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

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

friend found this now opening channels to rescue it its an 11 of some sort not sure witch one https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13528577_10154158749830056_645… anyone know what a dliiw s/w is? https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0- 8/13528577_10154158749830056_6453066395005995961_o.jpg see if i can rescue it maybe all of it

9 years, 12 months

2
1
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Quadra 660AV what's with the "PowerPC" label?

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

I noticed someone selling a 660AV in my area on Craigslist. I went and got it because for $50 he had a nice little Apple display with the machine that matches my Quadra 700 and an Apple Adjustable Keyboard in good condition to go with it. Turns out he gave me a whole slew of spare mice and an extra Apple Design keyboard (a good, if ugly and PeeCee lookin', spare). The 660AV was dead when I brought it home. It would bong normally but wouldn't produce any video. The RGB video connector on the monitor was smashed out of shape, too. So, I used a sheet metal tool to re-smash the connector back into the right shape, and some needle nosed pliers to straighten the pins. Then I replaced the PRAM battery on the mobo and that fixed it. I guess they don't quite last 23 years. The weird thing about this machine is that it says "PowerPC" right on the front, but it's *NOT* a PPC. It's most definitely a 25Mhz 040'. I wonder why that's there? Maybe the guy took the badge from another system, but I don't think so. This was the original owner. I also wonder why this one is called a "Quadra" when I know I used to have a 660AV that was a "Centris". Wikipedia seems to imply it was just a marketing name change only. However, the article also mentions that most of the Quadras don't have a floppy with motorized eject. Well, this one does. Perhaps it was replaced. I just wonder what's up with these little nuances. The best part of this deal is that the Apple Adjustable keyboard feels mechanical, and I've been pretty impressed with it so far (once you carefully remove the plastic wristrests). It was a bit yellowed, but a bit of retr0brite treatment restored it to bright white. It looks pretty much new, now. I gotta do the Quadra 700 and 660AV next. They aren't badly yellowed, but somewhat. Since neither is scratched up, they should restore nicely. My plan is to run A/UX on the Quadra 700 and MacOS 8.1 on the 660AV. Right now I have everything in pieces. I'm waiting on another SCSI2SD to come to be able to set them both up. Plus, I just got the one SCSI2SD and I'm in the process of benchmarking it on several different OSs. I wish the US vendor would sell the newer (v6) board, as it's supposed to support 10MB/s synchronous (if your SD card can do it, and most can these days). All they have on Ebay right now are the older 5.x based cards (which is like the one I have now). -Swift

9 years, 12 months

18
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Pictures from the GA warehouse, take 2...

by killingsworth.todd＠gmail.com

Ok gang - here's the 100+ pics from the warehouse: https://www.flickr.com/gp/144446985 at N04/b76872 I included pics with model numbers where I could find them >From what I could see: ** NO PDP or SGI anything (not even a coffee mug) ** Commodore 64 with peripherals, pretty much new in box Sun E3000 DEC VAX and Alpha desktop boxes DEC VAXServer 3800 Three IBM mainframe peripherals of some sort IBM robotic tape archiver Terminals: DEC, IBM, Qume, AT&T, others CRT displays Printers: Okidata, etc Keyboards: lots of special IBM versions, listed below 8 pcs of the rare short Keyboard I described to you earlier. Model F Keybds: I am not sure how many model F keyboards I have, but I do have them. ~ 4 pcs of Original IBM PC and PC XT Keyboards (1981-1984) IBM 5251 Keybds: I have approx 8 pcs of 5251 Keyboards. Keyboards we have: IBM 3151 104 ~20 IBM 3161 104 ~50 IBM 3162 104 ~25 IBM 3163 104 ~25 IBM 3164 104 ~50? IBM 3178 ~100 IBM 3179 ~100 IBM 3180 122 ~150? IBM 3191 ~100? IBM 3192 122 & 104 ~100? IBM 3193 Unkown Qty yet ? IBM 3194 Unkown Qty yet ? IBM 3196 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 IBM 3197 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 IBM 5155 Unkown Qty yet ? IBM PC XT/AT Unkown Qty yet ? IBM 3471 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3472 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3476 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3477 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3481 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3482 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3483 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3486 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3487 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3488 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 IBM 3489 122 & 104 ~75 pcs of 104 Sm qty of 122 Here are detailed part numbers: (we probably have other models not listed!!) 1368193 1386304 1386887 1390123 3191/3192 1390238 3191/3192 1390572 3196/3197 1390572 3196/3197 1390702 3191 1390702 3192 1390876 3196/3197 1390876 3196/3197 1391401 Clicky Vintage 1392595 1394099 1394100 3471, 3472, 3481, 3482 3483 122-Key 1394167 3476, 3477, 3486, 3487 122-Key 1394193 1394204 3472 104-Key 1394204 1394802 1394806 1395162 1395660 3476, 3477, 3486, 3487 122-Key 1395665 3476, 3477, 3486, 3487 104-Key 1395666 6110668 3180? 6115543 3180? Qty 1 IBM 5642852 for the IBM 5291-1 (the -1 is the rare one) Manufactured 1991-1993

