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

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote: > RXV11 is only compatable with the DEC RX01. The H11 Floppy used a Heath > interface. If you use the heath floppy with RXV11 nothing happens. OK. I'll go back to the card and get it working. Worst case, I'll pull all the sockets and solder in machine-pin ones. I'd rather not; it's lots of work. I observed substantial oxidation of the plating on the ICs I did remove and test (I can't test DEC bus chips with my IC tester, only CMOS, TTL and DRAM). > Get manuals for it! you'll save pain. Any pointers on where to lay hands on H-11 docs? > > Finally, eventually, I want to get original stuff back into this box. > The original was DLV11 compatable but it was HEATH design, not as durable. It looks dodgy, but then most of the Heath stuff looks less solid to me. > The H11: > > DEC M7294 11/03 (Quad width card with 4k ram on board) Got it. > This was the ONLY dec made card in it. > > Heath Memory, several version were available 4k early, 16k later. Don't got it. I have several 32Kw and 128Kw boards from 11/23s, etc., and a few 4kW and 16kW boards from my LSI-11s (knee-high formica-topped rolly DEC cabs w/RX01 and 11/03 inside). > Heath floppy controller/interface card. > > The last one is interesting as the heath disk <8"> used a z80 in the > floppy box to do the low-level disk interface and the ribbon went back > a simple interface that was mostly a parallel card. The card itself is about as simple as any Qbus card. It is, I take it, supposed to be nominally RXV11 compatible from a driver standpoint, yes? If not, then that's part of my problem. I do boot, the disks to appear to read in an OS, then the system hangs, but that could be as a result of my card only working if it is *not* at the end of an unbroken grant chain (with a gap in the bus, the disks read but the system does not boot; without a gap in the bus, the CPU does not even bring up the boot message). > It was RX01 compatable in one mode and had a HEATH specific mode. Software or hardware selected? > The drives were known for clamps that died with age and heat load pads that > fell off. So far, the only problem I appear to have is that the belt on DX1 has either broken or fallen off. The motor is turning, but not the hub. I haven't pulled the drive to check yet. On the bright side, the mechanisms appear to have a 50-pin edge connector, suggesting that they are standard from that standpoint. I expect that the hub motors are either 110V or 24V. > It could do one thing a RX01 could not, low level format a blank disk. I did spot the obvious format switch on the front of the disk unit, but no idea how to use it. I now wish that I'd picked up a couple more boxes of media from a friend's business about eight years ago. He had a pallet of 8" disks that he was selling for more money that I was willing to pay. Eventually, he gave me a case - my choice. I grabbed a 24" long box full of pre-formatted disks, the only one on the pile. When he disposed of the remainder, I didn't make a trip out there to grab any boxes. :-( > At some point I plan to assemble a H11 system. I have 11/03 cpu, RAM, > serial cards and backplane from one. One of the gems I have in the Heath pile is an unassembled backplane. I don't know if all the connectors are there or not and I don't have a second case for it, but I've got at least part of one to "attract" the rest of it. -ethan > Allison ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. Please send all replies to erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

26 years, 9 months

4
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DG Nova 3 & LSI-11

by karlm＠blitzen.ise.canberra.edu.au

Hi all, A most interesting find was unearthed this afternoon, a DG Nova 3 with it's CDC platter drive! Not knowing much about the Nova series of computers, exactly what would be required to make it work? Also found was a home-built Q-Bus PDP-11 with RX50 drives, a M8192 CPU Module (What -11 is it?) an RQDX3 controller, a DEC card labelled M7546 and a card labelle "CTBC Computer Plus 1986" with a connector that leads to a homemade switch a LED setup. Any Clues? Cheers Karl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Karl Maftoum Computer Engineering student at the University of Canberra, Australia Email: k.maftoum(a)student.canberra.edu.au

26 years, 9 months

2
2
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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

><> The M8189 was available as two basic versions 11/23 and the plus. The ><> primary difference was what it could boot. >< ><I don't think Alison means 11/23 and 11/23plus; the 11/23 uses a ><dual-height M8186 (KDF11-A) board. But the M8189 was used in both ><11/23plus (BA11-N box, IIRC) and microPDP11/23 (BA23 box). The difference ><was just the boot ROMs, as she said. > >No I meant what I said. > > M8186 KDF-11A 11/23 No serial or boot/diag roms > Depending on rev either 18bit or 22bit (if no MMU then 16bit) > > M8189 KDF-11BA 11/23B serial + boot diag roms. No MSCP boot. > M8189 KDF-11BB 11/23+ Same board different boot roms. Boots MSCP > Both are Q22 though early versions were packaged as Q18 You might want to look at your original quote again, Allison. It sounds like you claim you said "The M8189 was available as two versions, the M8186 and the M8189". Isn't that like saying "The Mercedes is available as two versions, the Mercedes and the Chrysler"? Yeah, sure, they might share some things in common, but they *aren't* the same board by any stretch of the imagination! -- 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, 9 months

2
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Floppy disks again

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

>> QD is a misnomer, it really means DSDD 80-track, and the figure of 720K >> relates to 9 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector. > > QD was 96tpi TWO SIDED. There were two formats, 720k and 780k. Come on, Allison, read the message before hitting the shift key. He said two sided (embedded in the word "DSDD"). Some (Wabash?) QD disks I saw were labelled "96/100 tpi 77/80 track" or words to that effect. As for the two sided bit, try telling that to a Commodore 8050! This drive got 500k onto one side of a QD disk and ignored the other completely. I forget the format, but the number of sectors increased towards the outside edge of the disk... > There were three basic soft sector medias, 35track (small window for > head), 40 track (larger window) and the 600o 1.2mb. Obviously there were > flavors of single and two side good media. Most large window was two > sides good and worked in everything save for the odd 1.2mb drives. Eh? What about QD? Which was that? It wasn't 35 or 40 track, but 77 or 80. Given the Wabash label quoted above, can you confirm absolutely that the number of tracks was a variation in head window? Philip. ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses. Power Technology Centre, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottingham, NG11 0EE, UK Tel: +44 (0)115 936 2000 http://www.powertech.co.uk **********************************************************************

