> From: Marion.Bates(a)Dartmouth.EDU (Marion Bates)
> Subject: Commodore 64/64C?
>
> I was wondering, what is the difference between a regular Commodore 64 and a
> 64C? I've got one of each, and everything seems identical other than that the
> 64C looks like a 128.
Generally they are exatly the same except the 64C went through a couple of
later board revisions that noticibly cut down the chip count and the board
size (and not to mention the production cost too).
One 'bug' that resulted is that the 64C's SID chip was 'fixed' of a clicking
sound when you change volume levels. Unfortunately that 'click' was employed
by some game and sound programmers to play digitized sounds, and without the
'click' those digitized sounds in older 64 games came out either muted or non-existant.
> (Well, one other difference is that the 64C overheats after about an hour or so...)
I hooked in a fresh (used) 64C into my BBS couple weeks back and after about
336 hours of continual use, it doesn't seem too noticibly warm. It may be
because the slimmer 64C case is closer to the motherboard.
------------
The X-1541 post and response were by:
g.j.p.a.a.baltissen(a)kader.hobby.nl (Ruud Baltissen)
and
"Frank Kontros" <frank(a)kontr.uzhgorod.ua>
If you want more info than what I posted, talk to them, as I am more of a
general programmer than a hardware/OS person.
Larry
--
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (300-2400bd) (209) 754-1363
Visit my Commodore 8-Bit web page at:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/commodore.html
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
At 11:18 AM 9/13/98 -0700, you wrote:
>With such a card I can construct a minimal, full system on an old
>386sx I have using only one expansion slot, which is a necessity.
I came across a couple of small systems made by SIIG (who makes expansion
cards now) that are the size of a small shoebox (not my shoes; Rachel's)
and are complete systems with I/O, Video, FDC, HDC, etc. Room for a single
3.5" floppy and one 3.5"hd. One 16-bit expansion slot.
Unfortunately, the ones I got are 286 and 386sx machines, but they work
great for my voicemail system (which can run fine on an 8088). I would
love to find such a box with something more current, but SIIG doesn't
mention them on their web site.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
Jim Weiler wrote:
> I thought this listserve might appreciate these. I know I do. If anyone
> knows of a source for these, other than the one I've attributed below,
> I'd appreciate knowing of it. -Jim
>
> COMPUTER HAIKU
>
> Imagine if, instead of cryptic, geeky text strings, your computer produced
> error messages in haiku...
[Seventeen haiku
all really hilarious
are snipped from this point]
> Best I can tell, this can be traced back to Tanya Olsen
> (tanya.olsen(a)smtpgate.coga.state.co.us). I don't know if she wrote them, or
> just passed them on. I haven't checked it out. All I can say is that I
> appreciate them, and thank the creator, whoever it was, from one poet to
> another. They are very good, IMHO. -Jim Weiler <heavy(a)tstar.net>
There used to be a long list at
http://www.mong.demon.co.uk/haiku.htm
but it seems to have disappeared. I think all yours were on it - I have
an hard copy at home. Anyone know where it's gone?
I think Haiku error messages are a good idea, and now I work off my
frustration by making them up for errors I get, such as:
CC:Mails are stored
all in one big database
which you can't access.
Philip.
i posted an old computers wanted ad in a local newsgroup and today i came home
with a sanyo mbc-1000 cpm computer. came in its original box and plastic wrap
and included system disks and manuals and wordstar, reportstar, and datastar,
calcstar and mailmerge on original disks. i also got a star gemini10 printer.
the proof of purchase shows over $1700. system is very clean and booted up
with no problems. even has a pleasant keyclick through the speaker too. i also
got a lead on some dec stuff, but no reply back from the induhvidual yet.
david
On Sep 15, 16:15, CLASSICCMP(a)timaxp.trailing-edge.com wrote:
> Subject: RE: Tape Storage for Dummies
[Attribution lost] wrote:
> > but quite a few "common" ISO/ANSI standards seem to
> >have ECMA equivalents (ISO9660 is a definite example).
>
> It looks to me like ECMA-13, "File Structure and Labelling of Magnetic
> Tapes for Information Interchange", may be the equivalent.
>
> >Copies of these standards cost money to obtain from ISO or ANSI, but the
> >identical ECMA documents are available free of charge from the ECMA web
site at
> >http://www.ecma.ch/.
>
> ECMA-13 isn't available electronically, but it does indeed seem to be
> the case that they will provide hardcopy free of charge.
Many of the ISO standards are just the nationally-approved copies of the
ECMA standards. As has been pointed out, they're not all available online,
but they will supply hardcopy free -- it just takes several weeks to get
them :-) Or you can order the ECMA CD-ROM, which has most of the
standards, including many that are not online.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
>Speaking of things from the East, does anyone have any microcomputers from
>the former Soviet Union? Reportedly they made some sort of 8080 clone
>(though it was in a 48-pin package); I've also heard of an Apple ][ clone.
I had a Korean Apple II clone. It was in a white case similiar to the
Franklin Ace. The keyboard had an ordinairy US layout, for the most
part, but the keys were also labeled in Korean. A key combo was used to
switch between the two alphapbets.
Tom Owad
--
Sysop of Caesarville Online
Client software at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~tomowad/>
Please contact Birger directly if you are interested in the PCjr.
Cliff Gregory
cgregory(a)lrbcg.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Cliff Gregory <cgregory(a)lrbcg.com>
To: Birger A. Bentsen <ansgar(a)ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 1998 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: PCjr
>Hi Birger,
>
>Thanks for the inquiry. I already have a fair quantity of PCjr hardware,
so
>I really wouldn't be interested in any more at this time; however with your
>permission I can post the availability of the computer with various
>newsgroups and mailing lists that I subscribe to. Surely there will be
>someone there who would give it a nice home. Please don't discard this
>classic. Let me know if it is OK to post your message.