9 years, 12 months

10
13
0 0

DL11 configuration for pdp11gui

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hi folks, I've started to look into hooking up pdp11gui to my 11/45 w/ M9301. Does anybody here know how the console DL11 should be configured for this wrt. data bits, parity, stop-bits? I haven't seen this mentioned in the documentation or tutorials. thanks, --FritzM.

9 years, 12 months

2
2
0 0

VT52 oscillator

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

It seems the clock oscillator chip (E1, 13.824 Mhz) on my VT52 is flaking out. It has become very vibration sensitive. I tried reflowing its solder connections, but it has not seemed to help much... Anybody have a spare, or suggestions/advice for a replacement? There's certainly room enough in there to build and mount a small oscillator board if the old/original parts are too hard to find or are all similarly flaky with age at this point. Looking around on the web, the symptoms of the resulting failure mode seem pretty common (no scan, but a slight tap on the right side of the chassis will sometime restore, though I suppose that could be many other things as well!) cheers, --FritzM.

9 years, 12 months

1
0
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No subject

by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

No subject

by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

No subject

by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 12 months

1
0
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No subject

by julian＠twinax.org

9 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

ate: Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:43:16 -0400 > > From: Earl Baugh <earl at baugh.org> > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: CDC 6600 - Why so awesome? > > This thread reminded me that I recently got shipped what the person told me > was a CDC 6000 Central Memory core. > (it matches what's on this page : > http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/computer/en/6400hwac.html ). He told me > that > the console looked like this : > http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk/sld031.htm > > Earl > The Computer Museum in Boston gave pieces of the CDC 6600 core to donors. I still have it. -- Michael Thompson

9 years, 12 months

1
0
0 0

DEC Rainbow 100B For Sale, Manchester, UK

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I have a DEC Rainbow 100B in the upright pedestal for sale. It comes with 128K of memory, a hard disk controller with hard disk cable, an RX50 drive and the graphics option. It is just the base unit and the pedestal, there is no keyboard, monitor or hard disk included. I collected this machine recently and had to replace the shorted EMI filter on the input of the PSU with something more modern, so it is a working machine. When I have been given a machine for free that I can't keep, then I give it away. In this case, this one cost me money to buy and repair, so this time I am selling it. I would much prefer collection as it is quite large. If I must ship it then so be it, but it may take me a while to find a suitable box to ship it in, and I may have to add that to the cost. Pictures here: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=FC758A5A91B91301!5858 <https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=FC758A5A91B91301!5858&authkey=!AC9g74 Lag3CoW5k&ithint=folder%2cjpg> &authkey=!AC9g74Lag3CoW5k&ithint=folder%2cjpg Looking for offers. Regards Rob

9 years, 12 months

1
1
0 0

making music with pdp 11/40

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

anyone make music with the pdp 11/40 or UNIBUS system similar to the PDP 8e music? I was able to get a basic tone pattern into the AM radio today. Not sure how to "write" music, but it's a start. Bill -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

9 years, 12 months

2
1
0 0

S/360 Model 30 (?) FS in NC

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

Oooh, if I didn't have an _extremely_ strict rule about 'only PDP-11's' (to prevent my house filling to the gills, and my wife divorcing me :-), I'd be all over that. Someone definitely needs to grab this up! Noel

