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

What's an Intel 4040 worth?

by evan＠snarc.net

Perhaps quite a lot, but not $800,000. :) Ebay #190404561375

14 years, 5 months

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Fear of firing up (was Re: An unplugged computer is a sad thing to see)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 05:48 PM 1/10/2012, Terry Stewart wrote: >I've recently had some discussions with someone who collects a particular >brand of classic computer from the early 1980s. He has a few of these but >they are never, ever switched on or tested. He doesn't want to test them >as he feels doing so may damage the old electronics. Aldo Leopold said "The first prerequisite of intelligent tinkering is to save all the pieces." - John

14 years, 5 months

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VCF East Day 2 keynote: Kottke

by evan＠snarc.net

A few days ago I announced that this year's VCF East 8.0 Day 1 keynote is Tom Kurtz, the co-inventor of BASIC. Now I'm happy to announce that the Day 2 keynote is Dan Kottke. Dan was a college buddy of Steve Jobs. They went to India together and sought enlightenment. Dan assembled Apple 1 boards in Jobs' parent's garage, and was officially employee #12, although in reality he was in the first five or so. He speaks on Sunday, May 6, at 12:30. Details to be posted at http://www.vintage.org/2012/east and http://www.facebook.com/vcfeast8.

14 years, 5 months

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Fwd: [rescue] Cray Supercomputer - from Hackaday.com

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Pontus writes: >On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 04:14:25PM +0000, Mark Benson wrote: >> Begin forwarded message: >> >> > Hi folks - I thought this was interesting and at least *somewhat* OT... >> > >> > http://hackaday.com/2012/01/10/help-chris-boot-his-cray-1-supercomputer/ >> >> Dunno if anyone saw this - looks VERY interesting - can anyone help this guy?? > Doesn't the Cray-1 run of an Eclipse front end. So he is really asking > how to boot an Eclipse? Other brand front ends were used too... Cray themselves used an Eclipse, but some customers used DEC or (ack!) IBM front ends. If someone wants to understand booting RDOS on a Nova or Eclipse, this is the best start: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dg/software/rdos/093-000188-02_Load_and_Generate_R…

14 years, 5 months

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Fwd: [rescue] Cray Supercomputer - from Hackaday.com

by md.benson＠gmail.com

Begin forwarded message: > Hi folks - I thought this was interesting and at least *somewhat* OT... > > http://hackaday.com/2012/01/10/help-chris-boot-his-cray-1-supercomputer/ Dunno if anyone saw this - looks VERY interesting - can anyone help this guy?? -- Mark Benson http://markbenson.org/blog http://twitter.com/MDBenson

14 years, 5 months

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Cromemco FDC

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message: Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:50:29 -0000 From: "James Attfield" <james at attfield.co.uk> To: <cctech at classiccmp.org> Subject: RE: Cromemco FDC > Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:53:19 -0500 > From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> > Subject: RE: Cromemco FDC > > I have always found it interesting how quickly people will go chopping > up circuit boards. Before you do this, consider chopping up a ribbon > cable instead. Ribbon cables are cheap and easy to replace if you > later change to a different make of drive or if you simply screw up > making the modification. I run SA-851's on my 16FDC with a simply > modified ribbon cable. Bill, the Tandon 848's look like they have a pretty similar interface to the SA-851. I have two TM-848-2's I would like to hook up - what chance do you think that your modified cable might work (I'm with you on this one rather than board cut'n'shut) and if so could you kindly email me the layout off-list? Jim ------------------------------- Reply:---------------------------- I'd be interested as well! Quinnteam used to make and sell something called a Top Hat which consisted of a pair of TM-848's mounted side-by-side horizontally across the top of a Z-2; this was before the 64FDC came out so they made a number of mods to the *drives * in order to work correctly with the 16FDC. I've still got TM-848s out of scrapped Top Hats and they work well with the 16FDC, as well as unmodified TM-848s out of scrapped System 3's which work with the 64FDC, but I've never taken the time to investigate just what's involved in getting either drive type to work with the other FDC; this thread has kind of reawakened my curiosity. Maybe some folks on the Cromemco mail list have more information... mike

