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

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

actually when it all shows up as cc talk as the sender it is of value as we can clear the group of mail faster after I have picked out the topics relative to what we are working on. Ed# In a message dated 3/1/2017 2:47:11 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes: On 28 February 2017 at 21:23, Rich Alderson via cctalk < cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > OK, it's official. I rarely criticize mail interfaces, because they're > usually > mostly innocuous. However, today's change makes life a lot more difficult. > > In the past, it was simple to direct a reply to an individual instead of > to the > list because the originator's address was right there in the From: > header. As > of today, the list address is substituted for that, so that it is > impossible to > respond privately... Users. -- Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems: "The Future Begins Tomorrow" Visit us at: http://www.yoyodyne-propulsion.net -------- "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." -- Jonathan Swift

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

cctalk Digest, Vol 33, Issue 1

by fred＠MISER.MISERNET.NET

On Wed, 1 Mar 2017 cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 17 > Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 20:10:33 +0100 > From: Lars Brinkhoff <lars at nocrew.org> > To: Mattias Engdeg?rd <mattiase at acm.org> > Subject: Re: DEC VT100/220 line wrapping semantics sought > Mattias Engdeg?rd wrote: > > Data for VT100, VT220 and VT510 have been collected, as well as > > several emulators > > (https://github.com/mattiase/wraptest/blob/master/results.txt). If > > anyone has access to other working terminals, VT3xx/VT4xx in > > particular, I'd be most grateful if you would take a few minutes to > > run the test program. > > I have a VT420 set up for my kid to play with. I'll borrow it and > submit a pull request with the results. > I have a VT525 in my home office that I use to read the mail (including this and other mailing lists) when I don't want to fire up a workstation. (It's quick, simple, and I get check/send a message without much fuss). Would results from that terminal help? Fred

9 years, 3 months

2
1
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Ersatz-11 V7.3

by wilson＠dbit.com

Ersatz-11 V7.3 is finished. CDs have been mailed to users with current update subscriptions, and the free Demo version may be downloaded from www.dbit.com/demo.html as usual. E11 V7.3 has the following new features: - My favorite one: a BREAKPOINT command which accepts arbitrary boolean test expressions, compiles them into native x86 code (to reduce the speed penalty), and incorporates them (until disabled with BREAK/CLEAR) into the main fetch/decode loop). Examples: break pc >= 2000 and pc < 3000 and @(r4+4) = 42776 (range of code with specified value in block pointed to by R4) break ci(pc)&177400 = 104000 (about to fetch an EMT instruction) break phys(14634520) <> 3044 (location at physical address gets changed from expected value) Errors at run-time are silent. If a specified test causes a bus timeout, odd address trap, or division by 0, the test fails. Well OK division by *constant* 0 gives an error but I just mean nothing damaging happens if the registers aren't pointing where you thought, etc. - A few rare antique emulated devices: DC11 SLU. Basically similar to the DL11 (ignoring the extra CSR bits and programming it like a DL11A works), but it also has a settable baud rate and modem control which is different from how it was done on DL11s. - Also the DM11 single-speed serial mux (not that E11 minds running each line at a different speed, but the original did). It uses DMA for transmission but also for reception into an in-core FIFO which the documentation adorably calls the "tumble table". And yes this is the origin of the DM11BB modem-control option more commonly used on the DH11. There's a new command to tell DM11BBs which to attach to (the default is still the DH11 with the same controller letter). - Finally, the justifiably forgotten TR79F 1600 BPI tape controller for TR79 drives (really HP7970Es), which includes the parity track in core with each byte of tape data taking up a word, so it's a pain to program. But it had 1600 BPI pretty early. The only driver I can find for the TR79F is in the "TRDP" version of XXDP, which is on Bitsavers as a scan of a microfiche of the listing. It can be used to load the ZTRAB0 diagnostic (the only other program I know of for the TR79F), but of course the test immediately trashes your boot tape. I felt dumb. - Driver for raw ATA/SATA/ATAPI disks (DOS and stand-alone versions). - Driver for National Instruments PCI-DIO-96 digital I/O card (DOS and stand-alone versions). It's a bad fit to emulating the DRV11/DR11C (ASSIGN OA: DIO96: does work but you'd have to wire up an adapter with buffering since the drivers are rated at only 2.5 mA) but it's probably the most common digital I/O board around. Even though it's PCI (not PCIe), it's still made new (at great expense), but cheap used examples are everywhere. - Ability to use a digital I/O card to drive real display and switch registers. Wiring up a blinky-lights board for your $25 eBay PCI-DIO-96 is a lot easier than making one for current PC busses, even if the 100-pin D-shell plug is a pain (but AMP makes an IDC connector that brings it out to two 50-pin Bergs).. - SET HISTOGRAM command enables/disables histogram of PDP-11 opcode usage (which again is temporarily compiled into the main loop when enabled). HISTOGRAM command displays the results or saves them to a file. - EXAMINE/DEPOSIT /BYTE /WORD /LONG /QUAD switches support various data types besides just words. Finally. - MOUNT <tape> FILE.TAP /LENGTH:n or /SIZELIMIT:nMB enables emulation of EOT early warning flag (giving the approximate maximum length of the tape in feet or megabytes). Not generally needed (who minds an unlimited tape?), but some diags want to fill a tape with test data all the way to EOT. - ASSIGN <TTY or digital I/O device> NULL: /LOOPBACK switch. Does what you think. - Experimental POWERFAIL command simulates power failures on command, or SET POWERFAIL command schedules one at shutdown (with a core dump to a file). Thank you Oleg Safiullin for the idea! Might need some changes -- I've never dealt with power failures on a real PDP-11. - Dramatically improved timer precision in DOS and stand-alone versions. SET THROTTLE in particular is silky smooth, but this improvement affects many many things. - All commands that take a time duration as a parameter will now accept a decimal point and/or unit suffix. The default units are the same as in previous versions. So instead of SET THROTTLE DELAY=1 (microseconds), you can use SET THROTTLE DELAY=1.2 or SET THROTTLE DELAY=1200NS (values will be rounded if needed). I hadn't realized so many places use time values -- I might have missed something. There are also many bug fixes and minor changes, but most importantly: - WMSG.LOG file that grows and grows (in Windows versions). Sorry about that! That was supposed to be disabled in the released version. Well it is now. John Wilson D Bit

