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

Gates and Allen reshoot historic 1981 Microsoft photo • The Register

by woyciesjes＠sbcglobal.net

Interesting photo redone, er reshot... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/04/gates_allen_reshoot_photo/ -- --- Dave Woyciesjes --- ICQ# 905818 --- AIM - woyciesjes --- CompTIA A+ Certified IT Tech - http://certification.comptia.org/ --- HDI Certified Support Center Analyst - http://www.ThinkHDI.com/ Registered Linux user number 464583 "Computers have lots of memory but no imagination." "The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back." - from some guy on the internet.

13 years, 2 months

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Grid Compass I or II CCOS ROMs?

by dave13＠dunfield.com

>I know I've asked about this in the past, butI figured I'd try again: >Anyone have any idea where to track down ROMs for the Grid Compass I or >II (1101 / 1129)? I accidentally formatted my 1129's internal bubble >memory tonight (while intending to format an external floppy) and now of >course it won't boot. (Doesn't seem to want to try booting from the >floppy drive either, unless there's a magical keysequence...) According to the manual: "To load the operating system from Floppy Disk or Portable Floppy, turn on the computer while holding down the F (for Floppy Disk) key. If both a floppy disk and a portable floppy are attached to your computer and you want to start up from the portable floppy, open the door to the floppy disk drive before turning on the computer." You can also use 'H' to force a boot from a hard drive, otherwise it boots from configured primary storage which is usually Bubble. Dave -- dave13 (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield System/Firmware development services: www.dunfield.com (dot) com Classic computers: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield

13 years, 2 months

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vintage items available

by sales＠elecplus.com

I am NOT associated with the seller or the products; please contact him directly if you are interested. WTS the following items from our inventory: 1 New F209-8925-jrb Vintage Burroughs Computer Co. T1500 Check Encoder Encoding Machine 1 New J205-9505-CR Vintage Heath Computer Component 8 Bit VGA Board 150-307-1 1 New Jrb-C410-124 Vintage Pacific Recorders PR&E TI-2 Tape Interface _____ Mike Zabezhinsky Oceantech 1313 Winter St NE (612) 331-4456 email: mike at oceantechonline.com _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6232 - Release Date: 04/08/13

13 years, 2 months

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Festo FPC-202 PLC

by sales＠elecplus.com

What makes 1 machine worth $1000 much more than the other, if they are both identical? http://www.ebay.com/itm/FESTO-ELECTRONICS-FPC-202-TN-008381-TYP-E-FPC-202-PN -31342-/160938881753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0 <http://www.ebay.com/itm/FESTO-ELECTRONICS-FPC-202-TN-008381-TYP-E-FPC-202-P N-31342-/160938881753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2578b472d9> &hash=item2578b472d9 http://www.barcodemuseum.com/Festo/FPC202.html There are several on eBay for $100 or less. _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6231 - Release Date: 04/07/13

13 years, 2 months

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Grid Compass I or II CCOS ROMs?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I know I've asked about this in the past, butI figured I'd try again: Anyone have any idea where to track down ROMs for the Grid Compass I or II (1101 / 1129)? I accidentally formatted my 1129's internal bubble memory tonight (while intending to format an external floppy) and now of course it won't boot. (Doesn't seem to want to try booting from the floppy drive either, unless there's a magical keysequence...) I'm looking for either CCOS or GRiD's version of MS-DOS, which I believe were both available as ROMs for this machine. I'm hoping that this machine will boot from internal ROM, and not just bubble memory (otherwise I've basically destroyed any chance of running this machine again...) I've had very little luck tracking down either software or documentation for this thing (found a few disk images on Dave Dunfield's site). TheRuGRiD Yahoo group specializes mostly in later GRiD machines and has basically no Compass information. Knowing if it's even possible to get this to boot from a floppy would be useful as well... Thanks as always, Josh

13 years, 2 months

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VAX 11/780

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

I put information on converting an RP06 to 220VAC single-phase here: https://sites.google.com/site/mthompsonorg/Home/pdp-10/rm03-and-rp06-inform… From: John Wilson <wilson at dbit.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" < > cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: VAX 11/780 > On Fri, Apr 05, 2013 at 08:18:20PM -0500, Jon Elson wrote: > > >The RM07 also was 3-phase, I think all the smaller VAX 780 > >disks were single-phase. > > RM02/03/05/80 are definitely single-phase. RP07 is 3-phase as you say, > as is RP06 and I assume therefore RP05. Dunno about RP04. > > >The RM07 was a total monstrosity > >from Burroughs, I hope you don't have one of those. We went through > >a lot of pain as one of the early adopters of that, but in the > >end it was a high performance drive and fairly reliable. > > I've heard you have to pop the RP07's top whenever it's running or it > overheats... otherwise good though, and huge for the time. > > John Wilson > D Bit > -- Michael Thompson

13 years, 2 months

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Subject: Re: Mulling a museum

by COURYHOUSE＠aol.com

Will Donzelli is on target with this on Collections Policy... and I will add a few more things to consider also. 1. If you are not a business person find some to collaborate with. Always good to have grant writer as a fried too! Unless you have a funding organization or group you are going to have to support it. I have seem to may people open things with about a business plan or ability to fund it and think that money will just appear. Remember most people on the street probably could care less about what you are displaying and certainly will not throw any money your way. Develop strategic alliances with educational facilities and Hi Tech Businesses in your area. ========================== 2. Hey! You are going to get duplicate material... you can wither take up valuable display space to stash dupes and pay or off site storage... but..... the BEST! is finding a beta site to stash it but... it is on display there.. If it is a cool item like an extra Altair or PDP-8 have a loan agreement.... especially when dealing with schools ... If you give something to a college and the whims of floor space utilization rear their head... the can just send it to state surplus or in some cases I have heard of... throw it away! So to reiterate, Find cool other places to place things on display which can also act as a funnel to lead people to visit you mother load ... and maintain control of material in off site displays ================= 3. From the standpoint of disaster having your collection in diverse physical locations is a consideration. If you have a chance to pick a spot in the nation somewhere ... do a study of the area.. Take time analyze the possibly of earthquakes, flood, fire, theft, tornados, hurricanes etc... get maps study the geography... Think of things like.... if I build a museum in a nice mountain forested area and there is a raging forest fire... what happens? Think of things like ... is this area in a flood plain and the 100 year flood... will it get me? many times these 100 year floods happen sooner than 100 years! Think of things like.... Will the earthquakes throw the artifacts off the shelves? ====================================== I could go on forever... but there are a couple things to consider. Ed Sharpe Archivist for SMECC Message: 10 Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 17:14:00 -0400 From: William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Mulling a museum Message-ID: <CANij+deAMEjFcgZ+ky-bphcA+5RErFpUKeeC1s4o=CKNnTedCA at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > I'm highjacking this thread. I'm debating starting a museum locally, as we don't have anything like this in the Indianapolis area. > > For those who have started such endeavors, what are your stories in getting the ball rolling? Plan. Plan. Plan some more. Plan for the distant future. Part of this planning involves a Collections Policy. This is a document that defines the collection - what is to be included, and what is to be turned away. It has been said by many folks over the years that artifacts (hardware) are the easiest things to find, and in time, will completely take over any and all space a museum has. A nice, focused Collection Policy THAT IS ADHERED TO will keep things under control, and keep quality high. Yes, quality is better than quantity. I have been part of a decent number of independent little museums over the years (computer and otherwise, but all being tech related), and nearly all of them have let their collections bloat out of control, due to the lack of a Collections Policy. Trust me - you do not want to get in this situation. Think of all the good stuff later on that has to be passed up because there is no room. Think of the infighting and politics when you need to get rid of things. Think of moving the collection with all the excess when you lose your space. Think of what visitors are looking at. -- Will

