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

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<These I/O ports are all 8 bit, right? < <Now, an S100 frontpanel would have 16 toggle switches (at least - to <load a memory address). So why can't you either You could they didn't and they board was chockfull of crap and a little more would have made a mess of it. In 1974 the altair was an "ok" design at best. It was one set of engineers vision and at that point their best shot. They did it that way. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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front panels

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Was the latter really considered a problem in those days? Or was it <just that as a result it wasn't real useful to have the front panel do <that? (Or was it just the additional cost of having the front panel <do that?) Fancy way is, cost benefit ratio. It cost a lot! Another was, it's easier to not do that. Actually it was rare I needed the ability. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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front panels

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<But what does an instruction do? It just generates bus cycles, right? <The bus doesn't care whether those cycles come from the CPU or something <else (unless there's bus mastering and arbitration, which I doubt). In theory your correct. <The difference between generating a memory cycle and and I/O cycle on an <Intel CPU is simply a matter of clocking a different value onto the <"control bus" (which might be a multiplexed bus, I don't know the 8080 <that well). Reducing that to practice and at a low cost on S100 bus with an 8080 is a different matter. To understand that you need to know both as S100 was not a bidirectional data bus(seperate data in and data out paths) and all the bus control signals were RAW 8080 status/controls making it a royal pain to do DMA on the bus. To make a point to do a memory write on the bus you have to output SWO/, PWR/, MWRITE, SMEMR, SOUT, SINP, PDBIN and all of them must be in the correct state (some are active high!). S100 was a poorly designed bus in that respect. I may add that Altair 8800(a) and Imsai were not bus masters, they were more CPU control. The best way to descrive this is if the CPU was Not there the front panel was an ornament. Allison

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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Photo of Smithsonian microcomputer exhibit

by higginbo＠netpath.net

At 06:34 PM 2/24/98 PST, you wrote: >A friend of mine was recently in D.C. and took this >photo of the Microcomputer exhibit in the Smithsonian >Museum. I recognize the Altair and the Sol but what >is the Apple prototype sitting on the table? Here is the >link to the photo... Looks like an Apple I to me, but then again I've never seen an actual model in person.

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

hamfest finds

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Hi, I just got back from a hamfest. Found two brand new in the box full height Tandon floppy drives for the IBM PC. Rich, do you want one? I also bought two AT&T 3B1 computers without keyboards or monitors. Does anyone know if the keyboard and monitor from a AT&T 6300 will work on them? Or where I can find a monitor and keyboard? Also need any advice about how to get these up and running. What are all the ports for? etc Joe

28 years, 2 months

10
31
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HP2100

by MAKelller＠swbell.net

Gentlemen, If this computer is still available, we still use them to run a couple of our milling machines. MAKeller Northrop Grumman Aerospace

28 years, 2 months

1
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North Star Horizon

by jthiemann＠castleton.com

While I don't have experience with the Horizon, I think it is similar (software-wise) to the Advantage (though the Advantage is NOT S100). I have some software, some for CP/M and some for the NS-DOS. Note that the floppy disks are hard sectored, impossible to find nowadays and just as hard to read/write on anything else... (AFAIK - if someone has a program to do this please speak up!) Joachim (I usually sign "Joe" but I think that would cause confusion...) > Joe, > > I don't know if software is available but will ask. Does the NS > horizon use a S-100 bus? I was told the unit I'm (hopefully) about to > > acquire has an internal 10MB hard drive. i'm going to go eyeball the > unit within the next few days. > > Marty > > > ______________________________ Reply Separator > _________________________________ > Subject: Re: North Star Horizon > Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet > Date: 2/24/98 1:00 PM > > > Marty, > > I have some manuals for the NS Horizon; disk controller, DOS, > BASIC, > Pascal. I'm looking for the software. > > Joe > > At 12:36 PM 2/24/98 -0500, you wrote: > > Does anybody have any information on a North Star Horizon? I may be > > > acquiring one of these soon but don't know much about it except > that > > it has wooden side panels and used to support a half-dozen > terminals. > > Is it a S-100 bus? > > > > Thanks for any help- > > > > Marty Mintzell > > > > > > > ------ Message Header Follows ------ > Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com > (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) > id AA-1998Feb24.130031.1767.28490; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:00:34 -0500 > Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) > by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with > SMTP > id JAA14977; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 09:53:52 -0800 > Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu > [140.142.32.9]) > by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with > ESMTP > id JAA53378 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb > 1998 > 09:53:44 -0800 > Received: from star1.intellistar.net (star1.intellistar.net > [206.105.64.2]) > by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with > ESMTP > id JAA05718 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 > 09:53:43 > > -0800 > Received: from lizard ([206.105.68.41]) by star1.intellistar.net > (Post.Office MTA v3.1 release PO203a ID# 0-41809U2500L250S0) > with SMTP id AAA22727 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; > Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:53:39 -0500 > Message-Id: <3.0.1.16.19980224125410.0877b306(a)intellistar.net> > Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:54:10 > Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu > Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu > Precedence: bulk > From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> > To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" > <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: North Star Horizon > In-Reply-To: <1998Feb24.123503.1767.83436(a)smtp.itgonline.com> > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > X-Sender: rigdonj(a)intellistar.net > X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

3
3
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North Star Horizon

by peacock＠simconv.com

Joe wrote about a Northstar Horizon: > I think it uses the S-100 bus. According to their manual, North Star >used the same disk controller in the Horizon that they sold for the S-100 >systems. I have a NS S-100 controller. They are the same electricaly and >software wise but maybe physically different. I did some software work on a Horizon many years ago. As I recall, it had two full height 5.25" bays, a good sized power supply behind the bays (on the right side) and a shorty S-100 card cage on the left, 8 card slots? But the NS motherboard also had some logic on the motherboard, at the rear. I believe there were one or two 8251 serial ports, a baud rate generator, maybe a parallel port or interrupt controller (look for an Intel 8214 or a 28-pin AMD IC)?

