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

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>Hmm. This might have been before your time, but I might as well ask: >got any stories to tell about the Hazeltine 2000? I was but I've used them. They were the favorite terminals on the BOCES LIRCS KA10 system. To us TTY bangers that was fast at 1200! Allison

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

OT Rant: Smaller/thinner laptops.

by fauradon＠mn.mediaone.net

Sorry that's 10 C cell batteries. Francois >Or an Amstrad ppc 640, all 14 pounds of it, including 8 C cell batteries. :) > > >> >> Regards, >> Mark. >> > > >-- >Jim Strickland >-----------------------------------------------------------------------

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FA: Lisa MODEM

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I just listed a Lisa MODEM for auction. It's in perfect condition and in the original box. For pictures and more info see "http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=337089491". I also have a Lisa and an extra keyboard up for auction. Joe

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

OT Rant: Smaller/thinner laptops.

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On May 19, David Vohs wrote: > But in my opinion, I think laptops are made as thin as they are so you can > be lost or stolen easier. If you lose a new laptop, you are probably out > $1500 or more! That's why I like older laptops like a Tandy Model 100, > Macintosh Portable, etc. because of these reasons: > > 1. Large size > 2. *Proper* keyboards (laptop makers, please thake note!) > 3. Phenominal battery lives (see above comment) > 4. If they are lost (nobody would really want to steal an obsolete laptop) > you are out maybe $50-150 or so. > > So the newest technology is better, I beg to differ! [Dave stands up, puts on tie, holds up a copy of BusinessWeek] "But those ancient computers can't possibly work. Intel has come out with something new, therefore everything made prior to that stops working! Besides, how will I run the latest copy of Microsoft WhizBang GraphiMail without at least half a terabyte of RAM? You KNOW that I NEEEEED it in order to be a team player at my job...look, it says so in this magazine!" [Dave takes off tie, puts the copy of BusinessWeek on the floor, pees on it, and goes back to putting together his pdp11/73] -Dave McGuire

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Versatec question

by jdarren＠ala.net

Does anyone know of any currently commercially available printer/plotter compatible as a drop-in replacement for a 1970's vintage Versatec electrostatic model?

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Mark 1 computer

by mranalog＠home.com

Because a few people have asked about the old mechanical type Navy analog fire control computers: I have just put up a couple pictures of the Mk.1 fire control computer in my analog museum. http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog/fordsperry.htm I also recently picked up a couple manuals for the Mark 1 computer: COMPUTER MARK I AND MODS DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION (OP 1064) June 1945 Now I can stop envying these young guys with computers that are older than they are. I don't have the computer, but I have a user's manual that's older than me. :) BASIC FIRE CONTROL MECHANISMS (OP 1140) September 1944 This manual describes the workings of all of the basic mechanisms (multipliers, integrators, resolvers, differentials, synchros, cams, etc.) I mention this because one of these basic mechanisms was up for bid on eBay this week. And the pictures may disappear any minute!! http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330171722 This is called a Component Integrator. It has two input shafts, a Speed Input and a Angular Input. And it has two output shafts, one is the product of the speed input and the cosine of the angular input and the other is the product of the speed input and the sine of the angular input. Now back to the world of TTL logic, sorry for the interruption. --Doug ==================================================== Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com (work) Sr. Software Eng. mranalog(a)home.com (home) Press Start Inc. http://www.pressstart.com Sunnyvale,CA Curator Analog Computer Museum and History Center http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog ====================================================

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

New listmembers

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

I know the instructions for this have changed, and I can't find them (dang it!) Could someone please bring me up to date on how to bring new listmembers on-board? The fellow I wrote in about last night that has the VAXen is interested. Thanks! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho, Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com) kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com "SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PDP 8/L maintenance manual

by lemay＠cs.umn.edu

Does anyone here have a copy of the PDP 8/L Maintenance Manual, Volume #2? I seem to be missing that for some reason. It looks like I have all the rest of the stuff that originally came with the computer, plus the PDP 8/L Maintenance Course Training Notes, the KD8/L Data Break Option Functional Description, and the 8/L print set. -Lawrence LeMay

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 17, 13:06, Vintage Computer GAWD! wrote: > On Wed, 17 May 2000, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > > Yes, probably :-) Since you wouldn't need much code, and nothing on a > > standard Apple uses interrupts, you could go one further and make it a > > time-sliced system instead of a cooperative one, with a very simple circuit > > (not much more than a 555 timer, though you might want it on a card with a > > PROM to hold the code). > > I considered this. An easier way to do this is to copy the BASIC ROM into > RAM in the upper 16K bank of memory and then modify the interpreter to > switch after the execution of each BASIC program line. Depends on whether you prefer hardware to software, I guess :-) Modifying BASIC in a language card also has the advantage that it only tries to switch when it's actually executing BASIC (rather than some DOS routine or something you've BRUN) but I suspect that after-every-line is too often -- you'd spend a lot of time (proportionately speaking) context switching. And it would be irregular; a multi-statement line encompassing a loop will take much longer than a simple statement. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 1 month

