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

by wayne.sudol＠hotmail.com

Is anyone from this list bidding on this. If so i?ll back out. Just don?t want it to be ?recycled ? and i have room for it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-DEC-BA23-Lot-Micro-PDP-11-73-VAXstation-32… Sent from my iPhone

5 years, 1 month

11
17
0 0

digital group's Richard Bemis

by unclefalter＠yahoo.ca

Hi there, I am working on a 30 minute historical video about the digital group. For source material there isn't a ton of stuff out there unfortunately and much of the account of what happened to the company comes from the late Dr. Robert Suding. In his account, Suding sort of points fingers at Richard "Dick" Bemis for mismanagement of the company. I am wondering if anyone knows what became of Mr. Bemis after his stint running dg. Apart from a couple of (slightly snarky) letters to Dr. Dobb's Journal when dg was still operational, there's literally no trace of him on the internet. If he's still around I'd love to get his side of the story to balance things out, or at least find out what he did afterwards. Thought I'd write here in case anyone knew. Brad

5 years, 1 month

5
6
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PIC programmers? More generic programmer? Port?

by compoobah＠gmail.com

Looking for suggestions on hobbyist PIC setup. So far I have just used Arduino type direct-connect microcontrollers (back in the day programmers for general devices were expensive), but the currently existing SGI proprietary system to PS/2 keyboard adapter is PIC (and I have a couple different systems that all use my single SGI proprietary keyboard). Any gotchas with the PICKit-3 clones out there? I have the feeling that sticking with PIC would be better than trying to port to Arduino, and imagine that as things continue to age there will be more applications for interfaces. Any better but still cheapish alternatives for programming?

5 years, 1 month

4
8
0 0

TSS/8 & dectape

by djg＠pdp8online.com

I'm having trouble using DECtapes with TSS/8 under SIMH. I tried with both the RF image and LCM RK05 image and no mater what I do it hangs if I try to access a DECtape. I am trying to use COPY command from account 2. I attach a dectape in simh then assign it in TSS and then try to get a directory or zero the tape with copy. Both hang. Anybody with more TSS knowledge know how to get this to work. Images from bitsavers http://www.pdp8online.com/ftp/images/bitsavers/unknown/ 7196, 7211, 7242, and 7280 have text where TSS/8 was mentioned. These are the ones I wanted to use TSS to see if I can get a directory. 7241, 7253, 7264, 7265, 7275, 7278, 7291, 7292 have contents but nothing I can identify. There are also some LINCtapes that had read issues so unable to determine what the are. What I have decoded http://www.pdp8online.com/images/index.shtml See last 3.

5 years, 1 month

2
1
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FS: Large Collection of HP LX Palmtop Items in Germany

by r_a_feldman＠hotmail.com

I am posting, with permission from Daniel, the following "For Sale" message from the HPLX Mailing List for a large collection of HP LX Palmtop hardware, software and books. Daniel Hertrich has been a major contributor to the HPLX List, creating a backlight mod, and doing HPLX repairs. His web site, www.hermocom.com, has been an important repository of information about the HP Palmtops. He can be reached at daniel at hertrich.photo and is located in Bavaria, Germany. I have no interest in the sale, etc. Regards, Bob <Begin Forwarded Message> Hi friends :) In short (longer text below): You can see my collection in detail here: https://360bayern.de/pano/daniels_palmtop_collection/index.html (zoom in with zoom gesture or scroll wheel) 2,000 ? total for the entire collection. Shipping or delivery from Bavaria, Germany. You can hover over each item and get a description tooltip (except for items that are self-explanatory, such as the books), some are even clickable, and the click leads to a website describing the item. Most clicks lead you to my own website www.hermocom.com, because I documented a lot of the stuff that I worked on back then. :) If you like to provide more link targets for the items, please do so. then I'll gladly add them. Note that for the high-resolution image (300 Megapixel) I used panorama software to stitch 10 individual images, so you can zoom in and see a lot of details of the single items. But given the unusual "panorama" setup for capturing the collection, there are stitching errors in the image, so some items look as if they might be broken, but they are not. ;) You can always switch to the lower-resolution standard image (40 Megapixel) to check that there is really no crack in the item. The descriptions and (obviously) the high details when zooming, however, are only available in the high-resolution image. So here comes the longer text: :) No, I won't say goodbye to you! I'll stay here with you. And I'll keep a few items from my collection for myself. But the rest of my collection has to go. The Palmtop hobby was a really great one for me, probably the most important one, until I began with photography. I learned so much during all these years since 1997, when I bought my first 200LX. Until 2005 the 200LX even was my main computer (i.e.: the one I used most). I started so many hardware and software projects to support my own work and also the community, and I got a lot of support from you, the community, as well. Thank you so much for that, and for all these years of fun! :) I have (even until now!) never been part of a community that I gave to and got from that much support and heart-warming talks, even if the topic was most of the times a very unemotional one: Computers! I've even built my own small business around all that ("hermocom - hertrich mobile computing"). The business was never really "successful" in the sense of earning money, but that was not important to me. Important was, that I could take the money earned from it and invest it into new research, new projects, new hardware, to keep it all going and constantly improve. I think, the most important success (again, not in the monetary sense) was the development of a feasible and relatively affordable backlight solution for the 200LX, made possible by the great help of Hal Goldstein and his team at Thaddeus Computing by handing me over their material they got from their own research in this field. I will keep two used 200LXs and one 1000CX, as well as a few important accessories (an LED light, one 200LX has a backlight, some PCMCIA cards etc.) and spare parts, but all the remaining parts and devices, even two like-new(!) 200LXs just take up space here and only once a year or so they give me nostalgic feelings and a smile. Given that I am currently in a financial emergency situation with my photography business, that's heavily damaged due to the Corona situation, I clearly need the money more than the nostalgic feelings. :) For each item in the collection (except for almost all the books and a few trivial items, which I will add for free), I estimated a value, then summed up these values and resulted in a total value of 2,300 ?. I would prefer to sell the collection in its entirety, and would offer the entire collection for 2,000 ?. That price does not include shipping costs. In case nobody wants to buy the entire collection for a couple of weeks, I'll probably slice the collection into smaller chunks or offer items one by one. If you are interested in a particular set of items (collection chunk), let me know. I may consider that. The collection fits into a standard-sized moving box, with not much padding. For shipping, I'd like to add much more padding, so that it would probably take 2 moving boxes for shipping. Within Germany, I would deliver the collection in my area for free (85077 Manching, near Ingolstadt + 100km). I'd also consider delivering it within a wider distance against a refund of my driving costs. That would maybe be cheaper than parcel shipping for two heavy moving boxes and it would allow for a beer and a good talk :) Okay, so now have fun exploring my collection. :) If you are interested or have questions, you may contact me at daniel at hertrich.photo. ....This is quite an emotional step for me... Oh boy. Daniel