10 years

4
3
0 0

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

by lproven＠gmail.com

http://www.righto.com/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring.html Found via: http://www.osnews.com/story/29261/Xerox_Alto_restoring_the_legendary_1970s_… There are 2 videos up so far, with disassemblies that may interest CCmpers. Some people from the list are involved, including Al Kossow, but I haven't seen the link posted. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) ? +420 702 829 053 (?R)

10 years

3
4
0 0

S/360 Model 30 (?) FS in NC

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

I still have the aluminum bar that says 360 30 that was on the top of the system here in phx. I bought early on in my computer business life segment. Aside from being part of a memento for me and sort of interesting sitting in a glass case... it may need to find its way back atop a 360/30 someday. Ed# _www.smecc.org_ (http://www.smecc.org) In a message dated 6/25/2016 10:57:07 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, aek at bitsavers.org writes: Maybe a 2841 disk controller, but the 360/30 panel has been pulled. Hard to say what is really there. LCM may be interested in parts for their 360/30, and Will Donzelli has been looking for a 2841 On 6/25/16 10:06 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote: > http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?53014-IBM-360-with-additional-era… > > --Chuck > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > "The first thing we do, let's kill all the spammers." >

10 years

1
0
0 0

S/360 Model 30 (?) FS in NC

by cclist＠sydex.com

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?53014-IBM-360-with-additional-era… --Chuck ------------------------------------------------------------- "The first thing we do, let's kill all the spammers."

10 years

2
1
0 0

ACARD ARS-2000SUP versus SCSI2SD - round 1

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

Tested using "Raw block speed" test in LIDO 7 under MacOS: [SCSI2SD v5] READ: 891 KB/s WRITE: 728 KB/s [ACARD ARS-2000SUP] READ: 1621 KB/s WRITE: 1277 KB/s More info: The ACARD device contains a Samsung 850 Pro 128G SSD. The SCSI2SD contains a Samsung Pro+ 64GB micro SD and is running firmware v4.6, IIRC. Both are were attached to a Quadra 700 Macintosh running System 8.1 with 68 megs of RAM (4 onboard + 64MB in 16MB SIMMS, the max on the Quadra 700). I had them hooked up at the same time so I could use one to partition the other. The hard disk "driver" was the one provided by LIDO, but I also tried LaCie SilverLining 5's driver as well, but the performace was slightly worse. I tested in LIDO using it's raw speed test feature. It's probably only a rough measure of sequential speed. I just tested three times and averaged the results, but it was within just a few KB/s each time. Once I'm done I'll hook both of these up to a FreeBSD box, dd off full backups, then start over again and try with ZFS under FreeBSD via a PCI SCSI controller. Then again under IRIX if I still have the energy. I'll give some results from 'fio' or 'iozone' under FreeBSD. Those will be a lot more detailed and break down sequential versus random results and show the results of various other permutations. I'd also like to test the SCSI2SD v6, but I can't get my hands on one, yet. The only place that talks about the v6 is the codesrc wiki and the American ebay retailer seems to only have the v5.0. I'll wait, I guess. -Swift

10 years

3
3
0 0

Current source for RX50 media?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, A friend of mine who is mostly into Sun equipment recently purchased a MicroPDP-11 from a State auction. He knows little about DEC gear, but I can help him there. His machine had the RD5X drives pulled by the State, but still has an RX50. Where can I point him to get a handful of RX50 floppies? I can help him with contents to put on them, but he needs media. He's likely to start with RT-11. He could probably use 10-20 floppies to start. Thanks, -ethan

10 years

5
9
0 0

VR241 Stray Wire

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I took apart my VR241 recently to see if I could find the reason why the screen doesn't go completely black. I took lots of pictures while doing so, to make sure I could put it back together again correctly. However, now that I am putting it back together, there is one wire which looks like it wasn't connected. It is on the deflection board (on the right when looking from the back of the CRT). I am not sure now if I missed taking a photo of this when it was connected, or if it really should be not connected. There is a pin marked Size Link near to it, which might be where it has to go, and sounds like an optional thing if that is the case. You can see the wire in question at the bottom of the picture below, it is the green wire with a single-pin connector on it, and the size link connector is the two-pronged connector just below it in the photo: https://1drv.ms/i/s!AlQc3lJwQx7bgbAJQx-HsvGY8Gcqsg Anyone know where this wire should go? Regards Rob