13 years, 2 months

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Tech is the biggest problem facing archiving ? The Register

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message ----- Date: Sun, 07 Apr 2013 02:01:36 -0400 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > I WILL try to stop "feeding the troll". Try a little harder! You're the one participant common to almost every one of these ridiculous and absolutely pointless kids-in-a-sandbox pissing contests... Seriously, have you thought about how much time you spend feeding the trolls and how much better you could spend that time (not to mention the time the rest of us waste wading through this dreck)? m

13 years, 2 months

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RL drive select plugs. What is magic about 3?

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I've been doing a bit with an 11/23+ setup and a few RL drives, and I've run into something odd. I currently have select plugs 0, 1 and 3. If I plug in two drives, 0 and 1, I can boot from either one, and once in RT11, I can access the other one. Easy. If I connect two drives, 0 and 3, however - I can only use drive 0. All accesses to drive 3 result in an error. Can't boot from it, can't access it from RT11. Thinking that maybe the plugs had to be in order, I connected only one drive, drive 1, and was able to boot it and use it just fine. Then, swapping the 3 plug into that single drive, can't boot from it. And I've shuffled this plug around into a couple of drives, and none of them work with it. There's no damage to the plug itself, and all the drives work otherwise. Unfortunately, I don't have enough cables to connect more than two drives at once. I also don't have a drive 2 plug to try. And yes, I have a terminator. Any ideas? -Ian

13 years, 2 months

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Xerox 820-II FDC (was Re: Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> U1 (74S288) and U2 (74S174) together constitute a "finite state machine" (so > they told to me cause I'm not so expert) whose purpose is to provide a read A finite state machine (sometiems shortend to a 'state machine') is a way of designing and building sequential logic circuits -- that is circuits where the outputs(s) depend not only on the inputs now, but also on previous sets of inputs. The basic idea is tha tthe circuit stores internally a 'state', normally as an n-bit binary number in n D-tyoe flip-flopes (that's the 74LS174 in your circuit, a hex D-type flip-flop). All flip-flops are clocked at the same time to change to a new state, Andthen there is a block of combinatorial logic (a cricuit where the outputs depend only o nthe inouts now, not what they were) which has as inputs the external inptus ot the state machine and the outputs of the D type flip-flops and which produces the inputs to the D-type flip-flops to give the new state. Sievn a ROM is a gnneral combinatorial circuit, you can make a stte machine from a ROM and a set of D-type flip-flops, aas here. > Who wrote that article decided to build itself a FDC controller card for his > xerox 820-II extracting a block of its schematic from a Kaypro-II's > schematic really making very few changes and using a FDC WD1793 + WD9216 for > external separator data. > Due to its small number of components, and having already a WD1797 I'd just > need of a WD9216 (i hope to find it on the Internet yet) and wiring it would > be maybe more simple. The 9216 was a very common data separator about 25 eyars ago. It was used on a lot of PC/XT cloen FDC cards (not on the original IBM one though) and in other machines too. I am pretty sure it was made by several manufacturers. > Last suggestion (always from the so expert Chuck that I thanks so much) > would be to use a WD2797 instead of WD1797, but I'm not a designer and while > i can understand something of all those things it's very hard for me to > change schematics or adjust components. The 2979 is essential a 1797 with an intenral data separator. It works well, but IIRC there are 3 analogue adjustments associated with it (a couple of puse widths and the free-running frequency of a VCO). It's not hard to set these up, but you do need a 'socpe or logic anlyser to do it. The 9216 data separator IIRC needs no external adjustments. -tony

13 years, 2 months

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pdp-11/23 config (was: Re: Qbus identification)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote: > Look uo the backplan to find out its configuration. >From my initial posting: > > It is the BA11 variety and contains a H9273 backplane, which as far as I could find out is QQ-CD Am I missing something here? > Also read the fine manual for the quad width 11/23 you will find there > are jumpers/switches for use in AB/CD backplanes. Most quad width cards also conform to that. Also from my initial posting: > > The M8189 is a quad-width board, but with the CD part configured > > for a serpentine backplane (the manual mentions two jumpers to be removed when using in another > > environment to avoid shorting signals together) Am I missing something here? > CD lines are needed for RL11 controller (two board RL01/02 controller). Ah, thanks. Alas I've already been promised the single board variety of that option. > And if all else fails you can replace the backplane with one that is > AB/AB as I've done that many times. Thereby sacrificing the option of integrating any CD-dependent boards I might happen across in the future. Best idea I could think of until now would be a mixed (Q/CD - Q/Q) layout backplane, but I do not know whether these even exist in the required 9-slot form factor. Anyway, I think I'll treat the backplane as a given constant right now (except from probably expanding it to Q-22, see below) and look for the "right" boards to populate it. David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote: > The H9273 is perfectly compatible with an 11/23 CPU; there > is a jumper you can set for 18-bit use. Obviously, though, > turning it into a 22-bit backplane is preferable. > Fortunately, that's pretty easy. Meh...I've been hearing that I might run into problems with some other processors (LSI-11(/2), very early KDF11-A versions), should I ever need to use the backplane as a test platform for one of those in the future. Is that problem the one simply worked around with some insulating tape over the BDAL18:21 connector pads? > > The M8189 is a quad-width board, but with the CD part configured > > for a serpentine backplane (the manual mentions two jumpers to be removed when using in another > > environment to avoid shorting signals together), so again no "meaningful" use of the CD lanes. > Correct. The Qbus PDP-11s only used the CD lane for PMI > (or custom logic, if you had that). Sounds interesting, could you elaborate? > I'd get the M8189 if you > can, because it saves you the hassle of finding boot ROM > and serial cards for the console. Good, as it seems someone found one of these for me. > > What are these intended for anyway (I was thinking of some sort of PMI predecessor, probably > > wrong by now), and what boards do I need to take advantage of them in this machine? > > For an 11/23, those lanes will just go unused. It's not > so bad, really; you have to try pretty hard to fill up 9 > slots. I'd thought so; perhaps I'll happen across some esoteric cards that use them, or I'll hack something custom in there. > If it's in > a box labelled 11/23, though, check to make sure someone > hasn't already performed the modification. OK, thanks! Arno

13 years, 2 months

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Apple Quicktake camera Windows software?

by wheagy＠gmail.com

I picked up a Quicktake 100 camera this weekend for cheap and am trying to get it working under Windows so I can easily get pictures to my Website, but I am unable to locate the Windows software. Anyone have a link? An hour on Google has yielded little except the driverguide website which was very frustrating. Tks...Win

13 years, 2 months

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Looking for Apple Lisa 2/5 parts

by santo.nucifora＠gmail.com

I'm trying to restore an Apple Lisa 2/5 that has been hit with battery corrosion. I'm looking for the following parts, if anyone has any they'd like to sell: - Lisa 2/5 I/O board - Lisa motherboard - Lisa CPU board While I'm at it: - Lisa keyboard - Lisa 1 mouse (the kind with the long button and not the Mac 128 mice). I am primarily looking for working/tested items but I may be interested in something that was not as damaged as mine that is restorable. Please contact me off-list with these or any other parts you may have. I am in Canada and would need to have them shipped there. I'll cross-post this to the LisaList too. Thank you.

13 years, 2 months

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9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 00:10:24 +0100 From: Colin Eby <colineby at isallthat.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: 9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment Message-ID: <975726A4-6B0E-4EE6-BB5E-B518CAA638B6 at isallthat.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 If you don't have a alignment tape, you might try simply creating a /dev/zero tape from a known good drive. No, this won't work. It will only have transitions in the parity channel, all other channels (0-7) will have no transitions at all except at the end of the block (CRC and LRCC). Writing all 1's will have transitions on all data channels AND the parity channel (to get odd parity on each byte). Drives made for alignment with a scope have a resistor summing network that sums the bit detector on each channel. With bad alignment you see a wave with lots of stairsteps up and down the side. With correct alignment, it becomes almost a perfect square wave, with at most one narrow step on the sides. Jon Jon

13 years, 2 months

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VAX 11/780

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 21:58:25 -0400 From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> I don't remember the RM07. I remember the RM05 (CDC 9766) and the RP07, which I _thought_ was a 100% DEC design (that resembled a white washing machine with no access panels), but I could be wrong about that. My memory may be slipping. We had a 500 MB drive that fits the description, MASSBus only, and just a couple buttons on the front. You had to open the back to flip the circuit breaker off to reset the drive - which I had to do a LOT until they fixed some of the firmware bugs. I THOUGHT the model was RM07, but maybe it was an RP07. I thought RP was for removable disk packs, and the RM was for fixed HDAs. The drive we had was definitely made by Burroughs, it had Burroughs labels on the boards ons other parts inside. I gather it never was very popular due to price, and so I can't find much online. But, I did find one pic with a readable RP07 label and it looks like I remember. We never had to leave covers open on ours, and had no overheating problems, although the HDA did run hot enough to almost burn your hand! We did have under floor cold air supply in our machine room. Jon

13 years, 2 months

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9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 14:00:06 +0100 (BST) From: P Gebhardt <p.gebhardt at ymail.com> To: cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: 9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment Message-ID: <1365253206.48217.YahooMailNeo at web133105.mail.ir2.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Hi everybody, I had a look through my tapes and found one from Control Data being labeled "Total Service Tape". Does anybody know, if this tape also serves as an alignment tape? I couldn't find any information about that on the Net so far. I used to make my own skew tapes by just writing a program to write out huge blocks (8K or more) of all 1's. That worked fine for using a scope to check the skew. Not sure if a drive diagnostic would accept such a pattern as a skew tape, though. Jon

13 years, 2 months

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pdp-11/23 config (was: Re: Qbus identification)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote: > The H9275 can be fitted, the standard connecting cables may or may not > match up but can be had made easily. > > I've even put the backplane from the BA32 in a BA11. The form caxtor is > very standardized though the interconnect for power varies with molex or > terminal barrier strips being used. Ah, good data point to have if I ever get into the situation for a similar operation. > Yes, some of the backplanes and the cpu board have jumpesr that need to > be correct and matching. Alas I don't have any DEC Processor and Peripherals Handbook covering QBUS in dead tree format, just UNIBUS stuff which is of about zilch use to me in this case, but I got myself the BA11-N (which includes details on the backplane) and KDF11-BA manuals from bitsavers. Yes, I also already perused them to a certain extent, and yes, I was aware of the jumper issue (which is why I even _mentioned_ it. Duh.) > I have full sets spanning the years and it fills about 5 ft (1.5M) of > linear shelf space. I consider > them as more important than the hardware. While much of it is on the > net I find it harder to > scan for a specific item like the default jumpers for DLV11J. The books > have a bit of wear > from actual use. Not having worked for DEC and being a bit younger than most of the hardware in question, I'm not that lucky. I could get myself some doubles that were culled from a university collection ('76 peripherals manual, 11/45 and 11/60 processor manuals...) which unfortunately do not cover the era and range of hardware I'm dealing with here. > [boot rom / mass storage issues] I'm not yet holding the CPU card in question in my hands so I don't know the exact variety. I have RL01 (three) and RL02 drives (one) which I would like to use with this system, as they seem appropriate for the era. > The only common card set that depends on CD is RL11 The two board > RL01/02 controller > and it's only 18bit capable, if you working with 22bit system (fully > populated with ram) > then you need the RLV21 which is a single quad board and works in all > backplanes... > > oh and also RL02 drives, a 40" rack minimum, plus a good back! ...not to mention at least one good _pack_, which is (for the RL01) what I'm missing. > In the end the whole Q22 this is only an issue when you exceed 256Kbytes > of memory > as the Q22 allowed the MMU to reach 4MB of ram. I will also be provided with a 512kW MOS memory board, so I will need 22-bit addressing to take full advantage of that, and therefore the (22-bit clean) RLV_12_ single-board controller. So no CD lanes needed here. > PPS oh, I have at least two that have all slots filled! Its way to easy > to plug in IO. > For example RLV21 quad width, RQDX3 dual, TKQ50 (dual) TK50, > RXV21 (dual) RX02 drive controller, DZV11 serial IO(quad), > LPV11 parallel printer (dual), DEQNA (dual), > full 4mb memory (3 quad boards). don't forget the CPU, > 11/23B+ also a quad board. > Thats 16 slots filled plus two grant cards total 18 making a full box. > The grant cards allow for optimal board placement and are required to > keep the DMA and interrupt vector chain complete. Was it indeed usual to build such large configurations based on an 11/23 back then? TQK50, DEQNA and RQDX3 at least sound sound a bit anachronistic to me, there surely must have been newer and more powerful processors out at the time those became available? I think I'll have a rather minimal system (KDF11-B, 512kW RAM, quad SLU, RLV12 + one or drives) for now, not making my first foray into pdp technology more complicated than necessary. Arno

13 years, 2 months

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9-track alignment (skew) tapes for R/W-head adjustment

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hi everybody, I had a look through my tapes and found one from Control Data being labeled "Total Service Tape". Does anybody know, if this tape also serves as an alignment tape? I couldn't find any information about that on the Net so far. I've been trying to resurrect one of my Fujitsu M2442AC tape drives. Even with heads cleaned,it fails the diagnostics when it comes to writing and reading a tape. It turned out that the drive head being held by a plastic plate was loose due to the plastic plate being broken. I tried to glue the plastic together, mounted the head back into its position, but the drive diagnostics still fails (error: F300 ). Azimuth-adjusting the head after remouting obviously needs an alignment tape. Having quite a collection of reel tape drives, I thought it would in any way make sense to have such a tape for head adjustment procedures, but they some to have become pretty rare these days (at least for 9-track 1/2" drives). Substituting these special tapes by any other tricks or ways seems not to come close to the alignment precision obtained wich alignment tapes. Thanks for any help in advance ! Pierre ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pierre's collection of classic computers : http://classic-computing.dyndns.org/

13 years, 2 months

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pdp-11/23 config (was: Re: Qbus identification)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

David Riley <fraveydank at gmail.com> wrote: > Well, you *could* work around it that way. I guess Kapton would > probably be a good bet. You're very unlikely to be using early LSI-11 > boards unless you're a true masochist (...) Uhm, people have already been calling me that (in a classiccmp context!), so... > Be aware that if you're using the system as 18-bit, you'll > need to make sure that your peripheral cards are jumpered to 18-bit if > necessary (boards that use DMA often need to know). > The 22-bit conversion is also easy to undo, assuming you're handy with > a soldering iron (...) For me, undoing that would be about as easy as looking up > which pins to cover and then covering them with tape (...) Hmm, I'm just "planning for eventualities"; Basically I want to build a system that runs in a 22-bit configuration, but I'm trying to make sure I can still stick in 18-bit CPUs (or other cards) for a quick test after I do the conversion. >> (or custom logic, if you had that). > Sounds interesting, could you elaborate? > > (...) There were probably quite a few other board sets that used > the CD lines for inter-board communication (...) > (very nice description of CD interconnect principles) Definitly an option I would want to keep. Too bad there aren't any 9-slot mixed layout backplanes, but as DEC compatible backplane connectors seem to surface sometimes, so I see at least the possibility of constructing one, should the need materialize. > I wouldn't swear to the fact that there weren't 11/23s sold as 18-bit > systems; my fuzzy memory says that 11/23 might have been 18-bit while > 11/23+ would have been 22-bit. Other people doubtless know better > than me; my other recollection is that the "plus" distinction has to > do with the KDF11-B board (which has the boot ROM and SLUs). Christian Gauger-Cosgrove <captainkirk359 at gmail.com> wrote: > I don't know anything about how DEC sold their machines, but I do believe > they did sell the 11/23 as an 18-bit system (even though the KDF11A is very > much capable of 22-bit) (...) Hmm, let's see... >From http://www.people.vcu.edu/~agnew/MVAX/9412_DECUSERVE_JNL.HTML (supposedly extracted from Micronote #5 dated 23-Apr-84): > RESTRICTED COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS: > > PROCESSORS: > > KDF11-A M8186 LSI-11/23 CPU > Prior to etch rev. C, 18-bit addressing only, > and use of BC1, BD1, BE1, BF1 for purposes > other than BDAL18-21. ...so the systems using these earlier revisions, while being 11/23s by definition, would have to be based on 18-bit backplanes due to the nonstandard signals. This is also consistent with Christian's statement: > as I remember there is a "PDP-11/23" version of > the BA11-N box (with H9273-A, the BA11-N always has the H9273-A) I think I actually might be having the remains of such an early system, as it says "11/23" on the outside but holds an (18-bit) H9273 backplane inside. Alas I haven't readily found a DEC source on what actually is the PLUS in an 11/23+. Thank you so far, Arno

13 years, 2 months

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Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is it?

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

------ Original Message ------ From: "Enrico Lazzerini" <enrico.lazzerini at email.it> To: cctech at classiccmp.org Sent: 04/04/2013 18:15:52 Subject: Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is it? >Is there anybody who knows what is this old chip? And where to try to >find >it? I believe that its a 74S288 which is 256 bit PROM (32x8) bit prom. So even if you find one you need to know its contents. Look for an application note for the 1297. > >If it help what I know is that it used to do somenting like shift data >register or Serial Shift Registers. > Often used for state decoding. From searching the web I can see that there is an FE2100 which is designed to replace the discrete logic on a FDC board and it mentions the 74S288.. >It has a TTL level signal on its pins, it has 14 pins. You can see it >named >U1 in the centre of this schematic: ><https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf> >https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf > > > >Some pins are labelled on a schematics with: > >1=D1, 2=D2, 3=D3, 4=D4, > >10=A1, 11=A2, 12=A3, 13=A4, 14=A4, > >15=ChipEnable (left to GND), > >7=GND, > >14=+5Vcc > > these match the chip outline in my Texas TTL manual (there are 4 more data outs which are unused in this application) > >Thanks > >Enrico > Sorry not 100% of needed info Dave G4UGM

13 years, 2 months

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VAX 11/780

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Jon Elson wrote: > Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2013 22:29:04 -0400 > From: Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: VAX 11/780 > Message-ID: <515E36F0.5040101 at telegraphics.com.au> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > On 04/04/13 9:32 PM, Jon Elson wrote: > >> > From: Brian Roth <abacos_98 at yahoo.com> >> > To: "cctech at classiccmp.org" <cctech at classiccmp.org> >> > Subject: VAX 11/780 >> > Message-ID: >> > <1365090232.96105.YahooMailNeo at web141403.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> >> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >> > >> > >> > I just recently acquired a very nearly complete VAX 11/780. I will >> > be spending the next few months in a partial tear down and cleaning >> > and with luck, hopefully little money to get it operational again. I >> > ... >> >> > >> > Good luck restoring this machine! >> > > > > Seconded. I hope you will blog/document the whole process. I own an > 11/750 but haven't started restoring it. > > --Toby > > One huge advantage to the 780 is there are almost no custom parts in > it, other than > the LSI-11 which is still pretty much available, if needed. The whole > 780 CPU > was built out of 74Sxx chips, and could probably be maintained for another > 50 years if one wanted to. The only custom sort of parts would be in the > power supplies, which would be easy to swap out with generic DC supplies > if you couldn't repair them. > > Jon

13 years, 2 months

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Need PDP-9 Paper Tapes

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

The RICM has the processor of their PDP-9 working fairly well. We have most of the diags for the processor on paper tape. We will make working copies of the tapes and also make images to send to Bitsavers. We have the diag documentation for the TC59/TU20, but we do not have the paper tapes. It would be possible to enter the source from the listing and assemble it using Simh, but that would be a bit of work. I know that it is probably wishful thinking, but does anyone have paper tapes of the TC59/TU20 diags? Paper tapes of the TC02/TU55 diags would be nice to have too. We would eventually like to get an OS running on the system. It looks like the ADSS Input/Output Monitor will run on our configuration, and maybe even the Keyboard Monitor. Does anyone have paper tapes for ADSS or any other monitor that would run on this system? Details of the paper tapes and manuals that we have are at the bottom of this page: http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-9 -- Michael Thompson

13 years, 2 months

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Xerox 820-II FDC (was Re: Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is)

by enrico.lazzerini＠email.it

Trying to rebuild the FDC card by my xerox 820-II motherboard, I have discovered the presence of an IC named 733w01522 (U1) on the photo of the original PCB which code I cannot read on the schematic not very readable reported at the end of xerox820-II service manual. Sorry, I mistakenly indicated a 14-pin TTL chips even though it was 16 pin. Thanks for contribution of Chuck Guzis from the VCF he told me that the 733w01522 is a PROM and it is equivalent at 74S288 but also to others IC as reported here http://www.hobbyroms.com/proms.html. U1 (74S288) and U2 (74S174) together constitute a "finite state machine" (so they told to me cause I'm not so expert) whose purpose is to provide a read clock and a read data to the chip WD1797 from raw data received from the drive. Then I need to discover the code that the chip could have (without having the original chip programmed with me!). Upon the recommendation of Chuck Guzis I found the code listing on page 12 of the manual of the FDC1797's application notes. At this point, trusting to this code I'd need to buy a programmed 74S288 (or equivalent). After all this I was finally trying to figure out if it sould be better to use of a schematic published on an old issue of Microcornucopia: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4f8kblogrlzdr9m/FDC_from_Micro_Cornucopia_#22_Feb8 5.pdf. Who wrote that article decided to build itself a FDC controller card for his xerox 820-II extracting a block of its schematic from a Kaypro-II's schematic really making very few changes and using a FDC WD1793 + WD9216 for external separator data. Due to its small number of components, and having already a WD1797 I'd just need of a WD9216 (i hope to find it on the Internet yet) and wiring it would be maybe more simple. Last suggestion (always from the so expert Chuck that I thanks so much) would be to use a WD2797 instead of WD1797, but I'm not a designer and while i can understand something of all those things it's very hard for me to change schematics or adjust components. I hope to be able to buy a ready Xerox 820-II FDC board even I know that it's not very easy to find. Thanks anyway for all the support that was given to me. Regards Enrico - Pisa (ITALY)

13 years, 3 months

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My IBM 5160 on YouTube

by terry＠webweavers.co.nz

My IBM XT captured on YouTube (with a bit of Checkit, PC Tools and Zork 2 thrown in). http://youtu.be/luUPvzx-XWU

13 years, 3 months

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pdp-11/23 config (was: Re: Qbus identification)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Hah, a thread just in time for me! Hello fellow collectors. I got the card-less carcass of a pdp-11/23 (says so on the front and back type labels) some weeks ago. This is going to be my first pdp ever so please be a bit patient with me :) It is the BA11 variety and contains a H9273 backplane, which as far as I could find out is QQ-CD (consistent with your statement below). However the backplane has a sticker on it which is stamped "11/03" (?!) So what kind of CPU (or more generally, kinds of boards) am I looking for to populate this puppy? I've already done some reading on DEC stuff from bitsavers and gleaned that in order to make it an 11/23, it would have to hold either an M8186 (KDF11-A) or an M8189 (KDF11-B) processor. As the M8186 only comes in a dual slot form factor, it clearly can't make use of the CD interconnect on the backplane. The M8189 is a quad-width board, but with the CD part configured for a serpentine backplane (the manual mentions two jumpers to be removed when using in another environment to avoid shorting signals together), so again no "meaningful" use of the CD lanes. What are these intended for anyway (I was thinking of some sort of PMI predecessor, probably wrong by now), and what boards do I need to take advantage of them in this machine? Also, are there any ressources online about the Q-22 upgrade? I might need do do that because I already was promised a 512kw MOS memory board by another German collector. TIA, yours sincerely Arno Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> wrote: Indeed, or as Jerome suggested, looking at the configuration of the cards may give you a clue. So would the type of box: if it's a 3U-high (5.25") grey-fronted-metal-panel rack-mount box with three toggle switches, it's a BA11-N or BA11-S, which have straight backplanes (and are all QQ-CD), if it's a small tabletop box or a 2U (3.5") it's a BA11-V (tabletop) or BA11-M (2U) which have serpentine backplanes, and if it's a floor-standing microPDP-11 (or microVAX) box or a chassis with four or six pushbuttons on the front, it's a BA23 box which is QQ-CD in the top slots and serpentine below. Or count the card slots. All 9-slot backplanes are straight. 8-slot and 13-slot are mixed (for microPDP-11 and microVAX). Anything else is serpentine. BA11-M and BA11-V boxes are relatively uncommon. If it's a BA11-N, although the backplane is 18-bit, it's very easy to upgrade to 22-bit. >> -- which I understand can be serpentine, All Q-Q backplanes are serpentine, and all straight backplanes are QQ-CD. The only odd one is the hex-high DDV11-B, which is a serpentine backplane in the ABCD positions and not bussed at all (except for power in the standard contact positions) in EF - it's meant for custom wiring. Of course we're assuming it's a DEC box with a DEC backplane. A Plessey backplane, for example, might be different, but you'd probably know if it was non-DEC, because it's pretty rare to find DEC's dark green connectors on anything non-DEC. Plessey and GEC ones, again for example, are white. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

13 years, 3 months

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Commodore PET 6540 ROMs?

by derschjo＠gmail.com

This is a stretch, but I figured I'd ask: anyone have any spare 6540-series PET ROMs lying around? After diagnosing a number of other failures, Ialmost have my (very beat up) chicklet-keyboard PET working, but it looks like the -026 ROM (at F800-FFFF) has gone south -- it has a few corrupted bits here and there. It looks like adapters to fit standard 2716s are available to build, but before I invest time and/or money in one of those I thought I'd ask around. Thanks as always, Josh

13 years, 3 months

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Apple //e Platinum wanted

by evan＠snarc.net

Does anyone have a good-condition, second-generation (working + non-yellowed) //e Platinum they'd consider selling to me? There are a few Platinums on eBay but I am leery of going that route. (Platinum is the model with the numeric keypad. There were two versions: the first gen in standard Apple II beige, and the second gen in a gray color -- that's the one I want.)

13 years, 3 months

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VAX 11/780

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:06:58 -0400 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: VAX 11/780 Message-ID: <515F2EE2.6020902 at neurotica.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On 04/05/2013 03:37 PM, Brian Roth wrote: > > > > Agreed. The one place I am going to start is with the power supplies. I plan on running this on > > single phase at least initially. I don't see anything in there that needs 3 phase. > The blowers? Nope, the entire machine is built from single-phase components. The power supplies even have wall plugs on them, and are powered through what are essentially the female end of extension cords. (I think they run off 208 V, but maybe they were running L-N off of 120 V.) The blowers were 208/230 V single-phase motors, you could hear the centrifugal switches drop back in when you shut the machine off. The power distribution wiring would have to be hacked for single-phase operation, hopefully the power supplies can be run off 240 V without harm. The TU77 may be a problem, I vaguely recall that may have a 3-phase motor for the vacuum blower/air bearing pump. Today, I'd get a VFD and run the motor (ONLY) off synthetic 3-phase. The RM07 also was 3-phase, I think all the smaller VAX 780 disks were single-phase. The RM07 was a total monstrosity >from Burroughs, I hope you don't have one of those. We went through a lot of pain as one of the early adopters of that, but in the end it was a high performance drive and fairly reliable. Jon

13 years, 3 months

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VAX 11/780

by elson＠pico-systems.com

Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 14:28:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Roth <abacos_98 at yahoo.com> I did a quick look at the Eng drawings and while the power controller is 3 phase it looks like the fans are single phase. Not sure whats going on inside the power controller yet. I'll be tearing into this in a couple of weeks so if anyone has experience with the conversion, speak out. I know its been done. The power controller is REALLY simple, very much like the PDP-11 EPO controllers, just bigger. So, there is a voltage sent out on a 3-wire cable, and if you break two of the wires at the end of the chain, all units power off. The other wire powers up all units on the string. Just a little unregulated power supply and some relays. I think there's an airflow sensor in the blower plenums that breaks the EPO chain if a blower stops. Jon

13 years, 3 months

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Did Dave Dunfield's cp/m archive on classiccmp.org go boom ?

by dave13＠dunfield.com

> >>> None of my links are working anymore. Just gives a 503 error. I > >>> need me some disk images. > >> Apparently no one has heard from Dave in a while. > > > > Oh man. Here we go again >MUCH more important, >Is Dave OK? Dave is alive and (mostly) well. Sorry Guys, I just don't have much time to participate in the list these days. I do browse through the threads every month or two using the web archive. I've not taken my site down - it is hosted on Classiccmp which does seem to be having a few problems as of late - today I am getting notices that "the site is unavailable due to maintenance or capacity" - I'm guessing the latter, because hit reload a couple of times and it will come up (I had the same issue reading the list). Regards, Dave -- dave12 (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com (dot) com Classic computers: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/

13 years, 3 months

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Amazing uptime...

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

6030 days ain't too shabby. :) http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1199529 g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://www.scarletdme.org - Get it _today_!

13 years, 3 months

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Amiga 4000/040 has been claimed

by sales＠elecplus.com

The Amiga 4000 has been claimed. Many thanks to all those who inquired! Cindy Croxton _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3272 / Virus Database: 3162/6226 - Release Date: 04/05/13

13 years, 3 months

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World?s top supercomputer from ?09 is now obsolete, will be dismantled

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message ----- > Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2013 09:41:14 -0700 (PDT) > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> ... >> On Tue, Apr 02, 2013 at 02:31:39PM -0700, Fred Cisin wrote: >> > I'm having a little difficulty visualizing "The World's Top >> > Supercomputer" >> > as being a single chip CPU on a motherboard. >> > When did "supercomputers" become single board devices? >> > "Put the CPU on a daughterboard"? > > On Wed, 3 Apr 2013, Pontus Pihlgren wrote: >> Do you really think I'm that stupid? > > Of course not. I acknowledge and respect your expertise. > And, I certainly had no intention of offending you. ----- Reply:----- Yeah, come on, Fred; just because he doesn't seem to understand the concept of a *plural* morpheme and why using the singular to refer to hundreds of an item might cause confusion (especially in this context) doesn't mean he's stupid ;-) I thought that perhaps Swedish does not have such a concept but then I saw that he does speak of power supplieS and fanS; he even talks about making the CPU's pin compatible, although instead of multiple pins of multiple CPUs that seems to suggest making the (single) pin of a single CPU compatible with something... Fun with words, and of course as usual surprising and a little disappointing to see how ready and eager some people are instead to see insults or personal attacks in simple misunderstandings...

13 years, 3 months

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Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is it?

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

> > Is there anybody who knows what is this old chip? And where to try to find > it? I've seen 733Wxxx house codes on Xerox chips before, but hav never seen the equivalents list. > > If it help what I know is that it used to do somenting like shift data > register or Serial Shift Registers. > > It has a TTL level signal on its pins, it has 14 pins. You can see it named > U1 in the centre of this schematic: > <https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf> > https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf > > > > Some pins are labelled on a schematics with: > > 1=D1, 2=D2, 3=D3, 4=D4, > > 10=A1, 11=A2, 12=A3, 13=A4, 14=A4, > > 15=ChipEnable (left to GND), > > 7=GND, > > 14=+5Vcc Wait a second. You said jsut now it has 14 pins, and you give a signal for pin 15. Does it have a top cap or something :-) More seriousyl, if it's actually a 16 pin IC, I would guess it's a programmed 74x188 (open collector) or more likely 74x288 (3-state output) PROM. That's a 32*8 bit device that goes udner a variety of other numbers too, like 18S030. Fiffernt manufacturers had differnt programming algorithms, but the all work the same way in-circuit (in read mode). The pinout is : 1 : D0 2 : D1 3 : D2 4 : D3 5 : D4 6 : D5 7 : D6 8 : Gnd 9 : D7 10 : A0 11 : A1 12 : A2 13 : A3 14 : A4 15 : CE/ 16 : Vcc This could match your device, A4 is tied high (so only useing the second half of the ROM) and only the first 4 data lines are used. Of course the problem for you, I guess, is that a blank chip of the right type is of little use to you. You need to konw the contents (looks to be 16 4-bit words in your case). You could copy it from a working device fro the same type of machine, but other than that uou have some designing to do... -tony

13 years, 3 months

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English spelling

by saquinn624＠aol.com

************************************** On Thu, 4 Apr 2013, Pontus Pihlgren wrote: > A little stupid.. I know about the rules for appending an S in the right place, I just > can't seem to master them. > > I thought that perhaps Swedish does not have such a concept but then > > I saw that he does speak of power supplieS and fanS; he even talks > > about making the CPU's pin compatible, although instead of multiple > > pins of multiple CPUs that seems to suggest making the (single) pin > > of a single CPU compatible with something... English has inconsistent rules, and freely breaks them. It seems to have more IRREGULAR conjugations, declensions, and plurals. Can anyone explain why the 'I' is after the 'E' in "WEIRD"? "I disconnected the speaker on all of the computers in the lab." does not imply that they share a speaker. Should I have said that I disconnected the "speakerS"? or maybe "the speaker on EACH computer"? And, in this particular example, "pin compatible" (or "pin-compatible") is a commonly used adjective that is not plural, no matter how many pins the device has. The object noun in the speaker sentence is the speaker, therefore if you disconnected more than one it would be "speakers" regardless of how many computers they were connected to. Same goes for the pin-compatible CPUs - the noun is the CPU, therefore pin remains singular (even though you're talking about multiple pins on multiple CPUs). Same logic that gives us "attorneys-general" and "gins and tonic" and a whole lot of confusion. As for weird, I just tell the students it's a weird word. Was it Bernard Shaw that threw away the rules he considered pointless and archaic? I know about cummings and capitalization, but that does little to make his poems easier to read or more comprehensible.

13 years, 3 months

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RCA COSMAC Microkit

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

Here is an article about the Microkit that came out later in 1975: > > > Does anyone have a COSMAC Microkit user manual? I have downloaded the docs > > for the COSMAC chip from Bitsavers, but there is no reference to the > > earlier Microkit in this doc. > I believe its on the net but not there. There is a yahoo COSMAC users > group. They do not have the Microkit User Manual, but there not even be one. Found this reference to the Microkit, but it's nearly a year newer than my system chip dates, meaning they were still selling Microkits though 1975: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/microcomputerAssociates/Microcomputer _Digest_v02n04_Oct75.pdf Bill

13 years, 3 months

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DEC M7522 (RUX50) Unibus Quad-slot RX50 Controller

by pbirkel＠gmail.com

I've been trying to track down online documentation (manual, engineering drawings) for this Quad Unibus card, a controller for the RX50. No luck at all. Nada :-<. Just some references in RSX/RSTS/Ultrix marketing documents. Does anyone have, or know where such documentation can be found? Also, does anyone have (or knows someone who has) a spare/loose M7522 that they'd be willing to part with? Thanks! -----

13 years, 3 months

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RCA COSMAC Microkit

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

http://www.vintagecomputer.net/RCA/COSMAC/ Photos of RCA COSMAC Microkit with 1801 card. Note the chip date of the TC 1085 on the processor card, which is the earlier version of the CDP 1801 (Microtutor), has a silk screen date of late 1974. Compare: http://www.vintagecomputer.net/RCA/COSMAC/RCA_GPA-3901822_front.jpg (Microkit) http://www.decodesystems.com/cosmac/mt5.jpg (Microtutor) Does anyone have a COSMAC Microkit user manual? I have downloaded the docs for the COSMAC chip from Bitsavers, but there is no reference to the earlier Microkit in this doc. The only printed reference to the Microkit I have is http://www.vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/EDN_Microcomputer_Systems_Directory.p df EDN Microprocessor Design Series Volume II 1975 This appears to be a supplement publication to the EDN Journal (?) I can use the Microtutor manual at least to get started. Bill

13 years, 3 months

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VAX 11/780

by elson＠pico-systems.com

From: Brian Roth <abacos_98 at yahoo.com> To: "cctech at classiccmp.org" <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: VAX 11/780 Message-ID: <1365090232.96105.YahooMailNeo at web141403.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I just recently acquired a very nearly complete VAX 11/780. I will be spending the next few months in a partial tear down and cleaning and with luck, hopefully little money to get it operational again. I am looking for whatever spare parts I can find for the VAX and its TU78 tape drive. I have plenty of spare drives and such. One thing I am in need of is a console boot floppy and whatever diags I can find on floppy for it. Also, I do have a hobbyist license but I would like to get an early version of VMS to run on it if I can find a tape. Holy moly! Amazing! Well, I used to know the 780 pretty well, but didn't save anything >from the two I was manager of. The biggest problem I might imagine is getting the LSI 11 to boot off the floppy drive. I suspect original floppies may have deteriorated to the point they won't read. Higher-level diags can be booted from tape, but there were some low-level diags like control store diags that could only be run from the LSI 11. I believe the machine could actually CREATE a new diag floppy >from the diag tape, though, so if you can find good blank floppies you could recreate the diags. Hmm, refresh my memory, the TU77 was the 800/1600 BPI drive and the TU78 was the 1600/6250 drive? I'm pretty familiar with both. We had an early TU77, and went through about 13 mod kits on it to get it to stop melting tapes on the heads. It really flew through tape, though. Good luck restoring this machine! Jon

13 years, 3 months

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Manuals needed...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I'm looking for operating manuals and user guides for the following software products: ManagePro 2.0 (Avantos Performance Systems, circa 1993) Siebel 3.0 Siebel 98 Originals are best, but copies are O.K. Marketing, sales literature or brochures for the above products might be of interest. A bounty is available! Cheers, Lyle -- Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

13 years, 3 months

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Miniterm 1205S

by mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us

Does anyone have a service manual or schematics for the Computer Devices Miniterm 1205S? Thanks. Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/

13 years, 3 months

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VAX4000-100A with P-cache problems

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello. I have a VAX4000-100A system, that's fully working, except for a strange error on boot that notify about errors in the P-cache. VMS starts up, but again it notify that P-cache will be disabled due to high error-rate. Probably the CPU has been damaged somehow, or it's malfunctioning (if I'm not wrong the P-cache is integrated inside the CPU). Anybody ever had a similar problem? Could it be possible to find a replacement CPU somewhere, not at terrible cost? Thanks Andrea

13 years, 3 months

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Needed: older connector power cord

by legalize＠xmission.com

OK, I've got an HP X-Y display with the older power cord connector, where the three pins are round instead of two being blades and the only the ground pin being round. The entire plug socket is also rounded instead of angled. I've tried to find a relevant picture on the interwebs, but you try googling "power coord connector" sometime and see if you can find the older oddball you're looking for... Hopefully my description alone is enough to aid someone in identifying the exact standard/specification for this kind of connector. I'm looking for cords that fit the connector. I will try to remember to take a picture with my phone on Wednesday when I am down at the museum, if we can't figure it out by then. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

13 years, 3 months

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Needed: older connector power cord

by legalize＠xmission.com

Earlier I wrote: > OK, I've got an HP X-Y display with the older power cord connector, > where the three pins are round instead of two being blades and the > only the ground pin being round. The entire plug socket is also > rounded instead of angled. Found a guy who has them for considerably cheaper than ebay and he still has stock for anyone else who needs some: <http://www.apexjr.com/wire.html> -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book <http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline> The Computer Graphics Museum <http://computergraphicsmuseum.org> The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org> Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

13 years, 3 months

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Qbus identification

by roe＠liveblockauctions.com

I'm looking at upgrading a pdp11/73 in a pdp11/23plus box to an 11/83. Is there a simple multimeter test I can do on a qbus slot to determine if it is Q/Q -- which i understand can be serpentine, or Q/CD, which are PMI capable for the 11/83 CPU. Thanks.

13 years, 3 months

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What's this 88000 based qbus cpu about ?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Anyone know what these are from http://www.ebay.com/itm/150407824254 ? > > It looks like a Motorola 88000 based cpu board. I was able to find > some mentions of a few 88000 floating point boards for use in MicroVAX > II but, can't find anything about Avalon A7Q. If these were > replacement cpu what did they run ? Avalon sold math and especially FFT/image/convolution/deconvultuionco-processors in the late 80's and 90's. Used in (among other things I'm sure) medical imaging back-projectors. "Back-projector" seems to mean something different today in google searches... back in the 80's and 90's we called the processing system that takes raw data from CAT scanners and turns it into a image, "convolvers" and "back projectors". For a while in the early 90's, the same generation Avalon co-processor was available in Unibus, Q-bus, and Turbochannel all at the same time. I remember I could get a Alpha processor on a Unibus card at one point! For a while (again mid-90's?), I think one company that sold Avalon boards used the name "teraflop.com". e.g. http://web.archive.org/web/19970116193017/http://teraflop.com/acs/acs.html Avalon corporate history also at archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/19970116193719/http://teraflop.com/acs/html/hist… This (from the mid-90's) discusses some of the history of Avalon from a typical number-cruncher's perspective: http://www.taborcommunications.com/archives/1530.html Tim.

13 years, 3 months

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update to Amiga 4000/040, for all those who have asked

by sales＠elecplus.com

The Amiga 4000 powers on with no errors. The original battery is on the motherboard, but there is no visible damage. The motherboard is exceptionally clean. There is an EB920 network card (1 BNC) and a modem installed in the ISA slots, as well as 2 sticks of memory. The hard drive is a Seagate ST3144A that does not make excessive noise. I found a Commodore 1084S monitor with the appropriate cable, plugged everything in, and it works! The screen scrolls badly, so that needs to be adjusted, but it is evident that there is a GUI installed. I do not find an Amiga keyboard or a Commodore mouse at this time, but I do have 9-pin serial mice and standard PS2 keyboards. Asking $400 for the computer, monitor, 9-pin mouse and generic kbd, includes UPS ground shipping to commercial address. Add $20 for residential address. Please note the rubber feet on the computer have melted into a gooey mess, so I will remove them. The case top has several scratches/rubs, and the front plate has a minor chip on the bottom. The monitor is in good shape, although not the same shade as the computer. There is no CDROM in the computer, just the floppy and hard drive. Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 (830)792-3400 phone (830)792-3404 fax AOL IM elcpls _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3267 / Virus Database: 3162/6223 - Release Date: 04/03/13

13 years, 3 months

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Chip 733w01522 on xerox 820-II FDC controller. what is it?

by enrico.lazzerini＠email.it

Is there anybody who knows what is this old chip? And where to try to find it? If it help what I know is that it used to do somenting like shift data register or Serial Shift Registers. It has a TTL level signal on its pins, it has 14 pins. You can see it named U1 in the centre of this schematic: <https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf> https://www.dropbox.com/s/zqhgar4g7ib5j4z/Xerox820_FDC_Schematic.pdf Some pins are labelled on a schematics with: 1=D1, 2=D2, 3=D3, 4=D4, 10=A1, 11=A2, 12=A3, 13=A4, 14=A4, 15=ChipEnable (left to GND), 7=GND, 14=+5Vcc Thanks Enrico

13 years, 3 months

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VAX 11/780

by abacos_98＠yahoo.com

I just recently acquired a very nearly complete VAX 11/780. I will be spending the next few months in a partial tear down and cleaning and with luck, hopefully little money to get it operational again. I am looking for whatever spare parts I can find for the VAX and its TU78 tape drive. I have plenty of spare drives and such. One thing I am in need of is a console boot floppy and whatever diags I can find on floppy for it. Also, I do have a hobbyist license but I would like to get an early version of VMS to run on it if I can find a tape. I would be glad to pay shipping and/or trade for items. Thanks, Brian.

13 years, 3 months

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LA120 space bar

by roe＠liveblockauctions.com

I've acquired an LA120 Decwriter 3, it's missing the space bar. Does anyone have an idea where I could find one? I'd be willing to pay a reasonable price, and will of course cover shipping. Thanks. -- <http://www.liveblockauctions.com> Roe Peterson / Director of Research & Development O. 306.523.4005 / C. 306.501.6802 *Help Desk: 1.877.694.6100 / 306.694.6100* <http://www.liveblockauctions.com/index.php?p=FAQs>

13 years, 3 months

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