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

RSTS processor identification

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > Here is an outline (not all the details) of the hardware scan flow: > ... > 2. Make sure the MMU exist; if not, halt. > ... > If it has FIS, it can only be an 11/40. You probably know this already, but the KEV1-A floating point chip for the LSI-11 also implemenred FIS. (Of course, the LSI-11 would fail step 2, so it's not really a factor here.) Noel

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Pdp10 and TOPS 10 stuff

by hachti＠hachti.de

Hi, I habe some pdp10 related docs which need to go away. Anybody interested? Or should I dump it (and reuse the white folders foro pdp8 stuff)? https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0r5oqs3qGclUOi Kind regards Philipp -- Dipl.-Inf. (FH) Philipp Hachtmann Buchdruck, Bleisatz, Spezialit?ten Klus 16 31073 Delligsen Mobil: 0171/2632239 UStdID DE 202668329

5 years, 1 month

4
6
0 0

pdp11, pdp8 prototyping boards

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Don't know if you guys know about them, I just tripped over them... https://www.tindie.com/products/glitchwrks/gw-dec-1-prototyping-board-for-p… Cheers

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

[TUHS] A stack of PDP-11 field maintenance print sets

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: John Floren > Can anyone on the list point me to either an existing archive where > these exist The canonical repository for historic documentation online is BitSavers. It has an almost-complete set of DEC stuff (both manuals and prints. QBUS devices are at: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/qbus/ QBUS CPU's will be in the relevant model directory, e.g.: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1123/ and disk drives are in: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/disc/ I haven't checked your list, but I suspect most of them are there; I think the ADV11-A prints are missing, though. You can either send the originals to Al Kossow, or scan them for him; but check with him first, to make sure he doen't already have them, just hasn't got around to posting them yet. There's another site which indexes DEC online documentation: https://manx-docs.org/ There are a very few things which aren't in Bitsavers, and can be found there. > KFD11-A cpu I assume that's a typo for 'KDF11-A'? Noel

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Fwd: [TUHS] A stack of PDP-11 field maintenance print sets

by jfoust＠threedee.com

> >From: John Floren <john at jfloren.net> >Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2021 14:51:40 -0800 >To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs at tuhs.org> >Subject: [TUHS] A stack of PDP-11 field maintenance print sets > >I've been hauling around a pile of DEC Field Maintenance Print Sets >for PDP-11 components for over a decade now, intending to see if >they're worth having scanned or if there are digital versions out >there already. Can anyone on the list point me to either an existing >archive where these exist, or an archivist who would be interested in >scanning them? They're full of exploded diagrams, schematics, and >assembly listings. > >Here's the list of what I have: > >Field Maintenance Print Set (17" wide, 11" high): >RLV11 disk controller >RL01-AK disk drive >ADV-11A (??) > >Field Maintenance Print Set (14" wide, 8.5" high): >RL01 disk drive >DLV11-J serial line controller >RLV11 disk controller >KFD11-A cpu >KEF11-A floating point processor >PDP11/23 >PDP11/03-L > >Absolutely not tossing them, just wondering if there are already >scanned copies available somewhere, if I should send them off to be >scanned and put online, or if I should just check in with computer >museums (I'm near the CHM, for instance) > >John Floren