19
34
0 0

Apple II vapor-lock

by paulrsm＠ameritech.net

Here is the original article, which predates the Apple IIe. I scanned and OCR'd the article in response to a recent (beginning of March) thread on comp.sys.apple2.programmer. The Apple IIe vertical blanking signal (VBL) is at $C019. If the high bit is clear then vertical blanking is active. I used this signal to write a "lightstick" program for a contest in the June 1986 issue of II Computing. I got a letter back saying my entry was the best, but the prize was a year's subscription and the magazine went bust before announcing the winner. Bill Bell, the Boston designer who created the lightstick, calls the images "saccadoscoptics". Paul R. Santa-Maria Ann Arbor, Michigan USA paulrsm(a)ameritech.net Have an Apple Split by Bob Bishop Softalk, October 1982 [This is a plain text file but I have used HTML codes to indicate italic and boldface.] Have you ever wanted to create a display with both lo-res graphics and hi-res graphics on the same screen? Or graphics with more than just four lines of text at the bottom? Or how about text with four lines of graphics? As we all know, the Apple II has only five display formats. It can display all lo-res graphics, all hi-res graphics, all text, lo-res with four lines of text at the bottom, or hi-res with four lines of text at the bottom. The latter two formats are sometimes called mixed modes because they allow, in a very restricted way, the mixing of graphics and text. But, according to page 12 of the Apple II Reference Manual, "There is no way to display both graphics modes at the same time." Well, not only are there ways of displaying both graphics modes on the same screen, it is also possible to display any combination of modes! The technique of mixing display modes by the process of screen splitting is familiar to programmers who've used the Apple III, the Atari 400 and 800 machines, and several other computers. These machines contain special hardware that helps detect what is referred to as vertical blanking and horizontal blanking. What is not generally known is that the blanking can be detected by the Apple II, even though it lacks the special hardware found in those other machines. Example Program. Before jumping into a technical discussion of the hows and whys of screen splitting, let's look at an example of screen splitting on the Apple II. Listings 1 and 2 present a short Applesoft main program and a machine language subroutine that the program calls. Take a few moments now to turn on your Apple and enter these two programs. Don't worry if you don't understand machine language. Just go into the Monitor from Basic by typing call-151 followed by the return key. Then start typing in the hexadecimal values for the listing 2 subroutine that starts at $0300: 300:8D 52 C0 A9 E0 A2 and so on followed by the return key. Now run the Applesoft program. What do you see? (Nothing, if you didn't type in the listings correctly.) You should see a text message in the top half of the screen and lo-res color graphics in the bottom half. This is a display mode that's supposed to be impossible to create on a standard Apple II computer! To understand how to do screen splitting on the Apple II, you must be familiar not only with 6502 machine language but also with how the Apple maps its memory onto the display screen. (The latter information can be found on pages 14 through 21 of the Apple II Reference Manual.) The essence of what we need to know about hi-res in particular is shown in figure 1. Each line of the display is forty bytes long from left to right, and there are 192 such lines from top to bottom. The memory mapping seems somewhat haphazard: consecutive memory locations don't map onto consecutive lines of the display. Finally, for each set of 128 bytes of display memory only 120 bytes (three lines' worth) are displayed. The remaining eight bytes of the 128-byte set are never seen and are therefore sometimes referred to as the "undisplayed" or "unused" bytes. These undisplayed bytes all lie, conceptually, just off the bottom right-hand edge of the display, as shown in figure 1. Text and lo-res both map in a way similar to hi-res, except that each cluster of eight lines now comes from one set of forty bytes instead of eight sets, and instead of the screen buffer being located at $2000 through $3FFF it lies at $0400 through $07FF. (Compare the Apple II Reference Manual pages 16 and 18 with page 21.) Some Preliminary Insights. Let's try a few experiments that might give us some clues as to how screen splitting can be accomplished. >From Basic type the command call -151 (followed by return) to get into the Monitor. Next, clear the screen by issuing the escape--shift-P sequence. Now type C051 followed by return. (Hitting return will always be assumed from now on.) The computer will probably display: C051- A0 (If it doesn't, try typing C051 again.) Typing C051 from the Monitor is the way to turn on text mode if the computer is displaying graphics. But since we're already in text mode, nothing much happens--nothing much except that the contents of $C051 are displayed. But $C051 isn't supposed to be a readable address; it's merely a screen switch. So what does it mean for $C051 to contain $A0? Is it just a coincidence that $A0 is the hex code for an ASCII blank, and that most of the screen is also blank? What would happen if we typed C054? Or C056? Again, we tend to get $A0 if the screen is mostly blank. Let's try another experiment. Again from the Monitor, type: 2000:73 2001<2000.3FFEM followed by. C050 C053 C057 You should see some vertical hi-res lines with space for four lines of text at the bottom of the screen. Now type C050, or C053, or C054, or C057. Most of the time we now see $73 in the screen switch locations, and once in a while we see $A0. (Remember that the bottom four text lines on the screen are mostly blank.) The results of the previous experiments suggest that by examining the screen switches we can somehow read the contents of at least part of the screen currently being displayed. But, to determine the time-history of what is being read, we must first find a way to "tag" the screen data and then sample the soft switches very quickly. Doing this would provide us with a cycle-by-cycle map of how the Apple's video is generated. In other words, we could determine which locations in memory the information in the screen switches is coming from during each clock cycle of the processor. Such a cycle-by-cycle map would be extremely useful in the implementation and understanding of screen splitting on the Apple II. Tagging and Sampling a Hi-Res Screen. Now let's create a special hi-res display. We'll put zeros in the forty bytes of the hi-res memory buffer that correspond to line 0 and ones in all the bytes corresponding to line 1. Line 2 will contain all twos, and so on. In other words, line n will contain all n's, for n = 0 to 191 ($00 to $BF). But we still haven't tagged the undisplayed bytes in the bottom right-hand corner (screen lines 128 through 191). Let's fill these sixty-four sets of eight-byte "invisible" lines with the values $C0 through $FF. Then every byte in the primary hi-res display buffer ($2000 through $3FFF), whether displayed or not, will contain a known quantity from $00 to $FF. Listing 3 is a program for creating such a hi-res display of tagged screen data. Two versions are given; one in Integer Basic and one in Applesoft. Use Integer if you have it. It's faster. Next we need to devise a way of quickly and uniformly sampling a screen switch over and over and saving each sample for later study. One way of doing this might be with a program like the following. LDX #$00 LOOP LDA $C050 STA $1000,X INX BNE LOOP This program is very short and straightforward, but it suffers from two major flaws: first, it does not provide the fastest possible sampling (because of the time required for index register operations). Second, it allows only 256 data points to be sampled and stored. If we try to remedy the second flaw by changing the method of storage to STA (indirect),Y we not only aggravate the first flaw but introduce delays into the loop that cause us to generate unevenly spaced samples after every two hundred fifty-sixth fetch. The best approach is to create a sampling program of the form: LDA $C050 STA $1000 LDA $C050 STA $1001 LDA $C050 STA $1002 and so on. There's no loop involved; an individual set of LDA and STA commands is used for each check. Such a program is quite long (six bytes per sample) but executes very quickly (one sample per eight machine cycles) and yields uniformly spaced data. The programs in listing 4 generate the machine language program just described. Again, use the Integer version if you have that language. We're now ready for business. Having run the programs shown in listings 3 and 4, we have the tagged hi-res data starting at $2000 and the sampling program starting at $4000. We run the sampler by entering the Monitor and giving the command 4000G. After a brief flash of the screen the program terminates, leaving its collection of screen samples starting at $1000 in the Integer version or $8000 in the Applesoft version. Figure 2 is a partial listing of the key results of the sampling program. The entire listing of all the samples is much longer. Interested readers are encouraged to generate their own complete set of data using the programs described above. Before we can begin interpreting these results, we must discuss some fundamental concepts about television video and the Apple. Television Images. A standard television picture consists of 525 interlaced scan lines that start in the upper left-hand corner of the screen and end in the bottom-right. "Interlaced" means that the image on the screen is created by first scanning all the even lines of the picture and then going back and filling in all the odd lines. In each scan line, the electron beam starts at the left side of the display and travels across the screen to the right, displaying one line of the image as it moves. When the beam finishes at the right end of each scan line, it shuts off for a few microseconds while it repositions itself at the beginning of the next line to be scanned. This shut-off period is referred to as horizontal blanking (HBL). When the beam reaches the bottom of the screen and finishes scanning the last line, it again shuts off, this time for a few milliseconds while it repositions itself at the top of the display for the next frame of the image. This second turn-off period is referred to as vertical blanking (VBL). The total time required to complete one interlaced frame (including VBLs) is one-thirtieth of a second. When the Apple computer was first being designed, it was discovered that a computer-generated interlaced video signal produced a display that had an objectionable flicker. So interlacing was not used, even though this meant that half of the potential vertical resolution would be lost. This lost spatial resolution allowed Apple to achieve increased temoral resolution; instead of generating only thirty video frames per second, the Apple generates sixty, because the Apple uses the interlace to display a new 192-line frame. A second design consideration in the Apple II was the decision not to overscan the screen. "Overscanning" means that the image extends slightly beyond the four edges of the screen so that the picture fills the entire viewing area. Instead, so that information in the corners won't be lost, the Apple leaves a small dark border of unused screen in all of its display modes. This further reduces the number of visible scan lines in each frame, so that only 192 lines remain in the display. The Apple transfers its video data to the screen at a rate of one byte per machine cycle. Each scan line requires a total of sixty-five cycles >from HBL to HBL. Since the Apple produces a forty-column display (forty byes per line), we can deduce that twenty-five cycles of each scan line are spent in a turned-off state and forty cycles are spent turned on. But even when the video is turned off, the screen switches can still be sampled. What will they contain? Interpreting the Sampled Results. Let's return to figure 2 to see what we can learn from our sampled data. Locations $119B through $119F all contain zeros. Our sampling program required eight cycles per sample. Consequently, the five samples represent forty machine cycles--exactly the duration of the visible part of one scan line. Since the top line of our display was the only line containing all zeros. we infer that the data stored at $119B represents the beginning of a video frame. After three strange bytes ($11A0-$11A2) we see five ones in a row. These apparently represent the next scan line down, followed by three more strange bytes, and so on. Well, if we've identified the data that isn't strange as representing the visible portions of the scan lines, then it follows that the strange bytes must be coming during HBL, and that HBL maps from $81 lines ahead of the line just scanned. The fact that HBL seems to come from such a far-away place is confusing enough in itself, but why an odd number like $81 instead of a nice power of two or something (like $80)? Something about these results doesn't feel right; they just don't seem to make any sense. Well, our decision to attribute HBL to the end of a scan line was simply one of convention. Since HBL occurs between scan lines, we could just as easily have attributed it to the beginning of a scan line. Then our interpretation of the data in figure 2 would be that a scan line consists of its visible forty-cycle component preceded by its invisible twenty-five-cycle HBL component, which is mapped from $40 display lines earlier. This model assumes a circular screen; that is, if counting up $40 lines would take you off the top of the screen, continue counting up from the bottom. If we interpret the data in this fashion, it soon becomes evident that: a complete sixty-five-cycle scan line consists of sixty-five consecutive bytes of display buffer memory that starts twenty-five bytes prior to the actual data to be displayed. (See figure 3.) We can even see the undisplayed bytes of the screen buffer (where we stored the values $C0 through $FF, remember?) in locations $119A, $11A2, and so on; they're right where we'd expect them to be. If we now look at locations $17AB through $17AF in figure 2 we see that they all contain $BF, which represents the bottom line of the display. Thus $17B0 must be the start of VBL. During VBL the data acts just as if it were starting a whole new frame from the beginning, but it never finishes this pseudo-frame. After getting one third of the way through the frame (to scan line $3F), it suddenly repeats the previous six scan lines ($3A through $3F) before aborting to begin the next true frame. Examine locations $1970 through $19FF in figure 2. If we had done our tagging and sampling exercise using a lo-res or text screen instead, the results would have been similar. The only difference would have been that each row of sixty-five bytes in the display would be repeated eight times, since both text and lo-res "characters" are eight scan lines tall. Example Program Revisited. Now that we have a better feeling for what's going on, let's go back and try to understand how the screen splitting example in listing 1 worked. The for-next loop in lines 200 through 250 does three things: 1. Line 210 pokes the value $E0 into the middle line of text/low-res display. 2. Line 220 pokes the value $A0 into the bottom line of the display. 3. Lines 230 and 240 create a simple lo-res pattern of colored vertical lines. After printing a text message (lines 300 through 310) in the top part of the screen, the program calls (in line 400) the machine language screen splitting subroutine located at $0300. Line 500 then keeps re-calling the subroutine so that screen splitting will continue. Screen splitting is a dynamic process; it requires a program to keep it working. If the program stops, screen splitting stops. Try hitting control-C and see what happens. Now let's examine the machine language subroutine. Ironically, one of the first things we have to do to produce a mixed mode display is to turn off the mixed mode screen switch, $C052. Since we'll be doing our own mixing we don't want the Apple to confuse things by putting in its own mode switching. The rest of the routine consists of two virtually identical polling loops. The first loop ($0305 through $030E) sets text mode by referencing screen switch $C051 and, at the same time, waits for four consecutive $E0s to be scanned. Where do these $E0s come from? From the middle of the display screen where they were poked by line 210 of the Applesoft program! When the $E0s are detected, the subroutine enters the second pollng loop ($0311 through $031A). This loop sets lo-res graphics mode by referencing screen switch $C050 and then waits for four consecutive $A0s (from the bottom line of the display) to be scanned. Once the $A0s have been detected, the mode is set back to text (at location $031B) and the subroutine returns to the main program. There are a few subtleties here that should be pointed out. Why, for example, do we require four consecutive occurrences of $A0 and $E0 instead of just one? The reason for this can be inferred from figure 3. We see that every displayed line also has apart of itself mapped into some other display line's twenty-five-cycle "invisible" HBL component. This complicates the problem of detecting where the beam is currently scanning on the display. How do we know whether the data being sampled is coming >from a visible scan or from an invisible HBL? Well, a visible scan consists of forty cycles of data, while the invisible HBL can only be twenty-five cycles at most. So, by requiring several consecutive samples whose fetching times total more than twenty-five cycles duration, we will eliminate false triggerings from HBL. Be careful not to exceed forty cycles or you'll miss the visible data too. The process of mode changing sometimes tends to produce small unsightly glitches on the display screen. To test this out, change the contents of location $0305 in our example program in listing 2 to be either a $03 or a $02 and see if it makes any difference in the display. You can see how it's a good idea to try to change modes during HBL (or VBL) rather than in the middle of a visible scan line. Another subtlety in the example program lies in our choice of $A0 and $E0 as tag bytes. While any values could have been used as tags, the values $A0 and $E0 are especially useful because they both appear as blanks on a text screen. On a lo-res graphics screen they appear (in our example) as a row of black (or blank) over a row of color. Thus these values provide a convenient way of switching cleanly between text and graphics modes. In Conclusion. From our examination of the example program, we see that screen splitting consists of essentially two steps. First, the screen must be preformatted with "tagged" lines at the points where screen splitting is to occur (that is, the $A0 and $E0 lines in our example). Second, a machine language subroutine must be written that detects these tagged lines and then quickly switches display modes. But the process is far from being trivial, and it requires a certain amount of creativity and ingenuity to design screens that can be split cleanly and effectively. What are some applications of screen splitting? Well, it can provide for a little more variety and flexibility in display modes above and beyond the basic five that everyone knows about. To this end I have used screen splitting to create the opening displays for several commercially available games (Maxwell's Demon/Bishop's Square, from Datasoft, Inc.; Money Munchers, from DataMost). In addition to splitting a screen, we can superimpose screens. For example, if we print some words on the primary text screen and plot some lo-res colors in the corresponding locations of the secondary lo-res screen, then by screen switching, we could produce text on top of a colored background (if we don't mind a little bit of flicker). Similarly, by combining the two hi-res pages in such a way that the primary page has all of its high bits off while the secondary page has all of its high bits on, we can generate true 560 x 192 hi-res graphics. It is then possible to write a hi-res character generator for this mode that, in effect, produces eighty columns of text (in hi-res) without benefit of an eighty-column card! The possibilities arising from screen splitting seem quite exciting, to say the least. But there is, unfortunately, one fly in the ointment--the technique may not work on all Apples. Looking at the screen switches like we've been doing is called "reading the floating bus," and it's something that Apple Computer never intended to be done. Therefore, they make no guarantees that the data read in this manner will be meaningful, especially when certain peripheral cards are plugged into the expansion slots. In fact, this method of screen splitting doesn't work on the Apple III at all, even in emulation mode, because its bus doesn't float. But there seem to be very few Apple IIs in which the method can't be made to work when the incompatible peripherals are unplugged. If you can't get screen splitting to work on your Apple, you might want to try running the machine language program shown in listing 5. Load a hi-res picture into the primary display buffer ($2000 through $3FFF), create any lo-res display on the primary lo-res screen, and then run the program at $1000. This program is an example of screen splitting using nothing but timing loops. But there's no way to synchronize the splitting. So, each time you run the program, the split will occur at a different vertical position on the screen, depending on which scan line you just happen to catch the beam on. This program should work on all Apples. ----------------------- The author would like to thank D. Kottke, R. Nicholson, and B. Smith of Apple Computer for their helpfull discussions on Apple II video hardware and L. Grossberger of Eclectic Electric for her suggestions and help in preparing the diagrams for this article. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 100 HOME 200 FOR K = 0 TO 39 210 POKE 1448 + K, 14 * 16 220 POKE 2000 + K, 10 * 16 230 COLOR= K + 4 240 VLIN 25,45 AT K 250 NEXT K 300 VTAB 6: HTAB 17 310 PRINT "APPLE II" 400 CALL 768 500 GOTO 400 Listing 1. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 0300- 8D 52 C0 STA $C052 0303- A9 E0 LDA #$E0 0305- A2 04 LDX #$04 0307- CD 51 C0 CMP $C051 030A- D0 F9 BNE $0305 030C- CA DEX 030D- D0 F8 BNE $0307 030F- A9 A0 LDA #$A0 0311- A2 04 LDX #$04 0313- CD 50 C0 CMP $C050 0316- D0 F9 BNE $0311 0318- CA DEX 0319- D0 F8 BNE $0313 031B- 8D 51 C0 STA $C051 031E- 60 RTS Listing 2. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - LINE ADDRESS _______________________________________ $00 $2000 | | $2027 $01 $2400 | | $02 $2800 | | $03 $2C00 | | $04 $3000 | | $05 $3400 | | $06 $3800 | | $07 $3C00 | | $08 $2080 | | ... ... | | | | / / / / | | |_______________________________________| $40 $2028 ----| | $204F | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | / / / / | | |_______________________________________|_______ $80 $2050 ----| | | $207F | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | / / / / / / | | | $BF $3FD0 ----|_______________________________________|_______| $3FFF |<------------- DISPLAYED ------------->|<- \ ->| UNDISPLAYED Arrow from $2000 to $2027. Arrow from $2027 to $2028. Arrow from $2028 to $204F. Arrow from $274F to $2050. Arrow from $2050 to $207F. Arrow from $207F to $2000. Figure 1. Memory mapping of bytes on hi-res page. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 100 FOR Y = 0 TO 191 110 GOSUB 1000 120 FOR X = 0 TO 39 130 POKE BASE + X,Y 140 NEXT X,Y 150 FOR Y = 128 TO 191 160 GOSUB 1000 170 FOR X = 40 TO 47 180 POKE BASE + X,Y + 64 190 NEXT X,Y 200 END 1000 L = Y:S = 0:Q = 0 1010 S = INT (L / 64) 1020 L = L - S * 64 1030 Q = INT (L / 8) 1040 L = L - Q * 8 1050 BASE = 8192 + 1024 * L + 128 * Q + 40 * S 1060 RETURN Listing 3--Applesoft. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 100 FOR Y = 0 TO 191 110 GOSUB 1000 120 FOR X = 0 TO 39 130 POKE BASE+X,Y 140 NEXT X,Y 150 FOR Y = 128 TO 191 160 GOSUB 1000 170 FOR X = 40 TO 47 180 POKE BASE+X,Y+64 190 NEXT X,Y 500 END 1000 BASE=8192+40*(Y/64)+1024*(Y MOD 8)+128*((Y MOD 64)/8): RETURN Listing 3--Integer Basic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 10 PC = 16384 20 POKE PC + 1,80: POKE PC + 4,82: POKE PC + 7,87 30 FOR K = 1 TO 3 40 POKE PC,141: POKE PC + 2,192 50 PC = PC + 3 60 NEXT K 100 FOR LOC = 32768 TO 34816 110 POKE PC,173 120 POKE PC + 1,80 130 POKE PC + 2,192 140 POKE PC + 3,141 150 HLOC = INT (LOC / 256) 160 LLOC = LOC - (HLOC * 256) 170 POKE PC + 4,LLOC 180 POKE PC + 5,HLOC 190 PC = PC + 6 200 NEXT LOC 210 POKE PC,141: POKE PC+1,81: POKE PC+2,192: POKE PC+3,96 Listing 4--Applesoft. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 10 PC=16384: LOC=4096 20 LDA=10*16+13: STA=8*16+13: C050LO=5*16: C050HI=12*16: RTS=96 40 POKE PC+1,C050LO: POKE PC+4,C050LO+2: POKE PC+7,C050LO+7 50 FOR K = 1 TO 3 60 POKE PC,STA: POKE PC+2,C050HI 70 PC=PC+3 80 NEXT K 100 FOR K=1 TO 2048 110 POKE PC+0,LDA 120 POKE PC+1,C050LO 130 POKE PC+2,C050HI 140 POKE PC+3,STA 150 POKE PC+4,LOC MOD 256 160 POKE PC+5,LOC/256 170 PC=PC+6: LOC=LOC+1 180 NEXT K 190 POKE PC,STA: POKE PC+1,C050LO+1: POKE PC+2,C050HI: POKE PC+3,RTS Listing 4--Integer Basic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 1120- B7 F7 37 37 37 37 B8 B8 17A8- 7F 7F 7F BF BF BF BF BF 1128- B8 F8 38 38 38 38 B9 B9 17B0- 80 80 80 C0 00 00 00 00 1130- B9 F9 39 39 39 39 BA BA 17B8- 81 81 81 C1 01 01 01 01 1138- BA FA 3A 3A 3A 3A BB BB 17C0- 82 82 82 C2 02 02 02 02 1140- BB BB FB 3B 3B 3B 3B BC 17C8- 83 83 83 C3 03 03 03 03 1148- BC BC FC 3C 3C 3C 3C BD 17D0- 84 84 84 C4 04 04 04 04 1150- BD BD FD 3D 3D 3D 3D BE 17D8- A5 85 85 85 C5 05 05 05 1158- BE BE FE 3E 3E 3E 3E BF 17E0- 05 86 86 86 C6 06 06 06 1160- BF BF FF 3F 3F 3F 3F BA 17E8- 06 87 87 87 C7 07 07 07 1168- BA BA FA 3A 3A 3A 3A BB 17F0- 07 88 88 88 C8 08 08 08 1170- BB BB FB 3B 3B 3B 3B BC 17F8- 08 89 89 89 C9 09 09 09 1178- BC BC FC 3C 3C 3C 3C BD 1180- BD BD BD FD 3D 3D 3D 3D 1970- B7 B7 F7 37 37 37 37 B8 1188- BE BE BE FE 3E 3E 3E 3E 1978- B8 B8 F8 38 38 38 38 B9 1190- BF BF BF FF 3F 3F 3F 3F 1980- B9 B9 F9 39 39 39 39 BA 1198- 80 80 C0 00 00 00 00 00 1988- BA BA FA 3A 3A 3A 3A BB 11A0- 81 81 C1 01 01 01 01 01 1990- BB BB FB 3B 3B 3B 3B BC 11A8- 82 82 C2 02 02 02 02 02 1998- BC BC FC 3C 3C 3C 3C BD 11B0- 83 83 C3 03 03 03 03 03 19A0- BD BD BD FD 3D 3D 3D 3D 11B8- 84 84 C4 04 04 04 04 04 19A8- BE BE BE FE 3E 3E 3E 3E 11C0- A5 85 85 C5 05 05 05 05 19B0- BF BF BF FF 3F 3F 3F 3F 11C8- 05 86 86 C6 06 06 06 06 19B8- BA BA BA FA 3A 3A 3A 3A 11D0- 06 87 87 C7 07 07 07 07 19C0- BB BB BB FB 3B 3B 3B 3B 19C8- BC BC BC FC 3C 3C 3C 3C 1780- 7A 7A BA BA BA BA BA 7B 19D0- BD BD BD FD 3D 3D 3D 3D 1788- 7B 7B BB BB BB BB BB 7C 19D8- BE BE BE FE 3E 3E 3E 3E 1790- 7C 7C BC BC BC BC BC 7D 19E0- BF BF BF BF FF 3F 3F 3F 1798- 7D 7D 7D BD BD BD BD BD 19E8- 3F 80 80 C0 00 00 00 00 17A0- 7E 7E 7E BE BE BE BE BE 19F0- 00 81 81 C1 01 01 01 01 19F8- 01 82 82 C2 02 02 02 02 Figure 2. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - BEGIN VISIBLE _______________________________________ END OF SCAN SCAN LINE $00 | | | LINE $00 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | BEGIN VISIBLE |---------------------------------------| END OF SCAN SCAN LINE 'L' | | | LINE 'L' | BEGIN HBL FOR |-----------------------| END HBL FOR | SCAN LINE 'N' | ^ | SCAN LINE 'N' | | | | | | $40 LINES | | | | | | | v | BEGIN VISIBLE |---------------------------------------| END OF SCAN SCAN LINE 'N' | | | LINE 'N' | | | | BEGIN HBL FOR | | END HBL FOR | SCAN LINE $BF |_______________________| SCAN LINE $BF | _______________|_______ | BEGIN HBL FOR | | | END HBL FOR | SCAN LINE $00 | | | SCAN LINE $00 | | | | | BEGIN HBL FOR |_______________|_______| END HBL FOR | SCAN LINE 'L' | | | SCAN LINE 'L' | | | | | | | | BEGIN VISIBLE |_______________________|_______________|_______| END OF SCAN SCAN LINE $BF LINE $BF Figure 3. Cycle-by-cycle map of video frame. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 1000- A2 00 LDX #$00 1002- 20 1A 10 JSR $101A 1005- 8D 50 C0 STA $C050 1008- 8D 57 C0 STA $C057 1006- F0 00 BEQ $100D 100D- 20 1A 10 JSR $101A 1010- 8D 52 C0 STA $C052 1013- 8D 56 C0 STA $C056 1016- EA NOP 1017- 4C 02 10 JMP $1002 101A- A0 06 LDY #$06 101C- CA DEX 101D- D0 FD BNE $101C 101F- 88 DEY 1020- D0 FA BNE $101C 1022- A2 9D LDX #$9D 1024- CA DEX 1025- D0 FD BNE $1024 1027- 60 RTS Listing 5. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FW: VAXstation 3500 help please