>
>Regards,
>
>Cliff Gregory
>cgregory(a)lrbcg.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Birger A. Bentsen <ansgar(a)ix.netcom.com>
>To: cgregory(a)lrbcg.com <cgregory(a)lrbcg.com>
>Date: Tuesday, September 15, 1998 8:07 AM
>Subject: PCjr
>
>
>>Cliff Gregory:
>>I contacted the PCjr Club in Eugene, OR, asking if the club knew of
>>anyone who might be interested in a PCjr. I received an e-mail message
>>listing your name as someone who might be able to "find a home" for my
>>old PCjr.
>>I have one PCjr Enhanced Version in working order. I don't want to throw
>>it away, rather, I would like to find someone who might want to keep it.
>>
>>Let me know if you are interested. I live in Riverside, a suburb of
>>Dayton, OH.
>>
>>
>
>>Should've answered this in the previous message: you can order a copy
>>from http://www.ansi.org/, the designation is ANSI X3.27, and it costs
>>US$32.00.
>This isn't really on-topic
I'd disagree - it certainly *is* on topic. The standards used to produce
magnetic and other computer media are of extreme interest to me, both
professionally and otherwise :-).
> but quite a few "common" ISO/ANSI standards seem to
>have ECMA equivalents (ISO9660 is a definite example).
It looks to me like ECMA-13, "File Structure and Labelling of Magnetic
Tapes for Information Interchange", may be the equivalent.
>Copies of these standards cost money to obtain from ISO or ANSI, but the
>identical ECMA documents are available free of charge from the ECMA web site at
>http://www.ecma.ch/.
ECMA-13 isn't available electronically, but it does indeed seem to be
the case that they will provide hardcopy free of charge.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology Voice: 301-767-5917
7328 Bradley Blvd Fax: 301-767-5927
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817
> Subject: Using Commodore 15xx drives on PC's...
> Someone found this and sent me a link to it, a cable made to allow
> hookup to any of the Commodore 15xx serial bus drives to your parallel
> port on your PC.
>
> http://www.student.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/~mepk/c64/hw/cables/x1541.html
There has been some discussion on this in the CBM Hacker's maillist about the
newer parallel ports not being able to handle the voltage levels used by the
Commodore's IEC. Here is a copy of one of the latest in the chain:
> Subject: Re: New X1541 standard
> From: "Frank Kontros" <frank(a)kontr.uzhgorod.ua>
>
> Hi Ruud,
>
> >New X1541-cable,
> >
> >A lot of people happily use the X1541-cable to connect their PC with their
> >C= equipment. I was one of them until one day my PC started to smoke. I
> >opened my PC and found out that my I/O-card had gone to the moon. From that
> >day on I used X1541 only in combination with an old-fashion all-TTL-ICs
> >card and was happy again.
>
> Happily I gone into that conclusion in very early time :-)
>
> >When soldering the cable I instantly knew there was something fishy about
> >it because I knew the lines of the IEC-bus were used to transport signals
> >in two directions while the LPT-port had no line capable of doing this.
>
> And the authors of X1541 supported programs doesn't mention risk came with it.
>
> >The problem is that more and more users, including myself, have mother-
> >boards with an onboard LPT-port and no hair on my head thinks of it using
> >this port for things like X1541. It is easy to say to buy an extra card for
> >this purpose but I also have no confidence in these as they are fitted with
> >VLSI-chips as my I/O-card was.
>
> >The hardware:
> >
> >There are two directions to go:
> >1) using transistors, resistors etc.
> >2) using TTL ICs
>
> Or
>
> 3) Use resistors in range 100-200 Ohms, so risk could be minimized (but not
> resolved) and programs should support that little modification :-).
>
> >Another idea is to use pin 10, Acknowledge, as input for the ATN-signal
> >because this input is capable of generating an interrupt. This can be an
> >advantage when using the PC as diskdrive for an C64.
>
> I can remember that some cards won't like correctly generate interrupts.
>
> >Extra idea:
> >
> >The datalines of LPT-port are not used. How about connecting them to the
> >userport for 8 bit parallel transfers?
>
> I already connected and works perfectly.
>
> >For the old ports this can only be used for reading but for bidirectional
> >ports.... (And I rebuild an old one :-) )
>
> Done. What about my version?
>
> http://members.tripod.com/~Frank_Kontros/easyport/cable.gif
>
> OK! Needs bi-directional port, but simple.
>
> >The consequence is that to use this feature the kernal has to be changed.
>
> Changed successfully. Not completed, but the whole serial protocol emulated by
> parallel way, fastload/save/verify, DOS WEDGE, F-keys.
>
> >Yvo Nelemans wrote Server64 and he wrote it in Turbo Pascal :-). He stopped
> >with the devellopment and I have decided to resume with this project after
> >getting his permission. Server64 is meant to use the PC as diskdrive for
> >the C64. Unfortunally it also is as slow as a standard diskdrive in
> >combination with a standard C64.
>
> I wrote it in asm, so you can compare the speedz. Just only 10 native mode drives
> emulated and a 256K REU, but in future ... anything possible.
>
> >My questions to you are:
> >1) does anybody have detailed protocol specifications of a fastloader only
> >using the IEC-cable (example EXOS V3) and/or its sourcecodes?
> >2) the same for a parallel fastloader (like SpeedDos)?
>
> In my opininon there are no fastloader specifications at all. All transfer
> operations should be maximally synchronized. There are general rules, but
> no specifications. Isn't you meant the burst protocol specifications, used
> in 1571/81 drives?