26 years, 9 months

4
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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 4, 23:31, Allison J Parent wrote: M8189 KDF-11BA 11/23B serial + boot diag roms. No MSCP boot. Ah yes, I'd foprgotten about that one... I must have five different sets of boot ROMs for KDJ-11Bs -- including a set transferred to a modified BDV11 to use with an -11A. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 9 months

1
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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> The M8189 was available as two basic versions 11/23 and the plus. The <> primary difference was what it could boot. < <I don't think Alison means 11/23 and 11/23plus; the 11/23 uses a <dual-height M8186 (KDF11-A) board. But the M8189 was used in both <11/23plus (BA11-N box, IIRC) and microPDP11/23 (BA23 box). The difference <was just the boot ROMs, as she said. No I meant what I said. M8186 KDF-11A 11/23 No serial or boot/diag roms Depending on rev either 18bit or 22bit (if no MMU then 16bit) M8189 KDF-11BA 11/23B serial + boot diag roms. No MSCP boot. M8189 KDF-11BB 11/23+ Same board different boot roms. Boots MSCP Both are Q22 though early versions were packaged as Q18 I have multiple copies of all three plus 11/2 (KD-11-H M7270) and 11/03 (KD-11, M7264). My 11/73 is the M8190. Allison

26 years, 9 months

1
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Different diskette formats (was: Wanted: MicroBee computer

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 4, 16:30, allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote: > Subject: Re: Different diskette formats (was: Wanted: MicroBee computer > > BTW, Allison recently referred to "hundreds" of different formats. Our > > estimate is abour 2500! XenoCopy-PC currently supports 400. > > No arguement here. I was talking media, drive and physical format. Add > OS and things like sectornumbering and skewing... gee, only 2500? ;) > > As a direct result of that there are very few 5.25 formats implmented in > my room and I try to keep it to the bare minimum. I've gone as far as to > modify systems for 3.5" drives and lock in on the more limited numbers of > formats used there. The 5.25" market was both standard and nonportable > at the same time and was a constant source of annoyance. > > Now if it's 5.25 it will be VT180, Visual1050, Kaypro 1/II, RX50, RX33 or > I use only of many tools to copy down to native for that machine. Or at > least the common ones in that pack. I have the same sort of problem. Even when considering just one manufacturer, there can be a fair range of formats. Commodore formats come to mind, but in my case I have a lot of Acorn equipment, and I have 5.25" disks that are 100K (SSSD 40 track 10 sectors/track 256 bytes/sector), 160K (SSDD 40 track 16 sectors/track 256 bytes/sector), 200K (DSSD 40 track 10 sectors/track 256 bytes/sector), 320K (both DSDD 40 track, and SSDD 80 track), 640K (DSDD 80 track). Then there are 3.5" disks 640K (same format as the 5.25"), 800K (DSDD 80 track 5 sectors/track 1024 bytes/sector), and 1.6M (DSHD 80 track 5 sectors/track 1024 bytes/sector). Several of these have different possible directory structures, too. The later machines can also read/write most of the "standard" MS-DOS formats. To keep it halfway manageable, I tend to copy anything Acorn I get to one of the two most common formats. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 9 months

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Classic power!

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

In the past few months, I've been heavily involved with upgrading some CAT scanners that date from the late 70's. I've mostly been involved with the PDP-11 side, but bolted onto the PDP-11 (or, actually, the other way around) there's a custom piece of hardware (two dozen hex-height cards) that does all the heavy number crunching. Backprojection is what the process is called, and it's basically a deconvolution of the data measured by the individual detectors to make the pretty picture of your insides that a CAT scanner displays. The power and speed of this classic hardware is quite impressive, considering it's nearly 20 years old now. We've been timing other approaches to backprojection, and if we implement the same algorithm that the custom hardware is doing but on a modern 533 MHz Pentium III, we discover that the custom hardware is twice as fast as the Pentium. There are some other competing technologies, making use of DSP chips, which promise to be faster, but at a substantial development cost. Is this a fair comparison? Maybe not! The Pentium system costs roughly $2000, while the custom backprojection hardware was several hundred thousand dollars back in the late 70's. The PC boards that make up the backprojector make use of a unique technology: the PC boards themselves are just plain old two-layer boards, with the actual PC traces carrying only power and ground. All the actual wiring is done by fine machine-laid wiring between pads, with all the wire layers "potted" in a plastic compound. Obviously, reworking such a PC board is extremely difficult, but it gives impressive component densities for the time. The modern equivalent of this is multi-layer PC boards, naturally. Of course, there's another sort of power involved too: the custom backprojection hardware requires +5V at 350 Amps, and some installations have multiple backprojectors! -- 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, 9 months

6
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Floppy disks again

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> I have em. Both 10 sector NS* format (no even for $20 I dont give them <> up) and also some of my TI99/4a likely others that I'd have bought aroun < <Wow! What brand of diskettes were they? All the NS diskettes I've seen <have the standard windows, but I think they were just 3M and Verbatim <diskettes. Actually a mix of NS* hard sector and some soft sector, Shugart, dysan, Verbatum, memorex and 3M, looking at them. It's a standards thing. At the time 1978 35 track was the standard, 40 wasn't far behind but it was different in that the media had to have a longer opening to work right. Allison

26 years, 9 months

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Classic power!

