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

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list(a)wfi-inc.com> wrote: > No extra cable...but I do have the RS422 standard pinout handy... I've got the pinout of the camera from the Apple tech support web site. What I was confused about is what signals get wired to what signals for RS-422. I've been making RS-232 cables for 10 years, but without a cable diagram, I've never made a Mac cable. > > On Sun, 12 Mar 2000, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > > So... does anyone out there have a Mac "null-modem" cable they'd like to > > get rid of? I've also found out that this *exact* cable (down to the icon) is used to connect a Newton to a Mac. Any Newt users out there (in the States, Hans ;-) that have a source for cables? ===== 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!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

26 years, 3 months

6
8
0 0

backup tapes

by ghldbrd＠ccp.com

Hello, fellow scroungers, After having formatted my system drive in error, I am putting back in my tape backup unit. I have gobs of 150 meg and 250 meg tapes, but am in need of 525 meg tapes ----------- DC6525 --------- for less that retail price (which at last report was $20-30 a pop). I would appreciate any leads . . . . Gary Hildebrand

26 years, 3 months

2
1
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Zax ICD 378 for Z80

by klager＠execpc.com

I have been using a Zax in-circuit debugger and it has recently stopped working. As best as I can tell, the Zax corporation is no longer in existence. I'd like to either have my unit repaired or find a replacement. Any help out there? klager(a)execpc.com

26 years, 3 months

3
2
0 0

Parallel port hard drives?

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>Are you using a 1.2MB floppy drive to write a 360K floppy disk? Yes, but I used the drive (1.2Mb) to format it to 360K. ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 3 months

8
16
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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 30, 0:17, Olminkhof wrote: > Anyway, Control C doesn't work and I can no longer repeat getting to an @ > prompt, instead getting a lot of backward ? characters at times. > I'm now using the console port but have lost confidence in the terminal and > serial cable completely. I discovered the baud setting control for the ports > after I blew the dust out of the little window. Set the port to 4800 baud, > the default setting on the VT220. All for no consistent result. Tried 110 > baud on both with no result If the system is using the SLUs on the MXV11-B, the little window is meaningless, as the baud rate etc on the MXV11 has to be set by rejumpering several links, often with wire wrap. There's no handy way of connecting a selector switch. > I switched to a straight though 25 wire serial cable and got absolutely no > communication, . . added a null modem and got a little garbage . . changed > from the default VT200 mode 7 bit controls to some of the others . . . all > to no result. Try connecting directly to the 10-pin connector on the left side of the MXV11, start it up, and hit the HALT button. You should get an address and an ODT prompt. You should get another prompt every time you press RUN, if HALT is still pressed in. Assuming the panel is connected to the backplane correctly. The MXV11-B only supports 300/1200/9600/38400 baud. J9,J10,J11 control the setting for SLU0, J7,J8,J9 control SLU1 (the console port). 9600 is J9 to J10, and J8 to J9. J61 to J62 forces SLU1 to be the console. It's also possible that you have some kind of custom bootstrap in it. MXV11-Bs were sometimes sold without boot ROMs (the standrd ROM set is known as the B2 ROM set, and marked as such), and use the same software arrangement as the MRV11-D ROM board, so people were able to roll their own using information in the MRV11-D manual. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

1
0
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Prime 2455

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 29, 13:41, Bill Pechter wrote: > > In article <00ce01bf990a$26953aa0$03e893c3@proteus>, Peter Pachla > > <peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk> writes > > I have an external tape drive which I am told came from a Prime of some > > sort which you can have. I don't know what sort of tape it takes as I > > didn't get any with it. Perhaps someone else on the list could say > > whether it is any use to you. It has no external markings except for a > > sticker showing that it passed statutory testing in 1988. The drive > > itself is an Exabyte Model EXB 8200, does anyone recognise this? > It's an 8mm 112M Exabyte... www.exabyte.com. Works great with any > SCSI single ended (usually) interface. I have two here, one sold originally as a PDP-11/83 add-on, and one from a Pr1me. I upgraded the firmware in the older one using code from www.exabyte.com, and both work very nicely on my Unix machines and an Acorn Archimedes. They don't do compression and the standard 8200 doesn't have the high-speed search that the 8200S has, but they handle a reasonable data rate and hold around 2.2GB per tape. Lots of people use 8mm video tape; I prefer to use proper data cartridges, though. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

1
0
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Swap Meet

by steverob＠hotoffice.com

Went the the Hamfest at the Motorola Factory in Plantation (western Ft. Lauderdale) last weekend. From what I understand, it used to be a regular event but, now it's held infrequently. There were quite a few sellers there but, not too much computer stuff. I found a micro-based controller for $10. Looks like it was used for some kinda automated inspection or manufacturing system. The system consisted of 4 large wire-wrapped boards and 4 fairly large power supplies. There was some damage to the innards so, I bought it strictly for the parts. Got a ton of TTL devices and other goodies out of it. Also found a "NIDA" Counter / Timer. It's an educational tool used to teach digital logic. It's in great condition considering it came from the school board. In my experience, most of the stuff from the schools is pretty beat up. Anyway, it's very cool and only cost me $5. I had other comittments so only stayed until 8:00 AM. At that time, sellers and buyers were still filing in. Probably missed some good stuff but, oh well... Later, Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com> > > We stayed at the meet for about an hour or so, and decided > that we had had > enough of the wall to wall people. I had fun but I doubt that > I'll go again, > unless I learn more about ham radio stuff. I'll hold out for a vintage > computer fest instead. > > Ernest

26 years, 3 months

2
1
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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 15:25, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: > >> >M7195 > >> > >> 128 kbyte RAM > > >It's actually a MXV11-B Multifunction card, with 128KB RAM, and ... > > >> It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial > >> line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea > >> how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. > > >... the MXV11-B has two SLUs, of the same type as a DLV11. > > Yeah, that makes more sense. I still don't know how his machine is > supposed to boot from disk without a disk controller, though! Ah, that's the magic part :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