10 years

2
3
0 0

options for replacing failed small ROMs in PDP-11

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hi All, In bringing up and debugging my PDP 11/45, I found that one of my GRA (M8101) spares has a failed ALU subsidiary ROM. It's a pretty standard little 32x8 ROM in a 16-pin DIP, and the truth table is in the 11/45 print set. I wonder what the replacement options are for parts like these? In particular, given the 30ns micro-cycle on the KB11-A, and the fact that the propagation time for the ALU downstream of this is roughly 20ns on its own, I'd be worried that an off-the-shelf bipolar PROM might be too slow here. I'm still a little slow on reading the microcode flows, so its not clear to me exactly how many micro-cycles there are on the critical path for the E-class instructions where this ROM is used. Maybe its not an issue. Anybody every try replacing one of these with a bipolar PROM? Any other suggestions for how to repair parts like these? cheers, --FritzM.

10 years

10
12
0 0

Wanted: Ann Arbor Ambassador terminal

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Richard Loken > I have an Ann Arbor Ambassador here with the original owner's manual. If anyone else has _another_ AAA, I'd like one too! (I'm assuming Ian's going to be getting this one! :-) They were wonderful terminals, in their day - the largest screen of any terminal easily available at the time. People in Tech Sq preferred them to VT*, etc for that reason. Noel

10 years

1
0
0 0

options for replacing failed small ROMs in PDP-11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Glen Slick > the part is listed as DM8598-AD, where a DM8598 is a 256-bit (32x8) > tri-state bipolar mask ROM. > Some substitute T.S. PROMs include the Signetics 82S123 On my M8101, it's an 82S123, which is a tri-state programmable PROM (the 82S23 is the open-collector version of that chip). Those should be relatively easy to obtain. BTW, quick question: if a fusible link PROM 'fails' because one of the fusible links regrows, is it possible to 're-program' that particular chip, back to the 'original contents'? Some programmers might barf (because they want the chip to be 'empty' to start with'), but maybe one of those home-brew pgrogrammers could 'refresh' the chip (thereby avoiding using up a new chip, when it's not really needed)? > From: Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. > Is there a file containing the image ? I'd really like to accumulate a database of the contents of all the PROM components for all the PDP-11 CPU's. I've got a few of them (for the -11/05), but there are zillions more. Anytime anyone creates one, can you please send me a copy, and I'll try and get them organized and uploaded (and if I _really_ get ambitious, I might try and start filling in the gaps). Noel

10 years

1
0
0 0

CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Swift Griggs >> Much of the architectural concept was shared with IBM 7030 STRETCH >> (another system worth researching). > Hmm, I've never heard of it. I'll check it out. The first supercomputer, IMO. It's an interesting machine, with a variety of innovations that later became standard: e.g. it has separate instruction and arithmetic units, with the former being in charge of all fetches, both instruction and data, as well as executing things like branch instructions; it also has a primitive form of pipelining ("Interlocks in the look-ahead unit ensure that nothing is altered permanently until all the preceeding instructions have been executed successfully.") Eric has a nice page about it: https://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/ibm/stretch/ There's a good book about it: Werner Buchholz (editor), "Planning a Computer System: Project Stretch", McGraw-Hill, New York, 1962 Speaking of books, there's also a CDC 6600 book: Jim E. Thornton, "Design of A Computer: The Control Data 6600", Scott, Foresman, Glenview, 1970 Really gotta do that Bibliography! Noel

10 years

4
4
0 0

Grey Wall (VMS) available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Someone emailed me last night that has a full set (about 30+) of manuals in grey binders for VMS 5.0. Still waiting for them to respond with their location. This is not something I'd want... J

10 years

5
9
0 0

Wanted: Ann Arbor Ambassador terminal

by ian.primus.ccmp＠gmail.com

It's been a long time since I've asked about this, so I figured it was worth another shot. I've been looking for an Ann Arbor Ambassador terminal for close to fifteen years, with no success. It's kind of an obscure model, but they did exist. I heard of one being available several years back, but, unfortunately, someone else got it before I could. So, does anyone have one of these? Has anyone seen one in recent memory? -Ian