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

PDP 8/a for sale UK (Devon)

by gordon+cctalk＠drogon.net

I'm moving soon and need to down-size a little, so selling off my PDP-8/a. It has 16KW core and is in full working order. It has the serial IO board which I think was standard in the 8/a anyway. It's a 3-card system plus the 2 x 8KW core boards. Also included is a Vincent Slyngstad memory/rtc expansion board - not built up, so full kit form that I've not been able to assemble yet. ?1000 ono. https://unicorn.drogon.net/IMG_20210305_150415.jpg boards: https://unicorn.drogon.net/IMG_20180126_181135.jpg https://unicorn.drogon.net/IMG_20180126_181115.jpg https://unicorn.drogon.net/IMG_20180126_171659.jpg I'm based in Devon. Buyer collect (if you want to see it working) else I can make a short video and may be able to take it a little way up or down the A38/M5. Thanks, Gordon

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Looking for the numeric pad "1" key on VT-100 vintage keyboard

by cramcram＠gmail.com

Does anyone out there have a "1" key (the one in the numeric keypad, not the 1 / ! key) that they are willing to sell: me? I saw a couple of partial keyboards go fairly cheap on ePay a couple of months ago but didn't see it until it was sold. Thanks, Marc Howard

5 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Intellec MCS-8 8008 monitor program ROM files

by roelof_klaas＠yahoo.com

Hello everyone, Does anyone have the?Intellec MCS-8 8008 system monitor ROM files? According to the Intellec MCS-8 manual the System Monitor is contained in five 1702A PROMs.My ROMs have a disk loader, but the disks system is long gone... Any papertape software is also welcome for this machine! Thanks in advance!Regards, Roland Huisman

5 years, 1 month

4
3
0 0

SPARCengine CP1200

by rp＠servium.ch

I just acquired a Sun SPARCengine CP1200. To my knowledge the CP1200 is the only 32bit SPARC with a PCI bus, which makes it pretty cool. It was also extremely unpopular, because who wants a 100MHz MicroSPARC IIep when you can have a SPARCengine CP1500 with a 270MHz UltraSPARC IIi (they were released at the same time, and I suspect the cost difference wasn't all that much). Would anyone know where I can find a Sun PROM image? mine has a VxWorks ROM, but I'd rather run Solaris on it. I've searched everywhere, and couldn't find anything. Most "usual" places (e.g. the FE handbook) barely acknowledge its existence if at all. AFAIK this predates field upgradeable flash PROMs, so it's not hidden in a patch somewhere. thanks Rico

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Searching for Elevated socket

by brain＠jbrain.com

IN my continuing Digitalker saga, I did find a couple not horribly priced Digitalker ICs online and purchased them.? As one arrived, I found that my original IC was actually OK, but the cable from the computer to the device has issues. I've traced it to what looks like a heavy duty 16 pin IC socket on the board that plugs into the computer, and into which a 16 pin 2x8 .3" DIP IDC header plugs into (with the IDC cable going to another such header, which plugs into a similar socket on the main synthesizer PCB). The socket has the same basic footprint as a normal 2x8 16 pin .3" IC socket, but it's much heavier duty.? I could replace with a simple leaf socket, but would prefer to find a direct replacement. Though I am sure other manufacturers sold similar, I find that Aries sells that I need.? It's an Aries 16-8430-10 <http://www.beckwithelectronics.com/ARIES/16-8430-10.htm> (or could be an Aries 16-8480-10 <http://www.beckwithelectronics.com/ARIES/16-8480-10.htm>) elevated IC socket.? The link below shows the units: http://www.beckwithelectronics.com/ARIES/8xxx.htm Digikey has the 14 pin version in stock, but no 16 pin ones, and neither does Mouser.? I'll keep searching, but they are very expensive and I'm not sure I need 40 of them (minimum Digikey order). Thus, I am wondering if someone on list has 1 or 2 they might be interested in selling for the cause. The good news is that I was able to get the connection to work, and now the unit operates as designed. Still, I do not trust the socket. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

5 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > There's a good reason why the big disks on many DEC machines were Massbus > devices until MSCP arrived. It's quite clear on Unibus PDP-11s, which > needed Massbus both for speed and for a cleaner answer to more-than-18 > bit addressing. I follow the first sentence, but I'm confused by the second, especially "a cleaner answer to more-than-18 bit addressing". The UNIBUS MASSBUS controller/adapter, the RH11, only has 18-bit addressing on the main memory side. It does have more than 18-bit addressing on the device side, but so does the RP11 (sort of). Are you thinking of the RH70? That does have access to more than 2^18 bytes of main memory, but that's because it connects to the -11/70 memory bus (as well as the UNIBUS, which is only used for control, not data). Similar questions about the speed point; passing data through an RH11 doesn't increase the speed of the UNIBUS? Yes, the RH70 is faster, but that's because of its connection to the -11/70 memory bus. Noel