3
2
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Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 19:14, Tony Duell wrote: > The other thing is that when 96 tpi drives were in common use, some (lesser) > manufactuerers fitted the narrow head to all drives (even 48 tpi ones!). > Or at least some system builders/OEMs did. I have heard rumours that a > well-known BBC micro supplier sold 40 track, 80 track, and 40/80 > switchable drives. They were actually all the same (80 track, 96 tpi) > mechanisms. The '40 track' ones had been modified to double-step, and the > switchable ones had this mod controlled by the switch. Canon mechanisms, by any chance? or Chinon? > Needless to say, these '40 track' drives can correctly read '40 track' > disks that have been overwritten by 96 tpi drives (since the head in such > a drive only 'sees' the narrower 96-tpi-like track anyway), but what they > can't do is overwrite disks formatted or written on real 48 tpi drives. > Don't ask how I got to sort this out! Yuk! I can imagine :-) > The other question, of course, is how reliable do you need it to be. > > For example, the last time I wrote a 40 track disk in an 80 track (96 > tpi) drive was when I wrote a TRS-80 Model 4 boot disk on this linux box > (which has a 1.2Mbyte 96 tpi drive). I did the following : yes, i do things like that quite often. But not for anything I want to keep (not the one written in the 80-track drive, anyway) because you never know if the drive you use next year will be the same... -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

2
1
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Altos machines

by Innfogra＠aol.com

Altos machines came in several generations. 1st Generation Altos 5-ZZ where ZZ was the size of the HD. These were Z80 machines with 5 1/4 inch drives. These are small rectangular desktop boxes. Altos 8XXX-ZZ was a large heavy rectangular desktop box with Z80s or 68000 CPUs. These were generally multiuser machines. ZZ again refers to the size of the 8" HD(10=10 Meg, 12=20 Meg, 14=40 Meg HDs). They used a large custom single board computer the size of the case. The drive controller was a separate half card mounted on top of the SBC. The early 8000s had separate cases for the 8" FD & HD. In later models the drives and cards were integrated in the same case. I think the 68000 processor machines were labeled 68XX-ZZ but it has been too long to be sure. I also think the 68000 machines ran an early version of Xenix. You could get them in versions up to 9 users and a supervisor. 2nd Generation Altos 5XX & 6XX class machines. These looked like squashed hexagons, flat on the bottom and top with two angles on each side. These were medium sized desktop cases, usually beige but often came in custom colors. They carried on the two circuit card configuration. Large SBC with secondary drive controller card. Altos 580 was my favorite. Half height floppy and St 225 20 Meg HD with a Z80 and ran 4 terminals under MPM. They would also run CPM. These also came with FH 10 & 15 Meg HDs Altos 586 came with a 40 meg FHHD and the new 8086 processor and was a 6 user machine. These often ran Xenix and were password protected. While I never had one I think the 686 series machines had the 68000 processor and ran Xenix. These were all squashed Hexagonal shaped machines. I think this line went up to 9XX series numbers with greater amounts of users. 3rd Generation Then there were the Brown floor towers, Altos II & III. These were multiple card towers for large amounts of users. These had 80286 and 80386 processors. I believe there were machines that continued the 680xx processor line too. I only had a couple of these. The Altos II terminal is a rebadged Wyse 100 and the Altos III was a Wyse 50. I think the Altos IV was a Wyse 60 but I am not sure at the moment. Paxton

26 years, 3 months

13
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360K in a 1.2M drive (was: Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 26, 16:16, Richard Erlacher wrote: > I'm not sure I am the one who should wake up here. I would repeat "It > doesn't matter whether the diskette is a 1.2 MB one or a 360K type" but it > does depend what sort of drive it is. No, Fred is right. There are plenty of drives designed to use single density or double density disks at 96 tpi, and disks cerified for such use, and they work perfectly reliably for 80 tracks, SD or DD. Historically, such drives predate 1.2M (HD) drives. Provided you use SD/DD media in a drive using the correct write current, and providing there isn't any other leftover rubbish for the wider heads in a 48 tpi drive, any reasonably well-aligned 48 tpi will handle those disks just fine. However, no 48 tpi drive I have ever heard of is designed to use HD 1.2M media, and if you try it, it will give trouble sooner or later. All the evidence indicates that the major factor is the magnetic coercivity of the media. > [...] the fact that the heads designed for 48tpi will write a > significantly wider swath on > the diskette than the 96tpi drive can erase. Consequently, and I'll bet > you've had this experience, you can format a bulk erased diskette to 48tpi > with a 96 TPI drive and have it work for a while. > > The more the diskette is written, by the 48tpi drive, the harder it becomes > for the 96tpi drive to erase its writing, Again, no. Providing you're only reading back the part overwritten by the 96 tpi drive, this is not true. It only matters if you both write with 48 tpi, overwrite with 96 tpi, and then try to read back with a 48 tpi drive -- which is not what was being discussed. And it doesn't make any difference whether the 48 tpi drive writes once or one thousand times, the magnetic field strength is the same! > and, of course, the 48TPI drive > will have the most trouble because the signal not erased in the 96tpi drive > is perceived by the 48tpi drive as noise, while the signal written by the > 96tpi is written at a lower level to begin with, since the drive relies on > the higher coercivity of the medium to generate a larger signal amplitude if > that factor is to come into play at all. No, it doesn't rely on the higher coercivity, not when it's writing single or double density. It only does that for High Density. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