9 years, 3 months

1
0
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Paper tape carriers and paper tape

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I don't know if anyone here has the interest or capability to do it, but creating a replica of the blue tape trays with the clear overlay that one could sell for a few bucks with some random fanfold copies of DEC or other diagnostics would be nice. Perhaps if there were a ready source of replicas with a perpetual listing or 10 to overwhelm the auctions with 100 and 300 dollar auctions for the genuine originals the originals would be listed and sold for a reasonable amount. I'm sure there there are things going to people with no idea what they have which would have been nice to image and save. I would think someone with vacuum molding and some skill with plastics could do the trays. not sure about the source of tapes to sell with them, maybe that does justify some extra expense. People with working readers and libraries of tapes might like them as well. thanks Jim

9 years, 3 months

15
29
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DEC VT100/220 line wrapping semantics sought

by mattiase＠acm.org

Would someone with a real DEC VT terminal be so kind and help settle, once and for all, the question about how they behave with respect to line-wrapping, exactly? It is something that isn't covered by any standard, nor by any of DEC's manuals, and there is a scarcity of information online that is not vague repetition of folklore. There are emulators, of course, but these do not agree with one another to the point that they can be trusted, and are probably just copying each other in any case. It seems that some ground truth would be welcome, for the benefit of both application and emulator writers. First, the problem: A VT100, when in "auto-wrap" mode, will wrap text from one line to the next in a peculiar way, sometimes called "soft-wrap" or "the VT100 glitch". When the terminal receives a printable character with the cursor in the last column, the character is put at that location but the cursor remains in place. Instead, the terminal enters a pending wrap state, which causes the cursor to wrap before next printable character is displayed. This behaviour is widely known. What isn't widely known are the finer points: * What control codes will cancel the wrap state? * What cursor position is reported in the wrap state? * Do any operations behave differently in the wrap state? * Is the wrap state saved/restored by the save/restore cursor codes? and so on. Every emulator programmer seems to have a different answer to these questions. If you have a VT100, VT220 or later model (compatibles like Wyse are also of interest) and have a spare moment, I'd be most grateful if you would download and run https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mattiase/wraptest/master/wraptest.c in that terminal, and send me the resulting output. (Redirect stdout to save the report.) The test program is not comprehensive but would give us a good idea of the rules. Current results, right now only from various emulators, are found in https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mattiase/wraptest/master/results.txt

9 years, 3 months

6
12
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I hate the new mail system

by RichA＠livingcomputers.org

OK, it's official. I rarely criticize mail interfaces, because they're usually mostly innocuous. However, today's change makes life a lot more difficult. In the past, it was simple to direct a reply to an individual instead of to the list because the originator's address was right there in the From: header. As of today, the list address is substituted for that, so that it is impossible to respond privately unless you happen to have a bunch of old messages archived and the person to whom you want to respond is someone who has written previously. Is this a conscious choice, or a configurable with a different default setting in a new mail system than was previously in place? However it came to be, it greatly diminishes communications quality (IMAO). Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computers: Museum + Labs 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:RichA at LivingComputers.org http://www.LivingComputers.org/

9 years, 3 months

13
15
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Sparcbook 3TX Hard Drive?

by ben＠bensinclair.com

This is probably a long shot, but does anyone have a Sparcbook 3TX hard drive? I know they're difficult to find. I have a 3TX in great condition, but no drive. (hopefully this isn't a repost, I tried this when the list was having issues and don't think it went through) -- Ben Sinclair ben at bensinclair.com

9 years, 3 months

3
4
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Cassette Interface Assistance

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Tony Duell > I fail to see how anyone can be a good digital designer and not > understand analogue electronics. It's easy! As long as your devices are being run in a domain where their behaviour is purely, well, digital, one can get away with it! :-) I'm a perfect case in point! I seem to have some bizarre brain dysfunction where I have a very hard time understanding even the simplest analog circuits. You, or someone like Brent Hilpert (whose explanation of core memory drivers I still remember :-) can explain something with sufficient clarity for me to 'get' it, but I can almost never work it out on my own. However, I've designed a number of digital devices, at least one of which became a product! Noel