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<This was known by the trademark "Multiwire", and was often used for <quick-turn production. DEC used it on a few boards in the KL10-PV <processor; later revisions of the same boards were conventional PCBs. that was it. It's had two characteristics, high density and lines could cross (it was insulated). Since the "inner layers" were power and ground they were easy to modify (wires could be seen and removed or cut) and the transmission line characteristics were better than the then vogue 2 layer boards. All the lead holes were plated through as were any vias. Allison

26 years, 9 months

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Ahhh!

by mbg＠world.std.com

I grabbed a copy of the picture... a little dark... I had to do some adjustments to it... What I see are: o Two H960 tall cabs o One cab has 4 RL series drives in it (pretty obvious) o The other has what appears to be a pdp-8/e/f and two pdp-8/A's, both with the programmer console. 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, 9 months

1
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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote: > > The fact that the machine hangs solid when the card is where it's > > supposed to be may be a clue that the it's permanently stuck interrupting. > > Depending on backplane the grant may not end-up where you guess it is. I was assuming a sinusoidal AB-AB chain starting from the slots labelled "A" and "B" (out of A, B, C, and D). Now... the one twist is that the cards are installed with the CPU facing the bottom of the cage (solder side up), but the keys on the backplane connectors are a dead giveaway. > My memory is fuzzy on this but I think Ht-11 (heath os) did not like RTC > <line event> interrupt and would hang on that. Hmm... I don't have any HT-11 disks, only RT-11. But the LTC *was* enabled. > Yes, also DLV11 or the heath serial card both should have HALT on BREAK > enabled. <both support it as do the 11/03> I didn't even try that. For now, because of bootstrap considerations, I'm running with an 11/23plus CPU and a VT-220 (because it's close). Speaking of bootstraps, what did the H-11 come with stock? BDV-11? Custom Heath board? -ethan ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. Please send all replies to erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

26 years, 9 months

3
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A GT40 thought

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text Size: 1306 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/attachments/19991004/6a849db1/at…

26 years, 9 months

2
2
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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by mbg＠world.std.com

>Yes it was or in a later time frame m8186 (kdf11, 11/23) with m8044s. >that workes better than 11/23+ (m8189) as it was a dual solution and the >hath backplane was rather cramped. Mine actually has an 11/53+ board in it... :-) I do have the H27 board and drives and a heath serial line board, though I use a DLV11-J and and -E in it. I also have an RQDX3 connected to a table-top RD54 nowadays... 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, 9 months

1
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DEC GT40 original list price?

by mbg＠world.std.com

>By the way, I am curious where you got your lander program... I ask >because a few years back, I contacted Jack (via a pointer from the >Computer Museum in Boston), and what he had was a 9 -Track tape that he >had gotten from someone who had preserved a copy while he was at the >University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He sent me the tape, and I read it >and returned the contents to him, including the lander program, some demo >programs, etc. The version I have is the one I obtained back in 1975 or so... one that Jack and I worked on when I was a student at WPI and he was visiting the college for some reason... The ME department had a GT44 (11/40 based system with a VT11 and VR14) and we did some work on it to fix some intensity problems with the thrust and directional control bars as well as getting it to work with a programmable clock. 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, 9 months

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Any good dumpsters or surplus stores in Philly?

by bobstek＠ix.netcom.com

I will be in Philadelphia all day Friday with nothing but time on my hands. Can anyone recommend any good hunting grounds for 1975 - 1985 micro's or micro magazines? Bob Stek bobstek(a)ix.netcom.com Saver of Lost SOLs

26 years, 9 months

1
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Old Apple II, Commodore Amiga & Vic 20 Computers available

by dheap＠metz.une.edu.au

The above may be of some interest to list subscribers in Australia: ------------------------------------ The School of Psychology has some old computer gear which is of no commercial value. The items include: Apple II with various interface cards, MicronEye video camera, printer Commodore Amiga computers and accessories Commodore Vic 20 Computers and accessories These items may or may not be in working order, but may be of interest to someone who collects ancient computers. I'd hate to have to throw them in the big green bin. If interested please contact me, or one of the Psychology Technical staff. -- Dave Heap mailto:dheap@metz.une.edu.au School of Psychology, <= postal address University of New England, phone: + 61 2 6773 2587 fax: + 61 2 6773 3820 Armidale NSW 2351, Australia http://metz.une.edu.au/~dheap/

26 years, 9 months

1
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Help wanted in dumping EPROMs

by mark_k＠iname.com

Hi, Does anyone in the UK have access to equipment capable of dumping the data >from 27C020 PLCC EPROMs? I have several which I want to preserve the data from. If you do, please contact me. (Alternatively, loan of a PLCC-to-DIP adapter for EPROMs would be just fine...) Bye, -- Mark

26 years, 9 months

1
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Classic power!

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: > In the past few months, I've been heavily involved with upgrading > some CAT scanners that date from the late 70's... > > The PC boards that make up the backprojector make use of a unique > technology: the PC boards themselves are just plain old two-layer boards, > with the actual PC traces carrying only power and ground. All the actual > wiring is done by fine machine-laid wiring between pads, with all > the wire layers "potted" in a plastic compound. The last design a former employer did was with a technology derived from this, Augat's Unilayer. We sent them gerber plots and a couple of weeks later (for an outrageous sum of money), we got back ten VAXBI 68010-based communications boards. Our break-even cost on a custom 10-layer (yes... DEC specified ten layers) was in the neighborhood of 20-25 boards. We never sold out of these VAX-BI units, so it was a worthwhile way to go. The actual construction was of two "decals" with embedded wires. Once spun, they were laid onto a perforated board and tacked down to small solder pads next to the holes, most of which had spring inserts in them. One defective board turned out to be a missing insert, thus, no electrical contact between pin and wire. A quick fix. We did re-work these - there was one ECO of a cut and a 1" jump. No fun, even with the microscope. I still have the boards. One of these days, I'll scan them in with the rest of our DEC<->IBM product line (PDP-11/04's in the *real* old days, custom 68K boards to the end in the 1990's). -ethan ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. Please send all replies to erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