10 years

3
2
0 0

contemplating selling my VT52

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I've been saving the VT52 I've owned for years (used it with a modem back in the late 80s to dial into school) with the thought of paring it up with a PDP-8/E, PDP-8/F, or PDP-8/M .... but I don't know that the PDP-8 train will ever stop here. I've come close a couple of times, but have either missed the train on a good deal, or not been in a position to stomach the pricing some of them fetch. So, I'm contemplating selling the VT-52. It has age typical wear, but last time it was powered on, it was working. There was a touchy connection that would act up once in a while requiring a tap on the side to bring it back around (something in the video connection no doubt). I never dug into it to resolve it 100%, as it didn't happen often, and a 'love tap' on the right side always brought it around. I'd like to hang onto it, but it is big. I'm entertaining offers which might sway my decision to keep/sell it. I'm located close to the intersection of Sharon, Easton, and Stoughton, MA. I don't think shipping is an option, unless your willing to pay, and take the risk on something like this being transported. If I can get a big enough box, I can pack it well.... but I'd prefer not to do it due to the risks involved. Keep VT52 in the subject line of any e-mail you send so I can find it easier. Sometimes I may only check mail here once a week, so if you are inquiring and don't hear from me for a while, no fear, I'll get around to you. -- Curt

10 years

1
0
0 0

Teletype on ebay

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

There is a Teletype printer on ebay, the seller is in Virginia. Ebay item 231990393069 The auction title is: 1966 - Vintage Antique TELETYPE INKTRONIC Receive Only Set TelePrinter Parallel

10 years

2
1
0 0

KM11 uPB question

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hey folks, While working on my 11/45, I built up a KM11 replica based on Tom Uban's ExpressPCB layout. I noticed the following behavior when trying to use it in uPB mode on my KB11-A CPU: * If I set up uPB, set KM11 S1 on and S2 off, and resume execution, the breakpoint fails to stop the processor * BUT, if I depress and *hold* CONT, while it is held down the CPU will be held in T2 on the target microword * If I then reach over and flip on S2 before releasing CONT I can hold the machine there in T2 Documentation on the KM11 seems to imply that the machine should just stop at the target state holding in T2 without having to do the holding-down-CONT-while-flipping-on-S2 thing. I was wondering if this was an oddity of my KM11, my CPU, or is that just the way uPB mode works on these things? thanks, --FritzM.

10 years

1
0
0 0

PDP-11/45 restoration running console emulator

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Just wanted to share some joy here: after a months-long spare time restoration and debug process, the PDP-11/45 I've been working on booted to the M9301 console emulator last night (pic at http://fritzm.github.io/images/pdp11/m9301-running.jpg). Made me super happy to see that register dump an the "$" prompt :-) Next up will be using PDP11GUI to run more thorough diagnostics, then I'll be moving on to storage (RK05)... cheers, --FritzM.

10 years

3
5
0 0

Force SPARC/CPU-5V-64-110-2 available.

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have two Force VME boards with microSPARC CPU which I have no use for. SPARC/CPU-5V-64-110-2. 110 MHz. 64 Mbyte. https://imgur.com/a/4GWqB Trade for something interesting. /Mattis

10 years

1
0
0 0

Model M Key Cap Replacement WAS: Keyboards and the Model M (was Re: NEC ProSpeed 386)

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

While on the subject anyone know where one can buy replacement key caps?? -Ali

10 years

10
15
0 0

old friend is slimming down the warehouse

by connork＠connorsdomain.com

On Jun 24, 2016 1:11 PM, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Mike wrote... > ----- > ??? HP 262x terminals don't ship well.? The "ET" terminals must be packed > carefully. > ---- > That is very true. I could use one of those large black plastic pieces that > hold the monitor open. Mine broke'ted. > If you have the broken pieces and or a complete one I could possibly model it and 3D print it depending on size... We have the technology ;) -Connor K

10 years

1
0
0 0

CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by earl＠baugh.org

This thread reminded me that I recently got shipped what the person told me was a CDC 6000 Central Memory core. (it matches what's on this page : http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/computer/en/6400hwac.html ). He told me that the console looked like this : http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk/sld031.htm I got it along with a box other parts (mostly Sun things) and a single "plane" of core memory from another module. (It connects the 6000 to the Sun 1's that I picked up in the past... some interesting history...good "over a beer" stories :-) ) I'm coming to VCF MW this year so if there is interest, I can bring it along... Earl