3
3
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Swap Meet

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

At 20:39 12-03-2000 -0800, John Lawson dared me to... > So... where's the detailed Swap Meet Report???? > > We're waiting... >PS: Post to The List if you dare... :) Ok, I dare. ;-) The Puyallup swap this year was quite crowded compared with last year. I managed to sell a bunch of stuff that I didn't think I would, and some stuff that I thought would sell (almost) didn't. For the record, I sold all the Exabyte drives (the 8500's are holding here for checks from the purchasers -- thanks, guys!) and the small UPS I had. I don't think any of the buyers (with three exceptions) were classiccmp'ers, but all business was appreciated. There were equal amounts of joy and irritation with this year's event. On the 'joy' side was, certainly, good sales. Add to that my finding of not one, but TWO Amp 'Butterfly' tools (if you don't know what one is, you'll have trouble appreciating it), plus some spare batteries for the pair of radios I use for SwapComm and a nice mid-80's vintage Amprobe clamp-on AC meter, and I think I did pretty well. On the irritation side. One fellow showed up with a beautiful mil-spec HF receiver. Those of you familiar with the radio side of things will likely recognize the designation of R-2174(P)/URR, a.k.a. the Racal 6790. It was in great shape, came with its manual and power cord, and had a sticker price of $1,275. Those of you who know this receiver will know immediately that this is a bit exorbitant. In prime shape, they're worth about a grand, and that's what I offered the fellow for it (knowing full well that I'd be going into debt for six months to pay it off!). He insisted on waiting until the end of the day. However, at day's end, I came back to find him wrapping it up. Upon asking what was up, he told me (rather brusquely) that someone had paid him $2,000 in CASH for it. Initially, I was stunned. Not only was that over twice what the unit was worth, but it astounded me that ANYone would be (a) walking around with two grand in cash in their pocket, and (b) would use it to buy a mid-80's HF receiver, however nice. I walked away from that one fuming. In retrospect, and after talking to a friend of mine, it is now my firm belief that the owner was lying through his teeth in an effort to cover the fact that no one had been willing to pay his outrageous sticker price. Here's why I think this. 1). He was wrapping the receiver up as if to ship it. If someone was crazy enough to pay $2K for that unit, said buyer would have taken it with them ON THE SPOT. 2). The seller's attitude throughout the day was loud, obnoxious, and forceful on trying to sell things. Too forceful, in fact. He wouldn't dicker beyond a certain point, and he seemed borderline arrogant in every dealing he had with those around him. From what I could tell, he sold very little that day. 3). His body language, as he was wrapping up the receiver, was most definitely NOT that of someone who'd just closed a two-grand sale. It was more along the lines of "I'm taking my ball and going HOME! To blazes with this whole mess!!" Anyway, that's about it. I deposited more back into the bank than I took out to cover my purchases, so I think I did pretty well. Eric Smith came by on Sunday to pick up the DSD-880's I had for him, plus some other goodies, and it was he who bought my last Exabyte drive. Eric, if you're reading this, thanks again and enjoy! Guess I'll just have to do it again next year. Heck, I might rent a table just to get in early. Let's hope that, if someone has a similar receiver next year, they'll be more serious about selling it at a reasonable price. Caveat (burp) Emperor! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 3 months

3
2
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Research Machines Link 480Z

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> IIRC at least one of the RML winchester systems was a box about the size >> of a 380Z with a PSU, ST506-interfaced drive and a SASI-ST506 interface >> card. I assume the 380Z interface was a SASI host adapter or something. that sounds like what I maybe have.... never seen a 380Z so I don't know. I've got five or six 480Z machines though, three or four of them with network interfaces, and then two big black metal cabinets - one houses the hard drive, and from memory the other contains either controller logic or floppy drives (these things have been sitting in sotrage for the last 4 years, so it's been a while since I've seen them!) pretty nifty stuff though, I must dig them all out again some day... (they were given to me along with my Diamond wordprocessor, which was the main find, so I only ever powered up the 480's to check that they could talk to the disk unit before they got stored...) someday I will have the time and space to fire these things up again and have a serious play around with them... cheers Jules >

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

remove

by thomas.h.lindberg＠se.abb.com

remove

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 11:51, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: > On Mar 28, 20:15, Olminkhof wrote: > >The cards are, from one end: > >M7195 > > 128 kbyte RAM It's actually a MXV11-B Multifunction card, with 128KB RAM, and ... > >M8067 > > Another 128 kbyte RAM Or maybe 256K > It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial > line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea > how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. ... the MXV11-B has two SLUs, of the same type as a DLV11. It also has a bootstrap (usually) which is vaguely similar to some of the 11/23+ ad early 11/73 bootstraps, and an LTC. And a million jumper posts. I have a document listing their names/functions somewhere online, if you need it. > There seem to be some (slight) behavioural differences depending on which > serial port I plug the terminal into. Well, the one on the left of the card, looking into it from the back, is the console line, if that helps. > I'm unclear about the switches and lights, but I have the run light on, the > DC light on, the fixed disk write protect switch out and it's red light out, > and the fixed disk ready switch out with it's green light on. Well, that should be running. As Tim noted, there isn't a disk controller in your list, though. I'd expect an RQDX1 or maybe RQDX2 in that machine -- more likely an RQDX1 if the drive is an RD50. If there isn't, it won't do much. It might be worth trying to connect a terminal to the console SLU and seein what happens when you start it. You can break into the bootstrap routine using ctrl-C if necessary. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

3
2
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Next Password

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Picked up a next turbocolor station early this week and it powers up but is password protected, anyone know a quick way around this ? Thanks in advance John