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Forwarded to both CLASSICCMP and port-VAX (NetBSD) mailing lists). Found on Usenet. Got a fellow who's come across a VAXstation 3500 (Mayfair CPU?), and needs help with it. I've already tried answering some of his questions, but if anyone else wants to send him mail please feel free. Thanks! Attachment follows. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- On Thu, 18 May 2000 20:42:24 -0400, in comp.unix.questions you wrote: >>Path: news.uswest.net!news-out.uswest.net!newsfeed.cwix.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!not-for-mail >>From: Iakovlev <iakovlev(a)mailcity.com> >>Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions >>Subject: VAXstation 3500 help please >>Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 20:42:24 -0400 >>Lines: 21 >>Message-ID: <39248DF0.D4C6692(a)mailcity.com> >>Reply-To: iakovlev(a)mailcity.com >>Mime-Version: 1.0 >>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >>X-Trace: wTfHF6OMbeKq6zRHTOHpf7j73AT8ReoCax6idfw8g+o= >>X-Complaints-To: abuse(a)rcn.com >>NNTP-Posting-Date: 19 May 2000 01:47:21 GMT >>X-Accept-Language: en,ru >>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; U) >>Xref: news-out.uswest.net comp.unix.questions:17667 >> >>I ve got a VAXstation 3500 with no cables or monitor >> >>I do have transceivers and various monitors, but have no clue >>of how to connects any input/output devices.... >> >>I'm a student and have a purely educational interest in the beast - no >>love affairs or anything like that.... >> >>What's inside of it? >>What size of SCSI HD I can find inside? >>How big is the memory? >>Is there such a thing as video/memory? >> >>It comes with TK70 tape drive - is it still usable? how much data can it >>write to a tape - I even have 2 tapes for it! >> >>I have also 2 VT220 things - can they work with the beast? >> >>thank you so much for any useful info >> >>alex -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies -- kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech [dot] com Web: http://www.bluefeathertech.com "...No matter how we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them..."

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Stardent available

by djg＠drs-esg.com

Ok, its 4 months short of its 10th birthday but close enough. Work has a Stardent 1500/3000 Titan? computer they will be getting rid of. The machine did run when last powered on within the last year and comes with manuals (OS and programming, not much hardware) and backup tapes. It runs Unix. From what I understand it was for its time a "super mini" with good graphics capability. I haven't used it so am not too familiar with it. The machine is in a 4 foot rack and takes up a good portion of it so pickup in Gaithersburg MD is the best option if you want it. Anybody who offers PDP-8 stuff for my collection gets it otherwise probably free to whoever can take it. At this point work is saying they want to free the space but hasn't actually decided to get rid of it, verified it has no resale value etc. If you are interested let me know and I will let you know when work finishes the process. David Gesswein djg(a)drs-esg.com http://www.pdp8.net/ -- Old computers with blinken lights

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PDP 8/L console

by lemay＠cs.umn.edu

My PDP 8/L that I recently acquired, has a cable that i assume is for the console terminal. It has a 9 pin male connector with only pins 1 through 6 present. Is this a standard serial connection? This was a papertape based system, so it may have been connected to a teletype ASR 33. Will I need to locate something that can do 110 baud to use as a console? Also, I'm very curious about the other cables comming from the 8/L... I have 6 flat black cables, similar to ribbon cable but thicker, with 9 'wires' on each cable. possibly each 'wire' is something similar to coax, but i'm not sure... Each pair of these ribbon-like cables go together into a centronics 36 pin male connector. thus there are 3 centronics connectors, which are labeled: "A D36", "B D35", "C D34". Any clues as to what this might be for? -Lawrence LeMay

26 years, 1 month

3
4
0 0

Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Umm does this mean that I get a good deal from the 55 to 60 cents a pound the scrapper I go to gives me for circut boards? Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 5/18/2000 8:15:03 AM Pacific Daylight Time, foo(a)siconic.com writes: > > What kind of truck is this? It sounds like a classic computer cornucopia. > Did this truck get into some accident on the way to the computer store or > something? > Trucks, Trailers and outbuildings are always around scrapyards. They often get filled with "low value" scrap items "junk" that the yard owner doesn't want to deal with when they come in, like terminals and printers. Some times those piles sit for years. Investigate all Shipping Containers. Sometimes they are used for storage, but most of the time they are being filled with outgoing scrap on it's way to China. If you can be there with your screwdrivers when it is being loaded sometimes you can find neat stuff. You don't want to get in the way of the loading operation, but if you have developed a relationship with the scrapper you can often cull as it is being loaded. Adopt your local scrapper. Offer twice the scrap value or more, don't get in the way and you will be, more than likely, welcome. Paxton PS. Most of the scrap going into containers brings 5 to 10 cents per pound to the dealer loading it.

26 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

FA: Apple Lisa and extra Lisa keyboard

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

FS: An extra Apple Lisa that I picked up yesterday. Also see "seller's other auctions" for an extra keyboard for a Lisa. "http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=335880842".

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before

by paulrsm＠ameritech.net

---------- > From: Eric J. Korpela <korpela(a)albert.ssl.berkeley.edu> > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before > Date: Thursday, May 18, 2000 12:28 PM > > Of course, none of this is a concern with cooperative multitasking of BASIC > programs but if someone implements an interupt generator on a ][ for > multitasking purposes, it could become a concern. Someone did. The GEOS system came with a board that generated interrupts that you could use if you did not have an Apple II mouse card to generate the interrupts. Another interrupt generator could be a clock card. Paul R. Santa-Maria Ann Arbor, Michigan USA paulrsm(a)ameritech.net

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Cromemco ??

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

> Are there any Crommeco experts out there? I have a couple of questiosn >about the Cromemco terminals and printers. I've got several thousand pages of Cromemco documentation here at the moment, mostly on their S-100 boards and software packages, and a little on terminals and printers. Which terminals and printers are you interested in? Tim.