10 years

1
0
0 0

acoustic coupler/modem available

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Spotted this at a local surplus place today. it's an acoustic coupler/modem, white plastic case, manufacturer is "MI2" (with the 2 as a superscript, so I guess "MI Squared"). Never heard of them. No clue if it works, appears to be in fair condition, they have a price tag of $25 on it. J

10 years

1
0
0 0

old friend is slimming down the warehouse

by stark＠mit.edu

You guys must have much larger apartments (or houses I'm guessing) than me.... I would really like a vt220 largely because it seems like it wouldn't occupy much space. I'm guessing they withstand shipping better too. -- Greg

10 years

1
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0 0

Other then being original is there any reason to get a RX02 ?

by pete＠petelancashire.com

Someday I want to have a PDP11 even if it is a QBUS version I can get a clean RX02 for about $150. When my life involved PDP11's starting with 34A and ending with 44's I never used one. -pete

10 years

4
5
0 0

Tektronix terminals and terminals in general (Re: CDC 6600 - Why so aweso...

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Heh! Especially if an upper case only terminal I can just imagine the cry arising from the little whiners! QUIT SHOUTING QUIT SHOUTING! (as they stamp their feet and rent their clothing....) In a message dated 6/24/2016 7:50:46 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, emu at e-bbes.com writes: On 2016-06-24 08:23, Swift Griggs wrote: > However, I think most folks these days would faint if they were forced to > work on a terminal. Just don't tell them, that they do ;-) If you really think about it, the terminals just got faster and got more colors. (and you call them smartphone, thin clinet, tablet, win PC, ...) Otherwise: a.) most data is somewhere in the cloud (before it was called mainframe) b.) a lot of applications are running in the cloud (before, mainframe) c.) you connect now via wireless internet (before: modem) d.) ... So, just Emperor's new clothes ;-)

10 years

1
0
0 0

CDC 6600 - Why so awesome?

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

To my sorrow, I'd never heard of the CDC 6600 and I barely knew who Control Data was (whippersnapper, I know). I see a lot of traffic about them on the list and I went out to discover "why so cool?" Wikipedia and other spots talk about the features, but I'm trying to understand from folks who put hands to the metal, why they liked them so much. I'm a total igmo concerning this bit of kit. Is this about right? - It has dual "calligraphic" displays. Geeze! Very freakin' cool - It was RISC nearly before folks could even articulate the concept - It had some wicked cool "demos", to cop a C64 term. (ADC, PAC, EYE) - It wasn't DEC and it wasn't IBM and it was faster than both when it hit the street? - It has a cool OS? Dunno. Not much info on "SCOPE" - Made in the USA baby! Back when we actually made things. - It used odd sized (by todays standards) register, instruction, and bus sizes. 60 bit machine with 15/30 bit instructions. But, didn't it cause a bunch of alignment issues for you ? I dug into the CPU instructions for about 20 minutes and it was actually pretty straightforward. The so-called "COMPASS" ASM code was oh-so-cool. I can't believe they had so many of the features now considered "modern" or "clever" (at least by me) in the 1960s! This code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMPASS/Sample_Code ... Is super-readable, in fact, probably a bit more than several much-newer dialects on different platforms. There was one instruction "PROTECT" I found pretty interesting, too. Was that similar to noodling with the control registers CR0, CR2, CR3, and CR4 on x86 to mark memory protection from segmentation violations? I remember that being the protection mechanism on my 386 SX/16 (and I remember it being a PITA), however the COMPASS "way" looks much easier/cooler and must have some hardware assistance to do that so easily. -Swift

10 years

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LINC-8 and PDP-8 manuals

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I have been going through our library of documentation and found some items that are duplicates. There are a LINC-8 programming manual, PDP-8 DecTape programming manual, PDP-8/L maintenance manual, PDP-8/e maintenance manual volume I and volume III. http://i.imgur.com/YEAdnZV.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/pvsypvY.jpg?1 Trade for something interesting! Other things that is also for trade: http://www.datormuseum.se/available /Mattis