5 years, 1 month

12
18
0 0

PDP-8/I vs 8/E EAE

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

Has anyone noticed a difference in DVI overflow behavior on the PDP-8/I EAE versus the PDP-8/E EAE? The 8/E EAE claims to be 8/I compatible in Mode A, and I think I agree, for the most part. At least, it's compatible for the parts that matter. When a DVI instruction results in overflow, the EAE immediately returns with the link set. The results in AC and MQ seem to have no relevance, but they appear to differ between the 8/E and 8/I. For instance, running the 8/I MUY/DVI diagnostics under SimH fails due to the following: sim> lo maindec/maindec-8i-d0ba-pb.bin sim> d sr 40 sim> g 201 DIVERR L C(AC) C(MQ) C(MB) PROB 0 000000000000 000000000000 000000000000 GOOD 1 111111111111 000000000000 000000000000 BAD 1 000000000000 000000000001 000000000000 SCA 000000000000 HALT instruction, PC: 01512 (JMP I 1506) The link is set, but obviously MQ and AC do not match. Running the same diagnostic on an 8/I works fine. I can't imagine a scenario outside of diagnostics where this behavior would impact the software, but it does seem curious nevertheless that the DVI approach to handling overflow differs slightly between EAEs on the 8/I and 8/E. Kyle

5 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

DS20 Alpha System

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

I've got rights to a fairly nice system located in St. Louis.? It has working streaming tapes as well as half inch, all working. It is on till this coming weekend. The full system is a single bay, I've been told is 7' tall on casters.? I won't let it be scrapped if possible, but I'd like it to go off the floor directly to someone interested and not have to use favors to get help having it moved out. It will be skinned of an addin UPS but otherwise disconnected and put to one side till it can be picked up. Told the location has dock high, but no word on how that is accessible or what type it is.? Might be able to move dock high to dock high anyway. Let me know if there's interest.? I will have to have possession of the drives, but will make sure the hardware that goes with them is kept.? I hope I can zero them and pass it along. Cabling will be boxed as appropriate and will be included. Let me know if you are interested, and pass it along.? I know it's a dual processor, but don't have other info right handy here. thanks Jim

5 years, 1 month

5
4
0 0

Any interest in a Floating Point Systems AP-120 array processor?

by boris＠summitclinic.com

That appears to be an earlier model of a similar system we had at UBC which could crunch arrays of FP numbers at 10 Mflops. Had it connected to an 11/44 and just recall doing some frantic programming mainly involving using minimal code as had to use memory management to allocate memory pages to get data into array processor and then fetch results. Realized at that time that a 56 Kb memory space was a bit limited for this type of work. Did FFT far faster than 11/23 (which took 1 second for 1024 points using DEC's code that shipped with MINC) but still had to do overnight runs to analyze a lot of our data. Likely have bad memories of that part of my programming career as we were under some rather tight deadlines to analyze data to get a few papers published and I much preferred writing in PDP11 assembler as very rarely had to deal with running out of memory issues with data acquisition code. Out of curiousity, decided to benchmark one of my old, really cheap PC laptops that got in 2010 and it managed 30 Mflops using double precision arithmetic. 10 Mflop performance no longer as impressive as it used to be. >I picked this up a number of years ago for reasons that entirely escape >me. It's certainly neat, but I don't see myself ever actually using it and >it's large and heavy. > >Documented here: >http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/fps/7259-02_AP-120B_procHbk.pdf > >Mine appears to have a DEC-style interface but I'm unsure what it talks to >on the DEC side of things. > >I can take pictures if there's interest, but it's fairly nondescript, just >a large white box with rack-mount ears and a small panel with some switches >on it. > >It's in the Seattle area if anyone wants it, and it's free! Shipping is... >not something I really want to think about right now. > >- Josh

5 years, 1 month

3
3
0 0

Any interest in RLX blade servers

by julf＠julf.com

RLX Technologies pioneered the blade server concept between 1999 and 2005 (when they got acquired by HP). I have two of their early RLX 24 blade enclosures, one fully populated with 24 transmeta-based processor blades, and the other with 19 blades. Julf

5 years, 1 month

4
9
0 0

ISO: Stabilization feet for DEC H960 rack

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I realize these are uncommon; curious if anyone has a spare pair somewhere (hey, that rhymes.) I'd like to be able to pull out the CPU on my 11/70 without worrying about the whole thing tipping over and crushing people I care about. It's the little things, really... Thanks! - Josh

5 years, 1 month

9
8
0 0

Any interest in a Floating Point Systems AP-120 array processor?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I picked this up a number of years ago for reasons that entirely escape me. It's certainly neat, but I don't see myself ever actually using it and it's large and heavy. Documented here: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/fps/7259-02_AP-120B_procHbk.pdf Mine appears to have a DEC-style interface but I'm unsure what it talks to on the DEC side of things. I can take pictures if there's interest, but it's fairly nondescript, just a large white box with rack-mount ears and a small panel with some switches on it. It's in the Seattle area if anyone wants it, and it's free! Shipping is... not something I really want to think about right now. - Josh

5 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

ISO: Stabilization feet for DEC H960 rack

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Steven Malikoff > I have yet to machine the bolt head tapers to the originals but lost > the photo of one that was posted here some time ago. By "bolt head tapers", do you mean the special bolts with countersunk heads, or the countersunk holes in the extension feet? Whichever it was, I can provide photos and/or measurements, as needed. Noel

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

DOS/Batch 10 source disks

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Did someone on the list buy the pair of source RK05's on eBay? https://www.ebay.com/itm/PDP-11-Program-Monitor-V10-02-CUSP-and-Device-Driv… I bought the fortran source disk that was listed at the same time, but didn't go after these because of the cost and I may already have it in the archived DECtapes on bitsavers.