>
> Regards,
> Frank
Thought I should pass it along. :)
P.S. Subscription info for CBM Hackers list is on my web-page - see link below.
--
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Larry Anderson - Sysop of Silicon Realms BBS (300-2400bd) (209) 754-1363
Visit my Commodore 8-Bit web page at:
http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/commodore.html
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
On Sun, 13 Sep 1998 CLASSICCMP(a)timaxp.trailing-edge.com wrote:
>> And 'The ANSI labeled tape spec' is available where.... ?
>
>Should've answered this in the previous message: you can order a copy
>from http://www.ansi.org/, the designation is ANSI X3.27, and it costs
>US$32.00.
This isn't really on-topic, but quite a few "common" ISO/ANSI standards seem to
have ECMA equivalents (ISO9660 is a definite example).
Copies of these standards cost money to obtain from ISO or ANSI, but the
identical ECMA documents are available free of charge from the ECMA web site at
http://www.ecma.ch/.
There is at least one ECMA standard that covers tape formats; maybe it is the
same as the mentioned ANSI standard?
-- Mark
On Mon 14 Sep 1998 21:56:40, Mark <mark_k(a)iname.com> wrote:
] The other week I bought an IBM 4869 5.25" floppy drive. This is an external
] unit that hooks up to a PC via a 37-way D connector. The case is massive,
] ...
Hope you didn't pay much; I have three of these available on my
"for trade" web page. See this URL:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/classiccmp/fortrade.html
I'm in NC, zip code 27514 (for those of you calculating postage).
Cheers,
Bill.
Mostly, there are some motherboard design difference between the two.
However, it is known that you can actually swap the boards between the
two if you preferred one case over another and have a bad unit. There
were at least 4 different board revisions, so some boards may not move
to another case. Another thing you might notice is the power supply
connector is different. There was a connector redesign between the newer
(aka 'flat C64') and older (aka 'Breadbox') C64's. The flat 64 has a
square connector where the breadbox 64 has a round one. The flat 64 also
has a different component layout due to IC consolidation. Maybe those
newer chip designs are what's overheating your system. Or it could be
the fact that the parts are closer to the outside of the case.
I'm toying with the idea of swapping boards in my systems. I only heard
that it can be done. I want a functional version of each and I have 2
working flat units and 7 dead breadboxes (of which I salvaged parts from
to get an SX-64 working). For my display units, I would like one of each
design in working order.
Hope this helps,
Jeff Salzman
>I was wondering, what is the difference between a regular Commodore 64 and a
>64C? I've got one of each, and everything seems identical other than that the
>64C looks like a 128. (Well, one other difference is that the 64C overheats
>after about an hour or so...)
>
Popular science used to be a good magazine, until they changed
editors a few years ago and it became much less informative.
While before they had some real journalism, now it's just constant
articles about 'the new superplane'.
>On Thu, 10 Sep 1998 sethm(a)loomcom.com wrote:
>
>> > Is anyone interested in the Popular Science review of the Lisa?
I've
>> > stumbled across that particular issue and if any one is interested
I'll
>> > get it scanned and uploaded.
>> >
>> > colan
>>
>> I'd love to see it! Thanks for letting us know.
>>
>> Next to old computers themselves, my next favorite collectible is
>> classic computer collateral -- ads, catalog entries, old photos,
>> that kind of thing.
>
>I like this kind of stuff, too.
>
>We actually have a large pile of Popular Science magazines that are
slowly
>degrading in the basement. We were going to throw them out, so I got
busy
>with a razor blade and cut out a lot of things. Unfortunatley that got
my
>father and I reading the old issues, and as a result they still haven't
>been thrown out. But I do have a binder full of interesting
>computer-related stuff.
>
>The single-system reviews I've collected from Popular Science are:
>
>Apple ///
>Xerox 820
>Timex Sinclair 1000
>Apple Lisa
>Epson QX-10
>Access
>Kaypro 10
>Gavilan
>Macintosh
>Sinclair QL
>Acorn (unknown model, it's just called the Acorn in the article, looks
> like BBC-B)
>Kaypro 2000
>Amiga
>Atari 520ST
>Macintosh Plus
>
>A lot of other computers are mentioned (and photographed!) in articles
or
>mini-reviews, including:
>
>Sinclair ZX80
>VIC-20
>TRS-80 Pocket Computer
>Sharp PC-1211
>NewBrain
>TRS-80 Color Computer
>TRS-80 Model III
>IBM-PC
>NEC PC-8001A
>Osborne 1
>APF Imagination Machine
>Casio FX-9000P
>TI-99/4A
>HP-86
>Sony SMC-70
>Olivetti M20
>Commodore BX256
>Zenith Z200
>Commodore Max
>Astrocade
>Altos
>Cromemco
>.
>.
>.
>(the list is lengthier than I want to type ;) )
>
>There are also ads for things like the TI-99/2 with Bill Cosby, the
Adam,
>the PMC-80, Ohio Scientific Challenger, Atari 400, Color Computer with
>Isaac Asimov, VIC-20 with William Shatner, etc, etc, etc...
>
>Lots of cool articles on computer technology stuff, too.
>
>If you cut up Popular Science magazines and condense them to just the
>computer stuff, you end up with a really interesting read. :)
>
>> -Seth
>
>Doug Spence
>ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
>http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
< >Or a 11/780
< >equipped with a DECterm100 (bit mapped and the map is vax resident)?
<
< Didn't this get called a VAXstation-I. If it's the device I remember it
< one (several) Unibus cards and a fibre optic connect or was this somethi
< different again?
Thats the beastie, I've used it too. Not bad for it's day.