26 years, 9 months

1
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Canon Cat Work Processor

by accentontravel＠juno.com

Hello, We are looking for one or more Canon Cats to backup/replace existing working units in our office. Can you help or advise? I found your e-mail address on the Web while searching for info on the Cats. Regards, Ted Blishak First Cabin Holidays, Inc. dba Accent On Travel-USA 3939 S Sixth St., PMB 331, Klamath Falls, OR 97603 ph 541 885 7330 800 347 0645 fax 541 883 6457 http://www.trainweb.com/aot

26 years, 9 months

2
1
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Ahh!

by lemay＠cs.umn.edu

Holy gods of computing! I just spotted a PDP8/e system thats available! Its at times like this, that I really wish I had a working car... Ah well, I'll have to convince some local friends to help me out. I REALLY want a working PDP8/e... -Lawrence LeMay

26 years, 9 months

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Important: email change: please read

by roblwill＠usaor.net

Hi! I just changed ISPs, because my previous one was unreliable. With the change of ISP's, the email that is currently subscribed to classiccmp will also be gone in about a month, if not less. I would like to know how to unsubscribe and resubscribe to classiccmp, to prevent the listserv screw-ups that would happen when the email address dissappears into oblivion. Thanx, -Jason ( general-1(a)home.com )

26 years, 9 months

1
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AT&T PC3600 display problems

by roblwill＠usaor.net

I just got an old AT&T PC 3600, but the monitor won't power up (no display activity at all). There used to be a VGA commected to the computer through another card, but the card was removed. Is it a possibility that the main video card (with the 25 pin connector) was somehow disabled? If so, How do I re-enable it? It doesn't appear that power is getting to the monitor. ThAnX, -Jason ( general-1(a)home.com )

26 years, 9 months

1
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8-inch floppy availability

by edick＠idcomm.com

This is quite tangential to the subject, but since it relates to 8" floppies, I'll proceed. I have, among many other things, a box from SMS, which originally was an SMS FT400 "floppy terminal" (their nomenclature for a standalone FDC with two drives in a powered enclosure) from which I removed one of two power supplies, this one intended to power the 8X300-controlled 8" drive interface board, capable of both single and double-density, and, though it didn't have them in it, supposedly double-sided drives as well. The box has sat outside and the label has been discolored and faded by the sun for the past 10 years. Nevertheless, it's a solid and convenient package for otherwise unusable (due to the packaging trend which shifted from vertical to horizontal mounting for 8" drives, and resulted in the narrower "-R" type frame for 8" drives) "standard-frame" drives, of which I have a few, having recently aligned and cleaned a whole bunch for distribution to wherever. I'd like opinions, taking into consideration that the labels are faded to an almost unrecognizable state, as to whether it would be more desirable, from the standpoint of a collector, to restore the original power supply and controller board, along with the original model 800-2 drives, to the enclosure and use it with the standard parallel (several of them, and NOT a PC parallel port!) port interface or would it be more sensible to save the effort of reinstalling the controller power supply (the drive supply is still in there!) and the controller, and the interface panel from the back (if I find it), as opposed to simply cleaning it up and replacing the discolored vinyl panels with aluminum ones painted to match the box and maybe using the box to house a single-board computer using the drives in the box. The controller/drive combination in a standalone box was what enabled me, back in '79-'80, with the aid of Wayne Wall to write the drivers, to attach a totally unsupported 6502 system to these drives and run the APEX OS written back then by Peter Boyle for his Digital Group system, which this one emulated to large extent. I find this an attractive prospect, but can't find a sound reason for it, since I don't intend to resurrect the original host system. Maybe I'm overlooking something, though. Any suggestions? Dick -----Original Message----- From: Ethan Dicks <ethan_dicks(a)yahoo.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Monday, October 04, 1999 1:09 PM Subject: Re: 8-inch floppy availability > > >--- CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: >> Ethan Dicks wrote: >> >> >I did spot the obvious format switch on the front of the disk unit, but no >> >idea how to use it. I now wish that I'd picked up a couple more boxes of >> >media from a friend's business about eight years ago. >> >> What part of the world are you in, Ethan? > >For the moment, Ohio, but occasionally from various points in the Southern >Hemisphere. > >> Here in North America, new 8" floppies (preformatted, even) are readily >> available from a number of sources. > >I know they are available for enough money. I was lamenting the fact that I >could have picked up a bootload for nothing and never had to buy another disk >again. I have a case of formatted disks and several cases of used disks with >data files from schools and at least one university lab that I can reformat >and test. > >Mostly, I want to be able to extract the data *from* the floppies, not put >more data *on* them. I hope to stuff an 8" drive from my DataRam Q22 box >on an old 486 for data recovery, then back up my crate of PDP-8 and PDP-11 >floppies. > >-ethan > > >===== >Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. >Please send all replies to > > erd(a)iname.com >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

26 years, 9 months

1
0
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Floppy disks again

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

Eric wrote: >Allison wrote about 5.25 inch diskettes with small (35-track) head windows: >> I have em. Both 10 sector NS* format (no even for $20 I dont give them >> up) and also some of my TI99/4a likely others that I'd have bought around >Wow! What brand of diskettes were they? All the NS diskettes I've seen >have the standard windows, but I think they were just 3M and Verbatim >diskettes. The first 5.25" floppies I ever used were actually Shugart brand. After all, they were the only company selling 5.25" drives at the time. (Similarly, all my early 8" floppies are IBM brand.) -- 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, 9 months

1
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AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

On 29 Sep 1999, somebody who should know better wrote: ] > Yesterday I scooped an AT&T PC 6300 Unix machine on its way ] ] It's not a Unix machine. (Or, at least, not a very good one.) ] Perhaps you're thinking of the 7300? Well, its former owner called it a 6300 Unix machine, its cover has "6300 PLUS" printed on it in nice big letters, and the floppies that I got with it have preprinted labels like this: AT&T Unix(R) System V Release 2.0 AT&T Personal Computer 6300 PLUS What do you think? Is it a 6300 PLUS? Is it a Unix machine? Maybe it isn't a very good Unix machine. Still, I'd like to get it to boot and come to my own conclusions. Help is welcome. Remember people, this is an "oldies" list. If some machine here isn't fast/good/new enough for you, maybe you accidentally subscribed to the wrong list? Please try to contain the knee-jerk put-downs. Bill.