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Electronics Plus

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

In case this link only made it to discord, I'm (re-?)posting here. Cindy has been extremely helpful and generous and giving of her time to all in this hobby. It is a very worthy cause. https://www.gofundme.com/f/electronics-plus Not too much more to hit their goal. Lets see if we can put them over, I'm pretty sure most of us have benefited from her efforts. Cindy, a few things have changed on my end with retirement, but I may be able to get that website back online for you. Please reach out to me directly and I'll check. Best, J

5 years, 1 month

6
5
0 0

List your old computer

by trash80＠internode.on.net

Hi folks - there used to be a web site where you could register and list your "classic/old computer(s)". I'm not looking to do that but am trying to find something from years gone by that I think was on that site. I thought it was https://www.old-computers.com/ or http://oldcomputers.net/ but it's neither of those. My googlefoo has been unable to track it down assuming it still exists. I know at one stage the owner was thinking of closing it down because of hacks or spamming of forms or something like that. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Thank you!! Kevin Parker <https://t.sidekickopen08.com/s2t/o/5/f18dQhb0S7n28cFFdQW752kH81jkhdLW1_k-L- 1qZM43W3s0v_y2M0f8BF4c2NfHml5Hf6Bq4h603?si=8000000004908274&pi=997afdd6-85ea -4056-b2dd-7a9b54226840>

5 years, 1 month

9
11
0 0

Pinging Jay West

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

Sent out a request via multiple channels to you WRT a local STL system.? can you give me a call or ping back. sent to your emails, discord and other channels. thanks Jim

5 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Funky electronics chain Fry?s is no more (Seattle Times)

by sieler＠allegro.com

Gavin Scott wrote: > We all had a love/hate relationship with Fry's, but they were an > institution and will be missed. Sometime after his story, Gavin moved to the Bay Area to work for my company. One day, I started to buy something at Fry's and they asked for my phone number. So, I gave the the office number. The salesman entered it, and said "thank you, Mr. Scott". I was still "Gavin Scott" to them 15 years later :) Oh, the "seal of quality". Not only did it scream "do not buy this item", but it was a very useful thing ... although not for reasons Fry's expected. Many times, I'd be looking at some newer tech item (e.g., a 4-bay RAID enclosure), and see that over half of them had the "seal of quality". I quickly developed a rule: two more seals meant: stay away from this product! Stan

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

ISO IBM flex cables made by Chabin

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I'm making some replacement cables and paddle cards so I'm on the lookout for these connectors on cable assemblies. http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/dasd/21ED/chabin_4.jpg You'd think there would be piles of them around since they were used as the interplanar connecting cables in lots of IBM products.

5 years, 1 month

2
3
0 0

Original Intel 8085 training briefcase with tapes

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

Just on a chance, would anybody have the paper workbook that goes with this kit? It is a 8085 SDK board in a briefcase, power supply and tape player that was probably part of a class they presented. Mine works fine, including the Sony Walkman in the case, I am listening to the 10 or more training tapes. The whole kit is pristine, but no paper - the workbook from the kit. Anybody help me on this, or want it? I revisit things now and then, and this is one of them. It may need a new home. Randy

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

archive of DEC Notes

by spacewar＠gmail.com

Does anyone have contact information for the proprietor of this site: http://www.activityclub.org/decnotes/ The site has an index of messages archived from DEC's internal "Notes" (kind of their equivalent of UseNet). It appears from the "Download this site" page that at one time it was possible to download an archive of the actual content, but the hosting used for that only provides one week of free hosting, which has expired. I don't need the entire archive (though I'd like to get it), but I'd especially like to get messages from milkwy::23class_semiconductor and ricks::decschips.

5 years, 1 month

6
5
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Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The PDP-10 KL10 at the RCS/RI was used to control a real-time flight simulator at Sikorski. It had one of the RH20 Massbus controllers connected to a DTR01 cabinet holding a DR01 chassis. The DR01 was, I think, connected to a DR11 chassis that had A/D and D/A converters boards inside. You could use the same DTR01 subsystem to connect two PDP-10s together with Massbus, or connect a PDP-10 to a PDP-11 with Massbus. -- Michael Thompson

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FW: List your old computer

by erik＠baigar.de

Hm, just adding that my venerable SUN SPARC UII runs WEB server, ssh, web proxy, sub-version, and is my "cloud" via rsync and of course serves email. Over the last 7 years it got rebooted only twice, because the provider needed to relocate it in the server farm and during one of these reboots we replaced a failed disc in the array. I am pretty sure it would have ran without reboot the full 7 years with one good disc left...