Allison
On Sep 14, 16:11, Sam Ismail wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, James Willing wrote:
>
> > As I recall, (going a little out on a limb here) you are correct on the
J2
> > connector. That was to support an Apple marketed numeric keypad. And,
I
> > believe that the other switch (along with cutting the marked pads)
enables
> > lower case encoding.
> >
> > Which of course does little good on an Apple II / II+ with standard
ROMs.
>
> True. You still needed to acquire (or burn) a character ROM with
> lowercase characters.
A few years ago, I made the mod and created a suitable character set ROM
image, which I burned into a 2716. If anybody wants it, you can pick up
the ROM image at
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/NewCG
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
>You're making some of it up. DOS intercepted the command line input and
>only parsed out DOS commands. If it didn't recognize a DOS command it
>passed the line off to BASIC. His DOS enhancement COULD have converted
>any lowercase command line to uppercase before passing it on to BASIC so
>it wouldn't puke.
That's the way I interpreted his description of the action.
>That's entirely doable and would be rather elegant.
Except what's the purpose of the hardware lowercase modification if
the first thing you do with it in software is convert to uppercase? :-)
The only software that I extensively used on a Apple II that dealt with
lowercase characters was Paul Lutus's _Applewriter II_. A very excellent
editor, with what amounts to almost "regular expression" search and
replace. If only EMACS (Eight Megabytes and Continually Swapping?
Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift?) were as lean and mean!
Tim.
>
> The other week I bought an IBM 4869 5.25" floppy drive. This is an
external
> unit that hooks up to a PC via a 37-way D connector. The case is massive,
for a
> simple floppy drive.
>
The extra space (length) is the power supply. I also have one of those
drives.
> Anyway, I can't get it to work properly. It is probably a 360K drive
mechanism,
> and my PC (Philips 386SX AT clone) boots normally with this type of drive
set
> in the backup RAM.
It was made to work with the XT, plugging into a special port on the disk
controller card. Yes, it is a standard 360K drive.
>
> I can format disks and use DIR, but reading or writing any files always
gives
> an Abort/Retry/Cancel error. Unsurprisingly, cleaning the heads made no
> difference. Actually, to elaborate on this copying a load of files to a
newly-
> formatted disk gives an error after copying (say) the first two files.
>
> Does this drive have some non-standard pinout, different from the 37-way
D
> 5.25" port on the back of the PC, or maybe only work with IBM PS/2
machines?
>
The D connector goes directly to the disk drive.
> If it is just faulty, what might the problem be? The cable is unlikely I
think,
> as is the power supply.
>
> The casing has a couple of tamperproof Torx screws. I'd like to know what
size
> they are so that I can buy a suitable screwdriver bit.
Tamperproof screw solution: a SHARP 1/2" drill bit. Just drill off the
heads, and you'll have no problem.
The drive that I had, I had no use for, and couldn't get it to work with my
PC, so here's what I did:
-Pulled the old 360K drive, and replaced it with a 1.2 meg drive.
-Cut a hole in the top of the case large enough so that I could attach a
3.5" drive on top of the 5.25".
-Super-glued the 3.5" to the 5.25" drive.
-Split the power cable, and put a 3.5" floppy connector on it so that the
P/S could power both drives.
-Using a TRS-80 printer cable (ribbon - type), I twisted the cable and put
on new plugs to connect the floppies.
-Ran the ribbon cable under the P/S, and out a slot that I cut in the back.
-Connected all cables, and put the case back together.
-Ran ribbon cable into open slot on back of computer and connected to
floppy connector.
It may seem like a bit of work to get an external drive, but it sure beats
buying a new $80 tower case.
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
I'm picking as I've been around long enough in the industry to see what I
call retrorevisionism. It's the terminology creep that has been occuring
since the PC became the computer for all things. Though its been going on
for load longer.
< I don't know why you would want to class that as a MPU. Most of these
< terms were invented because a new breed came into existance and it neede
< a new name to distinguish it from what came before. "Microprocessor"
< was coined to celebrate a logic integration landmark: a computer on a
< single chip.
the terms were invented after the fact.
< > < Microcomputer: a computer based on a single microprocessor.
< >
< > What if there are several performing different tasks in the same box.
<
< OK, Microcomputer: a computer that runs applications on a single
< microprocessor.
Lessee, my visual 1050 uses the 6502 for video and a z80 for the main cpu
and a z80 for the MFM hard disk controller (all running concurrently).
Teh single cpu thing is a sticking point.
Try: A computer based on microprocessors.
< I really don't know what to call a SMP PC, though. Microsupercomputer?
Or the s100 4 z80 loosely coupled SMP running CP/M2.2... Terminology
sorta gets mashed.
< > < Workstation: a computer designed to run Unix with a bitmapped displa
< >
< > What if it's a VAX running VMS? Yes the VS3100s were definatly
< > workststions.
<
< OK, Workstation: a computer with a bitmapped display designed to run a
< non-Microsoft multitasking OS.
;') a NON PC pc.
< > < Minicomputer: a timesharing computer that can support fewer than 10
< > < simultaneous users.
< >
< > VAX and minicomputer that could and often did have more than 100 users
<
< OK, Minicomputer: a general purpose computer without a memory-mapped
< display, smaller than a mainframe.
What about a MicrovaxII servicing a half dozen Xterms? Or a 11/780
equipped with a DECterm100 (bit mapped and the map is vax resident)?
Minicomputer: something significantly smaller and cheaper than mainframes
of the time. The definition was based on compact size not IO interface
or the presence or lack of a bit mapped display.
< > < Mainframe: a timesharing computer than can support 100 or more user
< > < simultaneously.