26 years, 3 months

5
5
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Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 27, 18:44, Richard Erlacher wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > > On Mar 27, 19:57, Tony Duell wrote: > > > fact behaves like the second type above -- a 98tpi (80 cylinder) drive > Surely you mean 96 tpi . . . right? I'm sure that was just a typo on Tony's part :-) > I'm curious ... How do you "set" a > 1.2MB drive to behave as a 720-K drive, i.e. use that type of medium? It > seems to me that, at a minimum, the controller would have to be seriously > involved as well. Assuming the HD drive is correctly jumpered, you simply get the controller to put a low signal on pin 2 (density) of the interface. On most drives, that will also change the speed from 360 rpm to 300; on others, not. > > Furthermore, the media used in 96 tpi standard density disks is, in my > > experience, the same as that used in 48 tpi standard density disks. It > > even says so in my CDC drive manuals. However, as we all (ought to) know, > > the media for HD disks is very different. > > > The fact remains that there are diskettes specifically designated as being > 96TPI-certified, "QD" presumably for quad density, since you get twice as > many tracks as with a double density diskette, which were, originally sold > at a higher price than the "360K" Indeed, and I have lots like that, ie either "certified for 96 tpi" or in a few cases, "QD". However, the differential is partly marketing, and partly because manufacturers often tested 96 tpi disks more carefully for microscopic blemishes -- a tiny defect might cause a disk to be rejected for 96 tpi, but pass a test for 48 tpi. Many (most?) manufacturers used exactly the same media/emulsion for both types -- I know for a fact that Dysan and Verbatim did, although I also know that Dysan at one time made disks that looked slightly different, and presumably those did use a slighlty different coating. > > > According to all the data I can find (which is not much), the centre > > lines > > > of the 48tpi tracks and the centre lines of alternate 96tpi tracks > > > coincide. This means (amongst other things) that you can use the same > > > alignment disk for both types of drive. > > > This would follow but for the technique used for writing radial alignment > tracks. I don't follow -- the instructions for my Shugart and Dysan alignment disks clearly state that the disk is suitable for both 96 tpi and 48 tpi drives, and lists the apropriate track numbers for the various tests, such as the cats-eyes alignment test (and, yes, the track number for 96 tpi is simply double the number for 48 tpi in each case). > results I had and observed in others' lack of success certainly support the > belief that the media were not the same. Perhaps you've been unlucky. I too have found some old 48 tpi media are just not good enough, giving one or two errors, but most post 1980 are fine -- and I suspect that's just the result of better quality control. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

4
3
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Sharp PC-7000

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>I have a copy of the Sharp PC 7000 boot disk if you would like a >disk >image of it. Let me know and I can email a copy of it to you. > >Ernest I already have a boot disk for this thing, but thanks anyhow. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

SUNOS 5.4 Root Password

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 1:26, Technoid(a)cheta.net wrote: > In <38E04821.4B8943AE(a)mainecoon.com>, on 03/28/00 > at 01:26 AM, Chris Kennedy <chris(a)mainecoon.com> said: > >Is this a Sun cdrom drive? Random SCSI cdrom drives are prone to not > >working unless they have a sun-specific hack to make the ID string they > >return something identifiable to the boot prom. Differing Suns have > >differing ways of refering to CDROM drives, and some insist that the > >CDROM drive show up as ID 6. Have you tried using the prom diagnostics > >to probe the bus to see who is home? > > I figured the id6 thing out by inferring from other info I hit on the web > which was pretty slim on specifics. The drive is 6 and is a Toshiba > XM-3701b. > Maybe I need a single-speed cdrom? Some older Sun boot PROMs won't recogise a CDROM unless set for 512-byte blocks. Although the 3601 and later Toshibas recognise the SCSI mode-select command to switch from normal CDROM 2048-byte operation to Sun/SGI 512-byte operation, older PROMs don't issue that command. I'm not sure about a Sparcstation 330, but you may need a drive that can be explicitly set (such as a Toshiba 3301 or 3401; some Sony and Hitachi drives also have a switch or jumper. You might also want to switch from the "old" boot mode (prompt ">") to the "new" one (prompt "ok ") by typing "n". PROBE-SCSI, HELP, and most other commands are only available from the "new" prompt. > BTW there are issues with this machine > I have not yet resolved such as a parity error on a simm and what I think > might be a power problem. I'd fix that first :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

2
1
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PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>> >M7195 >> >> 128 kbyte RAM >It's actually a MXV11-B Multifunction card, with 128KB RAM, and ... >> It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial >> line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea >> how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. >... the MXV11-B has two SLUs, of the same type as a DLV11. Yeah, that makes more sense. I still don't know how his machine is supposed to boot from disk without a disk controller, though! -- 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, 3 months

1
0
0 0

iOpener

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>By purchasing the i-opener you are agreeing to use the i-opener Internet >service. The fee is $21.95 a month and will be billed to your credit card >approximately 2 days after the i-opener is shipped to you. And then $21.95 every month for the rest of your life? I seriously doubt that such an open-ended contract is enforceable anywhere. >i-opener Internet appliances shipped after March 20, 2000 can no longer be >reconfigured in the manner described in recent reports. Modification of the >i-opener in any way is in violation of our terms and conditions. What terms and conditions? If you aren't allowed to see them (I poked around a little bit and didn't find them) how can they be part of the sales contract? Wasn't it a Steve Martin movie that illustrated the "Substantial Penalty for Early Withdrawal" clause? IIRC the depositor was given a blindfold and shot... -- 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, 3 months

2
1
0 0

installing SGI SVR3 from tape

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 28, 3:00, r. 'bear' stricklin wrote: > On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, r. 'bear' stricklin wrote: > > > GL2-3.6 (SGI's UNIX didn't come to be called until the first 4D-series > > machines were released) and 3.5r1. > > -cough- > > What I MEANT to type was, of course, "didn't come to be called IRIX until > the first 4D-series machines were released". I knew that :-) What I don't know, unfortunately, is the first thing about GL. Not that sort, anyway. 'sifex' rings a bell, though. I'll ask amongst my friends. Have you tried any of the c.s.sgi.* newsgroups? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

HP Apollo/9000s

by paulrsm＠ameritech.net

Try http://www.zepa.net/apollo/Apollo-FAQ.html ---------- > From: Peter Pachla <peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk> > To: Classic Computer <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> > Subject: HP Apollo/9000s > Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 06:04 PM > > Hi Does anyone know of a FAQ or other document which describes the HP Apollo > (700 series?) and/or the HP-9000 series of PA-RISC machines (9000/7xx?).

26 years, 3 months

7
9
0 0

Research Machines Link 480Z

by PeksaDO＠Cardiff.ac.uk

All this talk of RM380/480s has prompted me to admit that I own four: 2 x Link 480Z (with one 'beige' twin 5.25 drive) 1 x 380Z (twin 8" drives and winchester) 1 x 380Z (twin 5.25" drives) The 380Z with 8" drives is fairly well loaded: 1) IO 2) CPU/32K #1 3) 32K 4) Hi Res Graphics 5) Winchester #2 6) Analog I/O 7) Network #3 8) Terminator #1 Containing (roll on drums, wait for it tony) a daughter card containing the CPU and the IEEE gubbins (connected to the 'IEEE STD 488 PORT') #2 A 5Mbyte 5.25" unit - unfortunately expired before I acquired it #3 This card has more wire wrap on the 'back' than any other card I've seen that wasn't designed as such The serial number is 35/121003 and the etch dates are 1978 or 1979 with some cards have a cloth sticker of 1980. Doug.