9 years, 3 months

2
1
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I hate the new mail system

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Rich Alderson > it is impossible to respond privately unless you happen to have a bunch > of old messages archived and the person to whom you want to respond is > someone who has written previously. If you go into the list archive: http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/ the email address of the sender, for any given message, is still listed (in slightly mogrified form). Noel

9 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

list issue

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

So sorry for the temporary email outage on the list. We're moving datacenters and one of my folks moved several front end mail processors - not realizing that the classiccmp server which stayed behind was still using them. Through the magic of a vpn tunnel between front end mx hosts and the backend mailstores (classiccmp included), it seems to be back up. I'll talk to the guy tomorrow to discuss the actual movement of that vm. Yes, IP's will be changing for the list and all websites hosted therein. But DNS is "a thing", so should be mostly transparent. Depending on timing, I may go ahead and do some upgrades and recombine the lists - or may do that after the move. I'll try to do a better job of coordinating this.. Best, J

9 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

Displaywriters in Chicago

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Is there anyone out there that can save these? http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?56313-IBM-Displaywriter-printer-(… I'm primarily interested in archiving the software.

9 years, 3 months

3
2
0 0

Wildly hopeful eBay seller

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Now, this person: http://www.ebay.com/itm/182469963119 really is ... incredibly over-optimistic. Noel

9 years, 3 months

6
5
0 0

after a long search, I found the Dr. Dobbs bound volumes

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Located here: http://6502.org/documents/publications/dr_dobbs_journal/ Apologies to the list if this is common knowledge. Randy 6502.org: Documents Archive<http://6502.org/documents/publications/dr_dobbs_journal/> 6502.org A collection of useful documents pertaining to the 6502 microprocessor.

9 years, 3 months

6
5
0 0

adb use on xenix 3.0?

by ray＠arachelian.com

I'm trying to help out Jason Perkins who wants to demo Multiplan on Xenix 3.0 for the Apple Lisa at the upcoming VCF. While the bits for it are on bitsavers, it requires a serial number and so far he's had zero no luck finding one. So I'm trying to use adb to step through the code and find where it checks for the serial number, etc. So I run adb ./brand and then set a breakpoint using :b on "." which is the start address for the binary, and then I do :r /usr/lib/mp/mp and it does stop before the 1st instruction is executed (or maybe right after), however, when I try :s to step to the next instruction it runs the rest of the program in its whole. I know there's also :e which should step but skip over any function calls. I've also tried :ss, and got the same results (whole program runs without stopping). ? and enter does disassemble the non-running binary. $r and $m show registers and the map. I'm actually not sure if I'm setting the breakpoint correctly as $b shows it, but there's also a "command" field next to the address, so if I do :bfoo, it shows address 0 and foo for the command. So what should "command" be? and how do I single step through the running code? Some more details of what I got so far for those with historical interest: The basic installation is untarring the multiplan disk, which writes to /usr/lib/mp and /once. In /once there's a script init.mp that runs brand -s {serial} /usr/lib/mp/inter, but if you enter the wrong serial number it removes all the files. brand seems to look for a string starting with SCOSN - there's 4 copies of the "SCOSN" string inside brand, not sure why. The /usr/lib/mp/inter binary has only one like this: SCOSNMFO9999990000. I suspect that brand replaces the stuff after SCOSN with whatever the properly encoded serial number is. There's some sort of simple ROT13-like encoding of the string stored in inter. Out of the box running "/usr/lib/mp/inter /usr/lib/mp/mp" produces output with a product number and a serial # of NUL-000000 - the "MFO" is decoded to NUL (basically substitutes A for Z, B for Y, 0 for 9, 1 for 8, etc.) and ofc it says invalid serial # and quits. The serial number is checked by both brand and inter, but maybe not the code in mp.cod (I touched a file called /usr/lib/mp/foo.cod and then it said /usr/lib/mp/foo.dat missing, so I touched that one too, and when I ran it, it said invalid serial number. Running inter by itself just prints a banner without saying invalid serial number.) I'm guessing the serial number is 3 letters a dash and 6 digits, but there's maybe 4 more digits that have to be entered, or those 4 extra digits are generated by brand, not sure. However, so far brand hasn't accepted any serial number tried. I suspect inter to be a Microsoft virtual machine that wants to load mp.cod and mp.dat which are the real code for multiplan. I read somewhere that early on MSFT was using VMs to do help them from having to port the same code to lots of targets. This way they could port the interpreter for the vm and run anywhere, though inter has string saying multiplan so perhaps there's some customizations to each copy of inter based on what it's supposed to run? brand seems to take two more options -m and -n (and -q which I suspect is "quiet" as the init.mp script uses it). Both -m and -n cause a core dump but first print "identifier string found at D in" This is an interesting bit of history that I'd like to reverse engineer if possible. brand hasn't been stripped so it's likely a bit easier to disassemble. inter however is stripped, so would be much harder to reverse engineer. But it would be very useful to be able to step through one instruction at a time to find where it's doing a checksum or whatever and try to figure out what the serial number looks like. Jason is trying to brute force it assuming it's SCO-###### by running brand in a loop, but so far no luck either. Thanks.