26 years, 9 months

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Ahh!

by fauradon＠mn.mediaone.net

I've got a van If I may be of any help, let me know I'm in Burnsville (not too far from John) Francois -----Original Message----- From: Lawrence LeMay <lemay(a)cs.umn.edu> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Monday, October 04, 1999 12:56 PM Subject: Ahh! >Holy gods of computing! I just spotted a PDP8/e system thats available! > >Its at times like this, that I really wish I had a working car... Ah well, >I'll have to convince some local friends to help me out. I REALLY want >a working PDP8/e... > >-Lawrence LeMay >

26 years, 9 months

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Wanted: MicroBee computer

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

I'm confused. I thought they were the same. What do you mean by Beehive? If this is related to the Beehive section of the Walnut Creek CDRom, then I see the file \beehive\text\member.txt has an Australian address in it. "Australian" Microbees are quite common here (because I'm in Sydney !) but not in going condition. The consoles are easy but the power supply, disk drives and software are difficult, probably because many were in schools where they were networked. All I've seen were CP/M. I've never seen one with basic but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Hans -----Original Message----- From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Monday, 4 October 1999 8:35 Subject: Re: Wanted: MicroBee computer > > >On Sun, 3 Oct 1999, Roberto Waltman wrote: > >> I would like to buy a MicroBee machine, preferably >> one running CP/M, but one of the earlier/smaller >> BASIC ROM based models would be considered >> also. >> >> Roberto Waltman >> rwaltman(a)bellatlantic.net >> > >Don't forget that there are U.S. Microbees (Beehive) and Australian >Microbees. I think (?) they are related in name only. > > - don > >

26 years, 9 months

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Floppy disks again

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I've seen plenty of DRIVES that couldn't step past tracks 34-36, but >that was a mechanical limitation of the drive. Actually, all SA390/400-type drives I've seen (which are nominally limited to 35 tracks) can step to a 36th track without any difficulties, and most can go to the 37th. The "36th track" trick was very common on Apple ]['s, both for copy protection and for general use. I've noticed that most decent data forensics tools (Anadisk, etc.) will go the the 81st track on a 80-track drive, though I've never seen a floppy that actually had data out there. -- 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, 9 months

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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: > The RXV11 doesn't do DMA, I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure. > and while booting it may not need interrupts. Typically not in my experience with 2BSD drivers. > The fact that the machine hangs solid when the card is where it's > supposed to be may be a clue that the it's permanently stuck interrupting. That's jibes with my hypothesis. > Does the Heath machine at least have a "halt" button so you can > get down to console ODT ("@" prompt) and do further debugging from there? Yes, but it's been years since I've ODTed. -ethan ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. Please send all replies to erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

26 years, 9 months

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8-inch floppy availability

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote: > Ethan Dicks wrote: > > >I did spot the obvious format switch on the front of the disk unit, but no > >idea how to use it. I now wish that I'd picked up a couple more boxes of > >media from a friend's business about eight years ago. > > What part of the world are you in, Ethan? For the moment, Ohio, but occasionally from various points in the Southern Hemisphere. > Here in North America, new 8" floppies (preformatted, even) are readily > available from a number of sources. I know they are available for enough money. I was lamenting the fact that I could have picked up a bootload for nothing and never had to buy another disk again. I have a case of formatted disks and several cases of used disks with data files from schools and at least one university lab that I can reformat and test. Mostly, I want to be able to extract the data *from* the floppies, not put more data *on* them. I hope to stuff an 8" drive from my DataRam Q22 box on an old 486 for data recovery, then back up my crate of PDP-8 and PDP-11 floppies. -ethan ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. Please send all replies to erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

26 years, 9 months

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Ahh!

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>This is the image that I spotted this morning, lets see what everyone >thinks. I cant take all the stuff even in my dreams, unfortunately. But >I'll see what it takes to get that cpu unit at the very least. > > http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~lemay/elec10-1.jpg Please, please, don't grab the CPU and let the disk drives rot. There are way too many folks on this list who've made that mistake in the past and now have a pretty box that they can't run an operating system on. The pictures are obviously very low-res, but here's my guess at what's there: The rack on the left looks to have an 11/04 or 11/34 on the top, an 8/E or 8/F below it, and it appears that there's another 11/04 or 11/34 below that. (I could be wrong about the 11/04 or /34 identification - they might be generic rack-mount boxes.) The rack on the right has 4 RL01's or RL02's in it. (The one on the top is a RL01, can't see any labels on the three below it.) -- 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, 9 months

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Looking for a couple of bits....

by peter.pachla＠vectrex.freeserve.co.uk

Hi again, I've been unable to send e-mail reliably for a while due to system problems....so anyone waiting for email (Sellam in particular) you'll be receiving something during the next 24 hours or so. Anyway, I'm after a couple of items which I was hoping someone in the UK could help me with. First of all I've gotten the Apple bug again and want to get my Apple /// going. It seems to work, but without a set of boot discs it's just so much scrap....so can anyone point me at a source of said discs please? Also, I have an HP-150 which I'm after a hard drive for. I did have a couple of offers from the US last year, but due to system problems I lost touch with the person concerned....that said shipping would've made the cost prohibitive. So, does anyone in the UK have a unit that's up for grabs? Thanks. TTFN - Pete. -- Hardware & Software Engineer. Sound Engineer. Collector of Arcade Machines, Games Consoles & Obsolete Computers (esp DEC) peter.pachla(a)wintermute.org.uk | peter.pachla(a)virgin.net | peter.pachla(a)vectrex.freeserve.co.uk | peter.pachla(a)wintermute.free-online.co.uk | www.wintermute.free-online.co.uk --

26 years, 9 months

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Famous Private-Eye Shows You, Make 10K A Month

by DD950＠prodigy.net

-----Original Message----- From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> >On Oct 2, 21:40, cmw0(a)0ngpa8.net wrote: >> Subject: Famous Private-Eye Shows You, Make 10K A Month > >A look at the headers and a few moments with nslookup Hi Peter: Thanks for taking a good whack at the spam. I have been trying do some spam whacking myself and have lately been using the free service part of http://spamcop.net . I used spamcop on that same spam message and the spamcop results are found here: http://spamcop.net/sc?id=1116253&crc=178709 I would be interested on your thoughts of this SpamCop.net? Is it worth my effort to parse and report the spam with it? How did it do on this example of spam? Just wondering if you have the time to comment. Thanks for you time, Jim Rossbach, Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club Web Ring, www.TonkinYachts.cjb.net Only when no one responds to spam will it go away.