5 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

VAX 11/750

by jbglaw＠lug-owl.de

Hi! Just stumbled over https://www.ebay.de/itm/265064917329 . Is it a system somebody of you is offering? Given that it would need to be shipped through Europe and is in unknown condition, I'd probably bid a few Euros on it. MfG, JBG --

5 years, 1 month

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FW: List your old computer

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 2/25/21 2:05 AM, Peter Coghlan wrote: > Chuck Guzis wrote: > I don't think so. My Raspberry Pi running Linux becomes choked by memory leaks > when I leave it running more than a few months. No amount of killing processes > or other fiddling with the operating system tools available allows it to > recover and the only alternative I can find is to reboot it. My VAX/ALPHA > machines/clusters just keep on trucking until the next power failure. I suppose it depends on what's being done. I've got an OrangePi PC running headless that's nothing more than an email relay and an Internet radio server. Until we had power cuts because of the summer wildfires, it ran more than a year. It's been running since power returned. I've got a OPi Zero hooked to a stereo system (headless again) running nothing more than mplayer. Various modems/routers and other appliances have been running BusyBox as an embedded OS. They pretty much escape notice. --Chuck

5 years, 1 month

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Funky electronics chain Fry’s is no more (Seattle Times)

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/funky-electronics-chain-frys-is-no-mo… So sad to see them go. There was a Fry's store close enough for me to visit occasionally. What will I do now when I actually want to examine the merchandise before I pay for it?

5 years, 1 month

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Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chris Zach > technically the MASSBUS cable is just an extension of the Unibus No. For one thing, the MASSBUS has no lines for carrying memory addresses. So there is no way to even build a box that 'translates' MASSBUS to UNIBUS; the semantics ('the things you can say', basically) of the two busses are so very different. (The MASSBUS is actually two separate busses; a control bus, and a data bus. The former has 5 lines for 'register address', but that's all. While the control bus is asynchronous, the data bus is synchronous.) Noel

5 years, 1 month

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SaturnCalc, Graph, and WP disks uploaded

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

Hi all! Spent some serious time this evening with the RX02 drives: I managed to download the images of the SaturnCalc 3.0, Saturn Graph, and Saturn WP software to RX02 images. I think it's set right, can someone take a look at the images and see if they are good? Should be RT11 format, RX02 (of course), I recorded from both sides of the disks (they're double sided, hole punched by the vendor) and are at https://www.crystel.com/bob You should see the disks and the meta files. Let me know if they work, I need to get to bed. Either burn them on real RX02's or read them with a SIMH image. C Chris, I am very interested in Saturn Calc for PDP-11s specifically for RSX. I downloaded your floppies and will take a look at them soon. You mention that they are in RT-11 format. Do you know which PDP-11 OS the Saturn software was for. They had versions also for RT-11, TSX and RSTS. Later they had native VMS and MSDOS versions. There are images of RX50s for RSX Saturn Calc, Graph and WPS at Malcolm?s web site. https://avitech.com.au/?page_id=2570 <https://avitech.com.au/?page_id=2570> He also gave me some documentation that I have scanned and put up at http://www.rsx11m.com/SaturnInstall.pdf <http://www.rsx11m.com/SaturnInstall.pdf> http://www.rsx11m.com/SaturnCalc.pdf <http://www.rsx11m.com/SaturnCalc.pdf> http://www.rsx11m.com/SaturnCalcRef.pdf <http://www.rsx11m.com/SaturnCalcRef.pdf> Saturn products on the PDP-11 and VMS used their own license key systems. I do have valid licenses for Calc and Graph for VMS and have them running on a MV3100-80. It would be great to get the RSX version running. I used it extensively back in the day and it would be wonderful to preserve it. Best, Mark Matlock

5 years, 1 month

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PDP11 (Qbus) boards available

by boris＠summitclinic.com

Have been told by my wife that PDP-11 stuff not coming along with us when we're moving and so time to get it off to a good home. All of it is QBus and material in first batch is what I've got at home and will try to get pictures of another 2 systems in storage locker this week. Locker contains 2 QBus systems, one is a small system with about 64 Kb of RAM and other is larger, also a Qbus system. I powered them up when I got them but that was close to 30 years ago so power supplies will need to be checked out first. Also have a small 4 slot Qbus card cage H9281 which has a DRV11 board in it (photo not shown). Pictures, in order, are 4 channel 12 bit D/A converter, unknown QBus board, programmable real time clock, what I thought was manual for DataTranslation A/D converter but not, A/D converter, have no idea what Dilog board is, box of DEC cables, a few manuals, MINC manuals, 11/23 together with I suspect is a DRV11, not sure what board with bus extensions on top is, bus extender, blank 2 slot board and another board which was part of a parallel interface between MINC and 11/34. Would preferably like to get rid of everything at once. Haven't looked at cost of shipping out of Canada. Alternatively, send me an email off list is you want to pick it up in person. I live in Kamloops, BC. Photographs can be found at: http://drgimbarzevsky.com/Photo2020/PDP11/20210223_photos/PDP11_index.html Boris Gimbarzevsky

5 years, 1 month

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SaturnCalc, Graph, and WP disks uploaded

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

Hi all! Spent some serious time this evening with the RX02 drives: I managed to download the images of the SaturnCalc 3.0, Saturn Graph, and Saturn WP software to RX02 images. I think it's set right, can someone take a look at the images and see if they are good? Should be RT11 format, RX02 (of course), I recorded from both sides of the disks (they're double sided, hole punched by the vendor) and are at https://www.crystel.com/bob You should see the disks and the meta files. Let me know if they work, I need to get to bed. Either burn them on real RX02's or read them with a SIMH image. C