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Ohio Scientific 560Z Board: IT LIVES!

by systems.glitch＠gmail.com

IT LIVES! I spent most of today hacking on the 560Z board. I got the 12-bit porthole going first, took a bit as the manual doesn't tell you that you need IC CC installed if you want to be able to write to the 4K exposed in the porthole. After that, I plugged in a Z80 and tried to get it running the test code in the manual. Turns out I had a dud Z80 :) With a good one installed the test code ran no-problem, as did a little hand written code to push data to the lamp register on the new memory board. I plugged in an IM-6100 and pretty much determined that at least the first one I tried is dead. I'll recheck the soldering on it later -- it's stuffed into a machine pin socket and soldered in, since half of the legs were rotted off by that corrosive black foam everyone loves so much. Anyway, the second IM-6100 works! And the 560Z board works! And the 12-bit RAM board works! I made a (low-res, poorly focused) video with our old digital point-n-shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYbGXHJST8U The IM-6100 is running a little loop that increments the accumulator and stores it to the lamp register. Storing of course clears the accumulator, but I have the lamp register mapped over RAM, so I just read the value back out of it. My first foray into PDP-8 code, it's certainly different, but it's still just machine code. Very happy that this seems to be coming fully together! Now if only I could find more IM-6100s...I'll test the remaining 3 tomorrow. Thanks, Jonathan

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

LGP-30 Video Update

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

GREAT TO SEE PROGRESS! Keep up the good work Cory! yes, heads have to be close to work.. at least that is the way it was with the VRC drums for storage on the GEPAC process control systyems Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 2/25/2017 7:24:30 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, coryheisterkamp at gmail.com writes: Some promising news on getting the LGP-30 up and running. With all systems stable, I tightened the head spacing on the three timing track heads (using brass 0.001" feeler gauges though I may have to go closer). This has resolved 'hanging' when hitting Start; it actually appears to execute for a cycle before toggling back to Stop for each press of the Start key. Of course without being able to see what's happening, it's likely just 'executing' garbage, but it's a solid first step. In Manual mode, keystrokes from the Flexowriter now trigger a Stop/Compute toggle for each key entered and status neons on the flip-flop cards are registering unique bit patterns as each comes in. I put the scope on the (rebuilt) clock generator card and we have good 'T' and 'T-bar' signals propagating, but still haven't licked the 'digital display' issue. After further probing, the display began to stabilize and the single line expanded into the proper 3 for Counter, Instruction and Accumulator, and eventually a bit pattern emerged for the Instruction. No signs of data yet for Counter nor Accumulator, and there is an extremely pronounced 'throbbing' and visible refreshing. Here's a video: https://youtu.be/Nhya46V-l70 System timing looks spot on (top trace), but I also see some 'throbbing' when putting my scope on any of the three timing heads which seems a little strange to me (example on lower trace). Here's a quick vid: https://youtu.be/JjRKDWVUyjA One thought is that the timing and short register heads are still too far off the drum surface for a solid signal, purely conjecture at this stage. -C

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

HP 2647F cable

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I have a 2647 or a 2628.. ( has cassettes in it) I thought there was basic for it... neat.. how do we generate the tape to load it? Bet the rollers in the drive are toast? details? thanks ed# In a message dated 2/25/2017 4:46:10 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us writes: On Sat, 25 Feb 2017, Dave wrote: > Also, the online documentation indicates that there is supposed to be a > "BASIC/Autoplot/47" disk, but I only see an "Autoplot/47" disk among the > included floppies. Is this likely to contain the BASIC as well, or am I > missing a disk? I'd be interested in any software anyone may have for > this machine. The HP Museum site has a ZIP file available for download that has 3 disk images: http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?sw=306 Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/

9 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

LGP-30 Video Update

by coryheisterkamp＠gmail.com

Some promising news on getting the LGP-30 up and running. With all systems stable, I tightened the head spacing on the three timing track heads (using brass 0.001" feeler gauges though I may have to go closer). This has resolved 'hanging' when hitting Start; it actually appears to execute for a cycle before toggling back to Stop for each press of the Start key. Of course without being able to see what's happening, it's likely just 'executing' garbage, but it's a solid first step. In Manual mode, keystrokes from the Flexowriter now trigger a Stop/Compute toggle for each key entered and status neons on the flip-flop cards are registering unique bit patterns as each comes in. I put the scope on the (rebuilt) clock generator card and we have good 'T' and 'T-bar' signals propagating, but still haven't licked the 'digital display' issue. After further probing, the display began to stabilize and the single line expanded into the proper 3 for Counter, Instruction and Accumulator, and eventually a bit pattern emerged for the Instruction. No signs of data yet for Counter nor Accumulator, and there is an extremely pronounced 'throbbing' and visible refreshing. Here's a video: https://youtu.be/Nhya46V-l70 System timing looks spot on (top trace), but I also see some 'throbbing' when putting my scope on any of the three timing heads which seems a little strange to me (example on lower trace). Here's a quick vid: https://youtu.be/JjRKDWVUyjA One thought is that the timing and short register heads are still too far off the drum surface for a solid signal, purely conjecture at this stage. -C

9 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

VIC 20 in film

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Anyone else notice it in _John Wick Chapter Two_? I don't recall having ever seen a VIC 20 in a mainstream film before.