10 years

2
1
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Forth for RSTS

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

> On Jan 3, 2016, at 4:56 PM, Paul Koning <paulkoning at comcast.net> wrote: > > ... > This Forth implementation is a port of Fig-FORTH by John S. James, with some RSTS-specific magic added. I just realized the file header says that it is in the public domain, so I suppose I should post the source... Done. Thanks to Al Kossow, it now lives on Bitsavers, in bits/DEC/pdp11/forth/forth.mac This is the RSTS run-time system, from V9.6 and later. I haven't tried building it on older versions; the comments say it works back to V7.2. I don't remember why that version is mentioned. Run time systems existed before then, though a few details did change over time. The original version was for RSX and RT-11. I did the RSTS port, and Kevin Herbert added some more stuff to it later on. The biggest change is to make the vocabulary machinery match the ANSI Forth 83 standard, which allows for lots of separate vocabularies and arranging their search order. This was needed to allow SDA to define a set of 32 bit replacements for the standard (16 bit) arithmetic operators of native Forth, without getting itself all confused. Build instructions are in the comments near the top of the file. There's very little to it. Enjoy. paul

10 years

1
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PDP-11/40 modified to be a PDP-11/23

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

now, there is a 11/23 I could love! ---Ed# In a message dated 6/22/2016 9:44:20 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, glen.slick at gmail.com writes: BACKPLANE", > so the operation is not so mysterious. I had never seen a hex-wide Q-bus > backplane before this. > > There are some pictures of the system and the Q-Bus to 11/40 front panel > interface here: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-1140 >

10 years

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How do they make Verilog code for unknown ICs?

by swiftgriggs＠gmail.com

In my recent studies of electronics (I'm a noob for all practical purposes) I keep seeing folks refer to Verilog almost as a verb. I read about it in Wikipedia and it sounds pretty interesting. It's basically described as a coding scheme for electronics, similar to programming but with extras like signal strength and propagation included. Hey, cool! Why are folks referring to "Verilogging" and "doing a verilog" on older chips. Is there some way you can stuff an IC into a socket or alligator clip a bunch of tiny leads onto it and then "map" it somehow into Verilog? Is that what folks who write emulators do? Ie.. they exhaustively dump Verilog code for all the chips then figure out how to implement that in some computer programming language like C ? What do folks do for ROM chips and PLCs? I'd think they must dump the code and disassemble it. No? I'm just curious and this is a tough question to answer with Google since I'm pretty clueless and don't know the right words to search for. I notice people talk about correcting their Verilog code, so it must be somewhat of a manual process. I'm just wondering how someone even gets started with a process like that. -Swift

10 years

16
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where to find DEC ECO's for KB11-A?

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Are DEC ECO's available online anywhere? I have not seem them in the usual places e.g. bitsavers... I am particularly interested in ECO's related to the KB11-A (11/45). thanks, --FritzM.

10 years

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PDP-11/40 modified to be a PDP-11/23

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 9:05 PM, Michael Thompson < michael.99.thompson at gmail.com> wrote: > The RICM just picked up a PDP-11/40 chassis that was modified to accept a > PDP-11/23 board set. It also contains a custom board to interface the > PDP-11/23 to the original PDP-11/40 front panel. It is quite an > accomplishment to get the Q-Bus board set working in the Unibus chassis. > I looked at the backplane pictures that I took after the rescue. I assumed that the hex-wide 8-slot backplane in the front of the card cage was the original 11/40 processor backplane. On the back it says "LSI 11 BACKPLANE", so the operation is not so mysterious. I had never seen a hex-wide Q-bus backplane before this. There are some pictures of the system and the Q-Bus to 11/40 front panel interface here: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-1140 -- Michael Thompson

10 years

3
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CYBER-171

by bryan＠bceassociates.com

Wondering if anyone out there has such a machine running. It was literally the first computer system I used (at Indiana State University back in the 70's). I had some real fun doing FORTRAN and Pascal programming on that thing. Thanks, Bryan