5 years, 1 month

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Keys for startech 25U server rack

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

On 2/23/21 7:43 AM, Joshua Rice wrote: > Deviant Ollam on Youtube does some fantastic lectures/videos on physical > security, and makes it horrifyingly clear how pointless locks and > physical security often is. Locks, of any type, only keep honest people honest. Actually stopping would be bad actors is an entirely different problem. To whit, many locks / enclosures are simply tamper evidence tags. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

5 years, 1 month

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: Re: MSI 6800 EPROM Software

by frank＠tuccio.net

Message: 5 Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2021 21:45:24 -0600 From: Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> To: Brad H <unclefalter at yahoo.ca>, General at ezwind.net, Discussion at ezwind.net:On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: MSI 6800 EPROM Software Message-ID: <60347A54.5070803 at pico-systems.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed On 02/22/2021 01:31 PM, Brad H via cctalk wrote: > Hi there, > > A longshot I'm sure - but I am wondering if anyone familiar with MSI (Midwest Scentific - SS50 bus system) would happen to have a copy of the software for their 1702A EPROM burner, I think the model is PR-1. I just picked one up and am eager to see if I can use it to read/burn 1702As, something that has been an issue for me for a while now. > > Reading them is pretty easy. BURNING them is crazy. They need an 80 V power supply, and I think you XOR the address or something as you apply the programming voltage. Jon Actually, programming a 1702 only requires a -48 volt pulse for each address. Here's the datasheet: https://www.jmargolin.com/patents/1702a.pdf

5 years, 1 month

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Intel Developers' Insight CD-ROM collection archived anywhere?

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Does anyone have a collection of Intel Developers' Insight CD-ROMs in physical form or as images? The only physical CD-ROMs I have are a two disk set from February 1998. I don't know what time period these were available. Maybe mid or late 1990s to early 2000s? They have a variety of information on them such as datasheets and manuals that might not always be easy to find online anywhere anymore. As one example of something that I was recently unable to find online anywhere is a copy of either of these, which might have been available on some of the Intel Developers' Insight CD-ROMs: 297372 16-Mbit Flash Product Family User?s Manual 297508 FLASHBuilder Design Resource Tool Those are mentioned in various Intel flash memory datasheets and databooks from around the 1995 timeframe. The February 1998 CD-ROMs contain a copy of the Intel Flash SOFTWAREBuilder, which appears to be related to but different from the FLASHBuilder tool.

5 years, 1 month

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Keys for startech 25U server rack

by cclist＠sydex.com

I dropped by the local e-waste recycler and picked up a Startech 25U server rack for $100. (This one: https://cdn.cnetcontent.com/75/26/75261816-2cf3-43e9-a0b3-1e63752d781e.pdf). Heavy bugger, complete with glass door. I was as surprised as the guy who helped me load it to find that it barely fit in a Gen2 Prius (I left the truck at home). It came with an HP EO4500 PDU, with all 4 power strips (I have no use for this, so if you do, drop me a line. Maybe we can work out something). They also tossed in all of the bags of unused parts. But--no keys! Do all Startech Duraracks use the same key? Anyone know? --Chuck

5 years, 1 month

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MSI 6800 EPROM Software

by unclefalter＠yahoo.ca

Hi there, A longshot I'm sure - but I am wondering if anyone familiar with MSI (Midwest Scentific - SS50 bus system) would happen to have a copy of the software for their 1702A EPROM burner, I think the model is PR-1. I just picked one up and am eager to see if I can use it to read/burn 1702As, something that has been an issue for me for a while now. Many thanks, Brad

5 years, 1 month

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TI 960

by aek＠bitsavers.org

I'm assuming these are 960s Not very often you see paper tape software for them Price is absurd for the mixed bag that is there https://www.ebay.com/itm/Texas-Instruments-Mainframe-Computers-With-Parts-a…

5 years, 1 month

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PDP-11/70 progress (and a cry for help)