26 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

Altos machines

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

> > If you can wait a day or two, a fellow classiccmper and I are > >going to be inventorying the Altos machines.... > >....there may be some documentation (we've several binders full > >of it) on your machine. >Thanks, if you manage to find out ANYTHING do let me know. Sorry, nothing about the machine that you had described, though we did find some Altos 5-series and 8000-series binders. -- 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, 3 months

9
9
0 0

Parallel port hard drives?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 27, 19:57, Tony Duell wrote: > There is some wonderful confusion in this thread :-).... Yes :-) > The first is the standard density 48tpi drive. This is what PC owners > would call a '360K drive'. [...] > The second is the standard density 96tpi drive. [...] > The third is the high density drive, known to PC users as the 1.2Mbyte > drive. [...] > From this, it seems to me that a 1.2Mbyte drive will _not_ reliably > read/write a 360K format on HD disks. It will use the wrong (too low) > write current. HD disks should be used for 1.2Mbyte formats only. > > Of course when a 1.2Mbyte drive is set to use 'standard' disks, it in > fact behaves like the second type above -- a 98tpi (80 cylinder) drive > and not a 360K (40 cylinder) one. Tony has put this very well. It's exactly what I was getting at. Furthermore, the media used in 96 tpi standard density disks is, in my experience, the same as that used in 48 tpi standard density disks. It even says so in my CDC drive manuals. However, as we all (ought to) know, the media for HD disks is very different. > According to all the data I can find (which is not much), the centre lines > of the 48tpi tracks and the centre lines of alternate 96tpi tracks > coincide. This means (amongst other things) that you can use the same > alignment disk for both types of drive. It also means that a 96tpi drive > can reliably read a disk formatted and written on a 48tpi drive (only). > When the 96 tpi drive's head is on a suitable track it is reading along > the middle of the track. It's going to read good data. That's why there's > no problem reading disks that have been formatted/written in 360K drives > using 1.2Mbyte drives. > > Now lets consider going the other way. Tony and I are in very close agreement here as well. The only point I'd add, is this: Disks which have been written in 48 tpi drives, and not subsequently been bulk erased, may be read in a 96 tpi drive; and if then overwritten by a 96 tpi drive, they will still be readable perfectly reliably by the 96 tpi drive, but often not by the 48 tpi drive. Just as Tony (and others) have said (and as I've been telling people for nearly 20 years). However, there is a good reason that the process is sometimes observed to work to some extent, and that has to do with the way the tracks are written/erased. When the track is written, data is only written into the centre portion (about 50% of the nominal track width). Either side of that, the erase coils in the head write a narrow guard band, which occupies most of the remaining track width. It may happen that the guard bands written by a 96 tpi drive are wide enough to erase a large proportion of the signal written by a 48 tpi drive, and a 48 tpi drive might just manage to separate the new signal from the relatively low level of the residual old signal. I'm *not* advocating this as an excuse to write 40-track (or 35-track) disks in an 80-track drive without prior bulk erasure. But it explains why some people have found it works for them (even before manufacturers streamlined the range of heads they made), though probably only with limited permutations of drives, and limited (at best) reliability. I'm well aware of the problems in switching between 48 tpi and 96 tpi. In the early '80s, I made and sold a little addon for micros that might need to read 40-track disks in 80-track drives. Because I was well aware of the problem, I arranged it so that it could not only switch on double-step for one drive, but could separately switch one of the drive selects between the normal connector and an extra one. The device was normally used on BBC Micros with twin 80-track floppies, and the extra connector was to connect a third, genuine 48 tpi, drive. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 3 months

3
3
0 0

PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>The cards are, from one end: >M8192 OK, this is the CPU, a KDJ11-A. >M7195 128 kbyte RAM >M8067 Another 128 kbyte RAM >M8045 Depending on the letters that follow M8045, it's between 8 kbytes and 64 kbytes of RAM. I'm guessing it's a fully populated 64 kbytes. >M8059 Another 128 kbytes or 256 kbytes of RAM, depending on the letters that follow the M8059. >I've also found out that it ran Venix in it's first life. It was connected >to a PDP8/A that I also have but can't do anything with because of it's >state. >I'm unclear about the switches and lights, but I have the run light on, the >DC light on, the fixed disk write protect switch out and it's red light out, >and the fixed disk ready switch out with it's green light on. >There seem to be some (slight) behavioural differences depending on which >serial port I plug the terminal into. It's also particularly confusing, because you evidently have no serial line cards nor disk controllers in the backplane. I have no idea how you even got the ODT prompt out of the machine. Look at the serial ports on the back of the machine, and the ribbon cables coming from the inside of the cab kits. Which cards in the backplane do these connect to? -- 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, 3 months

1
0
0 0

eBay iopeners

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Tue, 28 Mar 2000 05:13:11 -0600 Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com> writes: > yeah, I've seen stuff for the Amiga go for more than you could buy > it new . > . . > > Typical auction, or should we call it a feeding frenzy? > > Gary Hildebrand > Amigaphile and purveyor of vacuum tube technology Ain't that bizarre? Even more bizarre was when I picked up an extremely scarce WD-1009 ESDI controller for < $10! Contrary to popluar belief, there are bargains there. . . ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