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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front panels

by peacock＠simconv.com

Tony wrote: >> >> >> <But surely this is a limitation of the front panel not the processor. >> <I/O bus cycles can (easily) be generated from an appropriately designed >> <front panel. >> >> Processor. The 8080 CPU does I/O To/From the accumulator which is > >I beg to differ. > >All you have to do is to put the CPU into a wait state, tri-state the >bus buffers and directly drive the address, data and control lines from >hardware on the frontpanel controller. You can access memory or I/O ports >that way. > In other words, make the front panel do a DMA access, either to memory or an I/O port? That way it doesn't affect the CPU state at all, except the CPU has to be running in order to handle the DMA grant.

28 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

KNOXM5 RSTS Rides Again!

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

I finally got the **** thing to boot every time without falling over sideways! This is a step! The only problem is, it's still single-user - I still can't get a DZ-11 to work. I don't think I ever will - I was told you have to kill a 12-pack to get one to work, and I'm not old enough to buy beer. :) Anyway, I found an interesting goody in the spare 44 - It's a hex-height board I recognised from the VAX 750 manual I have. It has 2 50-pin cables going off to a 16-port EIA distribution panel. It appears to be a DMA peripheral, it has CA1 and CB1 going off into logic, so I made a DMA slot for it after the UDA50 in the 2nd BA-11. So, I bring up RSTS - And here's the result: Option: HARDWR LIST Name Address Vector Comments TT0: 177560 060 RU0: 172150 310 Units: 0(RA81) KL0: 176510 300 <<< What is that? KW11L 177546 100 SR 177570 Volatile DR 177570 Hertz = 60. Other: FPU, 22-Bit Addressing, Data Space, Cache -------------------- AFTER THE INSERTION OF THE MODULE ------------------- Option: HARDWR LIST Name Address Vector Comments TT0: 177560 060 RU0: 172510 310 Units: 0(RA81) KL0: 176510 300 DM0: 170500 440 DH0 KW11L 177546 100 SR 177570 Volatile DR 177570 Herts = 60. Other: FPU, 22-Bit Addressing, Data Space, Cache ----------------------------- But when I say START: KB9:KB24 disabled - no DH0: controller Does that mean it's broken, or is the Monitor need rebuilt? Oh, and Tim: The tape drives appear to handle 1600 BPI, but the controllers don't. I'm gonna dig out my Emulex stuff and see if any of them will handle this tape. And wasn't DM0: a disk controller? Am I supposed to reset the CSRs to this? -------

28 years, 2 months

2
9
0 0

Fire in the Valley

by mallison＠konnections.com

I just lucked onto a second copy of "Fire in the Valley" Anyone _NEED_ this? -Mike

28 years, 2 months

1
0
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old SCSI controller

by peacock＠simconv.com

-John Rollins typed: > >>OK, does anyone know what this card came from? Anyone know what uses and 86 >>pin bus? This is from vague memory, but if the card is roughly the same size as an S-100 card (5 x 10 inches) and has an 86 pin bus connector, I think it might be an old Motorola bus. I don't remember what they called it, never used Motorola development systems, but it was Motorola's answer to Intel's Multibus.

28 years, 2 months

3
2
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North Star Horizon

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Joe, I don't know if software is available but will ask. Does the NS horizon use a S-100 bus? I was told the unit I'm (hopefully) about to acquire has an internal 10MB hard drive. i'm going to go eyeball the unit within the next few days. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: North Star Horizon Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 2/24/98 1:00 PM Marty, I have some manuals for the NS Horizon; disk controller, DOS, BASIC, Pascal. I'm looking for the software. Joe At 12:36 PM 2/24/98 -0500, you wrote: > Does anybody have any information on a North Star Horizon? I may be > acquiring one of these soon but don't know much about it except that > it has wooden side panels and used to support a half-dozen terminals. > Is it a S-100 bus? > > Thanks for any help- > > Marty Mintzell > > ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Feb24.130031.1767.28490; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:00:34 -0500 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id JAA14977; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 09:53:52 -0800 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id JAA53378 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 09:53:44 -0800 Received: from star1.intellistar.net (star1.intellistar.net [206.105.64.2]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id JAA05718 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 09:53:43 -0800 Received: from lizard ([206.105.68.41]) by star1.intellistar.net (Post.Office MTA v3.1 release PO203a ID# 0-41809U2500L250S0) with SMTP id AAA22727 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:53:39 -0500 Message-Id: <3.0.1.16.19980224125410.0877b306(a)intellistar.net> Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:54:10 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: North Star Horizon In-Reply-To: <1998Feb24.123503.1767.83436(a)smtp.itgonline.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: rigdonj(a)intellistar.net X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