26 years, 9 months

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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 4, 8:50, allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote: > Subject: Re: Heathkit H-11 restoration questions > > with a much more interesting banner. It claims to be Rev 0.9 of a ROM set > > for the 11/23plus, and after verbosely testing memory, tries to boot DU3. > > The M8189 was available as two basic versions 11/23 and the plus. The > primary difference was what it could boot. I don't think Alison means 11/23 and 11/23plus; the 11/23 uses a dual-height M8186 (KDF11-A) board. But the M8189 was used in both 11/23plus (BA11-N box, IIRC) and microPDP11/23 (BA23 box). The difference was just the boot ROMs, as she said. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 9 months

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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

While most of Y'all were at the VCF, I decided to spend my time in similar activities and dusted off two projects I've been tripping over for weeks: my two ASR-33's (more on them in another posting) and a Heathkit H-11 that I rescued from a former employer a few years ago. The H-11 was pretty goobered up from the previous owner. He soldered wires right on the DLV11-J connectors, for example. He also cobbled up his own CD slots for an RLV11 by extending the case out another 4 inches and wrapping two pairs of Heathkit Q-bus sockets together. It was gross. I have the case back together (except for the top, which he lost) and have been working on the cards. I discovered in my piles of CPUs that I have two M8189 "PDP-11/23plus" boards with different ROM revisions. One has the numbers "SG8335 339E2" and "SG8335 340E2" on them and behaves like the description in the handbook. The other board is populated with "LM8451 183E4" and "LM8451 184E4" and comes up with a much more interesting banner. It claims to be Rev 0.9 of a ROM set for the 11/23plus, and after verbosely testing memory, tries to boot DU3. You have the option of retesting memory, dumping a memory and I/O map or of booting from several devices including tape, network and several flavors of disk. This brings me to my next problem... The Heathkit floppy controller is labelled "H27" on the white handle with a silk-screened part number of 85-2183-1. If I put it next in the grant chain, the 11/23plus hangs. If I put it at the end of the bus, the 11/23plus tests and lets me try to boot from it. I have the cover off the floppy case and I can see the heads load and boot. They drop to track 0, move around, read in a few tracks, then unload and the CPU never prints out another thing. I suspect that something to do with DMA or interrupts is hanging the CPU once RT-11 loads into memory. I did pull all the chips (100% socketed) and test them one at a time. Some failed on the first go, but passed after wiggling, telling me that there is some oxidation on the leads. I pulled and reseated everything and will try this thing again when I get back out to where the H-11 is. In the meantime, I am wondering if the H-11 floppy box is pin compatible with an RXV11. I happen to have one here, but I don't want to fry something if they are not compatible. BTW, there are three jumpers on the H27 - E1, E2 and E3. The card passed into my hands with E1 and E2 strapped, but not E3. Finally, eventually, I want to get original stuff back into this box. I have the DLV11 console board that came with this, I'm just not using it. In addition to the H27 floppy card, I have a Heathkit lineprinter card (unassembled) and a wad of Q-bus CPUs from the LSI-11 up to the 11/23plus (nothing newer, unfortunately). So the question is, what "belongs" in this box. Did it come with an 11/03 "LSI-11" CPU? An 11/23 F-11 board? What did the H-11 use for boot roms? A BDV-11? An MXV-11? A Heathkit board? Thanks, -ethan ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain is going away in February. Please send all replies to erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com

26 years, 9 months

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Heathkit H-11 restoration questions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>The card itself is about as simple as any Qbus card. It is, I take it, >supposed to be nominally RXV11 compatible from a driver standpoint, yes? >If not, then that's part of my problem. I do boot, the disks to appear to >read in an OS, then the system hangs, but that could be as a result of my >card only working if it is *not* at the end of an unbroken grant chain (with >a gap in the bus, the disks read but the system does not boot; without a gap >in the bus, the CPU does not even bring up the boot message). The RXV11 doesn't do DMA, and while booting it may not need interrupts. But after the OS is bootstrapped and is "going" it'll probably start looking for interrupts. The fact that the machine hangs solid when the card is where it's supposed to be may be a clue that the it's permanently stuck interrupting. Does the Heath machine at least have a "halt" button so you can get down to console ODT ("@" prompt) and do further debugging from there? -- 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, 9 months

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8-inch floppy availability

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

Ethan Dicks wrote: >I did spot the obvious format switch on the front of the disk unit, but no >idea how to use it. I now wish that I'd picked up a couple more boxes of >media from a friend's business about eight years ago. He had a pallet of 8" >disks that he was selling for more money that I was willing to pay. >Eventually, >he gave me a case - my choice. I grabbed a 24" long box full of pre-formatted >disks, the only one on the pile. When he disposed of the remainder, I didn't >make a trip out there to grab any boxes. :-( What part of the world are you in, Ethan? Here in North America, new 8" floppies (preformatted, even) are readily available from a number of sources. Are you looking for small qty (less than 1000) or bulk (qty greater than 1000)? -- 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, 9 months