9 years, 3 months

4
3
0 0

VIA SMECC __ PART 1 RTTY Journal A Gift to all of us From Bill Henry

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

LINKS FOR DOWNLOADING THE RTTY JOURNAL AND FOLLOW ON PUBLICATIONS FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILES FROM THIS SECTION ONLY Thanks to Bill Henry of HAL for putting these into the public domain for all to enjoy. These are ZIP files which will break down to individual issues. They are presented in groups like this to enable easier and quicker downloading. Dates are in filename! These files below represent all of the RTTY Journal that were collected into a set CD-ROMs by Bill Henry K9GWT the owner and most recent publisher and Wayne Matlock, K7WM (SK). These journals represent 50 years or RTTY history in the Amateur Radio Field and along with the ARTS journals (an east coast publication) at SMECC represent a truly fantastic study of Amateur RTTY. The RTTY Journal was first published by the Southern California Radio Teletype Society as the RTTY Bulletin in January 1953. Over the years, the name has changed to RTTY Journal, RTTY Digital Journal and The New RTTY Journal. Past editors included Dusty Dunn (W8CQ), Don and Dee Krumpton, Dale Sinner W6IWO, Jim Mortensen N2HOS (SK) and Bill Henry. Thanks to Chen K7AY and Jay WS7I for distributing these. You will want to pull all of these down and expand them on your hard drive - then, you have the entire publication run as it evolved!. Enjoy! I am spending hours reading these! Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILES FROM THIS SECTION ONLY _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1953-1962.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1953-1962.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1963-1972.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1963-1972.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1973-1977.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1973-1977.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1978-1982.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1978-1982.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1983-1987.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1983-1987.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1988-1991.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1988-1991.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1992-1994.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1992-1994.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE _www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1998-2003.zip_ (http://www.smecc.org/media/rttyjournalzip/1998-2003.zip) -FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS RTTY JOURNAL ZIP FILE

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

SW tapes found today

by pete＠petelancashire.com

https://goo.gl/photos/edJN2M7AMsFFRL928 Tek 4050 some duplicates Apollo Model unknown Motorola MVME332XT Unused w/Tektronix Label Don't know the condition of the elastomer band. -pete

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

HP 2647F cable

by dfnr2＠yahoo.com

> I wonder if this kryoflux supports this format. . . ?I got a kryoflux from another hobbyist but never tried it out. Obviously, Teledisk supports it, if it's in the HPmuseum archive. ? I suppose Imagedisk does as well. Dave

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

story of Mel

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> Without pulling the board out to double check how it is labeled it > must actually be a QG-640, not a QC-640. I was going from memory. > > This manual matches the board I have. > > http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/matrox/265-MU-00_QG-640_User_Manual_Mar91.pdf Glen, The documentation link is exactly what I needed. Thanks!! It describes my QC-640 board exactly. It would be nice to have some drivers for it, but the documentation provides info on the pin outs for the connectors which I definitely needed. Thanks again, Mark

9 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

HP 2647F cable

by dfnr2＠yahoo.com

Hi! I just picked up an HP 2467F on Ebay (best offer accepted), and received it yesterday. ?It seems to be in great condition, with all the original materials in the original packing. ?Unfortunately, the disk and cable were not included. ?I did manage to find the disk drive in a separate auction by the same seller, but have not yet received it. Would anyone here be interested in the original box and packing materials? ?Perhaps someone with a 264x series terminal who values having a box? ?It's all in great condition, and came packed in a slightly bigger box, so I could ship it out undamaged, if there are any takers. This is a neat little 8085 computer disguised as a terminal. ?It was introduced in 1978, according to the hpmuseum, but this one has a warranty card suggesting a 1982 manufacture date. ?This appears to have been sold in Germany by a German distributor. I'm looking for a cable. ?The manuals seem to have the information required to make one, but would rather locate an original if possile. ?If anyone has a spare, I'd be interested. Also, the online documentation indicates that there is supposed to be a "BASIC/Autoplot/47" disk, but I only see an "Autoplot/47" disk among the included floppies. ?Is this likely to contain the BASIC as well, or am I missing a disk? ?I'd be interested in any software anyone may have for this machine. Thanks! Dave

9 years, 3 months

2
1
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story of Mel

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

> From: Glen Slick <glen.slick at gmail.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: story of Mel > > On Feb 23, 2017 12:23 AM, "Pontus Pihlgren" <pontus at update.uu.se> wrote: > > > (I'm just hoping I'l get lucky and find one.. I have an 11/73 with > graphics, it would be nice to add sound to it) > > > What do you have for graphics? I have a DEC VSV11 board set and a Matrox > QC-640 board. Glen, (or any one else) Would you happen to have any documentation for that Matrox QC-640 board? I have one also that came with some BA23 I purchased, but I have nothing on it. Thanks, Mark

9 years, 3 months

2
1
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Q Bus Music Board

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim Stephens > That A6006 produces a hit in this document > ... > AAV11-C ANALOG OUTPUT BOARD > ... > 4 DACs, and a DC-DC converter. Sounds like it might be a standard analog output board, for lab settings. I'll bet the music thing is some marketing ploy, like the card game in 'The Story of Mel'. (What, you haven't read 'The Story of Mel'?!? :-) Noel

9 years, 3 months

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Looking for a toggle switch

by chd＠chdickman.com

I need to replace the toggle switch on the M848 power fail and restart board for a pdp8/e. It is a singer controls corp T8001 as best I can read on it. A month or so ago I search and found an exact replacement, but Google is now failing me and I can't find it back. Anybody know who bought Singers switch product line?