14 years, 6 months

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What's an Intel 4040 worth?

by schoedel＠kw.igs.net

At 3:54 am +0000 2012/01/09, Evan Koblentz wrote: >Perhaps quite a lot, but not $800,000. :) > >Ebay #190404561375 I still think Intel should issue a commemorative 4004 in 22nm. Or failing that, easter-egg one (or a few thousand) into Haswell somewhere. -- Kevin Schoedel <schoedel at kw.igs.net> VA3TCS

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message: Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:29:10 -0800 From: Josh Dersch <derschjo at mail.msu.edu> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts ... > I've created a few floppies from my PC on a 5.25" drive using ImageDisk, I > have been unable to get the FDC to read them (or boot, obviously). I > wasn't 100% sure it wasn't just the setup I have on my PC getting in the > way, hence my latest attempt to use the FDC itself to write the disks. You don't say which images and whether you're talking about a DD drive or an HD drive emulating an 8" disk. Let me say it again: very few PCs will reliably write the Cromemco 360K DD format, but 8" images written to a 1.2M HD drive (on 1.2MB disks!) are usually quite reliable. See below. >> You are aware that using a 5.25HD drive as an 8" requires a jumper to >> connect /READY to the FDC's 5.25" interface? > I was not aware, but the 16/64FDC has connectors for both 5.25" and 8" > drives, I've been using the 5.25" connector and the controller seems to be > able to communicate with it OK -- it has no trouble seeking and formatting > tracks... it just can't read or write them at the moment... Umm... if you can't read it how do you know it was formatted correctly? The 5.25" connector normally only supports DD drives/formats (which, as I said, are notoriously unreliable reading disks made on a PC) because the /READY signal needed for 8" drives is not available on that connector. To use the more reliable 1.2M HD drives (360RPM with 1.2M HD disks) (or 3.5" HD drives for that matter) connected to the 5.25" port as 8" you need to connect pin 34 to /READY (and jumper the drive to supply /RY instead of /DC). Incidentally, that also avoids the 8" drive issues that Bill and Amardeep are arguing about. So, frankly, I'm very skeptical that your 1.2M HD drive is working at all *as an 8" drive*. BTW, your 300RPM HD drive is also going to be troublesome if not completely useless. And of course you have to select the correct drive type in RDOS with one, two or three semicolons. I'd be surprised if the 1793 were the problem, especially both of them. The 4FDC had a bad reputation for that, but out of the 20+ Cromemco systems that I supported (and still have most of) only ONE ever developed problems reading disks and I never did investigate what the cause actually was. No offence, but most likely you're doing something wrong; image/disk incompatibility, wrong type selected, etc. etc. Good luck!

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by james＠attfield.co.uk

> Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:53:19 -0500 > From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> > Subject: RE: Cromemco FDC > > I have always found it interesting how quickly people will go chopping > up circuit boards. Before you do this, consider chopping up a ribbon > cable instead. Ribbon cables are cheap and easy to replace if you > later change to a different make of drive or if you simply screw up > making the modification. I run SA-851's on my 16FDC with a simply > modified ribbon cable. Bill, the Tandon 848's look like they have a pretty similar interface to the SA-851. I have two TM-848-2's I would like to hook up - what chance do you think that your modified cable might work (I'm with you on this one rather than board cut'n'shut) and if so could you kindly email me the layout off-list? Jim