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Floppy disks again

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Now if we take one media, standard 300o 5.25 twosided 96/100tpi certifed >we are now talking about litterally hundreds of formats most of which are >incompatable not by any reason of media. That's why I stick to IBM 3740 (8", 77 track, 26 sectors/track, 128 bytes/sec) format - guaranteed cross-platform compatibility! I can still read my floppies from 1973 just fine... All "real" machines have 8" floppies and at least one 9-track drive here! -- 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, 9 months

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Floppy disks again

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Oct 3, 16:56, Ward Griffiths wrote: > Subject: Re: Floppy disks again > Bill Yakowenko wrote: > > > > Hey, with the discussion of diskettes recently, and my own > > search for info on RX50's, I was a little surprised by the > > lack of available info on single-sided single-density 5.25" > > floppy disks (emphasis on SD). Were they ever actually > > manufactured, or was SS/SD strictly an 8" thing? I seem to > > remember seeing SS/SD 5.25" way back when. Can anybody > > give me an authoritative rating of their coercivity? Were > > they 300 Oerstedts, just like DD? If so, what is it that > > made them single density? Something about the size of the > > individual magnetic domains maybe? Or were exactly the same > > diskettes called "double density" when we figured out how > > to make drives to handle that? > > Farzino, the Oersted value of SSSD (90k), DSSD (180k), SSDD (180k) > and DSDD (360k) 5.25" diskettes was the same. Those figures for capacity only apply to 40-track disks formatted with 9 sectors per track (IBM PC style). There are lots of other formats for 40-track disks, and of course there are also 35-track and 80-track drives. > For that matter, it > was the same with QD (720k) diskettes. QD is a misnomer, it really means DSDD 80-track, and the figure of 720K relates to 9 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector. Ignoring unusual techniques, such as GCR recording, as used by Apple and Commodore, there are two possibilities for density in conventional floppy disk systems. Single Density uses FM recording, and Double Density uses MFM. They use the same number of magnetic reversals per track, but differ in the way they include clock pulses, so MFM ends up with twice as many data bits per track. Then there are two possibilities fro number of heads, 1 or 2. Finally, the number and size of sectors can be varied. IBM happened to use 9 sectors per track (8 on early systems, hence the existence of 320K disks as well as 360K) with 512 bytes per sector, MFM. Other manufacturers did not always use the same layout. Hence Acorn disks were usually 100K, 200K, 400K, or 800K (800K being 1024 bytes per sector, 5 s.p.t, MFM, double-sided). RX50 is MFM single-sided 80-track, 512 bytes per sector, 10 sectors per track, giving 400K per disk. > Manufacturers "tested" and > rated the media for different densities, and I know that some disks > that worked fine as SSSD failed miserable in the Tandy 2000 (720k) > while others worked just peachy. I don't know of any failures > involving using a higher-rated floppy in a lower drive except when > the media had been previously used in a 720k drive. That's not a density issue, merely a question of the width of the track written by an 80-track drive as opposed to a 40-track drive. > When you get > to the official HD, 1.2Mb media, the situation changes. That's right, the coercivity is different. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 9 months

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AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box

by JRichardson＠softwright.co.uk

>> When is 'for the time'? Torch (in the UK) released the XXX not that much >> later (1984?). That was a _strange_ machine -- it ran unix (well, >> uniplus+), and had a machintosh-like frontend. Hmm, are Torch still in business? They used to be my local parts supplier of of PC (Intel ;-) bits until a few years ago, and I distinctly remember a pile of XXX systems that used to sit in the corner of their workshop area - they may still be there for the taking if Torch themselves are still around... cheers Jules

26 years, 9 months

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Floppy disks again

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

Hey, with the discussion of diskettes recently, and my own search for info on RX50's, I was a little surprised by the lack of available info on single-sided single-density 5.25" floppy disks (emphasis on SD). Were they ever actually manufactured, or was SS/SD strictly an 8" thing? I seem to remember seeing SS/SD 5.25" way back when. Can anybody give me an authoritative rating of their coercivity? Were they 300 Oerstedts, just like DD? If so, what is it that made them single density? Something about the size of the individual magnetic domains maybe? Or were exactly the same diskettes called "double density" when we figured out how to make drives to handle that? Also, my web search lead me to conclude that a 360K DS/DD floppy should probably work okay as an RX50; the only difference seems to be the number of tracks per inch. But they write many times more bits per inch along a track (maybe over 3000bpi?) than they do tracks per inch (48 vs. 96), so the media itself must have high enough resolution. Are the magnetic domains long and narrow and aligned radially? Or is there some other reason that it gets less resolution radially (tracks per inch) than longitudinally (bits per inch along a track)? If the precision of the drive is the only limiting factor, then DS/DD should work perfectly fine as RX50s. Clues are welcome. Cheers, Bill.

26 years, 9 months

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AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

Thanks Russ, that website looks like it might be useful! What makes you think it is a 6286EL? I know next to nothing about these AT&T boxes, so I never would have guessed anything besides what it says on the label. Is it just because it's a 286 box? It quite definitely says "6300 PLUS" on the machine itself and on all of the floppies that I got with it. Cheers, Bill. On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Russ Blakeman <rhblake(a)bigfoot.com> wrote: ] The AT&T setup files (in case anyone needs them) are located for download at ] http://www3.ncr.com/support/pc/pcdesc/library/63xx.shtml ] ] Me thinks he might have a 6286EL ] ] ...