2
1
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North Star Horizon

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Joe, Thanks for the information. I'm located in northern Virginia just outside Washington, D.C. Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Re[2]: North Star Horizon Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 2/24/98 5:07 PM Marty, I think it uses the S-100 bus. According to their manual, North Star used the same disk controller in the Horizon that they sold for the S-100 systems. I have a NS S-100 controller. They are the same electricaly and software wise but maybe physically different. Sounds like a neat system, I've never heard of one having a hard drive. Keep me posted. BTW where are you? I'm in Orlando, Florida. Joe At 01:10 PM 2/24/98 -0500, you wrote: > Joe, > > I don't know if software is available but will ask. Does the NS > horizon use a S-100 bus? I was told the unit I'm (hopefully) about to > acquire has an internal 10MB hard drive. i'm going to go eyeball the > unit within the next few days. > > Marty > > >______________________________ Reply Separator >_________________________________ >Subject: Re: North Star Horizon >Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet >Date: 2/24/98 1:00 PM > > > Marty, > > I have some manuals for the NS Horizon; disk controller, DOS, BASIC, > Pascal. I'm looking for the software. > > Joe > > At 12:36 PM 2/24/98 -0500, you wrote: > > Does anybody have any information on a North Star Horizon? I may be > > acquiring one of these soon but don't know much about it except that > > it has wooden side panels and used to support a half-dozen terminals. > > Is it a S-100 bus? > > > > Thanks for any help- > > > > Marty Mintzell > > > > > > > ------ Message Header Follows ------ > Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com > (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) > id AA-1998Feb24.130031.1767.28490; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:00:34 -0500 > Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) > by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP > id JAA14977; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 09:53:52 -0800 > Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) > by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP > id JAA53378 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 > 09:53:44 -0800 > Received: from star1.intellistar.net (star1.intellistar.net [206.105.64.2]) > by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP > id JAA05718 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 09:53:43 > > -0800 > Received: from lizard ([206.105.68.41]) by star1.intellistar.net > (Post.Office MTA v3.1 release PO203a ID# 0-41809U2500L250S0) > with SMTP id AAA22727 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; > Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:53:39 -0500 > Message-Id: <3.0.1.16.19980224125410.0877b306(a)intellistar.net> > Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 12:54:10 > Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu > Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu > Precedence: bulk > From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> > To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" > <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: North Star Horizon > In-Reply-To: <1998Feb24.123503.1767.83436(a)smtp.itgonline.com> > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > X-Sender: rigdonj(a)intellistar.net > X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN > > ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Feb24.170757.1767.28555; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:07:58 -0500 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id OAA07336; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:01:10 -0800 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id OAA35550 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:01:03 -0800 Received: from star1.intellistar.net (star1.intellistar.net [206.105.64.2]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id OAA11194 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 14:01:02 -0800 Received: from lizard ([206.105.66.22]) by star1.intellistar.net (Post.Office MTA v3.1 release PO203a ID# 0-41809U2500L250S0) with SMTP id AAA26712 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:00:54 -0500 Message-Id: <3.0.1.16.19980224170000.376726fc(a)intellistar.net> Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 17:00:00 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Re[2]: North Star Horizon In-Reply-To: <1998Feb24.130843.1767.83458(a)smtp.itgonline.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: rigdonj(a)intellistar.net X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

front panels

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<But surely this is a limitation of the front panel not the processor. <I/O bus cycles can (easily) be generated from an appropriately designed <front panel. Processor. The 8080 CPU does I/O To/From the accumulator which is inaccessable from the front pannel being an internal register. An altair did things by forcing a jump(C3h, xx, zz) the address switches were used as zzxx forcing the PC to take the set value. Data at a given MEMORY address was displayed as a result of the current address and stopping before the next instructing fetch. Writing to MEMORY was simply gating the data switches and forcing a write pulse (no cpu execution). Its design was to allow insetion of code into memory and examination of memory as those were direct. IO however while it would be nice to interogate or write to devices could leave the cpu "out of sync" since all IO is done from the accumulator. To do that you really need a soft front panel and once you do that, displaying or altering the Acc, BC, DE, HL and SP registers and associated flags are possible. Did my fair share of 8080/8085/z80 designs in the '70s. Allison

28 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

Slow But OK

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Again things have slowed down but a few goodies were found: A Rockwell AIM65 4k computer inside what looks like a large calculator case that is black and grey in color, has a onboard thermal printer using calculator size paper, not tested yet, free; also got 6 R6500 mb's some are marked as being bad all free; a Mac IIcx missing HD and memory simms for free; a working Mac SE/30 without KB and mouse for $15; a Victor 386sx/20 laptop broken screen with power adapter for free. Other manuals gotten at thrift stores and some software that's been the week. Keep Computing - John

28 years, 2 months

3
4
0 0

BBC Model B - video help

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Tony Duell quoted me as having written: >> On the subject of BBC video problems, it occurs to me that the BBC micro >> does scrolling by moving the pointer to the start of the screen (under >> some conditions?). If you can get it to do this, and see how the >> display behaves, you may be able to determine easily if it's an >> addressing problem. > > Is this going to tell you very much? > > The BBC _does_ use hardware scrolling (it changes the start-of-memory > register in the 6845), but as the screen is a contiguous array of bytes, > all that a scroll does is effectively increment that pointer by the > number of bytes/line of characters (= 640 bytes in mode 0, etc) and then > clear the new bytes displayed on the bottom line. > > So the new line 0 will be the old line 1, etc, but there are no other > changes. A given byte on the screen is displayed in the same relative > position to other given bytes on the screen. In mode 0, &3281 is still the > second dot row of a character in the far left column. Of course if the > text goes all over the place on a hardware scroll then you can be > virtually certain that the 6845 is playing up. What I meant was that addressing problem _external_ to 6845 generally means that the fault will occur at the same _memory_ address. So that type of scrolling means the fault will scroll up the screen, appearing at the same place in the _text_ every time. Won't it? If the screen line length were an integer power of two, a fault in the bottom few address lines would appear at the same place on every line. Fortunately the BBC micro is 80 characters per line, so you will see things recurring on a slant. This slanted line of fault should move up the screen as it scrolls. Something to try, anyway. I am a firm believer in non-invasive tests! Philip.