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by geneb＠deltasoft.com

On Mon, 9 Jan 2012, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > Bill Sudbrink wrote: >> >> I have always found it interesting how quickly people will go chopping >> up circuit boards. Before you do this, consider chopping up a ribbon >> cable instead. Ribbon cables are cheap and easy to replace if you >> later change to a different make of drive or if you simply screw up >> making the modification. I run SA-851's on my 16FDC with a simply >> modified ribbon cable. >> > By the way, based on your description of the symptoms, I still suspect > the 1793 is going bad. Unicorn Electronics may have stock on the 1793 - http://198.170.117.30/IC/CRT.html it's listed for $4.99. 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_! Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message: Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:13:10 -0800 From: Josh Dersch <derschjo at mail.msu.edu> ... Right now I have both a 16FDC and a 64FDC to play with (one is on loan). I'm using Dave Dunfield's RDOS transfer utilities to upload the "INIT" software into RAM from a PC. ... I'm wondering if there's some fundamental problem with my current set-up that's causing issues here... - Josh ----- Reply: Have you tried creating a bootable Cromemco format disk (CDOS or CP/M) from an image? Even if it's a configuration that doesn't match yours, you could at least run some diagnostics on the diskette using RDOS. The 5.25DD format can be troublesome to create, but generally an 8" image on a 5.25" HD disk & drive is no problem, especially if you can use the same physical drive in the PC and the Cromemco and avoid any alignment issues. You are aware that using a 5.25HD drive as an 8" requires a jumper to connect /READY to the FDC's 5.25" interface? mike

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by asc135＠gmail.com

> > > (Now I just have to figure out why I can't get the FDC to write floppies correctly...) Can you describe the problem in detail? I recall that you're using a 16FDC with 8" drives that are not Persci brand. Are you aware that the 16FDC 8" bus is wired differently than what is required for Shugart compatible drives? The Persci drives did not have a TG43 signal so the write current may be too high on the inner tracks of a non-Persci drive mated to a 16FDC -- causing errors. Fortunately, it is possible to modify a 16FDC to be compatible with a couple of cuts and jumpers. I have some photos and text that describe the mod. Should this happen to be the problem you're experiencing, I'll upload the mod info to a site and send the link. If not, please describe what problem you are having in more detail. Amardeep

14 years, 6 months

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Of course...

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

...I should've just said "Who's foaming now?" Hey, better late than never! -Dave -- Dave McGuire New Kensington, PA

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by asc135＠gmail.com

"Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> wrote: > I have always found it interesting how quickly people will go chopping > up circuit boards. Before you do this, consider chopping up a ribbon > cable instead. Ribbon cables are cheap and easy to replace if you > later change to a different make of drive or if you simply screw up > making the modification. I run SA-851's on my 16FDC with a simply > modified ribbon cable. I have always found it interesting how quickly people comment on issues without first studying them in depth. :-) The TG43 signal is entirely absent from the 16FDC drive connector and no cable mod alone can correct that. The board modification brings the signal >from the FDC1793 through a driver to the connector so that a cable can carry it to the drive. If you choose to operate the SA-851 out of spec, it is certainly your right. I chose to make my 16FDC compatible with the drive's operating requirements. Incidentally, the Shugart SA-800/801 doesn't require TG43 and will work with just a cable mod (or maybe no mod at all since that drive is single sided). Almost every newer drive, including SA-851, however, will have higher error rates on the inner cylinders without the reduced write current controlled by TG43.

14 years, 6 months

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What's an Intel 4040 worth?

by tpresence＠hotmail.com

>> Well for $800,000 one could develop any chip they like today. >> Ben.For $800,000 I will build you a 4004 with plumbing.Kevin

14 years, 6 months

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Vintage gear available at Weirdstuff...

by lbickley＠bickleywest.com

I checked out a number of vintage items that were recently found at Weirdstuff. If you're interested in any of these items, contact "Jim" at Weirdstuff (408-743-5650). If you have any technical questions regarding these items, you can contact me as I've looked them over (but didn't test)... 1. (3) New in box Hayes JT Dual Port FAX modems 14400B w/manuals and software 2. (1) Toshiba P321SL "3 in 1" Printer (missing plastic cover) 3. (1) ThinkJet printer w/GPIB interface 4. (4) Sun 68 pin SCSI Disk UniPack enclosures with auto-termination 5. (1) Macintosh Portable, Model M5120, complete with case, power supply and unused ID cards. 6. (1) New in box DEC VMS 5.4 manual set dated 26 Jul 90 7. (1) Kaypro II, S/N 61085, clean keyboard w/cable, (2) 5.25" FDD 8. (1) Manual Set, HP83480A (Digital Communications Analyzer) & HP54750A (Digitizing Oscilloscope) 9. (1) HP 85025 A/B/E Detector 10. (1) Tektronix 577 D1 or D2 Curve Tracer Service/Instructional Manual 11. (1) Intermac Trakker Antares 241X Hand Held Terminal Manual 12. (1) Heath Appliance Control, Model SL-6166-RX I am not affiliated with Weirdstuff and receive no financial renumeration to list these items - I'd just like to see vintage stuff get a good home... Cheers, Lyle -- Lyle Bickley, AF6WS Bickley Consulting West Inc. http://bickleywest.com "Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by asc135＠gmail.com

