his ID card to the top and resubmitting it. I never heard a thing about that episode but I sometimes wonder what his next output looked like. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we wear, Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!" ** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black

8 years, 4 months

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Passing of a valued member

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

To the list: It is with deep personal sadness that I write that young list member Marc Grenville-Cleave, of Dorset UK, has passed away. He was known personally to several list members. I did not have the pleasure of meeting him in person but as he was a longtime friend I wanted to write a brief celebration of his life and interests. Most relevant to this list, Marc was an avid DEC collector and PDP-11 enthusiast and rescuer: http://marc.cleave.me.uk//pdp11/index.htm He was also the proud owner of a VAX-11/750, among other computers: http://marc.cleave.me.uk/collection.htm He was self-taught in many skills, including electronics, and had natural gifts as an engineer. Around the age of 14 he designed an 8-bit TTL CPU, which he called "Titan". You can read more here: http://marc.cleave.me.uk/cpu/ & https://github.com/bootnecklad/Titan-Specifications The machine was wire-wrapped and soldered with his trademark meticulous care, as you can see from the photos on the first site linked. Here is a picture of Marc with some of his favourite machines (Titan in the background): http://i.imgur.com/CCinlCS.jpeg Many people knew him on irc, as "bootnecklad" or "bnl", in the #classiccmp Freenode channel and elsewhere. His sense of humour was unique, sparkling and irreverent. Aside from his electronics and retrocomputing interests, he restored his beloved Range Rover Classic over a long period and finally got it roadworthy in 2016. He was a perfectionist in this project as in everything else. Most recently Marc was a Electronic and Computer Engineering student at the University of Nottingham. He will be painfully missed by very many people. --Toby

8 years, 4 months

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Weird thing ID (core stack?)

by toby＠telegraphics.com.au

Hi, An acquiantance was wondering about more details on this part: https://imgur.com/a/p1GQ2 It seems to be a core memory stack? But of what type? CDC? Any info appreciated. --Toby

8 years, 4 months

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Reviving ARPAnet

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Charles Anthony > it was shipped has an "unbundled" product. Ah. I assumed that what had happened was that the set of source files at MIT was just what was in the 'last release', and the NCP code had been discarded by then. I wonder if it's on a backup tape that MIT retained, somewhere? So now I'm curious - weren't many other pieces of important software similarly "unbundled", and if so, were those missing too? Noel

8 years, 4 months

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AT&T UNIX PC 7300 (3b1) disassembly video

by microtechdart＠gmail.com

While I'm thinking about it, for any/all who might be interested, just last week, I created a step-by-step video for disassembling a UNIX PC 7300 (with a few comments/comparisons for the 3b1) https://youtu.be/vYKS-jOdcsQ I've always found them tricky to work on with the way they are packed together, so I hope this could help others who might want to take a crack at a repair/restoration (or, heaven forbid...a "part-out") -- Thanks, AJ http://MightyFrame.com http://QICreader.com http://UnixPC.blogspot.com

8 years, 4 months

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Reviving ARPAnet

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Phil Budne > I asked around for v6 Unix with "NCP" code when the IMP code was > resurected, but never found it.... Yeah, that one was retrieved only recently, when Chuck managed to read an old dump tape I had of the MIT-CSR PWB1 Unix PDP-11. We didn't run NCP on that machine, but I had squirreled away that code (and the BBN code) on it (in case we ever had any use for it). Noel

8 years, 4 months

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HP 2108A key

by Tim＠Rikers.org

On 09/21/2017 08:52 AM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > On Thu, 21 Sep 2017, Mike Loewen via cctalk wrote: >> ? Mike Thompson at the RICM is going to look for a number on the key >> for their 2108A, this weekend. > > Ask if he can snap a few good close-up pictures of it.? While > measurement from a picture isn't reliable, it doesn't have to be, if the > picture is clear enough to decide whether a given cut is a 2 cut or a 3 > cut. > Did this get resolved? I have an HP-2108A with key as pictured here: https://rikers.org/gallery/hardware-hp2108a/20050415_132446

8 years, 4 months

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Reviving ARPAnet

by lars＠nocrew.org

Hello, What software, hardware, simulators, emulators, etc are there that could run ARPAnet today? - ITS has support for NCP, but I don't know if it works. - There's source code for the IMP. - TENEX seems ok at a quick glance. - WAITS, likewise. - Multics NCP has not been located. - Unix? - IBM mainframes? - NOS? - VMS? Does anyone have any host tables between 1975 and 1981? Classic regards, Lars Brinkhoff

8 years, 4 months

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Spectre & Meltdown

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I wrote about Spectre and Meltdown recently: INTEL took its time to inform the world! Did it inform the world back in earlier days about potential flaws? Not to blame INTEL only: What about Zilog, etc.? Or did pre-Internet era protect us computer-classic users? What about running emulation software as I?ve been doing with ADAM? Happy computing! Murray J

8 years, 4 months

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