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Univac Lamp interesting piece

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Though the typing and CAPITIALIZATION done by said seller makes me want to beat myself with a shovel, they are a really great person to do business with, one of the most nice and understanding ones I've seen to be sure.. Not to be making an ebay plug, but I guess the old "don't judge a book by its cover" comes in here... Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Cromemco ??

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Hi, Are there any Crommeco experts out there? I have a couple of questiosn about the Cromemco terminals and printers. Joe

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer

by mgregory＠vantageresearch.com

-----Original Message----- From: Vintage Computer GAWD! <foo(a)siconic.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 10:37 PM Subject: Re: Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer > >Also, I think I'll mention Pawn Shops in a revised edition, mostly to warn >people not to even bother. Anything they have will be too recent to be of >any interest, and they certainly wouldn't give anyone good money for an >old piece of junk computer, and thus have any for sale. Also, the stuff >they sell is, in my experience, horribly over-priced, sometimes over >retail! > In my area, there's a related type of store that is worth a look. It's a chain called "Cash Converters", where they buy your unwanted goods (at substantially less than the estimated value) and then sell them in a retail environment. Like a permanent garage sale under one roof. Unlike a pawn shop, you can't reclaim your item for what they gave you for it. They occasionally have classic comp stuff; I've found TRS-80s of various kinds, Model 100s, PS/2s, Newtons and a lot of older software. The prices are initially set high, but if an item doesn't sell, they progressively reduce the price until it does. IIRC, the concept originated in Australia, and there are also stores in the States. Regards, Mark.

26 years, 1 month

8
7
0 0

Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

>> Model 100s, PS/2s, Newtons and a lot of older software. The prices are >> initially set high, but if an item doesn't sell, they progressively >reduce >> the price until it does. > >You in Sydney? The Ca$h Converter$ in Adelaide seem not to have heard >of the progressive reduction in price part of the concept. I saw an >real IBM XT, 2FDD no HDD, Monochrome, about 6 months ago with a $250 >price tag on it. It was still there with the same price 3 weeks ago. >Perhaps the Sydney stores get more turnover. I've yet to see a good He can't be in Sydney. I am and I've never seen them behave like that. I rarely even look. At the Bondi Junction store there's usually more staff than customers at the hours I visit and they look mean and hungry. Hans

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Finding Classic Computers

by mgregory＠vantageresearch.com

-----Original Message----- From: Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 4:08 PM Subject: RE: Finding Classic Computers > >There is a couple in AZ with a working, flying, F104. (one of those neat >ones if not the 104). > Actually, it's an ex-CF-104, built for the Canadian Armed Forces. The main differences (IIRC) were in modified flaps, leading edge slats and air brakes to provide better low-speed performance. The perennially cash-strapped CAF actually operated the Starfighter, designed as a high-speed interceptor, as fighter-bombers (!) for ground support in Europe. This doubtless contributed to the 104's reputation as a "widow-maker" in the CAF. Nice toy if you have money to burn and like to sightsee at Mach 2. Mark.

26 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

Building PDP-11 Boot Tapes

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

OK, I'm feeling lazy. Is it possible to build a PDP-11 TK-50 Boot tape under OpenVMS V7.2? What can I say, I really don't feel like getting my DECstation 5000/133 fully up and running with NetBSD, moving the TZ30 from my PDP-11/73 to the DECstation, making the tape, then moving the TZ30 back just to build a tape. Hmm, maybe I should just use an emulator to build UNIX V7M RL02 images for my /44 and then use a VAX to make the diskpacks :^) BTW, PUP's is now setup so you can access it after going through the SCO 'click-through' AT&T Source License. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

26 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

additional DEC PDP-11 Manual For Sale

by jdarren＠ala.net

*shipping is not included in listed price. DEC PDP-11 DR11-C GENERAL DEVICE INTERFACE MANUAL, 1974 ($15) ==================================================== ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 46 PAGES ? SECTIONS ARE (1) INTRODUCTION, (2) SOFTWARE INTERFACE, (3) USER INPUT/OUTPUT SIGNALS, (4) THEORY OF OPERATION, (5) MAINTENANCE, (6) EXAMPLES, AND (7) ENGINEERING DRAWING SET. ? APPENDICES ARE (A) INTEGRATED CIRCUIT AND (B) USE OF BB11.

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

DEC PDP-11 Manuals For Sale

by jdarren＠ala.net

*shipping is not included in listed price. CR11/CM11 CARD READER SYSTEM MANUAL, 1975 ($25) ========================================= ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 1/4-INCH THICK ? SECTIONS ARE (1) INTRODUCTION, (2) GENERAL DESCRIPTION, (3) OPERATION, (4) PROGRAMMING INFORMATION, AND (5) THEORY OF OPERATION. ? APPENDICES ARE (A) GDI CARD READERS, (B) CARD READER INTERFACE SIGNALS, (C) HOLLERITH CODE, AND (D) INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DESIGN. DEC PDP-11 DL11-W SERIAL LINE UNIT/REAL-TIME CLOCK OPTION MAINTENANCE MANUAL, 1977 ($15) ============================================================================ ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 74 PAGES ? SECTIONS ARE (1) INTRODUCTION, (2) CONFIGURATION, (3) PROGRAMMING INFORMATION, (4) DETAILED DECSRIPTION ? APPENDICES ARE (A) IC SCHEMATICS AND (B) VECTOR ADDRESSING. DEC PDP-11 BA11-K MOUNTING BOX 10.5 INCH MOUNTING BOX TECHNICAL MANUAL, 1978 ($15) ====================================================================== ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 1/2-INCH THICK ? SECTIONS ARE (1) MOUNTING BOX CHARACTERISTICS, (2) UNPACKING AND INSTALLATION, (3) SYSTEM UNITS, OPTIONS, AND HARNESSES, (4) H765 POWER SYSTEM, (5) MAINTENANCE. ? APPENDICES ARE (A) H745 -15 VOLT REGULATOR, (B) H744 +5 VOLT REGULATOR, (C) H754 +20, -5 VOLT REGULATOR, (D) H7441 +5 VOLT REGULATOR, (E) H785 BATTERY BACKUP REGULATOR, AND (F) H775 BATTERY BACKUP UNIT. DEC PDP-11 BA11-K MOUNTING BOX 10.5 INCH MOUNTING BOX ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1981 ($10) ================================================================================== ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 10 PAGES ? 2 COPIES H744 REGULATOR ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1976 ($10) ================================================ ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 10 PAGES 861-A THROUGH -F POWER CONTROLLER ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1980 ($10) =================================================================== ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 14 PAGES H745 REGULATOR ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1974 ($10) ================================================ ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 12 PAGES H754 REGULATOR ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1974 ($10) ================================================ ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 20 PAGES H7420 POWER SUPPLY ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1975 ($10) ==================================================== ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 10 PAGES PDP-11/45 16-BIT COMPUTER (BASIC) ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1974 ($10) ============================================================== ? REPRODUCTION, NOT ORIGINAL ISSUE ? VERY GOOD CONDITION ? 28 PAGES DEC PDP-11 TMB11/TU10W DECMAGTAPE SYSTEM MAINTENANCE MANUAL (TMB11-E/F SYSTEM), 1979 ($10) ================================================================================= ? REPRODUCTION, NOT ORIGINAL ISSUE ? EXCELLENT CONDITION ? 1-1/2 INCHES THICK ? SECTIONS ARE (1) GENERAL INFORMATION, (2) INSTALLATION, (3) OPERATION, (4) PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE, (5) MAINTENANCE, TMB11 THEORY OF OPERATION, (7) M8926 THEORY OF OPERATION, AND (8) TU10W HOST TRANSPORT THEORY OF OPERATION. ? APPENDICES ARE (A) MAGNETIC TAPE FUNDAMENTALS, (B) SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS, (C) FLOW DIAGRAM GLOSSARY, (D) M8926 INTERFACE SIGNALS, AND (E) TMB11/TU10W DATA SHEETS. DEC PDP-11 TE16/TE10W/TE10N DECMAGTAPE TECHNICAL MANUAL, 1977 ($10) ========================================================== ? REPRODUCTION, NOT ORIGINAL ISSUE ? EXCELLENT CONDITION ? 1-1/2 INCHES THICK ? SECTIONS ARE (1) INTRODUCTION, (2) INSTALLATION, (3) OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS, (4) PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE, (5) THEORY OF OPERATION, AND (6) SERVICING. ? APPENDICES ARE (A) MAGNETIC TAPE FUNDAMENTALS, AND (B) GLOSSARY. DEC TE16 DECMAGTAPE ILLUSTRATED PARTS BREAKDOWN, 1980 ($10) ===================================================== ? REPRODUCTION, NOT ORIGINAL ISSUE ? EXCELLENT CONDITION ? 1/4-INCH THICK DEC PDP-11 DL11 ASYNCHRONOUS LINE INTERFACE MANUAL, 1975 ($10) ====================================================== ? REPRODUCTION, NOT ORIGINAL ISSUE ? EXCELLENT CONDITION ? 1/2-INCH THICK ? SECTIONS ARE (1) INTRODUCTION, (2) GENERAL DESCRIPTION, (3) INSTALLATION, (4) PROGRAMMING INFORMATION, AND (5) DETAILED DECSRIPTION. ? APPENDICES ARE (A) IC SCHEMATICS AND (B) VECTOR ADDRESSING. DEC LA36/LA35 DECWRITER II USERS MANUAL, 1977 ($25) ========================================= ? ORIGINAL ISSUE ? UNUSED CONDITION ? 1/2-INCH THICK ? SECTIONS ARE (1) LA36 USERS INFORMATION, (2) LA35 USERS INFORMATION, AND (3) COMMON INFORMATION. DEC LA36/LA35 DECWRITER II MAINTENANCE MANUAL, 1978 ($10) ================================================ ? REPRODUCTION, NOT AN ORIGINAL ISSUE ? EXCELLENT CONDITION ? 1-1/2 INCHES THICK ? SECTIONS ARE (1) GENERAL DESCRIPTION, (2) INSTALLATION, (3) OPERATION, (4) THEORY, (5) UPGRADED LA36, (6) ELECTRICAL SERVICING, (7) MECHANICAL SERVICING, AND (8) ADJUSTMENT PROCEDURES. ? APPENDICES ARE (A) ENGINEERING DRAWINGS, (B) IPB, (C) REFERENCE DATA.

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Building PDP-11 Boot Tapes

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>OK, I'm feeling lazy. Is it possible to build a PDP-11 TK-50 Boot tape >under OpenVMS V7.2? Yeah, sure it is. Question is, what do you want to boot into? Just make sure all the files are laid down correctly, all the record lengths are right, and you've got the tape marks in the right places. Those are the essential ingredient to any tape. Tim.

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 17, 0:16, Vintage Computer GAWD! wrote: > On Wed, 17 May 2000, Pete Turnbull wrote: > > > If I remember correctly, Applesoft BASIC is one of those that searches from > > the start of program every time it executes a GOTO or GOSUB. If I'm right, > > the easy way to preserve variables (and all the rest of the program state, > > including the GOSUB/FOR..NEXT stack) would be to POKE in the new start > > address and then GOTO 10 instead of RUN. > > I think you'd have to do more than this since the interpreter won't know > the difference between Program A running and Program B. In other words, > the varibale A$ in Programs A&B will both point to the same variable > (hmmm...an interesting way to implement shared memory in BASIC!) That's right; I just assumed you wanted to keep all the variables around all the time. If you want something more like a real mutitasking system, and program independence (not to have to worry about variables in one program sharing names with those in another) then you need to save-and-restore all the relevant pointers: start of variable space, start of arrays, end of numerics, start of strings. Maybe more (I've not tried it personally). > > If you do this, you better set LOMEM as well (but only once), or make sure > > the highest-loaded program is the first one RUN, so the variables start in > > a suitable place. > > LOMEM does almost what you need: it moves the start of the variable data > pointer to the address specified with the command. However, I do believe > this initializes the variable space, which would not be good. No, it wouldn't be good, and the LOMEM comand probably does reset the other pointers (I can't check, my Apples are both in store at the moment). I really just meant "set the LOMEM pointer". > I've never > devled into the way BASIC variables are kept but I am pretty sure that > they are searched for from the beginning of whatever LOMEM is to the end > (as given, I believe, by HIMEM). LOMEM and HIMEM simply set pointers in > the zero page that BASIC uses to keep track of the low and high memory > locations for variable storage. So manually keeping track of these and > POKEing them in for each swap should appropriately keep the variable > memory for each program in memory separate and intact. Yes, the variables aren't stored in any specially structured way (they are in some other BASICs). You probably want to keep track of the end of string space as well (HIMEM, essentially) and make liberal use of FRE() to minimise waste. > I was just thinking that a sort of Multi-Tasking BASIC Operating System > (MTBOS) could be developed that would take care of all this for you. > Also, since the text screen on the Apple ][ can be defined by poking in > the left column, right column, top row and bottom row into the > appropriately zero page addresses, one can also specify a screen area that > each program is allowed to run in. This could be maintained by the MTBOS. > > The MTBOS would basically reside somewhere in memory (a simple one could > probably be made to fit in $300-$3A0 which is the common unused space > where simple machine language utilities go) and can be CALLed from each > program running at regular intervals to allow a swap to the next process. > It would be sort of like Windows 3.0 :) (but probably faster). Yes, probably :-) Since you wouldn't need much code, and nothing on a standard Apple uses interrupts, you could go one further and make it a time-sliced system instead of a cooperative one, with a very simple circuit (not much more than a 555 timer, though you might want it on a card with a PROM to hold the code). -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Computer Value (was Re: value of RK05)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Back on May 6, I said: >RK05s? I bought five RL02 disk packs the other day for $2 each. >I see they're going for $30 on eBay. I'll use the proceeds to >fund other bad habits. Just to confound the eBay hysteria, I'll recount what happened with these RL02s. I was all excited because eBay's history showed a single RL02 went for $28 a few weeks ago. I mentioned I had these packs on this list on May 6 and no one responded. I listed one pack on eBay on May 9. I composed a nice page, sent private e-mail to likely bidders telling them of the auction. Chuck McManis missed my original post to this list, but he was the winning bidder and picked one up for $5.50. I sold the rest to him for that price, so he got five with shipping for $45. (Did I bend any eBay rule by selling him the other ones?) In another eBay story, I was the top bidder for a Leitz illuminator transformer for an old microscope I have, at $5. However, the seller wanted to charge $12 shipping. This item is two-three pounds at best. I questioned this and haven't heard from them yet. Similarly, someone sent me a note about Pascal MicroEngine schematics they're auctioning. For 50 xeroxed pages, the first bid is $9 and they want $7 shipping. No doubt some eBay sellers have discovered the old mail-order rule of thumb that the cost of goods and shipping should be covered by the "shipping and handling" charge, and that the price is just gravy. :-) BTW, I always charge "actual shipping cost". - John