Josh Dersch <derschjo at mail.msu.edu> wrote: > I'm wondering if there's some fundamental problem with my current set-up > that's causing issues here... Are you terminating the drive bus correctly?

14 years, 6 months

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TRS-80 Model 100 disk/video interface box

by wheagy＠gmail.com

Hi, Any TRS 80 gurus that can point me in the right direction with the disk/video interface box? I recently picked one up and have it connected to my model 100. Everything appears to be working, but when I start the interface box, it requests a system disk. Is this required to use the interface box, or is there a way to go right to the mode to display 80 columns and skip the boot disk in the interface box? I have the owner's manual, unfortunately the disk is missing and it appears the disk is required to get the interface box to do anything? Any pointers where I might find the software? Thanks, Win

14 years, 6 months

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TRS-80 Model 100 disk/video interface box

by dm561＠torfree.net

------ Original Message: Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 12:04:41 -0500 From: Win Heagy <wheagy at gmail.com> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: TRS-80 Model 100 disk/video interface box Hi, Any TRS 80 gurus that can point me in the right direction with the disk/video interface box? I recently picked one up and have it connected to my model 100. Everything appears to be working, but when I start the interface box, it requests a system disk. Is this required to use the interface box, or is there a way to go right to the mode to display 80 columns and skip the boot disk in the interface box? I have the owner's manual, unfortunately the disk is missing and it appears the disk is required to get the interface box to do anything? Any pointers where I might find the software? Thanks, Win -------Reply: No, unfortunately you need the disk to load the required firmware into both the DVI and the M100 and I don't believe anyone has taken the time yet to figure out how to image/restore that format. Send me your address off-list and I'll send you a copy. You might also want to join the 'Model T' mailing list: http://www.bitchin100.com/ And of course there's *THE* place for everything M100/102/200-related: http://www.club100.org/ mike

14 years, 6 months

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DEC workstations FTGH in SF Bay Area, CA, US

by classiccmp＠crash.com

Time to thin the herd - I have a number of DEC machines that are free to a good home, though beer fund donations will be accepted. Available for pickup in central Berkeley by appointment, or I may be able to deliver to some parts of the East or South Bay at my convenience. I'll also take them to a Mailboxes Etc equivalent to be packed and shipped if you really want to pay for that... Here's what's on offer: DEC 3000/300LX - Alpha 21064, can get to PROM monitor on all of these #1 - 32MB RAM, 1 x RZ25L HDD (~500MB) #2 - 256MB RAM, 1 x RZ25L HDD (~500MB) #3 - 160MB RAM, no HDD but bracket is included DECstation 3100 - MIPS R2000, don't have MMJ or video cables, can't verify #1 - Can see VSIMM and 4 SIMMs, no HDD DECstation 5000/133 - MIPS R3000?, no graphics, no response on the DB25 serial ports #1 - 32MB RAM, 1 x RZ25L HDD VAXstation 3100 m38 - don't have MMJ or video cables, can't verify #1 - Can see 2 RAM daughterboards, no HDD, 8 bit graphics board? #2 - At least 1 RAM board, 1 x RZ23E HDD (100MB?), 1 x RX23 floppy, graphics board First come, first served based on email. --/Steve/. <smj (a) crash (d) com>