< >
< > Generally big iron and most that had that distinction where physically
< > large. AKA univac 1180.
<
< OK, Mainframe: a general purpose computer without a memory-mapped displa
< that weighs at least one ton.
Oh dear.. the video displays on some of the big ums... Actually the break
point was again size and especially cost. At the time mini and mainframe
were in vogue the difference was around 10/1 in cost and around the same
or greater for weight.
< Some people use PC's as dedicated controllers, but that doesn't make
< a PC an embedded computer in my mind. Cross-development seems to be th
< only common factor when people talk about embedded, although there are
< embedded environments, such as QNX, that support native development.
PDP-8s and 11s were some of the mainstays for embedded controls work
and some had local resources enough to develop insitu. Your viewpoint
is influenced by the current vogue. ***An embedded system is simply a
system that has a computer (ANY!) burried/coupled to it.*** It could be
a NC mill with a PDP-8, a production line with a PDP-15 or in later years
a PLC or a process control system with a s100 crate and Compucolor board
and color CRT. I have seen and worked on all of these and more.
Allison
I have a small (about 2"x2") box which has a 30 pin edge connector
on one end and a switch on the other. There is a label on one side
with says:
ON OFF
"THE PILL"
This came in a box of misc Atari 800 items but I don't know where
it would plug into an Atari. Anyone have any idea what it might be?
-----
David Williams - Computer Packrat
dlw(a)trailingedge.com
http://www.trailingedge.com
Hi,
Would it be possible to enforce a maximum size for each list message in the
classiccmp mailing list software? 20K maximum should be okay, and would prevent
people (accidentally or on purpose) sending large files through the list, as
just happened.
Otherwise when someone posts a large file to the list, those who subscribe to
the digest version especially must decide between downloading a huge digest
message file (containing the useless large posting), or skipping it and
therefore missing proper messages. (If they have configured their mail program
to alert them when large messages are waiting.)
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
-- Mark
Because people don't want to feel like they're singlehandedly
running the Ministry of Truth from a desk in their room. Something
engineers never seem to get is the concept of a nice look. Many of
the people on this list mention how ugly something is, and if I've
seen it, I'm often forced to agree.
>> STD Bus 8080 Computer board set mounted in a compucolor comercial
color
>> terminal. This terminal was a large metal box with a 19 inch monitor
>> inside. It weighed 70 or 80 pounds. No one would have wanted it in
their
>> house. It was ugly, huge, very unwieldy and heavy. You could attach a
8"
>> hard drive, 8" or 5 " floppys and any other interface availiable on
STD
>> bus that would fit in a near full 6 slot backplane. No comparison to
an
>> Apple II, which many people wanted in their homes.
>
>Well, you just spent a paragraph telling us your opinion of the
>Compucolor, without giving any technical reasons as to why one would
>prefer an Apple II over a Compucolor.
>
>Sam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Ever onward.
>
> September 26 & 27...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
> See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 08/25/98]
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Hi,
The other week I bought an IBM 4869 5.25" floppy drive. This is an external
unit that hooks up to a PC via a 37-way D connector. The case is massive, for a
simple floppy drive.
Anyway, I can't get it to work properly. It is probably a 360K drive mechanism,
and my PC (Philips 386SX AT clone) boots normally with this type of drive set
in the backup RAM.
I can format disks and use DIR, but reading or writing any files always gives
an Abort/Retry/Cancel error. Unsurprisingly, cleaning the heads made no
difference. Actually, to elaborate on this copying a load of files to a newly-
formatted disk gives an error after copying (say) the first two files.
Does this drive have some non-standard pinout, different from the 37-way D
5.25" port on the back of the PC, or maybe only work with IBM PS/2 machines?
If it is just faulty, what might the problem be? The cable is unlikely I think,
as is the power supply.
The casing has a couple of tamperproof Torx screws. I'd like to know what size
they are so that I can buy a suitable screwdriver bit.
Finally, on another subject, if anyone has an old PC with at least three ISA
slots (386SX would be fine) I could give it a good home.
-- Mark
Jason,
I have a card like that too. There's no same on it or the manual but
the description is the same. It even has the Cirrus Logic video Bios. It
has nine sets of jumpers near the center of the board and a single pair
toward one end. The floppy and IDE connectors are mounted vertically near
the center of the board. Let me know if you want to compare them and see if
they're the same. I have the manuals and software for mine.
Joe
At 12:45 PM 9/13/98 -0700, you wrote:
>
>I had a multi-I/o card that did 2 serial, 1 parallel, 1 game, SuperVGA
>(Cirrus Logic 5424 I think), IDE and floppy all on one card. But it was a
>VLB card. I used it in my 486SLC I had at the time. I don't remember who
>made it. It was "generic" -- no name printed on the card, and all of the
>large number of jumpers where labelled "JPx" so it was quite difficult to
>reconfigure without the manual.
>
> -jrs
>
>At 11:18 AM 9/13/98 -0700, you wrote:
>>I'm looking for a slight variation of a card I have in an old PC/XT,
>>one card with:
>> - video (monochrome text only is OK, VGA at best)
>> - floppy disk controller (3.5in, 1.44MB is necessary)
>> - serial/parallel I/O (optional, one serial port would be nice)
>> - and (optionally) a hard drive controller (MFM is OK, IDE better)
>>With such a card I can construct a minimal, full system on an old
>>386sx I have using only one expansion slot, which is a necessity.
>>
>>The card I have is an 8-bit ISA card, and that or a 16-bit ISA card
>>would be OK. The card I have only does up to 5.25in, 720KB floppies,
>>and that's why I can't steal it from my XT.