The cards are, from one end: M8192 M7195 M8067 M8045 M8059 There is an RX50 double floppy drive and an RD50 hard drive. It's difficult to work out what these are cabled to as they all plug into an interface behind the backplane. I've also found out that it ran Venix in it's first life. It was connected to a PDP8/A that I also have but can't do anything with because of it's state. I'm unclear about the switches and lights, but I have the run light on, the DC light on, the fixed disk write protect switch out and it's red light out, and the fixed disk ready switch out with it's green light on. There seem to be some (slight) behavioural differences depending on which serial port I plug the terminal into. Hans -----Original Message----- From: CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com <CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Tuesday, 28 March 2000 0:49 Subject: RE: PDP11/23 More dumb questions >>Anyway, I start the VT220 before the PDP and it gives a message VT220 Ready. >>I power up the PDP and basically get nothing at all. The only sequence that >>gets any response is hitting the halt button. The terminal then says: >>165262 >>@ >>When I hit the Restart button after that nothing happens for about 2 >>minutes. >>Then an "&" prompt appears. >>Nothing I type in gets any response after that. Typing "help" gets no >>response. > >The "165262 @" prompting is from ODT. ODT is a very simplistic monitor >that lets you modify memory and registers and start or single-step >through instructions in memory. > >165000 is a common (but not the most common) address to put a ROM'ed >bootstrap at. I'm guessing that when you halted it it was either doing >the self-test or waiting for an external device to come ready. > >The "&" prompt I'm not so sure about. It's possible that this is a prompt >from the bootstrap monitor (some Emulex bootstraps will say that) or >maybe it's from the OS/embedded application. > >>The machine is in a BA23 case and was a PDP11/23 I think, but has a PDP11/73 >>CPU upgrade. There is a full height ST506 hard drive reputed to be 30Mb in >>size, which spins and makes all the right noises. >>Any suggestions? > >What would help the most of all is an inventory of cards in the backplane. >If they're DEC cards they'll have a "Mxxxx" number on the handle. Third >party cards you'll probably have to pull to identify. Also tell us >the exact position of each card in the backplane, and what cards are cabled >to what drives. > >I suspect from the less-than-perfectly-standard bootstrap address of >165000 that you've got a third-party controller in there with on-board >bootstrap, though of course there an infinite number of permutations that >things could have been set up for! > >-- > 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, 3 months

1
0
0 0

installing SGI SVR3 from tape

by red＠bears.org

Howdy; I've got an IRIS 3130 I recently rescued, along with a shocking pile of tapes. Among these are what appears to be complete OS install tapes for GL2-3.6 (SGI's UNIX didn't come to be called until the first 4D-series machines were released) and 3.5r1. For various reasons I am interested in performing a new system installation. Booting from tape is (obviously) in order, and a tape identifying itself as the "boot system" is present. If I 'boot sq0' the QIC spins briefly and complains that it can't find the default boot file. Supposedly there is a stand-alone utility called 'sifex' which can be booted from tape to initialize disks and the like, but if that's on this tape it's not letting on. 'boot sq0:sifex' returns with an error to the effect that 'sifex' can't be found on the tape. I'm missing something but I don't know what. Am I trying to boot the wrong tape, or is something else going on? I suppose it would be worth trying to read a few of the QIC tapes while the system is up, but if someone knows in the meanwhile what my problem is likely to be, it'd be helpful. ok r.

26 years, 3 months

1
1
0 0

Altos

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 3/27/2000 12:35:30 PM Pacific Standard Time, at258(a)osfn.org writes: > I checked out our Altos, and the old one is a 580-10A, #43948. Apparently > they made a lot of these little devils. > I believe the 580 is a Z-80 machine, not an intel 8080 processor. Another PN used for the Z-80 is the MK3880P-xx where xx=speed & P=plastic case. The '-10' indicates a 10 Meg HD. They could come with several different brands of drives. CPM or MPM was usually the operating system. there is a separate supervisor terminal port to administer the system. I think there were three user ports and two serial ports, one for a modem and one for a printer. I had about 10 of these at one time. Sold the last during my warehouse sales. I have had several up and running. They are easy. Plug a terminal into console. Wyse 100 or 50 terminal emulation. usually 9600/8/N (Hmm I can't remember the stop bits) Put a current limiter on the power line when you power it up for the first time. Make sure it is warm (room temp) and not cold >from storage. Paxton

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Parallel port hard drives?

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>Did you start with a bulk-erased (i.e. with a degausser) disk? And >is it a >real 360K disk (and not a 1.2Mbyte one)? > >-tony Yes, it was a real 360K disk, I just reformatted it in Windows (it will let you choose between 1.2Mb or 360 formats). ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 3 months

4
4
0 0

Altos

by andy.sporner＠networkengines.com

I had a 2086 and THAT was a cool machine (also a way to find an RD-54--because it was the same drive!). > > I checked out our Altos, and the old one is a 580-10A, > #43948. Apparently > they made a lot of these little devils. > > M. K. Peirce > Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc. > 215 Shady Lea Road, > North Kingstown, RI 02852 > > "Casta est qui nemo rogavit." > > - Ovid >

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

FW: First come first served: VAX 11/750 (UK)

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> So, would any of our UK members like a VAX 11/750? Possibly one tha <>has a SCSI adapter? <> < <I gather that these are quite big, how does it compare for size with my <MicroVAX II with 5 RA81 drives (ie 2 19" rack units)? the basic 750 box is a 40" (memory test) wide by 40" high rack. So it's smaller than your dual rack microvax. It can be powered off 110V at reasonable current so in the 230v world it's not a huge problem there. <I would like to ask for it but if it is a roomful then SWMBO might throw <me _and_ the VAX out of the house ;-) Depends on the disks alongside. Performance wise the 750 is still slower than MVII, though IO perfomance can be much better due to unibus vs qbus. Though reasonable cooling and basic maintenance they tend to run a long time with little effort. Allison

26 years, 3 months

3
4
0 0

VAX GKS Docs available

by wilson＠dbit.dbit.com

>I have a complete doc set for the VAX GKS software (whatever >the heck it is) Graphics Kernel System, maybe? Sounds dimly familiar from the Core graphics library for the Pro, unless I'm confusing it with something else. John Wilson D Bit