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Hi all -- Thought you all might be interested in an update, and I'm also looking for advice in debugging the current issue I'm hitting. After replacing the clock crystal on the TIG, the system started showing signs of life, but the Load Address switch would stop working after being powered on for 10-30 seconds, but would work fine single-stepping via the KM11. Brought the DAP board out onto the extender for debugging and the problem went away. Reinstalled the board after cleaning the slot (again) and the problem hasn't recurred since. First bad backplane connection, I'm sure it won't be the last. After this, addresses could be loaded, data could be toggled into memory. But instructions wouldn't execute; Tracing through the microcode with the KM11 indicated that the microcode flow was aborting early and returning to the main console loop (via BRK.90) before the instruction fetch at FET.00; this was due to the TMCB BRQ TRUE H signal being stuck high. Probing of the TMC board revealed a bad 74H30 at E70, which had its output stuck at 1.65V or so, just high enough to confuse things. Now instructions would execute but the PC would contain garbage after execution of an instruction, after tracing the microcode and staring at the flow diagrams all signs pointed to the PCB register (twin to the PCA register that is used for storing PC data) having trouble. Garbage in the PC after execution was always in bits 6-11, everything else was fine, which pointed to a 74S174 at H47 on the DAP board. Replaced and now instructions execute! Mostly. They seem to execute properly when single-stepping instructions, or running off the RC clock at a clock rate of about 16-20Mhz, any faster than that and things stop working correctly. This is what I'm currently banging my head against -- if anyone has any experience with the 11/70 or wants to stare at the manuals for a bit (and who doesn't?), I'd appreciate any extra input. There are a number of different issues, I'm currently focusing on two-operand instructions that take an immediate argument (MOV #10, R0, or ADD #42, R5) for example. The behavior here is a bit befuddling and I can't quite figure out how it ends up happening, given the microcode. I'll use ADD as a representative example. An ADD #10, R0 instruction (followed by HALT) poked in at address 1000 executes properly -- R0 gets 10 -- but afterwards the PC is corrupted: it contains 2, rather than 1004. In the general case, "ADD #X, R0" ends with PC containing 2 + <original value of R0>. (MOV shows the exact same behavior, except that there's no addition, obviously.) This value of PC is shown in the Address lights, as well as when examining the register from the front panel (at 17777707). When single-instruction-stepping the processor this instruction executes perfectly: R0 gets R0+10, PC is 1004 afterwards (both in the Address lights and when examining from the front panel). I have verified with my logic analyzer that when running normally (i.e. not single-stepping) the microcode executes the proper sequence of instructions -- which is the same as executed when single-stepping except at the very end: In FLOWS 4, after the D00.90 instruction executes, a branch is taken to BRK.90, which exits back to the console loop. I don't believe there should be any other differences in execution between the two paths -- other than the branch at the end there are no conditional branches or conditional operations based on whether the CPU is single-stepping or not. There's a signal somewhere in there that has just gone a little bit slow... the trick is finding it. For reference, the microcode sequence (starting at FET.03, see pg. 5 of http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/1170/MP0KB11-C0_1170engDrw_Nov75.pdf) is: 334 (FET.03) 260 (FET.10) 343 (IRD.00) 022 (S13.01) 027 (S13.10) 205 (D00.90) 260 (FET.10) 343 (IRD.00) 010 (HLT.00) 316 (HLT.10) 164 (FET.04) 240 (BRK.90) 352 (BRK.00) 170 (CON.00) You can see it fetching and executing the ADD instruction, then returning back to FET.10 and executing the next instruction, which is a HALT instruction (because all other memory contains 0 at this point). I believe this is what causes the "+2" portion of the final (incorrect) PC value. (What's extra odd -- literally -- here is that if you start with a "1" in R0, the final PC is 3... seemingly indicating a fetch/execution of an instruction at an odd address, which you'd think would cause a trap instead...) I've been staring at this awhile and I'm puzzled; everything seems to execute properly, the instruction is fetched and decoded, and the immediate value is fetched, the ALU does the right thing and the result is properly stored in R0. And then the PC gets screwed up, and I'm not quite sure how that's possible from looking at the microcode, so I'm not quite sure where to start looking. I sort of suspect the PCB register again, as this is related to the difference in behavior between single-stepping and normal execution: the branch back to the console loop *doesn't* update PCA from PCB, whereas the branch back to the fetch / decode loop does. Anyone have any bright ideas as far as what to poke at? Thanks as always, - Josh

5 years, 1 month

3
9
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Systems Concepts SC-4 computer

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Lars Brinkhoff > Anyone ever heard of the Systems Concepts SC-4 computer? Given the SF address, and Peter Samson's signature, this is the _the_ Systems Concepts. Never heard of the SC-4, though. One oddity: the cover letter is dated 1972, but it talks of "the main G.E. computer". GE's computer business was sold to Honeywell in 1970, though? Noel

5 years, 1 month

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IndiZone collections

by compoobah＠gmail.com

Curious if anyone on here knows if the contents of any of the earlier IndiZone CDs from SGI are posted? A copy of IndiZone3 came with my copy of IRIX 6.2 a number of years ago, and while the games aren't the sort that would impress a modern XBox user I thought they were kind of neat and showed off the equipment and thoughts of the 1995-era, but I also have some earlier SGIs that would be IndiZone 1/2 era. I found a couple lists of the contest winners (but the CDs have more), and an occasional download link, but nothing complete for either. Anyone have links or lists of what was on them?

5 years, 1 month

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Systems Concepts SC-4 computer

by lars＠nocrew.org

Anyone ever heard of the Systems Concepts SC-4 computer? "This is an two's-complement 18-bit machine, with 16 general registers and a 16 level priority interrupt system. Its programming ascpects are explained in great detail in the SC-4 Reference Manual, of which a draft is enclosed. Below are times for some typical instructions. Add word on stack (not top word) to general register 1.5 us Multiply general register by memory word 6.2 us Jump 750 ns Push and Jump 1.5 us Compare Immediate 750 ns" >From page 6 here: http://people.csail.mit.edu/saltzer/Multics/MHP-Saltzer-060508/filedrawers/…

5 years, 1 month

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