>>
>>Was such a card ever made? (It's not too much of a step beyond what
>>I have.) Does anyone have one around? Does someone still make such
>>a card?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Dave
>>
>_______________________________________________________________________
> \/|/\ | Jason Simpson | http://www.xio.com/jason/
> /\|\/ | jason(a)xio.com | Wanted: '87-90 Volkswagen Fox 2 Door Wagon
>
< the Compucolor came with an "integrated display", and featured 160x192,
< 8-color (vector) graphics (the Apple was capable of 280x192 bit-mapped
The Compucolor had raster graphics. It did run it as raster too. The
software was written as vector to raster.
< Yet the Apple II is celebrated as having been the first home computer wi
< built-in color graphics, and almost no mention of the Compucolor is eve
< made in any general computer history texts. The obvious difference
< between the two is that the Apple II went on to enjoy tremendous succes
< for the next 15+ years while the Compucolor was relegated to an also-ran
< The victors do indeed write the history, or at least get the lion's shar
< of the mention.
Such are the vagarities of history.
< I think its odd that a system such as the Compucolor, extremely comparab
< to the capabilities of the Apple II (if not more so in some respects)
< hardly gets mentioned in the computer history books I read.
the difference is the apple could be had peicemeal for less and the
Compucolor was big and expensive. the CC was intimidating and aimed at
the highend, appleII was cuddly and inviting being aimed a bit lower.
Think of it this way it's wasnt' what the hardware could do it was waht
the user perceived (s)he could do with it.
< The lesson of this story is, you can have the best, most amazing produc
< in the world, but "build it and they will come" does not apply. You've
< got to advertise. Apple was obviously more masterful at this.
DEC did not learn that several times over starting with the PDP-11/150
(destop pdp-11 system), the VT180, Pro350 and Rainbow. Yet the DECMATE
series which were fairly capable but generally used for wordprocessing
are like flies!
Allison
What are the expansion port specs (if applicable) of an Atari ST?
Research on the internet turned up info about a cartridge port expander
made to connect a scanner to an ST via a Navarone Cartridge Interface
(ref:) http://www.ataricentral.com/wwwboard/messages/366.html
Other found info:
Navarone Industries is (was) located at:
Navarone Industries, Inc.
510 Lawrence Expressway #800
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(ref:)
http://cws86.kyamk.fi/Computers/Commodore/articles/Enhancing_Your_64/
---------------------------------------
Navarone apparently made stuff for the TI99. I wonder if it is a
pass-thru cart for the side connector of a TI99, where the speech module
connects to (I forget if the port is male or female)? Or, even though it
may not be as wide as a regular TI cart, does it slide into the front
cartridge connector anyhow and possibly be used for copying cartridges?
<insert standard liability disclaimer>
---------------------------------------
Jeff Salzman
>It certainly seemed about the right size for a 64 cartridge, but it doesn't
>work that way. Also, the passthru plug is a teeny big too large to easily get
>a cartridge to attach to it.
>
>> On Tue, 8 Sep 1998, Uncle Roger wrote:
>>
>> > Similarly, does anyone remember a truck-like thing (big trax?) that you
>> > could program sorta like LOGO? I remember the commercials showed it
>> > bringing a soda (or beer?) to one lucky owner. Unfortunately, my family's
>> > gift budgets never would have covered such a nifty gadget... 8^(
>>
>> My oldest brother got one of those for Christmas in maybe '78. Those were
>> cool! I hope I run into one of them one of these days. Weren't they made
>
>When I was in 4th grade a classmate had one. We were all jealous of course.
>I think he said it went for $80.
>
>Seems like maybe it picked itself up on a turntable in order to make
>turns in-place. I'm pretty sure the wheels didn't steer.
>
I believe you're talking about the Mattel "Big Trak"? My nephews had one of
those many years ago. I believe it used tank-type steering; six wheels, and
it could either lock one set and pivot using the others, or reverse one
side. I've got some surplus gearboxes and motors from the Big Trak that I
purchased several years ago. They're kind of neat; they have two motors and
gear trains, linked together with a couple of big magnets. If you run both
in the same direction, the magnets are strong enough to force both motors to
turn at the same speed. If you reverse one of the motors, the magnets
alternately repel and attract. This either forces the machine to drive in a
straight line, or to pivot about its center, respectively. They also have
an optical interrupter on one gear so the CPU can tell how far the motors
have turned. It had a hookup to dump the trailer, and I think some other
options that never were released. It was a pretty cool toy.
A quick web search found this:
BigTrak User's Guide:
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/courses/year3/358/cwk/brown/BT_UG/
BigTrak Simulator Project:
http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/courses/year3/358/cwk/corke/
BigTrak Repair Service:
http://www.lavalamp.demon.co.uk/bigtrak/bigtrak.htm
Bill Richman
incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r
(Home of the COSMAC Elf
microcomputer simulator!)
Zane Healy wrote:
> Stuff I saw:
[...]
> A very interesting little Tek terminal on it's own stand
Get a better look at this. It could be any of the following (at least):
4006
4012
4014
4051
4052
4054
4052A
4054A
I'd guess it's not a 4014 or 4054 (A or otherwise), since these are not
in the least "little"
However 4052s of any flavour are EXTREMELY RARE. AFAIK, the only two
known still to exist are mine and the one in the computer museum in
Amsterdam, Netherlands. (If anyone knows of another 4052 or 4054 please
let me know!)
All the TEK terminals of this date are interesting, partly because of
the dead-end technology, viz. the storage tube.
If it is more recent than storage tube TEKs, it may still be
interesting...
BTW, the 4050 series had computers tucked in the bottom of the terminals
- a 6800 based micro in the 4051 and a 16 bit bitslice in the others.