28 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

Weekend Additions

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> wrote: > First stop: Computer Recycling Center [list elided] Hmph. I stopped by weekend before last (14 Feb) and it looked like they'd been cleaned out. Even the bookshelves were mostly empty. Probably for the best though, given how far behind I am with other stuff that needs doing. > Corvus Systems Hard Drive unit - I believe this goes with the rest of the > Corvus Concepts computer. It has several connectors on the back labeled > "Processor", "Drive"...it also has one labeled "VCR" and a video IN and > OUT jack. McFrank, this is so you can backup to a VCR right? Yep, that's what it's for (although the hard drive could have been used with about a half-dozen different kinds of systems, not just the Concept). I'm not sure whether the jacks imply the presence of whatever you actually need to do the backup or whether there is additional hardware or software required (this is one of those things that I know I need to figure out some day when I get all those manuals in front of me at once). -Frank McConnell

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

front panels

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<> The Intellec MCS8i and the PDP11 (obviously, since all I/O is memory <> mapped) do allow you to access I/O devices directly from the panel. < <...and the front panel on the Altair 8800b. The 8008 does not have memory mapped IO, there are distinct IO instructions. It's not to say MM/io is not done. The PDP-11 memory and devices are the same things and there are no specialized IO instructions. The altair...(8800 and 8800a) from the front pannel there is no way to interrogate an port mapped IO device or write to it. You must do it with a little code. Allison

28 years, 2 months

4
5
0 0

PDP diagnostic card (was Found a decent use for a PC...)

by rcini＠email.msn.com

On Mon, 23 Feb 1998 20:14:09 +0000 (GMT), Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: >>I have a text file somewhere explaining how to make a functional copy of >>this unit using more modern parts (LEDs and ULN2803 driver chips, I >>think) if anybody wants it. If you can put your hands on that text file, I'd be interested in it. Thanks! ------------------------------------------------- Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) - ClubWin Charter Member (6) - MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking

28 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

a brain... my kingdom for a brain?

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

Tony's comment, below... about the only equipment needed to repair... was helpful. So, as I have an Altair, a BBC, a KIM, a Sorcerer and various other beasties awaiting ressurection, and having little (well, OK... no) electronics experience, starting at square 1... a) What should I be looking for in a logic probe. Any recommended models (say, <$100) b) Ditto for multimeter. c) Where can I find a brain? :) Actually, the Altair will be my first task. I'm thinking of #1 taking out all the boards. Good idea? I have it firing up and basically behaving, but some LEDs don't light when they should, but are definitely able to light when they want to. A >Hmm... I've yet to find a classic computer fault that could not be >tracked down using 3 things - a logic probe, a multimeter (DMM/VOM) and >a _brain_. On the grounds that my brain isn't that good, I sometimes have >to use other test equipment, but when I finally do track down the >problem, I generally realise that the symptoms were obvious from the >start if only I'd realised what they meant.

28 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

front panels

by fmc＠reanimators.org

allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) wrote: > [....] IO however while it would be nice to > interogate or write to devices could leave the cpu "out of sync" since > all IO is done from the accumulator. You say that like there's something wrong with it. Well, there could be, I suppose, if your hardware is such that reading its registers changes them, and the operator doesn't realize this. Was the latter really considered a problem in those days? Or was it just that as a result it wasn't real useful to have the front panel do that? (Or was it just the additional cost of having the front panel do that?) -Frank McConnell

28 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

old SCSI controller

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<The only things I know about this board is that it's a SCSI controller, a <it's BIG. It's about 10"x12", has an 86-pin edge connectr on the bottom, <two 50-pin edge connectors on the top, and uses eight 2651 SCSI chips. It <labeled "DATASTREAM ASSY 100716 REV A". Does anyone have any idea what <this is for? <TIA Sounds more like an 8 port serial board! The 2651 is a USART type device. The 50 pin connectors might be board to pannel connector cabling. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Things are getting bad

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

Anthony Clifton - Wirehead said: >I see this problem alot at hamfests. You can't blame them. They want >to bring what will sell and they're most likely to not have to carry >back home. They perceive no value to ancient computers so they assume >nobody else will either. I have 2' x 3' white board taped to the little rolling cart I take with me. On the board, I write down all the stuff I'm looking for that day. ========================================= Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com Senior Software Engineer Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA Curator Museum of Personal Computing Machinery http://www.best.com/~dcoward/museum =========================================

28 years, 2 months

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North Star Horizon

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Does anybody have any information on a North Star Horizon? I may be acquiring one of these soon but don't know much about it except that it has wooden side panels and used to support a half-dozen terminals. Is it a S-100 bus? Thanks for any help- Marty Mintzell