26 years, 3 months

4
3
0 0

iOpener

by wilson＠dbit.dbit.com

OK, I got a 6.4 GB laptop drive hooked up and right now the iOpener is running DOS/BATCH V10-01A on an emulated PDP-11/40+RK05 system. I love it!!! It's going to take some real butchery to get the case closed, but I guess that's to be expected. The low-profile 3M connector barely fit under the CPU heat sink w/o needing it to be clearanced, that was nice. BTW the CPU seems to be 200 MHz, not 180 MHz. But it still gets only about 80 BogoMIPS, pretty slow. John Wilson D Bit

26 years, 3 months

4
5
0 0

iOpener

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<>BTW the CPU seems to be 200 MHz, not 180 MHz. But it still gets only <>about 80 BogoMIPS, pretty slow. The winchip is about slow as pents come. Pentium with MMX at 180 is much better. <I heard last night that Netpliance is making modifications so that people <can no longer do this... they are apparently losing a LOT of money selling <the machines, having expected to recoup it in the service charges... No one has seen one and there is commentary both ways from Netplience. <Can someone confirm this... and maybe confirm the change that they <have done (which I understand is simply removal of the cable connector <for the drive). Removing(not putting it in really) the connector is about all they could do with a production stream like that otherwise the cost to manufacture and all goes out the window. To me that does not constitute hacker proofing as putting one in is trivial and I might get to put in in the right side of the board even. In any case it would take a major effort to change something in production more than trivially, I've had to push that at DEC and elsewhere, it was hell. The other half os the current hacker words for it is that it's a great box even as is and they'd give their mother one. Loosing that good will to a few thousand hacked units at most would be costly in the long term. They have gotten a lot of VERY positive free press and it could become negative fast if they tried something too nasty. <Oh, and supposedly back-ordered units will have the mod... We shall see, I'm waiting. Allison

26 years, 3 months

4
4
0 0

BA23 Power Supply

by mbg＠world.std.com

>On many of the operating systems, you don't have to do a SYSGEN - just >tweak a number in the configuration word and viola, it's now a 50Hz >machine. > >For an RT-11 machine, in particular, you can tweak this on a running >system if you wish: [... 50hz.mac deleted ...] Tim - I'm surprised at you... simply setting this bit is *not* sufficient. The bit is set based on assembly parameters. Those parameters also set the values for ticks/day based on 50 and 60 hz. Those values are patched at boot time to reflect what the system thinks the clock is supposed to be (what it was genned for). Without the other counters set correctly, date rollover won't work at all correctly... since it will be waiting for sufficient clock ticks at the 60hz rate to have gone by before it bumps the clock. I seem to recall that there is another gotcha to this, but haven't yet found it in the sources... Bottom line is that the config bits are supposed to be read, not written, as they indicate what the system was built for or what it has determined (via probe) to be running on... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

Thanks all for the advice on the BA23 110/230v power switching. I've done that now and powered it up. I have a VT220 terminal that is functional as far as I know and connected to a random serial connector on the PDP, one of 6. Unfortunately I know nothing at all about PDP's or VT's. Anyway, I start the VT220 before the PDP and it gives a message VT220 Ready. I power up the PDP and basically get nothing at all. The only sequence that gets any response is hitting the halt button. The terminal then says: 165262 @ When I hit the Restart button after that nothing happens for about 2 minutes. Then an "&" prompt appears. Nothing I type in gets any response after that. Typing "help" gets no response. The machine is in a BA23 case and was a PDP11/23 I think, but has a PDP11/73 CPU upgrade. There is a full height ST506 hard drive reputed to be 30Mb in size, which spins and makes all the right noises. It was last operational about 5 years ago and was part of a Cybermation laser cutting system. I have no idea what OS would have been installed. I have no docs or media. Any suggestions? Thanks, Hans

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

PDP11/23 More dumb questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Anyway, I start the VT220 before the PDP and it gives a message VT220 Ready. >I power up the PDP and basically get nothing at all. The only sequence that >gets any response is hitting the halt button. The terminal then says: >165262 >@ >When I hit the Restart button after that nothing happens for about 2 >minutes. >Then an "&" prompt appears. >Nothing I type in gets any response after that. Typing "help" gets no >response. The "165262 @" prompting is from ODT. ODT is a very simplistic monitor that lets you modify memory and registers and start or single-step through instructions in memory. 165000 is a common (but not the most common) address to put a ROM'ed bootstrap at. I'm guessing that when you halted it it was either doing the self-test or waiting for an external device to come ready. The "&" prompt I'm not so sure about. It's possible that this is a prompt >from the bootstrap monitor (some Emulex bootstraps will say that) or maybe it's from the OS/embedded application. >The machine is in a BA23 case and was a PDP11/23 I think, but has a PDP11/73 >CPU upgrade. There is a full height ST506 hard drive reputed to be 30Mb in >size, which spins and makes all the right noises. >Any suggestions? What would help the most of all is an inventory of cards in the backplane. If they're DEC cards they'll have a "Mxxxx" number on the handle. Third party cards you'll probably have to pull to identify. Also tell us the exact position of each card in the backplane, and what cards are cabled to what drives. I suspect from the less-than-perfectly-standard bootstrap address of 165000 that you've got a third-party controller in there with on-board bootstrap, though of course there an infinite number of permutations that things could have been set up for! -- 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, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Sharp PC-7000

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

I just today acquired a Sharp PC-7000 "lunchbox" style luggable, I thought it was a boombox until I opened it up. I know that it is an MS-DOS (XT or AT class?) machine, but now I need software for it. Can someone direct me to a good software archive for this machine? Also, what is the purpose of the metal-covered (screwed shut) connector on the underside of the machine? Is it for an external hard drive? ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 3 months

3
2
0 0

Altos machines

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Does anyone have any pointers to sites on the web which cover Altos >machines? I've done a search on Yahoo and a couple of other places and >turned up nothing. Yes, there is a surprising lack of information "on the web" on Altos machines. >I'm particularly interested in information on the Unix systems they were >making around 1990 - we had one at work, an i386 in a tower case. Not PC >compatible IIRC, possibly called an "Altos III" or something similar. If you can wait a day or two, a fellow classiccmper and I are going to be inventorying the Altos machines that we've (temporarily) taken custody of, as well as the documents. All the machines that we have are 19" wide by about 7.5" high tabletop units, often with 8" floppies in the front so they're almost certainly older than your machine, but there may be some documentation (we've several binders full of it) on your machine. -- 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, 3 months