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Is this for real -- a new C64/128

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Check this site out http://www.commodore2000.com The Commodore Evolution (in the development process) looks like a fat PC keyboard. I e-mailed the guy to try to get some more detailed specs. I wonder if this is for real or not. It looks like a recent domain registration. FYI, the domain is owned by: Administrative Contact: Barton, Raymond (rbarton(a)ONEBOX.COM) Computersnational, inc. 112 Carman Place Amityville , NY 11701 (516) 827-8667 (FAX) (516) 691-1589 Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Mindspring Domreg (domreg(a)MINDSPRING.COM) Mindspring Enterprises, Inc. 1430 West Peachtree St. NW, Ste. 400 Atlanta, GA 30309 US 888-932-1997 Fax- - 404 815-8805 Record last updated on 24-Nov-1999. Record expires on 11-Oct-2001. Record created on 11-Oct-1999. It looks like it's a small e-commerce Web site hosted by Mindspring. The page link for the PeeCee compatible seems to be broken... Rich ========================== Richard A. Cini, Jr. Congress Financial Corporation 1133 Avenue of the Americas 30th Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 545-4402 (212) 840-6259 (facsimile)

26 years, 1 month

12
17
0 0

Software rental, "trusted computing", etc. (was Re: Is this for real -- a new C64/128)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>I am sometimes asked 'what can that 20-year-old machine do'. One correct >answer is 'Everything it did 20 years ago' (I was having this discussion >with Philip Belben the other day, so some ideas here may have come from >that). In other words, that 20-year-old CP/M box with Wordstar was doing >word processing back then. It can still do word processing. Maybe not >with all the fancy fonts and formatting tricks of a more modern machine. >But it can still print letters, books, etc. And quite honestly, that's >all I need (and if people can't accept a plain ascii file from me, I have >no intention of dealing with them!). I would have said the same.... save for now we know that even with older hardware things like fonts and pretty printing are easily doable on hardware like IMSAIs and PDP11s (and often done well!). >It never fails to amaze me that computers are wonderful machines >_because_ they can be programmed to do just about anything. And then >modern OSes/applications (and things like the TCPA) seem to be preventing >you from programmming them. Go figure. The only difference between a PDP-11 and a PIII/750 is how long you may wait for the same results. Granted some software projects are only doable in reasonable time scales as a result of speed. For practical projects I have a 386/16 that does run W95 so speed is not the absolute catalyst. Remember: Stable Mature systems we know how to use, applies here. Allison

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before

by mranalog＠home.com

Sam said: > On the Apple ][, in AppleSoft BASIC, you can set what the start address > of your BASIC program will be in memory by poking it into location 103-104 > ($68-$69 hex). > The default is 2049 ($801): 103=1 and 104=8 ($68=1, $69=8). > QUESTION: Does anyone know why the default is $801 instead of $800? I > always wondered why that was. Anyway... _MANY_ BASICs have the same format for storing a program line. The first two bytes is the address "link" to the next line of the program. The second two bytes is the "line number" for this line of the program. The line number is followed by the text of the program line, with all of the BASIC keywords tokenized, and terminated with a zero. The next address location after the zero is the address pointed to by the link of the previous line and it's also the beginning of the next line of the program. At the end of a BASIC program, the zero at the end of the last line is followed by two zeros meaning that the next "link" is zero. When BASIC is initialized, (and the start of BASIC is normally $801), the OS usually stores zeros at $800,$801,and $802, and set the beginning of BASIC program space at $801, indicating that $800 is the end of the previous line and $801,$802 is the end of the program. So the BASIC program space DOES start at $800, but the beginning of the BASIC program is $801. _I_believe_ the need for a zero indicating the end of the previous line at the beginning of BASIC program space is probably a hold over from some ANCIENT incarnation of BASIC and is not really necessary, but I have not tried this with different kinds of BASIC. There should be no problem with setting the beginning of the BASIC program area to say.... $4057 before loading your program. As the program is loaded, the links are changed to reflect the new program location. > I run either of the programs and I get an endlessly alternating display of > "PROGRAM 1!" and "PROGRAM 2!". In other words, it works! Cool. BASIC also keeps a pointer to the current line being executed. Instead of "running" each program, try having the first program (at the end) set the current line pointer to $4001 and vicey versy. > It seems to me this could be mutated into a sort of practical method of > multi-tasking BASIC programs. There are quite a few zero page locations you need to save and restore, but multi-tasking BASIC is very possible. You could also write a BASIC program that built it's own custom subroutines in a different memory area on the fly, execute them, and return to itself. --Doug ==================================================== Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com (work) Sr. Software Eng. mranalog(a)home.com (home) Press Start Inc. http://www.pressstart.com Sunnyvale,CA Curator Analog Computer Museum and History Center http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog ====================================================

26 years, 1 month

2
2
0 0

IBEX info? (fwd)

by vcf＠siconic.com

Beau added this info... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 23:40:22 -0500 From: Beau Reichert <tcr1(a)bga.com> To: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> Subject: Re: IBEX info? I system was made by logic systems international, inc. from japan. I guess it would be a mini computer. The system is new in box never been opened. I will get some pictures of it. The model number is 7202. Has big keyboard/cpu, a monitor unit, and a 2 big floppies in one unit - 60lbs. Thanks Beau Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

More Stupid AppleSoft Tricks

by foo＠siconic.com

Here's an article I wrote several years back detailing a method I used for list protecting AppleSoft BASIC programs. I'd actually devised this method in the mid-80s but decided to properly document it during a discussion on an Apple ][ newsgroup. It's a little long, and the BASIC program it references near the end is somewhere around here (I'll have to dig it out in case anyone's really interested). The same article can be found at http://www.siconic.com/files/appllock --- A Better Way to Protect Your AppleSoft BASIC Programs with AppleLock by Sam Ismail January 5, 1997 :Introduction: I devised this method of protecting AppleSoft BASIC program listings some years back during my prime Apple programming days. It involves a combination of several different techniques for keeping your program unlistable by the casual to intermediate user. This system is no match for advanced users who understand the internal structure of BASIC, for they could no doubt blast through this protection with little difficulty. Hence, this program is suitable for protecting programs which you wish to keep hidden from users who are less than expert Apple ][ hackers. The following is a technical explanation of the AppleLock protection scheme. If you don't care to read it, you may want to skip to the end of this document to get the source code to the AppleLock program. This discussion will not stop to explain in detail the advanced AppleSoft BASIC and machine language techniques that are employed in this scheme as there are plenty of FAQs around to explain the finer details of the tricks involved. :AppleSoft BASIC Internal Program Storage: AppleSoft BASIC stores your program in memory by tokenizing the keywords in your program into one byte values. So for instance, when you type the follwing line: 10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!" the BASIC interpreter converts this into the following bunch of numbers in memory (shown in hexadecimal): 15 08 Pointer to program data for next line 0A 00 Line number (in this case, 10) BA The token for PRINT 22 The opening quotation mark 48 45 4C 4C 4F 20 57 4F 52 4C 44 21 The string HELLO WORLD! 22 The closing quotation mark 00 The end of line terminator If this was the first line of the program, it would be stored starting at memory location $0801 (or decimal 2049). As shown above in the first line of bytes, the next program line data would be stored at memory location $0815 (addresses are usually stored backwards in memory, which is the way the 6502 CPU reads addresses, so in this case 15 08 is $0815). :Some Simple Protection Schemes: One of the simplest and most widely known tricks for protecting your program is to POKE a 1 at memory location $0801 (POKE 2049,1). This will trick AppleSoft into thinking that the next line of the program is at $0801 instead of $0815. This will have the effect of listing the first line of your program over and over again, indefinitely, until the user presses Control-C to stop the display. Unfortunately, this trick is not permanent. If you SAVE your program in this condition and then LOAD it into memory again, AppleSoft will "fix" the pointer and make it point to the next line again. So this trick only keeps your program secret as long as the user always runs your program before doing anything else with it (ie. LISTing it) and as long as you perform this POKE as the first command inside your program. Not a very secure method. Another well known trick for keeping your programs secret is to set a flag in AppleSoft which has the effect of ignoring all AppleSoft BASIC commands at the command line and running your program instead, regardless of what the user types (with the exception of DOS commands which ignore the RUN-only flag and execute regardless of its status). This flag is turned on by POKE-ing any value greater than 127 at memory location 214 (eg. POKE 214,255). The flag is turned off by poking any value less than 128 at the same location (eg. POKE 214,0). Again, this method is not effective because your program, or some other program that runs before your program, must set this flag before the user has a chance to list your program. Otherwise, the user could simply load and list your program before it has a chance to set this flag. So what are we to do? Well, unfortunately our options are limited and ineffective unless we know some machine language and a little bit about the AppleSoft BASIC architecture. That's where AppleLock comes in. :Technical Overview of AppleLock: The key to this scheme is adding a special line to the beginning of your program which acts as a gateway to your program listing. This first line will block the rest of your program from being viewed. It seems benign enough to the naked eye. Yet it is performing some special magic to enable your program to run normally and be copied to another disk, but never listed. This scheme uses a machine language subroutine to change the pointers of your program to where your program really is. This machine code is stored right inside the first line, but it is hidden from the user by taking advantage of some features of AppleSoft BASIC. AppleSoft allows you to embed control characters in your program listings, for instance, in REM statements. When your program is LISTed, these control characters are interpreted and output to the display just like in any other circumstance. For instance, if you stuff a Control-H (or backspace) character in a REM statement, it will be interpreted as a backspace when the line is listed, and the character previous will be over-written by the character following the backspace. There are several programs available to allow you to create fancy listings by embedding backspace characters into your REM statements in this manner. The following will demonstrate the effect an embedded backspace will have when your program is listed: LIST 10 REM A CHARACER WILL BE MISSING ^ The backspace occurred here. The 'T' was printed, but it was followed by a backspace character, so the 'E' over- wrote the 'T'. Going back to our protection scheme, we must be able to CALL our machine language subroutine which unlocks the rest of the program, but we don't want the user to know what we are doing to unlock the program. So to hide the CALL command, we follow it with a REM statement with enough backspace characters to over-write the CALL command. As a side benefit, we can now put whatever message we want as the first line of the program, such as "THIS PROGRAM CANNOT BE LISTED". Or, we can get real tricky by displaying what looks like a program line, but in actuality is some dummy text which is hiding the real program line underneath, such as "10 END " (we must put sufficient spaces to over-write both the CALL and REM commands). To illustrate this more effectively, the following is an example of a raw line before we embed the backspace characters: 10 CALL 2100: REM *******************[ CAN'T LIST THIS! ] Now we would replace all the asteriks with a backspace character (ASCII 8). The easiest way to do this is from the monitor. In this case, we would find the first asterik at memory location $080C. We could then replace the asteriks with backspace characters by doing the following: CALL -151 80C: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 This now changes the 19 asteriks into backspace characters. Nineteen backspace characters is enough to backspace all the way back to the line number at the beginning of the line. If our line number was 1, we would only need 18 backspaces. If our line number was 100, we would need 20 backspaces. If we had other commands after the CALL command, we would need enough backspace characters to backspace over these commands as well, including the formatting spaces AppleSoft prints when it displays your program listing. We have now completed the first step. We have created a line that when listed will only show our message. Now we must create some room for our machine language code which unlocks the program when it is CALLed by the hidden command. To do this, we will add extra asteriks after our message so that we can replace these asteriks with machine code and have the code stored right inside the BASIC program. We must store the code right inside the BASIC program so that it automatically gets loaded when we load our program. Otherwise, if the code was stored in a separate file, the user would be able to stop the program before it had a chance to unlock itself. This would enable the user to possibly figure out what was going on, and we don't want that. In order to do all this, we must hide our machine code from BASIC. Otherwise, BASIC will try to interpret our machine code as BASIC tokens when we list our program and will throw garbage all over the screen. First, let's create the program line we will need to hide our CALL command as well as reserve enough bytes to store our machine language unlock code. We will also add another program line for demonstration purposes later in the tutorial. 10 CALL 2100: REM *******************[ CAN'T LIST THIS! ]********* 20 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!" We have added some asteriks after our message to create the space we will use to store our machine code. There are two extra bytes that will be used to hide this machine code from BASIC as well as to fool BASIC into thinking our program is shorter than it really is, thus hiding the rest of the program. We must now jump back into the monitor to embed our backspace characters and then insert our machine code: CALL -151 80C: 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 Embedded backspaces 834: A9 3D 85 67 4C 65 d5 Our machine language code The machine language code disassembles to the following instructions: 834: A9 3D LDA #$3D ; Get the true start of our program 836: 85 67 STA $67 ; and tell AppleSoft where it really is 838: 4C 65 D5 JMP $D565 ; Now run the real program Basically, this code tells BASIC to jump over our first decoy line and then start running our real program. As you may have guessed, the CALL command that is at the beginning of our decoy line calls this code. Of course, the user doesn't see this CALL command because it is over-written by our message. Now we must hide our machine code from BASIC, or else when we list our program we will see a bunch of garbage. The machine code actually started at the second asterik after our message. We will replace the first asterik with a zero byte. A zero byte indicates to BASIC that it has reached the end of the program line, and should go on to list the next line. When we input a line, BASIC always puts a zero byte at the end of our line before starting a new line. So after the last asterik in our line is a zero byte. But we will also replace the last asterik in our line with another zero byte, resulting in two consecutive zero bytes. Two consecutive zero bytes tells BASIC that it has reached the end of the program, and it should stop listing. We are now going to change the internal pointers of our decoy line to point to these zero bytes so that we can fool BASIC into thinking our program is only one line long! 833: 0 Replace the first asterik with a 0 byte 83B: 0 Replace the last asterik with a 0 byte ($083C has another zero byte already) 801: 3B Change the internal pointer to point to the two zero bytes, fooling BASIC into thinking it has reached the end of the program Now when we list our program, we will see the follwing: [ CAN'T LIST THIS! ] But when we run it, we will see the following: HELLO WORLD! Cool, eh? Now, before we end our program, we must make sure we lock it back up so that we don't defeat our protection scheme by leaving the door open. You can add this line to your program to have it change the pointer to the start of our program back to our decoy line: 30 POKE 103,1 Now this program will run and then re-lock itself when it's done. And now hopefully you understand the basic premise of AppleLock. :Additional Security Requirements: As the programmer, you must also take several steps within your program to ensure nobody can break out of it by hitting Control-C. And we also have to contend with that darn reset button. First though, let's take care of Control-C. To prevent the user from trying to break out of the program and at the same time trap any unexpected errors in your program, make sure the FIRST line of your program is an ONERR GOTO command. ONERR GOTO allows you to tell BASIC to jump to any line in your program whenever an error occurs, and Control-C is considered an error (its error code is 255). The simplest way to handle errors and Control-C attempts is with the following lines: 10 ONERR GOTO 63999 <your program> 63999 RESUME These lines will in effect cause the program to ignore any errors, including attempts to break out of the program by the user. There is still a very minor chance that the user could time a quick Control-C right when the machine language unlock program transfers control to your unlocked program, but before you issue the ONERR GOTO command or possibly set the AppleSoft RUN-only flag (POKE 214,255), thus allowing the user to break into your program. The AppleLock program at the end of this tutorial addresses this problem. Now let's take care of the reset button. The simplest way to prevent a person from using RESET to gain access to your program is by adding a simple POKE command at the beginning of your program, as follows: POKE 1010,0 This will cause the computer to re-boot whenever the reset button is pressed. We could get fancy and re-hook the reset vector so that when the user presses RESET we can restore our program lock and then return them to BASIC. This is exactly what the AppleLock program at the end of this tutorial does. Before your program terminates and returns to the command prompt, it must undo the RUN-only flag (if you have set it) and then re-lock your program. The following program line should be the last thing your program does before it exits: 63999 POKE 103,1:POKE 214,0 The first POKE re-locks your program. The second POKE turns off the AppleSoft RUN-only flag. You should also return the reset vector to its original setting if you have modified it. Otherwise, the next time the user presses RESET, your program will run again. If another program was loaded and then RESET was pressed, the system will most assuredly crash. AppleLock includes a routine which you can call at the end of your program which will restore the reset vector as well as the AppleSoft RUN-only flag and then re-lock your program before exiting. :AppleLock Effectiveness Analysis: Unfortunately, the weakest point of this scheme is that it takes only one well-placed POKE to unlock your program. As an aside, the user can find out what you are trying to hide by changing the character output speed with a SPEED= command. For instance, by setting SPEED=0, and then LIST-ing the program, the user would be able to see that there is a CALL command hidden behind your message. The best and most secure way to protect your program from prying eyes remains the use of a BASIC compiler. However, this is not always a feasible solution. There are a few compilers for DOS 3.3 that will convert your program to machine language. And there is the Beagle Compiler for ProDOS, but this compiler does not create a stand-alone machine language program, but rather requires an interpreter that replaces BASIC.SYSTEM. :Conclusion: Hopefully this tutorial has given you enough information to help you protect your AppleSoft BASIC programs for whatever reason you may have. Enjoy. :The AppleLock Program: This program is very rudimentary and not very pretty. A nice interface can be built around this program to make it more user friendly. The important thing is that it is functional. What it does is creates the machine language unlock code by POKE-ing it into memory. It then asks you to enter the name of the program you wish to lock, as well as the line number you wish to use as your decoy line. This must be the first line in your program! After that, it allows you to enter a message up to 160 characters in length (the length of the message is fairly arbitrary, but this length was chosen to keep the program simple). Once you get good at this technique, you will want to use other programs to create your message (or perhaps use the monitor like I do) so that you can have fancy banners show up when you try to list the program. It then builds a text file with all the commands necessary to apply AppleLock to your program. This file will then be EXEC-ed so that the AppleLock procedure will be performed automatically. Once the process is complete, your program will be loaded in memory and in a locked state (if you try to LIST it you will only get the message you typed in). At this point, you should SAVE your program to disk to make the process permanent. The program will give you instructions on how to lock/unlock your program so that you, as the author, can list and modify it as you please. Keep in mind that you must unlock your program before you make any changes to it, otherwise you stand the chance of royally screwing your program and possibly crashing your machine. Weird things can happen when you start to mess with AppleSoft program pointers. If this happens, simply reboot your computer and re-load your program, and all will be well again. If you ever want to remove AppleLock from your program, simply unlock it and then save it to your disk (be sure to restore the BASIC start-of-program marker with a POKE 103,1 after you are done saving). When you load your program again, it will be back to normal. The AppleLock program includes an enhanced locking mechanism which will modify the reset vector and also sets the AppleSoft RUN-only flag by POKE-ing a 255 at location 214 before it transfers control to your program. This will prevent users from listing your program should it fail and drop to the command prompt at some point, or the user presses Control-C and you haven't added an ONERR GOTO command to your program. If the reset button is pressed, the locking mechanism will re-lock the program, reset the AppleSoft RUN-only flag, restore the reset vector to its original value and then return to the command prompt. :Disclaimer: This program may be freely modified, distributed, sauteed, fricasseed, lambasted, spindled, mutilated, desecrated, tormented and forced to cry "uncle". It may not, however, be recruited into sado-masochistic rituals unless it has consented to participate in such activities. Niether myself, my immediate family, nor the code (it's just code, it doesn't know any better) can be held responsible for any havoc it wreaks on your AppleSoft programs. This program has been run and tested several times and has been deemed sound by the author. If you do somehow get yourself in a bind, I can be reached via email (dastar(a)siconic.com) and I will try to help you reclaim your lost code. On that note, I leave you with these words to live by: Always Keep a Backup! ------- cut here -------

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Software rental, "trusted computing", etc. (was Re: Is this for real -- a new C64/128)

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Umm well to put it mildly, Ellison is a freaking weirdo... speaking of which, has the PC been replaced yet, Mr. Ellison? Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Vintage Computer GAWD! <foo(a)siconic.com> wrote: > > Stop me if you've heard this one before... STOP! :-) > On the Apple ][, in AppleSoft BASIC, you can set what the start address > of your BASIC program will be in memory by poking it into location 103-104 > ($68-$69 hex). There are similar locations for the same pointers in all versions of M$ BASIC for PETs, etc. > The default is 2049 ($801): 103=1 and 104=8 ($68=1, $69=8). Typical. The PET uses $0401, and the C-64 uses $0801 (because the display memory is at $0400 by default on a C-64) > QUESTION: Does anyone know why the default is $801 instead of $800? I > always wondered why that was. Anyway... I'm not sure of the exact reason, but for PETBASIC, $0400 (or $0800) must contain a null byte. I suspect the same for AppleSoft. > It occured to me tonight as I was writing just such an application--the > Nerd Trivia Challenge management program for the VCF, which loads a > hi-resolution character generator at $1600, which would over-run my BASIC > code, which is therefore relocated to $4001--that two or more BASIC > programs could reside in memory at the same time! One would simply POKE > the beginning address into 103-104 and then LOAD the new program, and > repeat this for as many programs as is possible with the memory available. There was a machine language program for the PET called "QuadraPET" published way back when (I have a copy on a 1541-disk-image file), that moved all the BASIC pointers around in zero page to create four 8K virtual PETs on a 32K PET. The author suggested that in a family setting, each user could have their own space and not clobber other people's work. I'm sure it would be trivial to adapt to AppleSoft, presuming there's around 100 bytes of protected memory to stuff it into - the trick on the PET was to use the second cassette buffer since so few users ever had two cassette drives. It was a great learning experience to have to fit useful programs into 192 bytes. > The only problem here of course is that any variables in either program > will be quashed when the alternate program is run. However, there are > also pointers that point to the beginning of variable memory, and I'm sure > there would be a way to preserve these pointers so that individual > variables for either program stay intact between transitions. Something > worth exploring just for the hack value. cf. QuadraPET; I can send you a copy if you'd like to disassemble it. ISTR it was published in COMPUTE! if you have a collection of them from the 1978- 1981 timeframe. I'm fairly sure that the source is printed in the magazine. OTOH, I am not familiar with this sort of trick being done for AppleSoft, probably because back in those days, people moved to M/L for the Apple very early on because of the demands for speed on graphical programs. -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before

by foo＠siconic.com

Stop me if you've heard this one before... On the Apple ][, in AppleSoft BASIC, you can set what the start address of your BASIC program will be in memory by poking it into location 103-104 ($68-$69 hex). The default is 2049 ($801): 103=1 and 104=8 ($68=1, $69=8). QUESTION: Does anyone know why the default is $801 instead of $800? I always wondered why that was. Anyway... For various pratical reasons, usually to avoid over-running the beginning of the first hi-res graphics page which began in memory at 8192 ($2000) with variable data (which was always stored just after the end of the BASIC program in memory), sometimes people would force their programs to load at 16384 ($4000, which is also the beginning of the second hi-res graphics page) or 24576 ($6000), or where ever. It occured to me tonight as I was writing just such an application--the Nerd Trivia Challenge management program for the VCF, which loads a hi-resolution character generator at $1600, which would over-run my BASIC code, which is therefore relocated to $4001--that two or more BASIC programs could reside in memory at the same time! One would simply POKE the beginning address into 103-104 and then LOAD the new program, and repeat this for as many programs as is possible with the memory available. As an experiment, I wrote two simple programs: one at $801 that simply prints "PROGRAM 1!" and then sets the start of the program to $4001 by POKEing a 64 into 104 then issues a RUN command, and another at $4001 that simply prints "PROGRAM 2!" and then sets the start of the program to $801 by POKEing an 8 into 104 and issues a RUN. I run either of the programs and I get an endlessly alternating display of "PROGRAM 1!" and "PROGRAM 2!". In other words, it works! Cool. The only problem here of course is that any variables in either program will be quashed when the alternate program is run. However, there are also pointers that point to the beginning of variable memory, and I'm sure there would be a way to preserve these pointers so that individual variables for either program stay intact between transitions. Something worth exploring just for the hack value. I never actually saw this in practice in all my years of Apple ][ hacking, and believe me I snooped through a lot of code. Has anyone ever seen this, and if so, for what purpose? I just thought of one example, which was a Beagle Brothers product that let you have two programs in each 64K bank of memory on a 128K Apple ][. It seems to me this could be mutated into a sort of practical method of multi-tasking BASIC programs. Comments? Sellam

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

SDS parts.. info please

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

OK, Yesterday at the scrap yard, I found a whole lot of 60's/70's Burroughs, Honeywell, NCR, and Univac boards... I'm definetly going to get the Honeywell boards since they're from a 316 or 516 (approx. 50+ boards), but I was wondering if anyone had info on what the SDS boards came out of? And no, I'm not asking who SDS was or something like that, I mean if I was to get the boards does anyone have the necessary info to tell what machine they were used in. The boards are copyrighted 1965 and 1966, so I was thinking maybe they were from a 940? They're not very big boards, something like 4 inches by 3 inches, approx of course. Bigger than H316 boards, which isn't saying much, heh. I'm not planning on getting any of the NCR or Burroughs stuff, but I am going to write down all the part numbers, maybe get the remants of the one NCR core stack I found, since its already ruined and then I could have a nice open one to display... dated 1967. Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Sperry Univac Minicomputer

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

5 feet tall is way too big for a Varian.. the V70 series are early 70's to at least mid 80's machines, only maybe a foot tall (the CPU is what I am speaking of, naturally). I know Univac kept making the V70's until at least 1984; they had to, due to their contract with the company my dad worked for at the time, Auto-trol Technology. They integrated V70's (and 620 series machines before that) into their CAD systems, and in some of the old stock prospectuses(prospecti?) we have at home, it says that Sperry Univac had to give Auto-Trol a minimum of 6 months notice before stopping production of the V70 series. FWIW, was essentially Apollo Computer's first customer, and Apollo's eventually became the basis for Auto-Trol's CAD systems. Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

IBEX info? (fwd)

by vcf＠siconic.com

Can anyone help this dude? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 10:59:23 -0500 From: Beau Reichert <tcr1(a)bga.com> To: vcf(a)vintage.org Subject: IBEX info? Do you know where I could get info on a IBEX computer. Thanks Beau Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

TMSCP boot for PDP-11?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Hello all, does anyone have a bootstrap for a PDP-11 from a TMSCP tape >drive? Have you tried the one at http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/academic/computer-science/history/pdp-11/ in the section you get to by clicking on 'bootstraps'? > My sigma RQD11 has an MSCP bootstrap that I can enable but it >doesn't boot from tape and the BDV11 only knows how to boot from DX, DY, >and DL (RL0x?). Yeah, installing software from tape was a rather late option for Q-bus machines, which started out (marketing-wise) at the "low" end of the PDP-11 spectrum. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Two LISP books available, dirt cheap.

by whdawson＠mlynk.com

Hello all, These softbound books are in very good condition. I'm asking 1.2 x shipping. Will ship USPS bookrate in the US. Here's what they are: Common LISP, The Language, Guy L. Steele Jr., Copyright 1984, Digital Press, ISBN 0-932376-41-X, DEC # EY-6706E-DP. Original price $23.00. This book is in almost new condition (never read). and Programming in Common LISP, Rodney A. Brooks M.I.T., Copyright 1985, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-81888-7. Original price $21.95. Sold through CMU bookstore. Both books have a library stamp imprint on the title pages "Library of John Evan Bares". There are no other marks, highlightings or underlinings. Please contact me off list if you are interested in either or both of these. FCFS. I'll post to the list when they have been spoken for. Bill Dawson whdawson(a)mlynk.com <mailto:whdawson@mlynk.com> ?

26 years, 1 month

1
1
0 0

Cool AppleSoft BASIC trick I never thought of before

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 16, 21:03, Vintage Computer GAWD! wrote: > As an experiment, I wrote two simple programs: one at $801 that simply > prints "PROGRAM 1!" and then sets the start of the program to $4001 by > POKEing a 64 into 104 then issues a RUN command, and another at $4001 > that simply prints "PROGRAM 2!" and then sets the start of the > program to $801 by POKEing an 8 into 104 and issues a RUN. > > I run either of the programs and I get an endlessly alternating display of > "PROGRAM 1!" and "PROGRAM 2!". In other words, it works! Cool. > > The only problem here of course is that any variables in either program > will be quashed when the alternate program is run. However, there are > also pointers that point to the beginning of variable memory, and I'm sure > there would be a way to preserve these pointers so that individual > variables for either program stay intact between transitions. Something > worth exploring just for the hack value. I'm sure I've seen something similar, but I can't think what... it's a long time since I actually used Apple ][s. Something with a menu system for a set of disk programs, possibly. If I remember correctly, Applesoft BASIC is one of those that searches from the start of program every time it executes a GOTO or GOSUB. If I'm right, the easy way to preserve variables (and all the rest of the program state, including the GOSUB/FOR..NEXT stack) would be to POKE in the new start address and then GOTO 10 instead of RUN. If you do this, you better set LOMEM as well (but only once), or make sure the highest-loaded program is the first one RUN, so the variables start in a suitable place. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Goings on at the RetroComputing Farm (was Re: Finding Classic Computers)

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- allisonp <allisonp(a)world.std.com> wrote: > >Cool! I didn't know you flew. I'm a student myself - one more solo > > Yep, been drivin my C150 '528 for the last 21 years. ;) > > If things go well it may even wander over to Ohio in the next few months. Let me know if and when; I'll give you a tour of the collection at the farm. I'm about 15-20 minutes drive from Port Columbus (CMH) where I do my training (it's been educational learning in Class C space as compared to the other nearby options - Class D at OSU/Don Scott, or at smaller, uncontrolled airports). So far, Hans Franke has been by to visit, but he was in enough hurry to get back to Pittsburgh for his flight that he hasn't seen the inside of the quonset hut yet. For the moment, stuff there is in storage mode. The items in the house in the former den are all slated for cleaning, test and repair. My next restoration goals: ongoing work on the PDP-8/e (as soon as I can find my overhead memory connectors), its TD8E + TU56, and an RK05J on some flavor of LSI-11 (since I have a last-known-to-be-working RKV11D and an RK11-C in dubious shape and no RK8E). Further down the pipe are the external 8K memory box for the working -8/L, and a complete teardown and cleaning of my PDP-8/i, the second -8 that I found back in High School. -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

TMSCP boot for PDP-11?

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Hello all, does anyone have a bootstrap for a PDP-11 from a TMSCP tape drive? My sigma RQD11 has an MSCP bootstrap that I can enable but it doesn't boot from tape and the BDV11 only knows how to boot from DX, DY, and DL (RL0x?). --Chuck

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Booting VMS 5.5 from tape?

by hofmanwb＠worldonline.nl

quite nice isn't it ---------- > From: r. 'bear' stricklin <red(a)bears.org> > To: Classic Computers <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Booting VMS 5.5 from tape? > Date: Monday, May 15, 2000 4:59 PM > > On Mon, 15 May 2000, Chuck McManis wrote: > > > I finally found my VMS 5.5 TK50's today and thought I would try to install > > VMS on my MicroVAX II. The tape loads in the TK50 just fine, but after typing > > B MUA0: > > It reads and reads and reads ... > > Bwahahah.. forgive the repost, but it had to be done. Just as a warning, > though, the article contains some strong language which may cause your > wallpaper to peel just a little. > > ok > r. > > > From: mabbas(a)staff.uiuc.edu (Majdi Abbas) > Newsgroups: alt.sysadmin.recovery > Subject: Exabyte whiners and real tape drives (tape drive dick length) > Date: 7 May 1997 00:09:35 GMT > Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana > Lines: 161 > Approved: tk50(a)godless.org > Message-ID: <slrn5mvi1v.ovs.mabbas(a)ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> > Reply-To: mabbas(a)uiuc.edu > NNTP-Posting-Host: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu > Summary: TK50s blow. > Keywords: TK50 masochism > X-Newsreader: slrn (0.9.2.1 BETA UNIX) > Status: RO > X-Status: A > > So here I am, sitting with *bootable* install media for my VAX[1]. > > The catch: It's on TK-50 tape. *One* TK-50 tape. Which means I've > got one shot, and only a 33% chance to make it close enough to even get that > shot. That's on a good day. Today is a Monday. > > What follows is *not* useful information. If you have one of these, > or have to work with one of these, you're too far gone to be recovering, and > this isn't going to help you any. May the God of DEC have mercy on your soul. > > Oh, and before I get going, those of you who whine about Exabyte > drives not ejecting tapes have no concept of a TK50. TK50's *do not* eject > tapes. You have to arm-wrestle the drive for the tape most of the time, and > even if you're lucky it's a manual eject[2]. > > Before you can eject the tape, the VAX has to think it's done with the > tape. This is a pretty simple concept, if it worked. The TK50s were not in > production very long, and for good reason. Rumor has it their replacements > are better.[3] > > I'm going to describe the operation of a TK-50, ignoring some of the > things that go along with booting a VAX. If you know them, I'm sorry, if > you don't, well, consider yourself extremely lucky. > > 1) Wait for green light. > 2) Pull drive flap up. > 3) Stick tape in, right side first or it won't fit. > 4) Coerce tape into fitting into the drive. > 5) Shove it all the way back > 6) Push drive flap down. You may need a hammer. > 7) Press Big Red Button. Green light will go off, red light will > start flashing, then go solid. > 8) Tape drive begins reading tape. > > Here's where we go off onto a tangent for a little bit, although it > is related. TK-50 (drive;cartridge;whole shebang) were designed by complete > absolute fscking lusers. > > The cartridges are nice and small. This is because they are just a > reel of tape. The other reel is inside the drive itself. When it starts to > read a tape, it snags the beginning of the tape using a leader that whips > around the spindle of the inside reel, and drags the tape in past the read > and erase heads[4]. > > 9) Drive reads tape, system boots, all is good. </SARCASM> > 10) You press the big red button again, wait 45 minutes for the thing > to rewind, then it stops and the green light goes on, it moves a > servo that allows you to move the drive flap again, then you are > permitted to remove the tape. No eject mechanisim whatsoever. > > Now, on with the show. > > So here I am, booting the VAX. > > Things are going good, we get past the 5 minute POST, and the drive > starts *reading* the tape. So the media is good and I'm actually thinking > I have a chance yet. Then the gods decide that they've had enough fun at my > expense, and it's time to get serious. > > Loading system software. > > 2.. > ?4B CTRLERR, MUA0 > ?06 HLT INST > PC = 00000E0A > Failure. > >>> > > My reaction: "Shit." > > VAX's reaction: "Yadda yadda yadda *WHOMP* *SCREEEECCCH* *thwap*" > "THWAPthwapthwapthwapthwapthwapthwapthwapthwap" > [continues] > > My reaction: "MotherfuckingasslickingpieceofshitasspirateDECtapedrive." > > Actually, my reaction was much more lengthy and probably much more > obscene, but in the afterglow right now that's all I can remember. > > Knowing that the tape is hopelessly fucked and there went my last > chance for a while, I don't even bother with the normal procedures. This is > a TK-50. One must adapt constantly or get sucked in. > > I quickly wrestle the vax for the tape, remove it, and all seems good. > But I know what's coming. A few hundred feet of half-inch tape, all spooled > into the drives internals. > > I spend the next half hour removing tape from the drive, clean it up, > check everything out, decide to try out this unlabeled TK50 I have. Nope, > won't boot. Okay VAX, rewind tape. > > [Pause for one hour] > > VAX, surely you must be done with it now. > > VAX: Nope, it's still in there. I swear. > > Me: BULLSHIT. I can hear you flapping around empty. You're flapping > around so much that the VAX is about ready to take off and my hair is being > blown back. > > Me: Hits the power switch, pops the thing open, pulls the drive out. > Grabs toolkit and commences disassembly of the drive. Sure enough, it's done. > But I can't get the VAX to let go of the tape until it realizes that it's done, > which isn't going to happen. Powercycling et al will not make it realize that > it's done, it has to feel like relinquishing it's dinner. > > So, I'm now dissassembling the TK-50. Sure enough, the magic little > leader that feeds these tapes in is broken. Surprise surprise. Tape looks > okay tho. > > It's a couple of hours later, and I have one reassembled TK50, one > sliced hand, a screwdriver with a broken tip, a spare black plastic part, > three spare washers, a couple of spare screws and a spring. The tape is > still in the drive, and I've managed to get all of the first tape into a box > for convenient disposal at my leisure. Like I have leisure. Anyhow, I'd > like to make you an offer: Free TK-50 tape drive, including install media in > need of a manual rewind and a preloaded blank tape. Donatee must pay shipping > and psychiatric admission fee. Includes spare parts[5]. > > WTB: One SCSI Qbus card. > > I am *not* going through this again. Especially because I took > pictures of the aftermath of the first tape, and I'm going to post those > near the VAX as a reminder. Let me know if anyone wants scans. > > Every single bad thing you've ever heard about any tape drive doesn't > even begin to describe what the TK-50 is like. Exabyte 8200s have nothing on > these things and never will. DEC was fucking up hardware design years before > the advent of the 8200. I personally believe that the TK-50 is probably what > nearly bankrupted DEC. The number of man-hours wasted in-house wrestling with > these things alone is in the millions. It would have to be. > > I saw an RU-81A today. Now *there* is a sight. Appropriately in a > junkyard. For those of you involved with BOFHnet, what do you think of a > bofh.tdfh.tk50? This drive definitely has the FH aspect down. > > *sigh* > > Down, > not > across > > --Majdi > > [1] Currently hopelessly crippled due to a drive failure. > [2] The problem is that DEC assumed that the VAX knew more about what was > going on in this drive than the person feeding it ferrite. Boy did > they guess wrong. > [3] They *CANNOT* get any worse. > [4] Which are opposed from each other. > [5] You cannot disassemble one of these drives and not wind up with > spare parts. They can't be anything important, because the drive has > to work to suffer some performance degredation and they don't work, so > there is nothing to degrade. > > -- > Majdi Abbas <mabbas(a)uiuc.edu> I do not speak for my employer. > "Damn, she looked a lot cuter in the bar..." -- Chris Rioux > (He may be one of my coworkers, but he doesn't speak for them either) > > > > >