26 years, 9 months

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AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

I haven't been able to alter its power-up diagnostic sequence. Tried holding down different function keys, escape, control-this, control-that, blah blah blah... while booting. If there is a BIOS setup program built in, I'd love to know how to wake it up. It didn't even glance at the floppy drive during all of this, so putting any particular disk into the drive seems unlikely to make any difference. Looks like maybe I'll have to warm up the soldering iron. Heck, for that many chips, maybe the propane torch is more appropriate. Bill. On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Glenatacme(a)aol.com wrote: ] In a message dated 09/29/1999 5:16:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ] yakowenk(a)cs.unc.edu writes: ] > Yesterday I scooped an AT&T PC 6300 Unix machine on its way ] ] Does this box have a BIOS setup program onboard or must you use a ] configuration disk? (if so do you have the disk?) ] ] I'd try turning off the parity check on the unlikely chance that the parity ] check itself is loopy . . . other than that, you've got a _lot_ of soldering ] to do ;>) ] ] BTW ISTR that one of our "customers" abandoned a 6300 in lieu of having it ] repaired. Contact me off-list if you're interested & I'll dig it out of the ] back room and check it out again. ] ] Regards, ] ] Glen Goodwin ] 0/0

26 years, 9 months

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Wanted: MicroBee computer

by rwaltman＠bellatlantic.net

I would like to buy a MicroBee machine, preferably one running CP/M, but one of the earlier/smaller BASIC ROM based models would be considered also. Roberto Waltman rwaltman(a)bellatlantic.net

26 years, 9 months

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AT&T PC 6300 Plus Unix box

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

Thanks Bill, I don't remember seeing DIP switches, but then I wasn't looking for them either. I'll try digging info out of the NCR website that Russ pointed out, and hope it tells me which switch is which. Gosh, the machine on which the Korn shell was developed! Almost historic, aint it? Hope I can get it to go. Wonder if ksh is actually installed on it? :-) Cheers, Bill. On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Bill Pechter <pechter(a)pechter.dyndns.org> wrote: ] > The AT&T setup files (in case anyone needs them) are located for download at ] > http://www3.ncr.com/support/pc/pcdesc/library/63xx.shtml ] > ] > Me thinks he might have a 6286EL ] ] Sounds like a 6300+ to me... there was NO setup disk. Just dip switches ] like on the 6300's and XT's. There are no IBM AT compatible slots. ] Just Olivetti designed 16 bitters (this thing was designed before the ] AT Standard.) ] ] ... and then, a few minutes later: ] > Does this box have a BIOS setup program onboard or must you use a ] > configuration disk? (if so do you have the disk?) ] ] Nope. No NVRAM either. Just a bunch of dip switches like an XT. ] Check the NCR web site for info. ] ] I had a 6300 and always wanted a 6300+. BTW, the story I heard is ] David Korn wrote the Korn Shell on a 6300+ for System V. ] ] It was used at AT&T as a single user development box for a while ] until the workstations began to appear as AT&T's Bell Labs moved from ] Vaxes and 3b's with BLIT's and 630 terminals to 7300's and later ] to Sun Workstations. ] ] ... ] ] Bill ] --- ] bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org ] Three things never anger: First, the one who runs your DEC, ] The one who does Field Service and the one who signs your check.

26 years, 9 months

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NCR Tower 32/500- lost root password

by rws＠enteract.com

I've got a NCR Tower 32/500 (3466-500) running Unix that has a mixed-up root password- see, I got it in working condition, with no password on root. Like a dolt, I changed the password before setting up an account for myself. It happily took the password, and I did an orderly shutdown. Later, I re-started and went to log in, and it kept coming up with 'login incorrect'. I did a disorderly shutdown (no way to log in to do it right) and now it comes up in single-user mode saying it needs to be fsck'ed (no problem), but it still wants a password. I've tried every convolution of the password I used (it was a simple word, a numeral, and the # sign) with no luck. I do not know any other accounts/passwords, nor do I have a system install tape. Is there any way to get in without a password and edit the /etc/.passwd file? Richard

26 years, 9 months

3
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Classical Computing software?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 10/1/99 3:59:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time, mikeford(a)socal.rr.com writes: > >My bulletin board system has over 4 gigs of classic computer games. They are > >all games that haven't been sold since 1993. I also have the really old DOS > >versions. I know it is illegal to have pirated games and software, but this > >is stuff that you just can't find or buy ANYWHERE and there is no > commercial > >demand for such programs. > > Which means it would be a real shame to lose it all, so PLEASE matey, be > discrete with access. For an object lesson in what a mess it can be take a > look at Jagshouse (former old mac site, still alive, but minus software > barely). > thankfully, i was able to grab all the goodies from jags house before it was changed. now, i just need a zip drive power supply... DB Young Team OS/2 --> this message printed on recycled disk space view the computers of yesteryear at http://members.aol.com/suprdave/classiccmp/museum.htm

26 years, 9 months

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DEC GT40 original list price?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Oh, and "MOON LANDER PROGRAM" was *explicity* written on the requisition... > 8-) I have a 8.5 x 11" 50-page glossy brochure from DEC on their PDP-11 line, circa 1977 or so, and on the same page as the GT40 is a stylized lunar lander :-). -- 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, 9 months

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DEC GT40 original list price?

by cube＠msn.fullfeed.com

Oh, and "MOON LANDER PROGRAM" was *explicity* written on the requisition... 8-) At 10:18 AM 10/3/99 -0500, classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu wrote: >The information I have indicates that the University of Wisconsin paid $10,200 for one in 1975. But that was a bid, and the quote returned indicated that it was a GT40-AA "Demonstrator Model". So, it was probably not new, and was presumably discounted. I actually obtained that machine later on, and restored it. > >By the way, I am curious where you got your lander program... I ask because a few years back, I contacted Jack (via a pointer from the Computer Museum in Boston), and what he had was a 9 -Track tape that he had gotten >from someone who had preserved a copy while he was at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He sent me the tape, and I read it and returned the contents to him, including the lander program, some demo programs, etc. > >Jay Jaeger > >At 09:07 AM 10/3/99 +0000, you wrote: >>Does anyone happen to recall the original price of the DEC GT40 >>graphics terminal? I'm exhibiting one at the VCF, running the >>famouus Lunar Lander game by Jack Burness, and several people have >>asked me what the terminal originally sold for. >> >>Thanks! >>Eric >> >>http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/dec/gt40/ >> > --- Jay R. Jaeger The Computer Collection Jay.Jaeger(a)msn.fullfeed.com visit http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~cube

26 years, 9 months

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