9 years, 3 months

1
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story of Mel

by commodorejohn＠gmail.com

> From: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com> > I always thought music in the old days was more about MIDI and letting > something designed for it do the work ala Usenix Nashville 1991. The MIDI control standard wasn't even finalized until 1983, and it took a couple years to really proliferate after that. Most computers at the time required a dedicated MIDI adapter because of its unusual baud rate (31.25Kbaud, not one supported by most standard UART setups) - the Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST could all handle MIDI with nothing more than a breakout box (or, in the ST's case, its onboard ports,) but those didn't roll out until 1984-1985. Prior to that, most "computer music" was either using a few proprietary computer-to-synthesizer interfaces such as Roland's DCB or the DK Synergy's dedicated Kaypro software, or using onboard DACs or simple PSG-style tone generators as being discussed here.

9 years, 3 months

1
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Sun E10000 Historical Enquiry

by shatle＠nfldinet.com

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Sun E10000 Historical Enquiry From: Jonathan KatzThere was a guy who I used to talk to who was on one of the Sun lists and was based in the top-tier hardware development/software development out of San Diego, and then later he moved east, but I forgot who that was. == I know who it is - we're still in contact once in a while. I plan to ping him and see if he's interested in participating. I also have another friend who drove a number of E10Ks for a large company here in the Twin Cities. Steve

9 years, 3 months

4
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WTB: IM-6100s / OSI 560Z Project

by systems.glitch＠gmail.com

All, Dave from osiweb.org and I have been working on reproducing some Ohio Scientific boards, including the OSI 560Z "processor lab." The 560Z is probably most well-known for allowing the user to run PDP-8/E code on an OSI using an Intersil IM-6100 PDP-8 compatible CPU. I'm getting parts kits together for these boards, but I've been unable to find IM-6100s through any of the usual supply channels. I have a handful from my personal stash, I'll probably be selling all but one. Does anyone have some they want to sell? I'll be reselling them to other hobbyists at whatever price I can get them for. Thanks, Jonathan

9 years, 3 months

1
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Hello! Finally on cctalk!

by systems.glitch＠gmail.com

Hello all! I've tried to sign up for cctalk several times over the years, and never had a successful registration. Seems this time worked. I'm Jonathan, glitch on some other lists and forums, I'm the one responsible for glitchwrks.com. I hack on old computers, pre-PC stuff, mostly S-100, PDP-11 (largely QBus), and Ohio Scientific. I do industrial systems engineering/repair, legacy systems support, and server-side programming for $day_job. Also starting to get into *selling* some of my hobby designs as kits. Thanks, Jonathan

9 years, 3 months

3
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IBM Series/1 listed on UK Ebay

by harry.barman＠gmail.com

Just saw this when browsing on ebay... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-SERIES-1-1976-WHOLE-MACHINE-VERY-RARE-/272564…

9 years, 3 months

6
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IBM Series/1 listed on UK Ebay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jim Stephens > Compare to $5000 asking for the full running PDP 11/34 which was listed > (and I think is still wanting for a bid) recently. No, it sold on re-list, for the US$5K asking. Noel

9 years, 3 months

1
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Q Bus Music Board

by pontus＠Update.UU.SE

Hi This has been discussed on this mailinglist before (back in -95 and -03). But with very little information came out of that. I'm curious about the "Q Bus Music Board" that DEC made. What system was it used in, what software was available that took advantage of it, how would you program it? All I know is from the cctalk threads and a few pictures from an ebay auction, with missleading description, that I missed out on. The number on the green handle is "93 08036" and on the PCB there is the number "EY-0105E-MS-0101" and it looks like it has two AY-3-8192 synthesiser chips. So, does anyone know anything more? And if anyone has one they could part with, I'd be interested. Kind Regards, Pontus.

9 years, 3 months

4
5
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Reading PALs

by brain＠jbrain.com

Seems like someone on list was willing and able to read PAL16L8s and give a try to some PAL16R4s... Is that person still on list and still interested? If so, please contact me off-list. I am trying to restore some C64 carts, and the PAL on my working unit is protected, so I cannot replicate. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