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer

by dastar＠siconic.com

Comments please! Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer by Sellam Ismail sellam(a)vintage.org http://www.vintage.org 1st Edition - May 15, 2000 This primer is intended to give you ideas that will help you find vintage computers in and around your general vicinity. It was written to aid the many frustrated collectors who believe they have exhausted their local sources and still cannot find any old computers. Well, I assure you this is not the case. Old computers can be found in a lot of places that you did not consider. Keep these principles in mind when determining what to pay for old computers: * some people are just happy to have their old machine go to a new home * the bigger the machine, the less money it generally sells for * for some large machine, people are sometimes willing to pay you to haul it away Flea Markets/Ham Fests/Car Boot Sales We begin with the most obvious place to find vintage computers, the Flea Market/Ham Fest/Car Boot Sale (I will refer to them as "flea markets"). Flea markets can occur with frequent regularity or just occasionally, from several times a week to perhaps once a year. Usually they are comprised of people trying to get rid of their old junk. At the more general flea market, finding old computers is usually a challenge. Most of what you will find is the sort of junk that you already have stored away in your garage, basement, attic, closet, etc. But occasionally you will find old computers, and the advantage here is that most collectors won't bother with these sorts of flea markets, so the competition is low. You will be more likely to find vintage computers at Ham Fests as most radio guys (and gals) are also computer users. Many Hams were early adopters of microcomputers during the mid- to late-70's and as such are likely targets for finding some of the more interesting early micros such as S-100 bus machines as well as mini-computers. You can generally expect to pay prices in the range of $5 - $50 for most vintage computers that show up at these events. Occasionally stuff can be had for free, since the seller just wants to get rid of it, or you can wait until after the event is over and head over to the trash bins where you will find all the stuff the sellers didn't want to take back home with them. Haggling at flea markets is mandatory. Never pay more for an old computer than you have to. Learning how to haggle properly would take a whole other primer. The way to get good at it is to just go out and do it. If you don't find any vintage computers at Ham Fests, don't get discouraged. The fact is they just haven't found you. It might be well worth your while to rent a space at the next event and put up a table of your own. Display signs indicating you are interested in old computers. A lot of the people attending the ham fests as buyers also have old computers that they'd like to get rid of and you will meet many people this way. The price of a space is usually not very high, perhaps from $10-$50. To find Flea Markets/Ham Fests/Car Boot sales in your area, look in the classified ads section of your local paper or in the small classified periodicals, or check the upcoming events listings for your local fairgrounds as a lot of times those are venues for large flea markets. Better yet, hop on over to http://www.openair.org/ which is an excellent online resource for finding flea markets and ham fests in your area worldwide. Thrift/Charity Shops Another good place to find vintage computers is at your local Thrift (or Charity) store. Almost every city has at least one. The bigger cities will have many. The most common ones (in the United States anyway) are The Salvation Army, Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul. In my experience, these are NOT good stores to find old computers. Usually they take all incoming computers and sell them at special sales. Or, if old computers do make it into the store, the pieces to it are usually not all together, or in some cases the parts to one computer may have been scattered across multiple stores. The better thrift stores to look in for old computers are the stand-alone stores or the for-profit chains. They usually won't sort through and separate the items and so you're more likely to find old computers at these. Prices vary from ridiculously cheap to just plain ridiculous. Some stores have no concept of a computer being obsolete. To them, a computer is an expensive, fancy device that is worth lots of money, and they price them accordingly. Others don't differentiate between an old computer and an old toaster, and will sell computer items at the same prices they sell the rest of their appliances, in many cases for only a few dollars or less. Some stores try to price computer items separately but can't tell the difference between modern day PC components and old computer parts, and as a result you'll see vintage machines selling for the same price as the more modern machines. Some thrift stores will slash the price of their items for every week that it does not sell. If something is priced too high you might wait until the following week and buy it at half off! Ask the store what their policy is. While you're at it, don't be afraid to make an offer on an item you are interested in. Haggling at thrift stores is OK. To find thrift stores, look in your local phone book, or check the web. Many of the larger institutions now have websites that will direct you to the nearest store. Search for them online. Electronics Surplus Shops If you can find them, electronics surplus shops are great places to find vintage computers. The prices are generally high at these stores but haggling is sometimes acceptable. It's always best to just ask. Look in your local phone book to find electronics surplus shops in your area. You also might want to try looking for general electronics repair shops, as they may have old computers laying about their shop as well. Colleges/Universities/Schools Schools are great places to find aging computers. Oft times an old machine is tucked away in a closet or basement and forgotten. Many schools have periodic rummage sales to sell off obsolete equipment. Ask the school administration if they have these sales and mark your calendar for the next one. You might also want to try contacting the teachers and professors directly as they may have knowledge of old computers that are no longer in use. The best ones to approach would be in the physical sciences departments: chemistry, physics, biology, etc. Of course, the Computer Science department would also be a good choice. Auctions An auction is sometimes a good place to find vintage computers, especially if it is an auction to liquidate the assets of a company that used computers in its operations. Look in the classified ads of your local paper to find out about upcoming auctions and estate sales in your area. Of course you can also try the online auctions. eBay is, of course, the most popular of the auction sites for finding vintage computers. However, competition is fierce, and as such prices are generally higher than you would pay at other venues. Bargains can be found by performing searches that locate items not listed in the categories specifically for old computers. Scrap/Salvage Yards If you're looking for "Old Iron", your most likely chance of finding it are in scrap yards. The precious metal content of big mainframes unfortunately sends many old computers to a frightful end. Try to find scrap yards in your area and ask the owner if they ever get old computers in. If they do, try to strike up a deal with them. Tell them you will pay them some amount over scrap value (for instance 10%) for any old machines they haul in. This will make it worth their while to work with you. Be forewarned: many scrap yard owners can be mean & nasty, and legends abound of various ones destroying perfectly good vintage equipment of all sorts either because you offered too low a price or just because you look funny. They are notoriously rude and generally just unstable people. Of course these are just generalizations, and your situation may vary. Classified Ads Of course you can always try searching the classified ads of your local paper, as some vintage computers do occasionally show up in the listings. Of course, don't neglect the Usenet for-sale newsgroups. Better yet, check for items listed for sale in the many newsgroups dedicated to specific computer platforms. Let Them Come to You One way to find vintage computers is to let them find you. Try placing an ad in the classifieds section of your local paper. Be sure to specify exactly what you are looking for to avoid getting a flood of false leads. In the very least, include a cut-off year indicating you are not interested in any computers manufactured after that year. Better yet, try posting an ad in one of the many Usenet newsgroups dedicated to older platforms. Or you can try posting an ad in one of your local for-sale newsgroups. The Traveling Nerd If you take frequent business trips to other areas, try scheduling time during your trip to search out old computers. The areas you visit may be fertile, untapped grounds for finding vintage machines. Upon arrival, check the phone book for any of the various sources listed above. You may also want to try to time your trips to coincide with any large flea markets or ham fests in the area and arrange to stay during the weekend so you can attend the event. Once you've acquired vintage computers whilst away from home, you'll soon realize you have to get them home somehow. This is not a problem. Most airlines allow two check-in bags (up to 65 pounds each) and two carry-on bags per passenger. Find a sturdy box and some packaging material and pack your findings, then check them in at the airport as your baggage. You can find boxes and packaging materials at a local mailing center, or at moving vehicle rental locations such as U-Haul. Pack your box well! Luggage is designed to absorb the abuse that the luggage handlers inflict upon it. Boxes are generally not. Use as much packing material as possible and pack it tight. If taking items back with you on the plane is not feasible, you can always just have the stuff shipped back to you at home by using your preferred shipping carrier (i.e. UPS, Fedex, etc.) Where Else? Finally, some other resources to try in your quest for vintage computers include: - Hi-tech companies in your local area, especially ones that have been around for a while and may have accumulated old machines - Local utilities (power, water, telephone) sometimes have surplus sales, and also have rather large dumpsters (skips) that are worth checking occasionally - Other collectors who are retiring from the hobby - Family, friends and neighbors and their family, friends and neighbors...tell everyone you know you collect old computers! Finally, if you live in an area where all of the above resources are either lacking or have consistently turned up nary a floppy drive, it might be worth your while to plan a weekend road trip to a major city nearby. Try to do research in advance to find out where all the thrift stores, flea markets and surplus shops are, and plot out an efficient route. Bring along a sizable vehicle, lots of money, and preferably a companion to keep you occupied during the boring long stretches. Above all, remember this: collecting vintage computers is an exercise in resourcefulness! Happy Collecting! Copyright (c) 2000 Vintage Computer Festival Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

Private jets was Re: Finding Classic Computers

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>$69KUSD. It's lives in Tasmania, and did pylon racing there. Supposed >to be cheaper to own and operate than a piston engined warbird. Makes >sense, especially with the high octane stuff getting hard to find and >very expensive. Jet fuel is cheap in comparison. The cost of fuel is a red herring. the lower cost of jets is in initial cost and cheaper parts. the cost for fuel is out of sight as most of them were older less efficient engines that could easily eat 4-800pph at ground idle (600pph =100usgallons/hr) and inflight numbers can dwarf this. Piston planes are like older computers, rarer and need more technical savy to use an maintain. Parts are not cheap, hard to find and people that know them well scarce. the upside is 75gph(imperial) of hard to find Green gas (130 octane) for a P51. Right now local prices for 100LL gas is $2.25! Allison

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

L 0400, Another weird DEC card

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Can anayone id this DEC card? It's not listed in the DEC field guide. It's a large card with metal extractors and a metal rib in the outside edge. The number "L 0400" is stamped in the outside rib. It measures roughly 16 x 12 1/2". It has eight AM2901 bit slice processors and twelve AM 9122 high speed static RAMS on it. There are three large card edge connectors on it. I posted a picture at "www.intellistar.net/~rigdonj/misc/l0400.jpg". Joe

26 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Software rental, "trusted computing", etc. (was Re: Is this for real -- a new C64/128)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>Unfortunately, though Bill Gates is not in the same camp with him, the >billionaire CEO seems to think the public would benefit by paying for the >hardware and the software more or less forever. I'm not in agreement with Well remember the "users" in his world view rips him off. >Just in case, however, you'd best not dispose of that old reliable hardware >and software . . . it doesn't take up much space . . . You bet. An aside, I've worked with "thin" clients and they need to be resource rich as network bandwidth is a fuel that makes them run instead of a local disk. So swapping over the net is not workable. After all you need gigabit eithernet to come close to DMA66 IDE disk performance! Sounds like the old days, central computers and smart terminals. Allison

26 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

test-drb