4
3
0 0

VAX GKS Docs available

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

CC'd to port-vax (NetBSD) and Classiccmp... Last call! I have a complete doc set for the VAX GKS software (whatever the heck it is) that's going in RECYCLE if someone doesn't speak up by Tuesday. These are still in their shrink wrap, and they can be yours for $1.00 plus the shipping cost (small box, not very nasty at all). Let me know. Thanks! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Altos machines

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>This pair of boxes is nominally the same size, somewhat narrower than >"rack-width" and about 7" tall. They're plastic boxes with a beige (could >be influenced by many years' cigarrette smoke) exterior and black (probably >... I haven't looked closely at them for some time.) front. > >They're quite weighty. By that I mean absolutely too heavy to ship across >the planet. Huh? The boxes you're talking about must be different than the 6 Altos boxes I have that meet the same dimensions... they only weigh 55 or 60 pounds each. (OB disclaimer: my standard for "heavy enough that I don't want to lift it too often" is a DG 6045 drive or a DEC RA80 drive, about 140-150 pounds. I used to be a puny weakling until I started collecting old computers and drives...) Tim.

26 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

FW: Items still available (Cleaning house)

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

I'm CC'ing this to both classiccmp and port-vax. Found on Usenet. Keith Huff, in Allentown, PA has a bunch of DEC'ish freebies up for grabs. Get 'em while you can! Attachment follows. -=-=- <snip> -=-=- On Sun, 26 Mar 00 18:31:13 GMT, in comp.sys.dec you wrote: >> I still have some stuff I need to get rid of, otherwise it goes to the >>dumpster. Everything listed is best offer and shipping. Items located in >>Allentown, Pa 18103. >> >> >> (2) VR262 19" mono monitors >> >> (1) VR260 19" mono monitor >> >> (2) DECstation 3100 motherboards >> >> (18) DEC 2Mb 80-pin SIMMs >> >> (1) VFB01 mono framebuffer >> >> (10) used TK50 tapes >> >> (6) brand new TK50 tapes >> >> (1) bare TK50 drive >> >> (1) LK201 keyboard >> >> (1) VT320 terminal >> >> (1) VT1200 mono X-term base >> >> (1) Wyse WY-85 terminal & keyboard >> >> (8) CDROM caddies >> >> (1) DZ11 users guide >> >> (1) DZ11 maintenance manual >> >> (1) RL01/RL02 disk subsystem users manual >> >> (23) 6250 BPI 9-track tapes >> >>Keith Huff >> >>kshuff(a)fast.net -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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, 3 months

2
1
0 0

Parallel port hard drives?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Yes, it was a real 360K disk, I just reformatted it in Windows (it will let <you choose between 1.2Mb or 360 formats). <____________________________________________________________ <David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. A 1.2mb drive does not produce reliable 360k media. It will read it but it's not symetric. Some 360k drives have more than normal difficulty reading disks created by a 96tpi drive. Allison

26 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Fw: Mac Computer

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Here are some more items up for grabs. John ----- Original Message ----- From: Kevin and Julie Grove <grover(a)scecnet.net> To: <jrkeys(a)concentric.net> Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2000 4:35 PM Subject: Mac Computer > Hi, > I saw the article in the Pioneer Press. I have a Macintosh SE/30 (~1989) > and an Apple ImageWriter II. Both are in excellent condition. Do you have > either of these in your collection yet? Let me know if you are interested > in either one or if you need more info about them. > > We also have a "Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display" monitor (~1995). The screen > has a blue cast to it. According to the Apple website, there is a way to > fix this problem, but I no longer have a use for the monitor. Let me know > if you are interested in this as well. > > We live in Western WI, but come to WBL on occasion, so we could drop it off. > > J.G. >

26 years, 3 months

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Large qty of GRiD external floppy drives available

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Going by the goodwill today, they've got a LARGE quantity of external floppy drives (probably 15-20 at least) for the 2260 and 2270 models for $2.95 each. If anybody needs one for their GRiD, let me know, and I'll pick one up for you (already got one for each of my 2270s). They look BRAND NEW - no scratches/wear, and the connectors that plug into the laptop have a little blue plastic bag still over them.... Now, if I could just find a power supply and/or a pen. Bill -- +---------------+-------------------+ | Bill Bradford | mrbill(a)mrbill.net | +-------BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-------+-----------------------------------------+ | Version: 3.12 GCS d- s:++ a- C++++ US++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ N++ o K+++ w--- | | O- M-- V- PS PE+ Y+ PGP t+ 5 X- R-- tv+++ b++++ DI++++ D++ G++ e++ h r++ y+ | +--------END GEEK CODE BLOCK--------------------------------------------------+

26 years, 3 months

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GRiD 2270s

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Anybody know where I can get info on these? I picked up 3 of them today, complete with batteries, but no power supplies or pens (they can be used as a "flat pad" mode, with a pen, or the screen flips up to reveal the keyboard). Any info would be appreciated. Bill -- +---------------+-------------------+ | Bill Bradford | mrbill(a)mrbill.net | +-------BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-------+-----------------------------------------+ | Version: 3.12 GCS d- s:++ a- C++++ US++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ N++ o K+++ w--- | | O- M-- V- PS PE+ Y+ PGP t+ 5 X- R-- tv+++ b++++ DI++++ D++ G++ e++ h r++ y+ | +--------END GEEK CODE BLOCK--------------------------------------------------+

26 years, 3 months

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Parallel port hard drives?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<>Are you using a 1.2MB floppy drive to write a 360K floppy disk? < <Yes, but I used the drive (1.2Mb) to format it to 360K. <____________________________________________________________ <David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. There lies your error. 360k floppies are 48tpi, 1.2mb floppies are 96tpi. The intertrack spacing is different, head width is different. Find a real 360k drive, try again. These young apprentices... ;) Allison

26 years, 3 months

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