9 years, 3 months

7
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FW: Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines

by curiousmarc3＠gmail.com

Video of session 6 is up: https://youtu.be/b7yVhMT7tr4 Found our first bad IC. Probably not our last one. On 9/3/16 11:08 PM, curiousmarc3 at gmail.com wrote: Episode 5, still does not boot, but we are starting to follow long why: https://youtu.be/Wr7vDZpniNIr Marc On Jul 31, 2016, at 6:12 PM, CuriousMarc <mailto:curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> wrote: Next Episode: https://youtu.be/EDw8U1a6s78 http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day_31.html Marc From: Curious Marc [mailto:curiousmarc3 at gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2016 2:01 AM To: Curious Marc; cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Y Combinator is restoring one of Alan Kay's Xerox Alto machines Ken's in-depth blog post to go with the previous video http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day_11.html On Jul 5, 2016, at 2:46 PM, Curious Marc <mailto:curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com> wrote: Video from yesterday?s work on the Diablo cartridge disc: https://youtu.be/PR5LkQugBE0 Should be up in a few minutes. We were tickled pink to have official representation from PARC (former Xerox Parc) at the session. Marc Ken?s new post on the monitor repair to go with my previous video. http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day.html Al Kossow got us a new CRT tube, so we are probably going to try that this week-end. Marc Latest entry from Ken Shirriff, trying out BCPL (ancestor of C). On the emulator, not yet on the real machine: http://www.righto.com/2016/06/hello-world-in-bcpl-language-on-xerox.html Marc There are only two entries right now: http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring.html http://www.righto.com/2016/06/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day.html Marc

9 years, 3 months

8
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New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi folks, it has taken a while but I'm now actively planning to shift out another batch of OmniUSB boards. The last batch is sold out for a long time and I've been asked for more from time to time. As some of you might remember, it's a cool device to connect your pdp8/f/a/m/e to the modern world using lightning fast USB. The originial board has it's website here: http://pdp8.hachti.de/projects/omni_usb/ The new board will do the same, perhaps even more. - the USB connector will be replaced by a mini (NOT micro!!) USB connector. - The connector position and cable routing will be improved. - The board will be shorter. But it will come by default with a laser cut acrylic extension that makes it full size again. There will be at least those options to buy: - Kit (board + all parts) - Kit+ (board + all parts, SMT already assembled) Possible: - complete version - Everything soldered and tested. - discount for omitting acrylic extender I cannot guarantee that I can deliver fully assembled boards (regulations) and would be able to do that only if there's a reasonable number of interested buyers. If have set up a doodle poll to get a realistic picture of the interest in the board/kit/device: http://doodle.com/poll/d7y524mvyfezqp9w PLEASE take the minute and fill in your name (ideally that I can recognise you) and check the options which most precisely match your demands. PLEASE be as honest as possible as I will base my decisions IF and for which PRICE I can run the show. Thank you!!! Kind regards Philipp :-)

9 years, 3 months

22
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DISSPLA fortran source anyone?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

The scientific graphics software package, written By Ian Hirscholn. Later sold to Coumputer Automation. He ported it to the PC later, with his company ISSCO. They also made a neat bitslice machine to run it, the Portable Graphics Mainframe, I had one for a bit, I was their rep. Anybody have anything on this beast, it was amazing. Randy

9 years, 3 months

1
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DATARAM DR-118 docs?

by w2hx＠w2hx.com

Hi folks, Looking for documentation on the DATARAM DR-118 16Kx12 core memory for PDP-8/e. I have the documentation on the DR-118A which is for the PDP-8/a. It is probably similar, but would love to find the right version. Anyone have such thing? Thanks Eugene

9 years, 3 months

2
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Sun E10000 Historical Enquiry

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

Greetings to all; All this talk of favourite machines and getting into the hobby has gotten me amped up to work on my E10k. The E10k was always the "coolest" machine for me - largely due to the timing of my entry into the industry. I recently read Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine and was pondering the history of the E10k and its start in Cray Research Inc and its subsequent sale to Sun. The asset transfer that must've taken place and then how Sun turned it around to make it a Sun product and made its impact on the market has to be a fascinating story too. I would love to talk to anyone who was involved in the development, transfer, initial rollout and support of the E10k - from both CRI's and Sun's perspective. Heck, I'd be fascinated to talk to anyone who purchased the machines during their lifespan (1997-2001) and could tell me what you used them for. If you only know of someone that was involved that you might think would be interested in talking to me, please pass my eMail address on. Maybe if I get a big response I could put something together, if there was suitable interest of course. But at this point, I'm mostly just fascinated for myself. Thanks to all! - JP

9 years, 3 months

2
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Free to a good home: Honeywell/Bull DPS-6 workstation / server (Seattle, WA)

by kevinowens1＠gmail.com

do you still have this ? thanks Kevin

9 years, 3 months

1
0
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3D scans and sounds

by lars＠nocrew.org

Hello, I'm grateful that there are plenty of pictures of classic computer. However, I want more. 3D scans and sound recordings. Has anyone attempted to do that?

9 years, 3 months

1
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LGP-Resto Update

by coryheisterkamp＠gmail.com

For those curious about the status of the LGP-30 restoration, I?ve got a blog up with the latest. http://radar58.com/LGP30/ The power supplies are stable, the blower unit was overhauled and new bearings installed, all the modules have been recapped. I had a noisy bearing in the memory drum, thankfully it was one that could be accessed through the pulley end and I was able to inject fresh grease. There were burnt contacts in one of the open frame relays in the sequencer unit leading to intermittents. I found a NOS 3-pole version with fresh contacts and transferred those over yesterday and we now have correct startup. The ?digital display? chassis has been worked over with fresh resistors and this has made the controls much more responsive. The Flexowriter is behaving and the 6 associated FF's in the machine respond to keystrokes. All-told, I?m at the point of troubleshooting the scope display- I have a sad, unintelligible, wavy line, but I believe retrace is derived from the system clock track on the drum, so that?s my next investigation. Both vertical and horizontal boards have been rebuilt and tubes substituted with no change. -C

9 years, 3 months

1
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New batch of pdp8 OMNIBUS to USB interface! Please Read and react!

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Jon Elson Dave Bridgham and I have been using KiCAD for our stuff, and we're pretty happy with it. Here are a few bits: this is just data, I'm not trying to convince anyone to use it - the points about 'complex tools one is already very used to' are very good ones. > I'm most concerned about the reliability of the design rules check > ... > If these checks miss errors, I REALLY don't want to use the package. I'm not quite sure what's covered here, but I have used the checker on my admittedly-tiny projects, and been happy with it. > and layout vs. schematic. Again, Dave has used it to lay out at least one moderately-sized card, and seems to have been happy with the results. > (KiCad seems to still require picking operations from a menu, Protel > has user-configurable keyboard shortcuts that are a big help. Maybe > KiCad has that and I just need to learn them.) KiCAD does have keyboard shortcuts. I don't know if they are configurable. > From: Guy Sotomayor Jr > In terms of community supplied libraries, Eagle has those too and I've > found that by and large they are junk (it's easier/quicker for me to > create a part on my own > ... While I haven't seen a lot of KiCAD contributed libraries (that's > part of the problem) KiCAD came with a fairly large set of user-contributed libraries. For various reasons (including working with archaic parts), I've wound up adding quite a few, but i've usally found it pretty easy to modify an exising part from the libraries, to get what I need. YMMV. Noel

9 years, 3 months

7
6
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ISO IBM 3278 keyboards

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, I recently acquired a couple of IBM 3278 terminals (finally!). They are complete and working when shipped. I haven?t powered them up yet?I need to check them out but other than some slight screen burn they?re complete and very clean. However, they came with data entry keyboards. I?d really like to find one or more typewriter keyboards for 3278?s. If anyone knows where some might be pried loose, I?d appreciate it. I?m willing to trade or pay $$?s. Thanks. TTFN - Guy

9 years, 4 months

1
0
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Error in PDP-12 Prints, and maybe all PDP-12s.

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

While debugging the PDP-12 at the RICM we found a mistake on sheet TC12-0-LTR in the PDP-12 schematics. The pins on the data cable between the TU56 and the TC12 labeled BT2 and FT2 should be BL2 and FL2. DEC wired the TC12 backplane per the incorrect schematic and grounded pin F06T2 instead of F06L2. The W032 on the end of the data cable has nothing connected to pin T, so this leaves the TC12 end of the Triax cable shield for data track 3 ungrounded. Data track 3 is the one on which we are having a noise problem, so this is a promising discovery. The 1969 and 1972 PDP-12 Engineering Drawings both have the same revision sheet TC12-0-LTR and the same error. Maybe all PDP-12s have this wiring error? -- Michael Thompson

9 years, 4 months

1
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PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

well I save the tiff because that's what archivists do generally I end up using the jpeg to make picture from. or post to net! In a message dated 2/19/2017 4:25:48 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, toby at telegraphics.com.au writes: On 2017-02-19 3:50 PM, COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote: > When we scan stuff at SMECC > it is saved in the following 3 formats for each item scanned. > > PDF with ocr background > TIFF > JPEG > and if containing a lot of text a TXT file as well. > > Kind of a shotgun approach... but should stand test of time? Only if you're publishing it somewhere and many people are mirroring it. --Toby > > Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) > > > > In a message dated 2/19/2017 1:44:52 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, > jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes: > >> From: Toby Thain > >> Often the source material is a multipage TIFF from the scanner or other >> processing step. > > Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case. > >> So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils) > > But also JPEG's, for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax > compression > to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't readable - this > happens on faded pages. Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of single-page > TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in? > > Noel > >

9 years, 4 months

1
0
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Wanted: Amiga 1000 hard drive

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

Anyone have an Amiga 1000 hard drive that they want to sell?

9 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

When we scan stuff at SMECC it is saved in the following 3 formats for each item scanned. PDF with ocr background TIFF JPEG and if containing a lot of text a TXT file as well. Kind of a shotgun approach... but should stand test of time? Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 2/19/2017 1:44:52 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu writes: > From: Toby Thain > Often the source material is a multipage TIFF from the scanner or other > processing step. Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case. > So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils) But also JPEG's, for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax compression to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't readable - this happens on faded pages. Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of single-page TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in? Noel

9 years, 4 months

2
1
0 0

PDF PDF Which is right and which is ... Was Re: PDP-11/24 CPU later version

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Toby Thain > Often the source material is a multipage TIFF from the scanner or other > processing step. Multiple single-page TIFFs, in my case. > So relevant tools are things like tiff2pdf (tiffutils) But also JPEG's, for pages where the B+W scanning I use (with fax compression to keep the file size down) results in pages that aren't readable - this happens on faded pages. Does tiff2pdf handle a bunch of single-page TIFF's, with a JPEG or two throw in? Noel

9 years, 4 months

2
1
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