28 years, 2 months

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North Star Horizon

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Does anybody have any information on a North Star Horizon? I may be < acquiring one of these soon but don't know much about it except that < it has wooden side panels and used to support a half-dozen terminals. < Is it a S-100 bus? Yes, I have one I built (and still use!) 20 years ago! Exteremely sold piece of s100 hardware. The top is wood too! Z80/S-100. Support for more than one user means it was running a timeshare version of NS* Basic. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Hello, new subscriber...

by jthiemann＠castleton.com

Hello, I just joined the list. While I don't have any specific questions _at_this_point_ :-) I have quite considerable experience with electronics and am willing to help out where I can (time permitting)... Of course I am always interested in software for my collection. A quick list: ZX81 with "real" keyboard, and of course 16k pack TRS-80 model 1 Vic 20 C64 SuperPET with 4040 drive Rainbow with 10Meg drive Northstar Advantage Bits'n'pieces of 2 PDP-11's (-23 and -73(?))- enough to have one working in debugger mode - no drives or anything MicroVax II with periphials, had it running Ultrix and NetBSD HP 75D and a few old HP calculators 128k Mac and Mac Plus The next two are my everyday use computers. Dubious if they count as "classics"... Amiga 3000 (AmigaOS 2.04, and NetBSD until the HD with the root partition went south...) SparcStation 1+ running NetBSD (NOTE: those are my home computers. Needless to say here at work I use the usual unspeakable... though occasionally I do reboot my computer into FreeBSD - but then I can't receive mail from the $%#& exchange server) I am hoping to aquire a (brand unknown) S100 Z80 box in the next few days... Joachim.

28 years, 2 months

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Found a decent use for a PC...

by jfoust＠threedee.com

jpero(a)cgo.wave.ca wrote: >Early high end Dell series (I think!) had this dot matix that glows >yellow and rare motherboards that had POST display built in. Back in those days, they were known as PCs Ltd. I had a 286 like that. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

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TRS-80 Questions

by lwalker＠mail.interlog.com

Here's a couple more for the TRS knowledgeable. >from a TRS novice. 1. Among the various TRS stuff I picked up recently was a TRS-80 monitor. It has a similiar connector coming out the front as the Model II. Was this the for the std. M.1 and M.3 ? 2. Included with a TRS CoCo 1 I picked up last summer was an adapter plugged into the cass.port. a label "TotalCommunications" on one side and "Telelearning" on the other. Into this was plugged another M/M adapter labelled " RS232 Gender Changer" Was this for hooking up a fdd and/or modem ? ciao larry lwalkerN0spaM(a)interlog.com

28 years, 2 months

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DataNumerics DL8 more info...

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

> Could you tell me just a bit about the DL8? What does it look like, does it > work, any software... manuals? I have no Doco or software for the DL8a, from memory there may be something in ROM, but I know that some of the ROM sockets are empty. It is contained in a single 19" rack mount case, mainly made from aluminium. On the back panel there is the fan, the power connector and a single female 25 pin D connector (I think it's a current loop port). The front panel is white with black lettering. All switches are toggle swicthes, some have red hoods, some have blue. I think there are seperate banks of switches for address and data as well as the usual halt, run, examine, etc. All the LEDs are red. I have powered it up and watched it count in binary, but as I don't know 8080 and have never programmed a front panel system I haven't done anything else Does this ring a bell for anyone? A

28 years, 2 months

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Slow But OK

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Pardon my ignorance, but what's an R6500? That wouldn't be an IBM <RISC machine, would it? No, non-ibm as it comes. It was the series of chips starting with the 6502 that wree used in the apple series, AIM, KIM, PET and Commodore machines. The number of hands the licensed 65xx chip design passed through is somewhat record as well! Allison

28 years, 2 months

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a brain... my kingdom for a brain?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<a) What should I be looking for in a logic probe. Any recommended model <(say, <$100) Unless the logic is fast (altairs arent!) any will do. <b) Ditto for multimeter. My favorites are a fluke m12 (digital) and a triplite-160(analog). <c) Where can I find a brain? :) think about it for a while ;) <I have it firing up and basically behaving, but some LEDs don't light whe <they should, but are definitely able to light when they want to. Nominal altair misbehavour. Several problems very likely some age and some design related. Switches are not making(corrosion internally), operating them may clean them up or replacement may be needed. Check with low current/voltage continuity tester(fluke m12 is good here). The pannel uses oneshot timers by the carload (74ls123 and friends) and they can be flakey. The mother board connections can be nasty from using solderplated edge connector board with gold edge (electromigration). The board edges can be cleaned with eraser but most systems with that disease end up with shake well before using (pull boards/reinsert to wipe contacts). I highly suggest this for any kit constructed altair pannel: 1. get drawings/schematics 2. clean well a. remove and disassemble to just the board with no hardware. b. Wash (yes really!) in dishwasher (best done when wife is not around) using some of the normal dish washer soap. NOTE: this will remove grime and any flux residues that may over time have become conductive or corrosive! We have no way of assuring a kit was constructed with quality solder/fluxes. c. dry well using WARM oven at 120-140F. (alternate is to soak in pan of 90% or greater isopropanal and air dry. NOTE: ISOPROPANAL IS FLAMMABLE) 3. Inspect and resolder any questionalble joints, use care. 4. Reassemble partially, to allow testing. NOTE: ONE MOD IF NOT DONE IS STRONGLY SUGGESTED... The 8800 front panel design has 120vAC power on it and that was/is very bad practice. As implemented it is a safety hazard and also a risk to the hardware. It is best to keep good distances between mains power and logic! Rewire so that the front pannel power switch is not connected to anything and mount a replacement in a protected spot on the rear pannel. I feel strongly about that, even as a museam peice it should be done. The existing switch can be left in place for appearances. Allison <A < <>Hmm... I've yet to find a classic computer fault that could not be <>tracked down using 3 things - a logic probe, a multimeter (DMM/VOM) and <>a _brain_. On the grounds that my brain isn't that good, I sometimes hav <>to use other test equipment, but when I finally do track down the <>problem, I generally realise that the symptoms were obvious from the <>start if only I'd realised what they meant. < <

28 years, 2 months

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front panels

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I may be in the running to buy an 8800b turnkey model which (sigh) doesn' <have the nice front panel that you describe for the 8800b. Can you tell <me how the turnkey works? Does it have a ROM'd bootstrap loader? Will <be able to program it if I don't have drives? The fronpanel less version of the MITS was the 8800b (turnkey) and it was generally configured to boot their disks. There may have been boot options for cassette or papertape boot as well. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Altair price check

by jfoust＠threedee.com

A few weeks ago, I turned down an offer to get an IMSAI and Altair system, reasonably intact, both for $500. What do I know. :-) Looks like a market ripe for wheeling and dealing. These online auctions are an interesting phenomenon. At first I thought they'd be a great place to pick up contemporary and antique computer stuff at good prices, perhaps with a few "sleeper" bargains. But the info flow is too good; it's my impression that prices are consistently driven *higher* than I'd regard as "street" price. Good news for people running auction services that take a percentage. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 2 months

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IMSAI 8080 <> TRS-80

by bill_r＠inetnebr.com

Did anyone besides me notice that, judging by their ad in the latest issue of Computer Gaming World magazine, the software division of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM INTERACTIVE INC.), producer of the original "Wargames" motion picture, doesn't know the difference between an IMSAI 8080 and a TRS-80? Their ad goes something like "In 1983, a teenage computer hacker almost destroyed the world with one of these: [picture of TRS-80 Model 1, with caption reading 'TRS-80, 4K RAM, no hard drive']". It goes on to talk about how much damage he could do with today's computers (go figure), and introduces their new "Wargames" computer game. Maybe the marketing department should jog down to the film vault and watch the movie, because _it_ used an IMSAI 8080 with a piece of paper stuck over the name for the young "hacker's" computer. Sheesh. -Bill Richman bill_r(a)inetnebr.com http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!)

28 years, 2 months

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e-mail address change

by manney＠nwohio.com

My e-mail address is now -- manney(a)lrbcg.com Let's hope the listproc gets it right, too! P Manney

28 years, 2 months

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Computers that have appreciated (RE: Altair price check)

by KFergason＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/23/98 3:04:18 PM Central Standard Time, adept(a)Mcs.Net writes: > > I assume you mean machines that are worth more than their original purchase > > price. That would be a pretty short list... notably: > > > > - RCA COSMAC VIP (ditto) > > Hmm, whats one of these worth? I have 4 of them, but I have never seen any for sale. Kelly

28 years, 2 months

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HP 935

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Adam Jenkins <adam(a)merlin.net.au> writes: > Anyone know what a HP 935 is? I assume it to be a Hewlett Packard laptop > of some sort, with an LCD display, but I don't know if it is MS-DOS, > CPM/M, a full laptop or one of the Tandy Model 100 computers, or what. :( I dunno, that makes me think HP 3000 series 935, which is a mini. Either that or they left out the "8" in 9835 and it is a desktop computer, possibly with a one-line LED display (9835B) or with a CRT display (9835A). Well, those are my guesses. I'm interested in hearing how far off I am. -Frank McConnell

28 years, 2 months

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old SCSI controller

by rexstout＠ptld.uswest.net

The only things I know about this board is that it's a SCSI controller, and it's BIG. It's about 10"x12", has an 86-pin edge connectr on the bottom, two 50-pin edge connectors on the top, and uses eight 2651 SCSI chips. It's labeled "DATASTREAM ASSY 100716 REV A". Does anyone have any idea what this is for? TIA -JR http://members.tripod.com/~jrollins/index.html - Computers http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/1681/ - Star Trek

28 years, 2 months

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Recent Finds...

by foxnhare＠goldrush.com

This weekend's recent finds netted me two books: The first is called Computers and Man, by Richard C. Dorf, published by Boyd and Fraser Publishing Co. in 1974. It looks like it could have been a college text at one time. The real notable part is it is loaded with alot of pictures of earlier machines and computers from the late 60s and early 70s (such as a picture of an IBM 2321 strip file, which I think was mentioned here a few months back.). also a good description of core memory (which I have been searching for to go with my core memory board I won at VCF.) The other, which may be a duplicate (for me) was PET/CBM BASIC Programming and Applications by Gene Streitmatter and Larry Joel Goldstein published by Brady Books which had an unlabeled 5 1/4" disk shoved in it, the disk contained a few examples from the book written by the last owner (for the PET)... You never know what you may find though. Not as bad a Programming books of the time go, even some nice type-in games in the back. Larry Anderson -- -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Visit our web page at: http://www.goldrush.com/~foxnhare/ Call our Commodore 64 BBS (Silicon Realms 300-2400 baud) at: (209) 754-1363 -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

28 years, 2 months

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Weekend Additions

by dastar＠wco.com

Well, I thought I'd trumpet my trophies from today's hunting since I haven't done a trip like this one in a while and it was fun. Nothing really amazingly special today, but there were some nice finds. First stop: Computer Recycling Center Commodore Colt (PC-10C) - the Commodore IBM PC compatible, kinda neat. Has a WD hard drive inside (don't know what size) Radio Shack CoCo1 with the old-style (original) keyboard. I believe this is a 4K model. Came with the RS Modem I and a manual set plus some carts and a bunch of tapes with instructions Radio Shack Line Printer VII Zenith Data Systems Portable - this is the OEM'd Morrow Pivot Portable Everex external tape backup - this is cool...it uses cassette tapes for (apparently) 40MB backup. Coincidentally I found another one of these at stop #4 with a cassette. The cassette looks like your standard tape cassette but it has a notch on the tope of the casing in the middle. Can this drive use standard cassettes? It apparently plugs into the external floppy connector of an IBM PC Mac SE with 4MB RAM and 20MB HD Bunch of books, cables, Apple II software, other miscellany Total: $50 Second Stop: Surplus Store Atari 600XL with Atari 1027 printer (2) Lobo 5.25" drives for the Apple II (of course Marvin knows these were manufactured in Santa Barbara, CA!) Apple //e numeric keypad, joystick (2) Apple //c power supplies Miscellany Total: $30 (haggled down from $45) Third Stop: Thrift Store #1 Mattel Aquarius with Mini-expander and two game controllers in excellent condition (my first computer!) Atari 800XL Total: ~$15 Fourth Stop: Thrift Store #2 Burroughs C-7400 Electronic Adding Machine - I don't know if this should be called an adding machine or a computer. It seems to have some sort of computing ability. The keypad has this overlay with commands such as "GOTO", "IF" and "GOSUB" printed on it. I haven't fired it up yet but it has a one line LED (LCD?) display. Looks very neat. I don't normally collect adding machines except when one really jumps out at me. Any info? Data General External 5.25" Floppy Drive - I believe this drive was specific to the DG1 laptop. The funny thing is I just recently saw a photo of it on a web page and was thinking "Hey, I want one of those" A whole OS/2 library of books (like 10 volumes on OS/2 including developer manuals for Presentation Manager, etc). Total: ~$15.00 Fifth Stop: Surplus Store Northstar Advantage in excellent condition Panasonic Portable Data Terminal - similar to the TI Silent 700 but a little more polished Televideo PC-605 - this is a more IBM compatible model of the Televideo PC. This one apparently has a color CGA monitor instead of the more standard monochrome display. It also is supposed to have a PC compatible BIOS and can thus run some PC apps. It also has a HD (probably 20MB) Corvus Systems Hard Drive unit - I believe this goes with the rest of the Corvus Concepts computer. It has several connectors on the back labeled "Processor", "Drive"...it also has one labeled "VCR" and a video IN and OUT jack. McFrank, this is so you can backup to a VCR right? Misc. MicroPro software packages (CalcStar) Misc. books: Rexx, 8080/8085 Assembly Programming Total: $80 Grand Total: ~$190 Total spots visited: 5 Total Elapsed Time: 7hrs Deal Scale: 4 (1=Bad Deal...10=Great Deal!) [I've had better days] Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 2 months

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front panels

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<>> panel. Does anyone remember other front panel S-100 cards besides MIT <>> IMSAI, Ithaca, and Wameco? Wasn't there a Byte-8 sold by Olson <Electronics <>> for a while that also had a front panel? < <>Yes, the Byte-8 had a front panel with, I believe, a hex keypad and a tw <>digit 7-segment LED display. Godbout. Equinox_100. <Was that just a display driven from a boot ROM or was it a real front pan <with displays directly driven from the bus, examine/deposit, single step <etc.? Usually a hex keypad meant a simulated front panel (CPU actually <running a debug program in the boot ROM). A true front panel needed 16 L <or 4 hex digits for address, 8 LEDs or 2 hex digits for data, and at leas <status LEDs for bus signals (SINP, SOUT, MEMR, INTA, etc.). Most were "simulated FP" though most offered better than real front pannel abilities. A few were hybrid, IE: the leds really did indicate what was on the bus and the cpu only ran the rom code needed to perform the needed actions and stopped. <All the panels <I have seen also had an extra 8 LED latched output port and sense switch <input port. Altair compatability hack. The sense switches were also port 0FFh so the software could read them. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Classic computing email list

by RWood54741＠worldnet.att.net

Please tell me how to subscribe. Thanks, Bob Wood

28 years, 2 months

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HP 7958B

by healyzh＠ix.netcom.com

Today I picked up a HP 7958B unit which contains a "Bauart Gepruft model 97533-60051" Hard Drive. It is my understanding that this Hard Drive is an MFM Hard Drive, and I got this thing expecting to be able to find enough info on the net that I could hopefully fake my way through formating it for one of my MicroVAX's. No such luck, I've been able to dig up a big fat nothing on the net. Does anyone have any info on these things? I gather they were used with HP9000/300 systems. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | | For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |

28 years, 2 months

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IBM Techref

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Tony, you mentioned that a lot of info was mentioned in the IBM techref, on the AT in your case. What is the kind of size of this set, for the AT let's say, and does anyone have extra copies? What about XT? (I have the quickref to it already) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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Prices & Rants(was: Future Computing Trends. Still is, I guess)

by manney＠nwohio.com

<Snip> > The oldest part is toshiba 1.44 I have no idea > how old but I think it was about 5 years old. Hard to find a good > floppy drive that will last that long now. But tell me if there is > one out there that good and costs $40 and I will take it! What's happening to prices? Just returned from a show...Mitsumi FDD's, $16, sound cards $12, speakers $10...cases $18!!! > Only problem with disposeable PC if the makers gives us the >machines > too non-standard and hard to expand n' upgrade ...a la Packard Bell...but now it seems EVERYONE is making purpose-designed motherboards and cases. The best thing about keeping older PC's going (just to keep this on track) is interchangability of parts: P/S, for example. What's gonna happen to us electronically challenged types when the HP Pavilion P/S smokes -- am I going to go, hat in hand, to HP for another -- at their prices?

28 years, 2 months

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Found a decent use for a PC...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<They'd be extremely handy as a diagnostic tool, especially when there's To a point but it also required somethings to work and added things that could break the system. <problem with a video card or memory, and instead of having to count a <bunch of stupid beeps to determine what the error code is, you can just <read it off the front panel. That's what POST-cards do. <Those front panels had value that was overlooked when the modern machine <were ushered in. The altair had some 30 switches and as many leds all costing a bit never mind a board full of logic. It's was an expensive solution to not using Eproms even small ones. Systems like the POLY-88, SOL, SWTP 6800 got along just fine without them. Most minicomputers were dispensing with them by 1970s in favor of rom boots. Allison

28 years, 2 months

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Prices & Rants(was: Future Computing Trends. Still is, I gu

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I apologize for any weird layout, but this IS Lynx...(as always for me) >> Missed my point; I prefer to buy quality one if I can find one and >> that floppy example is what I'm driving at. If I had money... >> Mitsumi and Epson floppy drives are junk. I had too many of those >> fail before year is up and use was not that heavy. Panasonic and few >> Teac is just o. k. but not on my esteemed list. Also those cheapo I had a drive problem once. It was intermittent, and I never could understand what was wrong. Eventually, I swapped the cable and the drive, and it works now. The only FDD I've bought was a 3.5" TEAC for $70 at the world's worst store- CompUSA. It actually has a metal frame! >The one advantage of Teac drives is that you can get the service/repair >manual. I have it for several versions of the FD55 (5.25" drive) and the >FD235 (3.5" drive). It means you can be _sure_ your drive is correctly >aligned. I wouldn't bother if I had to. >What floppy drives would you recomend? Punched card, IBM ,circa 1928. >> more noisy. PSU have cheap parts inside and fan will fail inside. I >> do have bunch of PSU's with failed fans and all of them are sleeve >> bearing type, very doubtful of finding one with ball bearing fans > Once again, I wouldn't bother with such minor details when I run Windows 95. My Fan howls when I boot, then stops after a few minutes. I read an article once on how to replace a PSU fan with a silent external one. >The worst PC-clone part I own is a keyboard. One day when using it, the >manual for my 'scope slipped off the top of a PDP8e that's alongside my PC >and landed on the keyboard. The result was that many keys on the keyboard >failed to work. I spent the next _3 hours_ removing bits of broken SRBP >circuit board and soldering wires all over the place. Amazingly there was >a schematic printed on the box that the keyboard came in (which I'd cut >out and filed), but (I guess) not too suprisingly it was incorrect!. I keep bumping into kb's that have plastic film instead of PCBs. The problem is that sometimes, the film will bend down, and not detect the key, so I have to bash it. (Which I do enough anyway, given my OS) > >And don't get me started on monitors. Is it too much to ask for a monitor Well, now that we have LCDs, it should get better, though LCD can be crap too. Don't have to worry about focus, transformers, etc. But I'm sure that they'll figure out something to screw up. >worse than the 17 year old Barco I happen to have... Out of ten new Performas, about half have darker monitors. We don't know why. It seems that the monitor is the second least reliable part of the computer, after the rest of it :) In old machines, everything was hackable anyway, so that any bugs in hardware or software could be easily fixed by the likes of us. In modern machines, its too complicated to fix anyway, and one would never have the time to fix all of the bugs, and for me, hardware is a minor problem (since it never breaks for me anyway, even when I try) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

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Copying TU-58's?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<The person I've been getting a bunch of DEC stuff off of has a whole pil <of TU-58 tapes that he would like to get transfered over to something he <can read. I'm wondering if there is anyway I can attach the TU58 drive <I've got for my PDP-11/44 to my MicroVAX II and copy these tapes for him VMS does support Tu58 on vax on a serial port(it is a serial device). The real question is whats the target media? RX50, RX33, RX02? If one of those three the 11/44 can do RX02 and if you have a q-buss PDP-11 with a DLV11j or any other serial port at 176500 you can hang the TU58 off that and use RT-11 to do the tansfer. Allison

28 years, 2 months

2
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Found a decent use for a PC...

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

>They'd be extremely handy as a diagnostic tool, especially when there's a >problem with a video card or memory, and instead of having to count a >bunch of stupid beeps to determine what the error code is, you can just >read it off the front panel. > >Those front panels had value that was overlooked when the modern machines >were ushered in. I wouldn't say that! Some of the PS/2s, A popular WYSE 286 machine and so one have had LCD diagnostic panels ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 2 months

4
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