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

On 1/9/2012 6:31 AM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > Josh Dersch wrote: >> (Now I just have to figure out why I can't get the FDC to write >> floppies correctly...) > Which FDC? I've had trouble with the original 1793 controller chips > (the early programmed ones with the painted over window on top) going > bad on a couple of 16FDCs I have. Replacing with a newer hard programmed > plastic package chip and then recalibrating the data sep circuit solved > a bunch of problems. The 4FDCs tended to just be "twitchy". I think > there was a known problem with the controller chip used on them. Right now I have both a 16FDC and a 64FDC to play with (one is on loan). I'm using Dave Dunfield's RDOS transfer utilities to upload the "INIT" software into RAM from a PC. From there I can initialize floppies (single-sided, single-density), and this appears to work -- it goes through all 40 sectors (5.25" drive) and the drive steps and no errors are reported. Then INIT attempts to write the filesystem to the drive and it fails (it's a "Home Error" on Track 0, Surface 0, Sector 8, if I recall). Ignoring that and using the RDOS utilities to attempt to write a disk image fail similarly ("Err-H 34" IIRC). I've tried a pile of different disks and three different floppy drives -- a Tandon TM-100 (300 RPM), a modified 1.2M 5.25" drive that runs at 300RPM, and a standard 1.2M drive (360RPM) and all three fail in exactly the same way. (I don't currently have an 8" drive I can wire up, I need to build a cable...) I've also tried swapping the cable out, and both the 16FDC and the 64FDC fail identically. I'm wondering if there's some fundamental problem with my current set-up that's causing issues here... - Josh

14 years, 6 months

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teaching programming to kids

by gerhard.kreuzer＠liftoff.at

Try this out: http://phrogram.com/ With best regards Gerhard

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

On 1/4/2012 8:20 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > Josh Dersch wrote: >> How does the "phantom" line work? I see references to this in some of >> my S-100 manuals but I'm not clear how it works (who raises/lowers it, >> when, etc...) > It can be a little bit "implementation dependent" but usually there are > cards that assert phantom (it is active low, there has to be a pull up > on it somewhere (the CPU card I think)) and cards that "honor" phantom. > When an address is presented to the bus, any phantom asserting card that > whishes to override that address pulls the phantom line low. A phantom > honoring card that would normally respond to the address will instead > suppress any activity. Note that this system does not prevent multiple > phantom asserting or phantom honoring cards from stepping on each other. > Careful system configuration is still the responsibility of the builder. > In the case of the Cromemco FDC cards, the FDC becomes a phantom asserter. > Any RAM card that the system has that resides in the same address space > ($C000-$CFFF in the case of a 4FDC) must honor phantom. The CPU presents > an address to the bus, the FDC card does an address decode, determines that > it is an address it wants to respond to and activates the ROM (the CE (chip > enable) pin on the ROM is also active low) asserting PHANTOM at the same > time, disabling the RAM card. When you deactivate the RDOS ROM with the > poke to the I/O address, then the FDC card will no longer activate the ROM, > PHANTOM will no longer be asserted and the RAM card will respond to the > address previously occupied by RDOS. I run CDOS in a full 64K > configuration this way. > > Bill S. > Thanks for the clarification! I do have a 32K Static RAM card that seems to support the Phantom line, I'll have to play around with it once I find something to fill the last 16K. (Now I just have to figure out why I can't get the FDC to write floppies correctly...) - Josh

14 years, 6 months

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Cromemco FDC

by fraveydank＠gmail.com

On Jan 4, 2012, at 11:20 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote: > Josh Dersch wrote: >> How does the "phantom" line work? I see references to this in some of >> my S-100 manuals but I'm not clear how it works (who raises/lowers it, >> when, etc...) > > It can be a little bit "implementation dependent" but usually there are > cards that assert phantom (it is active low, there has to be a pull up > on it somewhere (the CPU card I think)) and cards that "honor" phantom. > When an address is presented to the bus, any phantom asserting card that > whishes to override that address pulls the phantom line low. A phantom > honoring card that would normally respond to the address will instead > suppress any activity. Note that this system does not prevent multiple > phantom asserting or phantom honoring cards from stepping on each other. This sounds a lot like the INHIBIT line on the Apple II bus. Is that roughly analogous? - Dave