To give you an idea of value, I paid roughly $200 for my 4052, and I
have been advised by Dr Dooijes at the Dutch museum to insure it for
$3000. (NB he paid nothing for his). It looks like insurance for the
VCF is going to cost another 100 pounds...
Philip.
All,
Thomas Pfaff picked out 3 of my top 4 NeXT sources. The 4th is:
http://206.67.57.106 Black Hole, Incorporated
(having problems with his USP pointing to
http://www.blackholeinc.com/ )
I have contacted them before, and they seemed nice, but I have not dealt
with them. (They didn't have the software I was looking for.)
- Mark
If it's for the 64, it could be a cartridge like Action Replay or
whatever was made for the 64. It usually has a pass-through on the
expansion bus and a button to activate the cart. These carts were used
to *freeze* the computer and allow you access to all the current memory
to examine, change, or save entire blocks to disk. The logic chips were
probably used to transfer control electrically from the Kernel to the
code stored in the EPROM upon the push of the button.
Jeff Salzman
>
>It's a white plastic cartridge with a 44-pin male card-edge connector and a
>light blue plastic female passthru for the same type of connector. It has a
>square black plastic button on top. It is (was) glued shut. Inside there is
>an 24-pin EEPROM (88251A+ MM2716Q) with a Mitsubish Electric sticker
>covering the window, a 14-pin IC (P234 DM7400N), and another 14-pin IC (EL
>SALVADOR 1820-0328 7936 <Texas Instruments Logo> SN7402N). And two small
>resistors and capacitors. On the circuitboard it says "NAVARONE (C)" and
>next to the contacts where the little carbon pad on the underside of the
>button makes contact, it says "TOP".
>
< > Can you guys ack this please?
< >
< > If it works, I've taught VAX/VMS to speak SMTP...
Whoa! You got my attention... as they say tell me more being I have a
upwards of 7 of them running here.
Allison
I've got an ex-Systems Industries 19" computer rack
available. It's got about 60" of vertical mounting space available
and a nice-built in surge protector and power distribution system.
Very, very heavy duty construction (weight empty is about 200 lbs.)
with big casters on the bottom. Sides and top are removable.
Terms: first person to show up with a vehicle capable of carrying
it away gets it - after they help me pull the Fuji 2444 currently
residing in it.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology Voice: 301-767-5917
7328 Bradley Blvd Fax: 301-767-5927
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817
If anyone in the UK is interested contact the party below.
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: kthacker(a)krisalis.co.uk
Date sent: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 13:57:32 +0100
Hi,
If you're interested I have a Amiga A500+ in bad condition which
you
could try to rehabilitate.
I've only got the casing (a bit dodgy), the main board (missing
Kickstart 2) - when you switch it
on it fails - might be problem with real time clock etc. It also has the
disc drive and keyboard.
I'm happy to send it to you, but you'd have to pay postage. I'm not
sure
if you are in the UK, but it would be better if you were.
I'd prefer for it not to go into a landfill site.
Kev
-----
David Williams - Computer Packrat
dlw(a)trailingedge.com
http://www.trailingedge.com
At 09:43 PM 9/13/98 -0700, youthful photogenic Sam Ismail wrote:
>
>The lesson of this story is, you can have the best, most amazing product
>in the world, but "build it and they will come" does not apply. You've
>got to advertise. Apple was obviously more masterful at this.]
In my experience, when engineers and programmers say "best" they mean
technically pure, interesting, vibrant, and often cost-effective.
They always seem baffled by the marketplace when it decides that
"best" means something else and doesn't buy the coolest technology
as frequently as something seemingly second-best, and it only gets
worse when others begin to espouse the notion that "most popular"
equals "best" as well.
- John
The Atari 8-bit FAQ mentions something about the "Pill" cartridge
copying scheme.
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/atari-8-bit/faq.html
Jeff Salzman
>\I have a small (about 2"x2") box which has a 30 pin edge connector
>on one end and a switch on the other. There is a label on one side
>with says:
>
>ON OFF
> "THE PILL"
Is anyone interested in the Popular Science review of the Lisa? I've
stumbled across that particular issue and if any one is interested I'll
get it scanned and uploaded.
colan
This one is a no brainer. I scrapped a Compucolor 8001 once. It was a STD Bus
8080 Computer board set mounted in a compucolor comercial color terminal. This
terminal was a large metal box with a 19 inch monitor inside. It weighed 70 or
80 pounds. No one would have wanted it in their house. It was ugly, huge, very
unwieldy and heavy. You could attach a 8" hard drive, 8" or 5 " floppys and
any other interface availiable on STD bus that would fit in a near full 6 slot
backplane. No comparison to an Apple II, which many people wanted in their
homes.
Paxton
Setting 17" monitors on the box is normal. The CPU can handle it.
Most of the connection cables aren't long enough to do otherwise
anyway. :-(
Openstep 4.2 on NeXT hardware does Windows Networking (Samba). If
you have a printer you can even set up your entire NeXT machine as a
postscript printer from Windows and have at it!
There is also an Appletalk server available for it [free] that is a
double-clickable application.
You probably won't have much need for Netinfo. Nevertheless it's
easiest to use the Simple Networking application in /NextAdmin, enter
an IP address and set it up as a Netinfo server.
Before doing this, go into /etc and copy the default netinfo
directory s.t. you have a spare copy. So if you mess up your netinfo
database while you're getting started you can boot in single user
mode and start over. Also make a copy of the default /etc/hostconfig
file. [Call them hostconfig.default and netinfo.default if you
like]
More specifically...
cd /etc
cp -r netinfo netinfo.default
cp hostconfig hostconfig.default
If you have any problems let me know...