10 years

1
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Programming for the Alto's Mesa

by paul＠mcjones.org

> I just looked in some boxes I haven't opened in decades. I have "Mesa > Language Manual, Version 5.0, April 1979". If the people with the Alto > need this, let me know. It?s been scanned: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/mesa/5.0_1979/documentation/CSL_79-3_Mes… > ... Mesa was a hard-compiled language, but it had concurrency, > monitors, co-routines ("ports", similar to Go channels), strong type > safety, and a sane way to pass arrays around. ... The designers of the concurrency mechanisms (Butler Lampson and Dave Redell) wrote an excellent paper, which can be downloaded from Lampson?s web site: http://research-srv.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/blampson/23-ProcessesInMe… > Anyone here know or remember Mesa? I'd like to hear more about it. Thanks to the foresight of Al Kossow and others, the Computer History Museum has a repository of Alto source code online, including the Mesa system and some applications such as the Laurel electronic mail client and the Grapevine distributed mail transport and name service. (The repository also includes a lot of BCPL and a small amount of Smalltalk.) The repository is here: http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org Probably better to start here: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/xerox-alto-source-code/ http://xeroxalto.computerhistory.org/xerox_alto_file_system_archive.html Paul McJones

10 years

3
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FSOT: 9-slot VME backplane

by dave＠661.org

I have a 9-slot VME backplane for sale or trade. It weighs about 3 pounds when packed. Pictures at https://www.flickr.com/photos/32548582 at N02/albums/72157670027920776 -- David Griffith dave at 661.org A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

10 years

1
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HP Series-80 computers - PRM-85 board case? ... maybe!

by Martin.Hepperle＠dlr.de

Hi, I own PRM-85 boards for my HP-85 and 86 machines. While they are very useful extension modules for these computers, they lack a proper case. I hate to destroy a working interface or memory module just for the case. I read in this list that there are more people interested in such a case. So I designed a replica case for 3D printing, but did not yet try it out. I do not own a 3D printer and the commercial services calculate between $20 to $100 for one shell (upper/lower). This is a bit expensive for some trials, as I expect that the 3D design would need some iterative refinement to obtain a "perfect" case. So: if someone owning a 3D printer and a PRM-85 board is interested in helping me to refine the design by making a test print I could supply the STL files for upper and lower shells. As a "thank-you" I would expect feedback to improve the design. Regards, Martin Martin {.} Hepperle {at} mh-aerotools {dot} de

10 years

12
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CDC 6600 emulation - was Re: How do they make Verilog code for unknown ICs?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Dwight Kelvey > The RIS[C]/CISC is really not even relevant in todays processors since > the main limiting factor is memory access bandwidth and effective use > of caches. Memory bandwidth has often been the limiting factor over the complete timeline of CPU's/systems. (It would be interesting to draw up a timeline, showing the periods when it was, and was not.) Yes, caches can help a lot, but inevitably they will miss (depending on the application, more or less often). The RISC/CISC thing actually is kind of relevant to this, because RISC focuses on getting the CPU cycles to be as fast as possible, and that kind of implies simpler instructions --> more instructions to get a particular task done. That was part of the motivation for microcoding, back when it was invented; at that point in time, logic was fast, memories were slow, so more complex instructions made better use of memory bandwidth - especially since this was pre-caches. (It also made binary code 'denser', which was important back then, with much smaller memories.) However, more complex instruction sets made the CPU more complicated; microcoding helped deal with that. The 801's breakthrough, at a very high level, was to see the whole system, and try and optimize across the compiler as well as the instruction set, etc, etc. They also realized that people had been going CISCy for so long that people had to some degree forgotten why, and that that assumption needed to be re-examined - especially in light of the then-current logic/memory speed balance, which had shifted towards memory at that particular point in time. Noel

10 years

3
2
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Leaking DEC VR201 monochrome monitor?

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I picked up a DEC VR201 display today, it was leaking a highly corrosive brown liquid. So corrosive it burned my skin painfully / immediately and I had to wash hands thoroughly. Anyone come across a display that leaked a corrosive liquid like that? The display was stored in its original box, so I don't think the brown liquid was from something stored on top of it, but I don't know for sure. Bill -- @ BillDeg: Web: vintagecomputer.net Twitter: @billdeg <https://twitter.com/billdeg> Youtube: @billdeg <https://www.youtube.com/user/billdeg> Unauthorized Bio <http://www.vintagecomputer.net/readme.cfm>

10 years

10
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