14 years, 6 months

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Morrow Switchboard/Thinker Toys interface board schematics

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

I have a "Thinker Toys Universal Interface Board" here, and I've been trying to figure it out. This is an early version of the Morrow Switchboard. It has a copyright date of 1978. The manuals available online are for the more common Morrow Switchboard, Rev 2. Comparing this board to a Switchboard reveals some subtle differences, but by and large, the boards are the same. This older version I have has no solder mask, while the Rev 2 has a blue solder mask. There are minor component placement differences. The most drastic difference seems to be the comparators that read the switches at the top of the board. As found, the board had a LOT of trace cuts and jumps, and some traces just plain peeled off - all around those four LS266's at the upper right, directly under the SW5 and SW6. Attempting to figure out what was done is nearly impossible. The switches themselves are still connected to the 266's with factory traces, at least, most of them - but the rest of the inputs were a mess of wires with bad solder joints. Of course... it doesn't work, and the wiring of the switches doesn't even come close to matching the schematics. Not only that, the factory traces that remain don't match the schematics. I mean, the switches wouldn't even be in the same order. It's a mess. So... does anyone have the schematics for this thing? -Ian

14 years, 6 months

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Latest find

by quapla＠xs4all.nl

During a cleanup of stuff at our company, some interesting items popped up and which I could take home. A device which emulates 2 tu-58's but then as 2 3.5" floppies, 2 complete 11/34a board sets + operator console interface & 64KW mem one complete 11/24 (cpu. KT24, 128Kw mem) a test unit for SMD drives (for CDC & RM02/3/5), a spares kit for an LA-120/Decwriter III a box full with all kinds of DEC loop-back test connectors a crt testkit with 8 different tube connection boards. Ed -- Dit is een HTML vrije email / This is an HTML free email.

14 years, 6 months

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teaching programming to beginners

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Dave Riley wrote: > I shudder at the fact that many of our high schools use Java as an introductory language. I really can't see the point of starting someone out saying, "Your program runs from a special method in a special class (we'll teach you what both of those are later) labelled 'public static void main()'. Just wave the chicken correctly, and maybe if you stick with it long enough, you'll find out what that magic incantation means." Well put. Alas that was the situation I was facing in University, where Java was a compulsory assignment for all EE students (and thus probably their first encounter with programming for some of them). I had hitherto only dabbled in various BASIC dialects (CBM, Borland Turbo, and Visual BASIC) - and NO, I don't feel like a brain-crippled Zombie! - but had read my share of C code too, so one of the instructors asked me whether I was a C coder - but probably just because I had picked up that style of abbreviated, mixed-case procedure and variable naming... That however only came later, when I took a course "Systems programming in C". There at last, some really useful education about things like I/O, queues and scheduling (however *n*x-centric) started to happen - but that course was primarily targeted at grammar / high school level *teachers*! I was just barely allowed to take an oral exam and turn in the earned credits (an A-) for my diploma on a special agreement basis. A while later, I also got some exposure to FORTH when I started hacking around on Sun workstations, like modifying their boot net routines (to get away from the RARP requirement that some OBP revisions imposed) and adding support for nonstandard frame buffer resolutions. (BTW, anybody here been into the cgthree ASIC deep enough to tell me whether it can do interlacing and if so, how to frob it to?) I did also got to write some assembly for an AVR microcontroller in my pre-diploma thesis. Arno Kletzander ...sent from my HTC Magician PDA

14 years, 6 months

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Early electronic music..

by jdr_use＠bluewin.ch

While not a computer, it might still be of interest here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9671950.stm Jos

14 years, 6 months

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SIGSALY

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

I grabbed a copy of a free (!) publication from the Cryptologic Museum entitled "The start of the Digital Revolution: SIGSALY - Secure Digital Voice Communications in World War II". It mentions that you can visit the library and look at "The Green Hornet... America's Unbreakable Code for Secret Telephony" -- privately published in 1999 by D. E. Mitchell. It says it is very complete. And yes, the museum only has a mock up. But when you consider the noise disks, it's an amazing feat.