Thomas
As the subject says I've got a couple of REALLY basic questions. I picked
up my first NeXT box yesterday, and am getting ready to start playing with
it. Is it safe to set the 17" monitor on top of the box? The box seems
rather flimsy for that. Also is there anything I should be aware of when
initially powering the thing on? Does it need to be attached to my network
prior to powering on?
Basically I've got enough experience with OPENSTEP 4.2 x86 to know that I
want to ask some really stupid questions prior to trying anything :^)
Oh, and what's the story with the DSP port on the back?
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
Hi, folks,
I just posted a blurb to the Usenet groups comp.sys.dec and
comp.sys.dec.micro to start moving most of the stuff I rescued a while
back from Fluke up in Everett. I'm CC'ing this to Dave Jenner as I
think he was one of the folks who wanted some of the rescued gear.
If this isn't true, Dave, please pardon the post.
Some explanation is, I feel, in order as to why I didn't post
here first (as I normally would have).
When I first picked the stuff up, my contact said that there
had been considerable interest in the stuff, though my response had
apparently come in first. He later forwarded me an E-mail containing
the contact info for the others who had responded, since I had made a
promise to redistribute the stuff after I decided what I wanted to keep.
Due to my own clumsiness, this E-mail has gone astray. Since my
Fluke contact's original message advertising the stuff had gone to the
same two groups I posted my latest blurb to, I figured it would be a
good bet to do the same thing under the assumption that the same people
would see this and get in touch with me.
So, there you have it. I'm more concerned with finding the
stuff a good home than anything else, though I did make a request for a
contribution of $25 to help cover the time off from work and
gas/wear/tear on my car (it was a fairly long trip).
Let's see how it goes....
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies
E-Mail: kyrrin (at) jps [d=o=t] net (munged to screw up spambots)
Sent on 13-Sep-98 at 21:55:18, Pacific -- http://table.jps.net/~kyrrin
"...No matter how much we may wish otherwise, our science can
only describe an object, event, or living creature in our own human
terms. It cannot possibly define any of them..."
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> And 'The ANSI labeled tape spec' is available where.... ?
Should've answered this in the previous message: you can order a copy
>from http://www.ansi.org/, the designation is ANSI X3.27, and it costs
US$32.00.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology Voice: 301-767-5917
7328 Bradley Blvd Fax: 301-767-5927
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817
> And 'The ANSI labeled tape spec' is available where.... ?
ANSI sells copies - I don't know the current price. The one I carry
around with me is ANSI X3.27-1978, "File Structure and Labeling
of Magnetic Tapes for Information Interchange". There's a more recent
Level 4 document that makes the (obvious) Y2K-compliance workaround
the "official" solution, but I can't find my copy at the moment (I
may very well have left it at a customer's site... oops!)
>> When dealing with RT-11 (not ll!) tapes under VMS, please keep
>> in mind the very detailed advice in the RT-11 "Volume and File
>> Formats Manual", pages 1-37 through 1-39.
> Easier kept in mind when the mind in question actually has *access*
>to the aforementioned document; this one does not. :(
Get me a fax number and I'll send you the relevant pages.
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology Voice: 301-767-5917
7328 Bradley Blvd Fax: 301-767-5927
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817
>A tape from a PDP-11 would ahve to be mounted foreign as it's a non
>files-11 format.
>Allison
Gees, Allison, I've been interchanging tapes between VMS and RT-11 and RSX-11
for years and I don't have to mount them foreign :-).
You will very likely want to review section 1.2.2 in your "RT-11
Volume and File Formats Manual" to get the straight dope RT-11 <-> VMS
file interchange. In particular, it notes how RT-11 uses
80-byte HDR1 records now. If anybody *really* wants to get into
minutae, we can begin a discussion about whether ANSI Standard X3.27-1978
requires that headers be exactly 80 bytes or whether it just sets forth
the interpretation of the first 80 bytes. I don't have a copy of the
level 4 standard with me at the moment, but I don't think this makes
it any clearer. In any event, the level-4 compliant versions of RT-11's
FSM handlers in RT-11 V5.7 only write 80 byte headers, so it's now a
moot point.
And tell any RSX devotee that his magtapes must be mounted /FOREIGN
on a VAX and he'll teach you about something called an ACP :-).
--
Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com
Trailing Edge Technology Voice: 301-767-5917
7328 Bradley Blvd Fax: 301-767-5927
Bethesda, MD, USA 20817
For anyone in the Portland area I just met a most interesting Computer
Recycler. Unlike the standard Horror stories I hear, he's working out of
an apartment complex he apparently runs. He's got a ton of stuff
squirreled away, and would rather sell to people that will reuse it, but if
that doesn't work out, or if he doesn't think he can resell it, it gets
recycled.
Stuff I saw:
IBM System III Model 50
A very interesting little Tek terminal on it's own stand
A lot of Apollo Domain
A lot of HP stuff including an interesting rack mounted system with,
a 9-track drive.
Sun stuff (I've got a friend that bought a complete Sparc 10 system
from
him)
More PC stuff than you can shake a stick a
Some NeXT stuff (which I got most or all of)
Stuff I got:
Some tape drives, mostly DAT and an old 8mm (think I cleaned him
out of
DAT
Toshba CD-ROM (My Alpha loves it, and the DAT I hooked up)
NeXT B&W Turbo slab system/32Mb RAM/1Gb HD/keyboard/mouse/monitor
haven't tried it yet, so no idea how it works. Also no
idea if
it has an OS on it
NeXT MO drive
I let him know that there are people looking for a lot of the stuff he
didn't seem to think anyone would want. A good example being Amiga and
Atari systems. I've also asked him to let me know when any DEC stuff shows
up.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |