Hi, gang,
FYI: I'm in the process of converting a 1991 vintage Data I/O device wallchart to spreadsheet format. Once done, it will provide the family & pinout codes for just about every device Data I/O was supporting at that time. Said codes are necessary when using older programming equipment, such as the 19, 29, and 212 families.
The file will be made available in Quattro Pro spreadsheet and .PDF formats, if all goes well, and will be stashed on my FTP site.
I'll post an additional note when its ready. It's going to take at least a month or so, as there's a -ton- of raw data in the thing (I'm working on a little each day). It will be sorted by Manufacturer, Device part number, Package, and F/P code.
No charge... I'm doing this because I know a lot of people have the old programmers, and I hate to see good equipment go idle simply because the manufacturer no longer supports it. Besides, this is something I'd love to see if I were still using a 29 or something similar.
Keep the peace(es).
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
ARS KC7GR (Formerly WD6EOS) since 12-77 -- kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" (Red Green, aka Steve Smith)
Greetings:
We're wrestling with Aztec C-86 3.40a for MS-DOS (1986)
and have no docs; we'd very much appreciate a description
of command line args and switches for the various tools
(if anyone can still find this info), especially the
linker 'ln.exe'.
We've compiled objects and libraries for a version of KA9Q
specifically modified for a newer version of Aztec C
(we needed to remove function prototypes and do other
workarounds) but the linker chokes on backward references
to unresolved symbols. Reordering the objects in libraries
is not feasable as a workaround since that would create another
set of backward references. There must be a way to get the linker
to work properly on its two passes...
All replies much appreciated.
Michael Grigoni
Cybertheque Museum
(msg _at_ cybertheque _dot_ org)
I think as long as
the cast is made from an existing roller then a bunch of them can be
turned out in a short period of time.
---
Wax casts are for one-shot use. That's why they're wax..
Fancier casts would need to be two-piece so you can get the part out.
But, a two-piece would leave a seam.
d
Hello Jonathan,
I was doing some extensive surfing regarding SEMs, and I happened upon a message that you posted regarding an ISI-WB-6 SEM/EDX that you were giving away, as it was taking up space in the hallway. Of course, the message was posted March 9 of this year (my birthday, but that would be true for approximately 1/356.25 of the earth's population). But I just have to ask:
Is that SEM still blocking your hallway, or did somebody mercifully relieve you of it? If not, and you still would like it to find a new home, I would find that a most tantalizing prospect (I wonder how much an interstate transport permit would be for an X-ray source to haul it to...California).
I hope that the weather isn't too miserable in Ohio these days (I used to live in Wisconsin, so I know), and have a great weekend!
Take care,
Steve Schaut
> I have used Freeman machinable wax to make molds with good results.
Would you like to try some experiments? I have some Apple (actually 3M) roller shafts
and some from Wangtek 60meg 1/4" drives that I have cleaned that I could send out. I
did measure the OD before removing the goo, of course..
Hi,
I am looking for a 22-pin PCMCIA cable for my Sundance/Applied Transputer
Technology
PCMCIA transputer card. The current cable that it comes with is not
compatible with
the transputer boards I currently own. Here is a picture of the card
itself:
http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/smt104.htm
The cable needs to connect to the card itself. I need at least 17 wires
>from the 22
coming from the cable. Here is a picture of the PCMCIA side of the cable:
http://www.thesupplynet.com/productDetail.cfm?prodID=453
I have this, but the problem is it only has 8 wires and I cant seem to open
the shell.
Any help is much appreciated...
Cheers,
Ram
PS: This is a B004-compatible transputer interface that I am planning on
running on an Ultra 2 Enterprise
Sun workstation with the Sbus-based PCMCIA card :-)
On Sat Nov 29, Tom Jennings wrote:
> I just added a bunch of LGP-30 software to my website
> (http://wps.com/LGP-21) including the Subroutine Manual I got
> from Bob Lilley, as well as the Notes from a college programming
> course he taught in the early 1960's.
> The Subroutine Manual for the '30 is a goldmine, as it contains
> the bootstrap and all the input routines.
The site is indeed very interesting. In our computer museum at the
University of Stuttgart we have a complete working LGP-30 with Flexowriter
and high-speed reader/punch since 1999; it is probably the only working
machine on earth. I met David Weil of the Computer Museum of America last
year and I gave him a copy of the german maintenance manual including
schematics of the LGP-30 and all our paper tapes (read in on a PDP8/e and
transferred to a PC with Kermit) on a floppy disk. In return I copied the
essential parts of the american LGP-21 maintenance manual (not the
complete manual because of the excessive high costs of $0.10 per side) and
extracted the wiring diagram of the little daughter board which is in my
eyes an instruction set modification. There were many such
modifications/enhancements for the LGP-21 for which we have all the
documentation and blueprints and I know of a modification for the LGP-30
which added a -Z instruction and an overflow flag in the program counter.
I have reengineered this and added it to one of our two LGP-30 logic
boards. It is working but we have no software which makes use of this new
feature.
We have the original and complete sets of schematic diagrams,
blueprints and software for the LGP-30 and LGP-21 (except SW). For those
who are interested the LGP-30 papertapes can be found at
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/cm/lgp30/papertapes
and some pictures and (german) description (needs to be updated) at
http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
The paper tapes include the Act V compiler, basic subroutines, 10.4
(successor of 10.0) and 9.0 (bootstrap loader), as well as the original
Blackjack game (yes, it's there!) and other stuff. All tapes have been
converted to ASCII but there are tools to convert from ASCII to FlexCode
and vice versa. I have also written a LGP-30 simulator for
MS-DOS (written in Turbo Pascal) that runs all LGP-30 software. I have not
published it yet because I have to cleanup the code and translate the
messages into English. I will put it onto the ftp server if this is done.
I would be very happy for any comments and discussions on the LGP-30 or
LGP-21, especially if there is another *working* LGP-30 out there. Our one
was built in 1958 and it's working perfectly, the drum has no "bad
sector"!
Christian
PS: Here's a transscript of my simulator running Blackjack. The output is
in color (black and red) and it appears to be the same program as the one
on Tom's site.
*** LGP-30 Simulator *** HALT
(C) 2000-01 Christian Corti
5 - c 7 - s
4 - s
Card? yes 9 - s
Card? Q - h
total - l8 total - l7 score = $l.00
J - h Q - d
K - h
Card? 2 - s
J - c
total - 20 bust score = $2.00
l0 - h 4 - d
7 - c
Card? Q - s
9 - d
total - l7 bust score = $3.00
[...]
7 - d l0 - s
J - d
Card? 9 - s
total - l7 total - l9 score = $l.00
8 - d 3 - c
3 - h
Card? yes A - c
Card? yes A - d
Card? yes A - h
Card? yes 4 - s
Card? 2 - s
2 - h
A - s
5 cards total - l8 score = $3.00
[...]
Hi,
I've been on my back with the flu and didn't make it to the shed,
Which is only 50 Ft away, but requires me to get dressed and put
my snowboots on.
I'll scan it Sat morning.
Jim Davis.
I managed to finally open up and look at the Westinghouse/Unimation
roboto controller that's been sitting out at Purdue Salvage for the
last few weeks, next to a robotic arm that probably weighs >1000lbs and
has been stripped of some of its parts.
To my suprise, I saw a bunch of what looked like QBUS boards in it...
pulled one out and said 'this looks like an 11/23 CPU board. cool!'
After getting it home, and seeing exactly what board it was, I
discovered it was an M8192-YB... an LSI-11/73 CPU. Along with that was
a 64kW SRAM board, a pair of DLV11-J 'clone' boards, and some robot
controller hardware...
This is a nice topping for the past week... so far in addition to this
I've managed to get (for next to nothing):
- A pair of Texas Instruments Business-Pro machines - 286-based DOS/
XENIX machines that looked complete (minus kb, monitor, cables)
- A SPARC IPX and a few Type 4 keyboards
- (OT) A Sun SparcServer 1000 with 3 boards and 5 cpus in it.
- (OT) An HP C200 workstation with a high-end 3d accelerated video card
- (OT) An IBM C20 workstation, maxed out with RAM
Now the real question: Does anyone know anything about the TI
Business-Pro machines? Specifically, what kind of monitor and keyboard
do I need for it? The keyboard connector is an 8-pin DIN, and I don't
see anything that looks especially like a video connector on it. Or
can I use a serial terminal with it? I'm doubting it since it's a DOS
machine, but not ruled it out yet...
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCS
Information Technology at Purdue
Research Computing and Storage
http://www.itap.purdue.edu/rcs/
Hi all,
In light of the recent thread about email headers, somebody may be able
to help with this one.
I don't normally have any problems with the emails that I send out;
however one particular person who I send mail to complains that anything
I send to him appears in a much larger (unbearably so) font than mail
that he receives from anyone else. Maybe someone can have a look at the
header on this message and see if there's anything obviously missing (it
looks fine to me)
FYI, a reply from him showed the following info about his client:
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200
I suspect I send email to a good many people using the same client /
version, so there's nothing odd about that.
I'm using Evolution as a client on a linux box, with sendmail doing the
address munging so that my reply address appears correctly, so that's a
little atypical but not *that* odd.
Anyone shed any light on what's going on? I would have said it was a
problem with his client, if he'd been getting the same font problem
elsewhere, but it seems like his version of Outlook doesn't like mail
sent by Evolution for some reason...
cheers
Jules
I have the following:
- 3 Personal DECstation 5000/25 (1 w/ 2.88 floppy) + manuals
- 1 keyboard and mouse for the above
- 3 DEC Storage Expansion units (2 with CD, BA46A, 1 without, BA42A); each has a 95MB CompacTape unit
- ULTRIX v4.2 on CD, plus DEC Fortran for ULTRIX, v3.2
- 1 DECpc Lpv+ 405d2
1 DELNI 8 port hub
Used to work, no idea about present state of operation or completeness. No monitors or other keyboards, mice or cables. DECstations have gooey feet.
Located in Evanston, IL - northern suburb of Chicago.
I'm interested in H8-H/Z89 stuff, Godbout/CompuPro docs, 8-bit single board computers, if you feel like trading something, but mostly I want to keep this stuff from the crusher, which is where it will go otherwise, come January.
Best is if you come pick it all up, second best if you come pick some of it up. If I have to ship things, you will need to pay postage + a few bucks for packing materials and entropy reversal.
FIFO distribution process, though local pickup trumps shipping.
Jack
Hi Glen,
My apologies for emailing directly, but I got your address from the
email you replied/posted last year about having the files needed for a
hp16500A and given the timeframe thought it might be better to email
direct. If possible could I trouble you to obtain them if you still have
them?
kind regards,
Ian
I have them. I can send you a .zip file with them.
-Glen
>From: "Charles Ader" <charles(a)socketcom.com>
>Reply-To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
>To: <cctech(a)classiccmp.org>
>Subject: Looking for HP 10342B Bus Preprocessor software
>Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2002 21:42:30 -0800
>
>I am trying to find the software that is needed
>for an HP 16500A logic analyzer to operate the
>HP 10342B Bus Preprocessor.
>
>The HP16500A I am using has an 16510A analyzer
>module. I just need the analyzer setup files and
>inverse assembler.
>
>Thanks,
>Charles Ader.
I suppose I have one of these things, and really want to make it go away.
This is apparently a late 1980s precursor of the PCMCIA card - about the
same size, but the connections are different. Anyway, this little "drive"
(officially a TCD/1-E from Databook) is mounted in a cradle, so it fits
into a 5 1/4 half height bay. I have no idea what the interface is.
Tagged "Not for Life Support or Nuclear Use".
So, anyone want this thing for a buck and postage?
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
The subject says it all - available for the cost of shipping + $5 hassle charge or else come get them for free.
Buy me breakfast and I'll drive 50 miles in any direction (except due east) to meet you some weekend morning.
Breakfast deal for the DEC stuff in previous message as well.
Jack
Evanston, IL - just north of Chicago.
You know, I just re-read this post after a few days and I noticed that the
project within Microsoft was "Project Commodore". I haven't read "Hard
Drive" or the other Microsoft history books in a few years, but I don't
recall ever seeing a reference to that project name.
Any background on that?
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Fred Cisin
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 3:46 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: RE: FAT file system now licensed by MS ?
On Thu, 4 Dec 2003, Cini, Richard wrote:
> So, who invented the FAT filesystem we know today? Microsoft
> (through Stand-Alone Disk BASIC)? Seattle Computer (through 86-DOS)?
Microsoft. The "Stand Alone Disk BASIC" was used in Z80 machines.
It used a seek-center DIR (track 17 or 20 of a 35 or 40 track disk,
with a single sector "Granule Allocation Table", usually with 1/2
track for each allocation unit (8 bit entries))
THEN SCP wrote an 8086 system patterned after CP/M, but with a DIR
structure BASED on that idea, but with a track 0 DIR, more sectors
for the "FAT", and smaller allocation units (12 bit entries).
(QDOS, later 86-DOS)
I don't know what became of the 8086 Stand-Alone BASIC.
THEN Microsoft bought rights to that OS for "Project Commodore" (their IBM
contract). (PC-DOS, MS-DOS)
LATER, DRI added FAT support to some of their products,
and Apple based the original Mac DIR structure directly on FAT (MAJOR
shortage of system programmers at the time??)
> To paraphrase Artie Johnson..."Very interesting".
I think so
BTW, Cringely's version is COMPLETELY bogus.
The Kildall eulogy is "accurate", but way too biased (delivery of some
manuals to Oakland required Kildall stand up IBM, and couldn't be
delegated?)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
>> First, the M8190-AB is a PDP-11/73 CPU board and
>> usually runs in an ALL Qbus system. Don't forget that
>
>So can someone fix this in the "FIELD GUIDE TO Q-BUS AND UNIBUS MODULES"
>doc? It's got an M8190 listed as an 11/84 CPU.
Since I own it, I'll check it out and adjust it if need be...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | email: mbg at world.std.com |
| Member of Technical Staff | megan at savaje.com |
| SavaJe Technologies, Inc. | (s/ at /@/) |
| 100 Apollo Drive | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Chelmsford, MA 01824 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (978) 256 6521 (DEC '77-'98) | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
> I have some old programs from my HP2000 days that I downloaded to
> APPLE-2 diskette (DOS 3.3 and PRODOS).
>
> Any ideas on the easiest way to get that source uploaded to a network
> connected system which should then be able to easily
> paste them into a terminal session and get the code active again?
>
> I have an APPLE //c, a II+ and a IIE. I appreciate any ideas on this one.
Bob,
I used an Apple serial card, a null modem cable, and a simple BASIC
program to use the serial port.
There have been some Apple emulators.
Does anyone know if any of them can read Apple 5.25" floppies?
I know that in the evolution of 5.25" drives and densities, there was
the issue of wide heads, wide write tracks, and later heads and
tracks were narrower. Was it that modern heads could read earlier tracks?
Greg
Has anyone got a Compaq LTE 386 that they'd be willing to part with? If
so, please contact me.
Thanks!
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
The M8190 was salvaged from a PDP-11/23 backplane where it had been
running, so I assumed that it would work in a QBUS setup. Is there an easy
way to tell whether the card is really Unibus or QBUS?
> > M8190-AB (11/84 cpu)
>
> I separated the '84 CPU because it's oops Unibus and not
> Qbus. Everything else you have listed is Qbus. The busses
> don't mix.
Actually a PDP-11/84 uses a Q-Bus CPU in an adapter of some sort, same with
the memory. My concerns with what I see listed above are if the memory
will
work with the CPU (did it come out of the same system?), I don't have time
to check the part number. The other concern is, since you're wanting to
run
2.11BSD, is the disk controller supported?
>From: "Eric Smith" <eric(a)brouhaha.com>
>
>I wrote:
>>> Without decoding the data, it is proposed to sample the data at 50 Mbps
>>> or more.
>
>Andy wrote:
>> Why so fast? You only need sample at 2x the bandwidth.
>
>2x is the theoretical minimum; sampling at 2x isn't always adequate
>in practice due to various real-world limitations.
>
>The minimum write data pulse width spec for the WD1000 controller
>is 60 ns. If we were sampling and reconstructing a sine wave with
>a 120 ns period, 16.7 MHz sampling would be adequate. But that
Hi
Even for a sine wave, the brick wall filter would be difficult
to create. You need a little more room.
>wouldn't yield good results for square waves, and there wouldn't be
>any margins. In practice, I suspect that 33.3 MHz sampling would be
>barely adequate provided that no other problems arise. Operating at
>50 MHz seems advisable to have reasonable margins.
The thing to consider is that we are not sampling a "square" wave.
It is a variable pulse width digital signal. The only kind of
processors I know of that could handle this from a port is some
of the latest DSP chips. Using a PC, even one like our ( AMD )
latest Opteron wouldn't do well since it is so highly pipelined
and unpredictable in execution speed at this short a time
interval.
There are a number of DSP evaluation boards out there that places
like ADI and TI sell that could be made to handle this task.
Of course, a simple pulse width counter on the front end could
simplify the sampling process.
>
>
> Why so fast? You only need sample at 2x the bandwidth.
What you're trying to do is find the edge position in the presence of jitter
though it's more of an issue with floppies that have belt-driven spindle motors.
It also helps detect runt pulses in sector splices.
Hi All,
Got a whole pallet load of old documentation for $2 at the local University
Auction.
Some Stuff I'm keeping but if anybody is interested in some of the other
stuff, its your's for the cost of shipping, probably USPS media mail, or UPS
at your choice.
Free to good home:
Evans and Sutherland PS 390 Documentation Set (circa 1987)
4 Full size Binders including Hardware and Software documentation.
OSF/1 manuals all topics about 40 or 50 manuals all together. I'll keep a few,
but the rest go.
Digital Unix manuals, about a dozen, all topics. most are the usual software
documentation.
Digital VMS 6.2 manuals almost a complete set. These are not the big "grey
wall" of dec binders but the newer paperback manuals.
All of the manuals are in Great condition. It looks as some have never been used.
I will have a list of the OSF/1, DEC Unix and VMS manuals in the next few
days,(as I go through them) but if your looking for a special one, contact me
off-list.
Remember as I'm doing this for free (ie cost of shipping) it might be a while
before I get them sent.
Also, the last time I did this, I got burnt by some on this list who never
sent me the shipping costs, so this time shipping costs up front.
Thanks
Tom Ponsford
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Free Stuff-LIST
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:38:04 -0700
From: Tom Ponsford <tponsford(a)theriver.com>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only <cctech(a)classiccmp.org>
References: <3FD8A3AB.4030203(a)theriver.com>
Hi all
Forgot to mention my Zip is 85630 (SE Arizona)
The Evans and Sutherland manuals have been spoken for:
Remember first come first served with priority to those who take the most stuff!!
Ok, here is a partial list of the DEC stuff:
The VMS stuff is too much for me to list today, besides most of it I put in my
storage. Its about 4-5 of those plastic 25 gallon storage boxes.
But here is the OSF and DEC Unix stuff:
###########################################################
DEC OSF/1 8/94
Title Dec # Copies
DecWindows Users Guide AA-Q917A-TE 2
Technical OverView AA-Q0R18-TE 1
Dec Verifier and Execiser
Tool Users Guide AA-PttMB-TE 2
Calling Standard for AXP
Systems AA-PYBAB-TE 2
DecWindows Extensionto Motif AA-QBYSA-TE 1
X Window System Environment AA-Q7RNA-TE 2
Writing Device Drivers
Advanced Topics AA-Q7RPA-TE 1
Digital Portable Mathematics
Library AA-PUBXB-TK 2
DEveloping Application for
the Display Postcript System AA-Q15WA-TE 1
DECWindows Motif Guide
to Appplication Programm. AA-QBYTA-TE 2
Assembly Language Programming
Guide AA-PS31C-TE 2
Programming with ONC RPC AA-QOR5A-TE 2
Programming Support Tools AA-PS3@C-TE 3
Writing Software for the
International Market AA-QoFMB-TE 2
Ultrix to DEC OSF/1
Migration Guide AA-PS3EC-TE 1
DecWindows Extension to
Motif AA-QBYSA-TE 1
Programmers Guide AA-PS30C-TE 2
Guide to DECThreads AA-Q2DPB-TK 2
Network Programmer Guide AA-PS2WC-TE 2
Guide to Realtime programming AA-PS33C-TE 2
Network Administration and
Problem Solving AA-PS2SB-TE 2
Network Configuration AA-PS2GC-TE 1
Command Shell and USers Guide AA-PS2HC-TE 2
Dec OSF/1 Technical Overview AA-QoR1B-TE 1
Documentation Overview
Glossary and master Index AA-PS2JC-TE 3
Guide to Prestoserve AA-PqToC-TE 2
Software License Mgmt. AA-POTOC-TE 2
Kernel DEbugging AA-PS2TD-TE 1
DecWindows Companion to the
OSF/Motif Style Guide AA-QBYUA-TE 2
Asynchronous Transfer Mode AA-QDP5B-TE 2
####################################################
Digital Unix july 1985
Installation Guide AA-PS2DF-TE 2
Release Notes AA-PS2BF-TE 3
Logical Storage manager AA-Q3NCD-TE 2
DECladebug Debugging manual:
Command-Line Interface AA-PZ7ED-TE 2
Sharing Software on a local
Area Network AA-P53LD-TE 1
Security AA-Q0R2C-TE 1
System Tuning and Performance
Management AA-q0R3D-TE 1
Writing VMEBus Device Drivers AA-Q0R7D-TE 2
Writing PCI Bus Device
Drivers AA-Q7RQB-TE
#########################################
In Addition I'll have some old sun stuff, some old SGI manuals
and various old computer manuals. As sson as I can get around
to going through this stuff.
Tom
Tom Ponsford wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Got a whole pallet load of old documentation for $2 at the local
> University Auction.
> Some Stuff I'm keeping but if anybody is interested in some of the other
> stuff, its your's for the cost of shipping, probably USPS media mail, or
> UPS at your choice.
>
> Free to good home:
>
> Evans and Sutherland PS 390 Documentation Set (circa 1987)
> 4 Full size Binders including Hardware and Software documentation.
>
> OSF/1 manuals all topics about 40 or 50 manuals all together. I'll keep
> a few, but the rest go.
>
> Digital Unix manuals, about a dozen, all topics. most are the usual
> software documentation.
>
> Digital VMS 6.2 manuals almost a complete set. These are not the big
> "grey wall" of dec binders but the newer paperback manuals.
>
> All of the manuals are in Great condition. It looks as some have never
> been used.
>
> I will have a list of the OSF/1, DEC Unix and VMS manuals in the next
> few days,(as I go through them) but if your looking for a special one,
> contact me off-list.
>
> Remember as I'm doing this for free (ie cost of shipping) it might be a
> while before I get them sent.
>
> Also, the last time I did this, I got burnt by some on this list who
> never sent me the shipping costs, so this time shipping costs up front.
>
> Thanks
>
> Tom Ponsford
>
>
Hi all,
Any ides if the keyboard and mouse needed for an SGI 4D/25 was used on
any of SGI's other models?
A machine just cropped up for free but it's got no mouse or keyboard
with it. The keyboard socket on the machine is a 9-pin D-type female
(umm a B-type in correct terminology I think) - I'm assuming the mouse
plugs into a port on the keyboard, rather than tying up one of the
serial ports on the machine?
Oh, the root password isn't known either... but I'm assuming there will
be ways around it on a machine this old.
cheers
Jules
I just listed 8 DEC VT420 terminals on the Vintage Computer Marketplace.
I'm asking a mere $5 each plus shipping. They are in anywhere from good
to excellent condition. Some have slight burn in. They will be sold off
in the order of best to worst, first come first served. Items #300,
302-308.
I also listed another Sharp PC-5000 (new in the box). See item #301.
Go get 'em!
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
Believe me I tried!!!! At least locally! I did save a few dozen. At the
time I was not a member of any group like this, so finding someone who wanted
them was not an easy task. Sorry. . .
In a message dated 11/28/03 2:35:25 AM, vcf(a)siconic.com writes:
> > students progress. Our last DigiCard controller dies about 3 years ago.
> > We still have some of the 5.25" disks but 1000s of the software binders
> > went into the dumpster about 2 years ago. I would have given them a good
> > home but I didn't have the space, and sometimes I just have to say "NO".
>
> Hmm, how about finding other people who would be interested rather than
> dumpstering them? :(
>
A friend who manages some communications systems expects to be decommissioning 3 or 4 PDP 11/84 systems soon (~ end of 2003). These systems have been functioning for approaching-two-decades in a (presumably) good environment.
Sorry to be a little vague on details (I'm recalling this from a quick verbal discussion) but each system is something like:
PDP 11/84 CPU
RL02 removable-platter disc drive
MD17 / MD175 fixed disc (?)
tape drive (9-track I believe, but that seems a little odd, like it would more likely be those mid-80s DEC cartridges)
other I/O interfaces presumably
I don't know what OS they were running/installed with. Email me and I'll try to get clarifications if desired.
I know these aren't the most desirable units of the PDP 11 family (too young and no blinkenlights) (poor not-so-little things), but any takers for adoption? Any bits or modules to be rescued for someone?
Location is Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Price is take-it-away-it's-yours (unless we can twist your arm into making a donation to the radio museum with which we are associated). (Smaller bits I will consider doing for the price of shipping.)
--------------------
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/eec
Nico de Jong said ...
<snip>
> To the best of my knowledge, the fabrication of 1/2" tapes has seized.
> The last manufacturer was eMag, AFAIK. They are now even advertising
> a new service : recertification of old/used tapes. They are also largely
> out of stock now, with regard to new tapes.
> ...
> Nico
</snip>
We regularly purchase databases from outside sources. All but a few default
to sending these on 9-track 1/2" tape (the bigger reels too). The mail
houses still using the 1/2 tapes actually have a service charge of $75 to
$100 per ten-thousand names to put them on floppy, cd or email. Maybe
they're just trying to get rid of the thousands of junk tapes they have
around. Anyway, I end up with a closet full of tapes every year.
Kelly
On Dec 10, 0:58, Tony Duell wrote:
> So what do you want me to change? Should it be text/plain? Or should
I
> remove that header line altogether (I am not going to totally upgrade
my
> mail software!). Or should I just stop posting here?
It wasn't a rant, Tony, just an observation :-) If you want to do
something about it, and it's easy to do, I'd remove that header
altogether. It's not valid unless you put the rest of the MIME headers
in as well.
Of course, one could also argue that whatever is misinterpreting the
email in question is also broken, and should be fixed.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Something else that would be nice to be able to do with this sort of
hardware would be the ability to read an arbitrarily formatted real
disc drive. The MFM drives in Xerox 6085's and 8010's have 'interesting'
sector formats that can't be read with normal controllers.
>I'm sure one can be built, but I've seen drives like these before (but for
>the Macintosh).
I just saw a 3.5" USB drive this morning connected to a Dell. From the
looks of it, that is they way Dell was delivering the drive for that
computer (it was a tiny little tower like unit and had no floppy built
in).
So they are available for more than just the Mac. I think the one I
bought for my father's iMac (so he can transfer pics from his Mavica
camera) was not Mac specific and was supported by Windows and Linux
according to the box (but the drive sucks, its PAINFULLY slow to copy
data, far slower than the USB bus so the speed isn't killed by that...
IIRC, its a "SanDisk" brand drive, but I could be wrong).
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Hi,
Does anyone have any info/soft/doc on this machine?
Here is some general specs:
combined i860 + T805 per node parallel computer.
Had anywhere from 24-64 nodes. Ran a modified copy of Trollius.
Maybe our Canadian / French readers knows something...
Thanks,
Ram
One of the reasons for starting the bitsavers archive was to try to
collect descriptions of various peripheral interfaces. A couple I haven't
been able to locate so far is a description of the ANSI 8" winchester
interface, and also a service manual for Quantum 2040 and/or 2080 8"
discs (thought I had copies, but haven't been able to find 'em)
Anyone have these that could be borrowed to scan?
On Dec 9, 20:28, Ron Hudson wrote:
>
> Somewhere, once upon a time, I found on the net an HPBasic
interpreter
> either
> for windows or for DOS... I don't know where it was though.
>
> Shareware / Freeware I think.
Might have been TransEra's HTBasic -- but it's commercial.
http://www.techsoft.de/htbasic/htbasic.htm
One of several good places to look for informaton about BASIC in
various forms is
http://www.icewalkers.com/opd/Computers/Programming/Languages/BASIC/
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
I'm working on a ROM emulator for the HP-85 - i.e. a replica of the original (and hard to find) Programmable ROM Module. From photos (thanks to Vassilis Prevelakis), I've drawn a schematic of most of the original module. But I've hit a snag where some of the traces disappear under the ICs. I've been able to deduce most of these but some are too ambiguous to "pin" down. Is there someone who owns this elusive module that would be willing to ring some paths for me (probably 10 to 20) ? Some connections may be obvious simply with a closer visual inspection of the actual module.
Thanks,
Bill
>Using *ANY* floppy on a PowerMac is painfully slow. When I was getting
>ready to move from my 8500/180 to my G4/450 AGP I wanted to image a large
>number of floppies that I had. I ended up doing the imaging on my
>PowerBook 540c, transfering them via ethernet to the 8500 and burning them
>to CD. That was a *LOT* faster than doing the reading directly on the 8500.
I've seen no speed issues with floppy disks on any of my PowerMacs. Nor
is there a speed problem with my brother-in-law's iMac and a USB floppy
drive (Imation?).
I've tested my slow USB drive on other iMacs, and its always slow... and
I've used my brother-in-law's drive on the same iMacs with no speed
problems... so I'm pretty convinced the speed problem is with the drive.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Kermit, probably, unless you already have a terminal program with file
transfer capability on the Apple. You can get versions for just about
anything, at http://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/howtoget.html or mirror
sites. Kermit can transfer binary files without loss or corruption
between all sorts of systems.
The tricky part is getting file transfer software onto the Apple in the
first place. Kermit-65 (for the Apple ][) is available as a hex file
which you can transfer fairly easily and convert to a working program;
after that, the rest is easy. Look for the files that start "app..."
for Kermit-65 for the Apple.
ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/a/appaaa.hlp will tell you what they
all are, and get you started.
It's easier for the PC, all you need to do is download the relevant
program (I'd suggest the slightly older DOS version, which is free, and
works under Windows as well, despite the disclaimer -- or at least, it
does for me).
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> in the absence of manuals I had to dismantle it to find out how I *should have* dismantled it
www.bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/tape/07970-90887_7970svc_Dec77.pdf
This was for the B series, but the mechanics are the same as the A.
> Is the oxide coating stable
Depends on the formulation. Early 80's formulas (esp. Memorex) will (has..) become unusable.
I've personally had much less problems with 3M formulations.
The long term prospects of tape transports with any rubber parts is not good, either.
Almost all of the 1/4" cartridge tape drives I own are inoperable because the drive
pinch rollers have turned to goo.
> I've got old BASF and Memorex tapes (20 years +) that are fine
You are extremely lucky. Memorex early 80's tape is the worst
stuff I've ever had to deal with, esp MRXIV (red label) andn MRX?? (light gray)
If you have anything you care about, get it off of those reels ASAP.
It is classic "sticky shed syndrome". The binder becomes sticky and glues
the layers of tape together.
If you're interested in the details, you might want to try to find a copy
of "Tribology and Mechanics of Magnetic Storage Devices" by Bhushan esp
the chapter "Role of Chemical Properties in Magnetic Tapes".
---
Magnetic tape media has become the bane of my existance :-<
The sooner that I can get rid of every mag tape I own, the better...
>From: "John Lawson" <jpl15(a)panix.com>
>
>
>On Tue, 9 Dec 2003, Eric Smith wrote:
>
>> The part of the ST-506 disk emulation that's of most concern to me is
>> whether anything needs to be done about write precompensation. The
>> controller shifts the pulses on write to compensate for the peak
>> shifts that happen on magnetic media when flux changes are recorded
>> close together.
>
>
>
> Is it not true that the precomp circuits are driven by head position
>info - thus the 'solid' version (emulation) of any drive would just be
>permanently 'stuck' in one mode or the other would the controller care, or
>even know, what track and cylinder the actual 'data' were coming from?
Hi
Some controllers used the cylinder information to turn on
the compensation for the inner tracks.
>
> I don't know if this would cause the emulator qua emulator to fail at
>some perhaps subjective level - but I can't see where one would need to
>actually legislate write precomp into a block of RAM.
>
One can see from the timing that there is compensation being
written. My understanding is that the selected compensation
is only used for the write. The read amps do have some non-linear
response to compensate for the normal effects of megnetic
data. From what I've seen, the read is fixed for and compensation
so regardless of the track, one should be able to provide
data with the same framing as any other track.
Dwight
>From: "James Dickens" <jdickens(a)ameritech.net>
---snip---
>
>okay not an expert, but most systems using these drives used interleaving of
>sectors(because there was no way the system was fast enough to handle the
>data), the IBM PC used a factor of 6. The machine the device would not know
>what to do with 30MB/s of data if you produce it. i doubt any machine having
>such a drive would benefit from more than 4MB/s and producing data faster
>than the machine expects can cause timing errors, that were not noticed when
>the machine was new. i guess after the device is made.. yo u will have to
>spend more time slowing it down than trying to get it faster.
>
---snip---
Hi
As far as I know, all PC hard disk interfaces had at least
a one sector buffer. This is unlike the floppy interface
that did byte for byte DMA.
Dwight
Greetings,
Does anyone have some "care and feeding" tips for vintage reel-to-reel
tape drives? I've recently purchased a couple nice 9 Track drives, and
want to make sure they (and the media) last as long as possible.
I've already given the heads, rollers and guides a good cleaning with 99.9%
anhydrous Isopropyl Alcohol using 'fuzzless' cotton cleaning sticks, and plan
to do so on a regular basis. Is there such a thing as too much cleaning? ;)
What other tips and tricks should I know? For example, should I always unload
and store the tapes in their carriers immediately after I'm done using the
drives,
or can I safely leave them loaded for an extended period (oxidization?
de/magnetization?
deterioration?). They definitively look cooler with tapes loaded :)
Thanks,
Ken C.
On Dec 9, 11:22, Frank McConnell wrote:
> Paul Williams <paul(a)frixxon.co.uk> wrote:
> > Pete Turnbull wrote:
> >
> > [Quoting headers from one of Tony's emails]
> >
> >> Content-Type: text
> >> Moreover, they have no attachments, no hooks for attachments, and
> >> nothing other than correct ASCII headers and plain ASCII text (as,
> >> indeed, the headers indicate).
> >
> > This header is invalid according to RFC 2045, because it should
> > contain a type and subtype (in this case, it should be text/plain).
>
> Please read section 4 of RFC 2045, then try to find the
> "MIME-Version:" header in Tony's messages, then you may understand
> that Tony's mailer isn't sending MIME messages. There is some
> language in that section that permits software to interpret non-MIME
> messages "according to local conventions", but if it tries to treat
> non-MIME messages according to the MIME standards and loses, then I'm
> free to consider it broken, and I do!
So do I -- "be generous in what you accept and strict in what you
create" or similar words. On the other hand, RFC1049 doesn't allow the
"Content-type:" that Tony's mail contains, nor does RFC822, and as you
imply, Tony's mail isn't MIME-compliant -- so it's broken too.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> ---------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 17:16:05 +0100
> From: "Aro Hirohi" <arohirohi(a)hotmail.com>
> Subject: HP Apollo DN5500 disk and sysboot
> To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
> Message-ID: <Law15-DAV19gFrYILoy00004a51(a)hotmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I am trying to salvage a nice Apollo DN5500 server. Unfortunately I had to swap the original Maxtor ESDI 760 HD - it makes a clunky noise - for a lower capacity Micropolis and I have some difficulties to reinstall DomainOS software.
> The system starts under service mode. It can read a bootable tape and install the mini DomainOS software but it cannot boot DomainOS directly from the hard disk ... it dies with an "Error: sysboot not found"
>
> What I've done ...
> in service mode, with a 10.3.4 boot tape inserted,
> > re
> > di c
> > ex config, ex calendar, ex invol ... to enter the new hd configuration, setup date/time and format hd then ...
> > ex domain_os ... does a lot of shoeshinning, copy base OS from tape to hd and says that sysboot is found and skipped ...
> ) go ... goes to HP logo and login or ) sh runs a text shell ... I was delighted ... but now if I shutdown and reboot the system in normal mode, it passes the tests ok but fails to start the base OS complaining about "sysboot not found". Same result in service mode if I do a > re and > ex domain_os.
> Considering that it boots fine from a tape, I assume that the sysboot is not a eprom program and that it has been erased by formatting the drive. Does anybody know how to install the sysboot. Does it have anything to do with the 40KB file copied from the tape to //nodeXXX/sysboot on the hard disk?
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Aro
>
> Hi, Aro
Did you set up the bad spot list inside Invol ??? Is the drive a listed
size drive 170, 380 or 760 meg ?? The "System boot" is the code that
gets you from the Rom monitor to the System OS. You should be
able to enter "ld" at the monitor prompt and the system will list the
machine dependent boot files (not system boot). The "system boot"
is installed when the drive is involed. It is also checked when the
OS is loaded. That's why you get the message that it was found and
is being skipped. If the monitor can't find any system files do a "di w"
and try again.
I still have a Apollo ring here with a working AA install area. if you get in
a jam contact me by email. The tapes are not reliable in age and can
have fatal errors if used a lot.
Jerry
Jerry Wright
JLC inc
Jay,
Are you alive? Return-receipt requested...
--f
--
Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist
Visit the VAXlab Project at http://www.pdp11.nl/VAXlab/
Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/
Email: waltje(a)pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Sunnyvale, CA, USA