14 years, 6 months

4
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mini-M68000 home brew computer

by LYNCHAJ＠YAHOO.COM

Hi! One of the lesser known N8VEM home brew computers is the ECB mini-M68000 board. Presently it runs TUTOR 1.3 and we are planning on porting CP/M-68K Here is a description of the computer. It connects to the ECB bus to use various other home brew computer peripherals. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/file/48863865/baby%20M68K%20descr.txt All of the information is public and freely available. The PCBs are $20 each plus $2 shipping in the US and $5 elsewhere. http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/browse/#view=ViewFolder&param=ECB%20mini-M680 00 If you would like to build one of your own mini-M68000 please contact me at LYNCHAJ at YAHOO.COM The main discussion on the mini-M68000 is on the N8VEM mailing list http://groups.google.com/group/n8vem Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch

14 years, 6 months

1
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Vintage Macintosh SE2 in HB, CA

by jws＠jwsss.com

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/sys/2788398684.html not my listing, but not far if someone needs help getting it. Jim

14 years, 6 months

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HP HIL ID module: what's it for?

by legalize＠xmission.com

I keep seeing these listed on ebay and I don't understand what role they play in the HP HIL environment. Can someone enlighten me? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 version available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

14 years, 6 months

3
4
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Huhi.. TITS? for PDP11?

by holm＠freibergnet.de

Hi, As I already wrote before, I have an russian PDP11, an Elektronika E60. I'm repairing currently some spare boards. I do have diskettes with an TMOC Test System with some Hardwaretests: -TMOS- MONITOR DXTC 06-JUN-84 28K RESTARTADR: 152250 GELADEN VON LW : 0 UM DIE MITTEILUNG ABZUBRECHEN, DRUECKEN SIE CTRL/C(^C) ->MONITORBEFEHLE: F<CR> STELLT VERZOEGERUNGSWERT EIN D<CR> AUSGABE DIRECTORY AUF TERMINAL D/F<CR> KURZFASSUNG DIRECTORY AUF TERMINAL D/L<CR> AUSGABE DIRECTORY AUF DRUCKER D/L/F<CR> KURZFASSUNG DIRECTORY AUF DRUCKER R FILNAM<CR> LADET UND STARTET EIN PROGRAMM L FILNAM<CR> LADET EIN PROGRAMM IN SPEICHER S<CR> STARTET GELADENES PROGRAMM S ADR<CR> STARTET GELADENES PROGRAMM VON ADRESSE ADR C FILNAM<CR> BEFEHLSABARBEITUNG KETTENFILE C FILNAM/QV<CR> SCHNELLE BEFEHLSABARBEITUNG KETTENFILE (JEDER FILE NUR EINMAL) .D NUMMER FILNAM.TYP DATUM LAENGE START 000001 DXTC .BIN 11-DEC-84 17 000050 000002 UPD1 .BIN 9-JAN-85 17 000071 000003 UPD2 .BIN 23-JAN-85 31 000112 000004 XTECO .BIN 23-JAN-85 30 000151 000005 COPY .BIN 23-JAN-85 27 000207 000006 TMOC01.DIR 4-JUN-80 2 000242 000007 CPUC .BIC 11-DEC-84 17 000244 000010 CPUZA .BIC 11-DEC-84 17 000265 000011 CPUFP .BIC 11-DEC-84 16 000306 000012 INT .BIC 11-DEC-84 12 000326 000013 PIO .BIC 11-DEC-84 6 000342 000014 SYS .BIC 11-DEC-84 17 000350 000015 MEM .BIC 11-DEC-84 9 000371 000016 DXD .BIC 15-MAY-85 20 000402 000017 DXC .BIC 19-DEC-84 17 000426 000020 SIO .BIN 11-DEC-84 8 000447 000021 REAS .BIN 1-APR-83 13 000457 000022 013101.BIN 22-OCT-82 8 000474 000023 VT13 .BIN 1-JAN-70 24 000504 000024 UPIO .BIN 13-DEC-84 8 000534 000025 BOOT .BIN 13-DEC-84 2 000544 000026 MTC .BIN 9-JAN-85 14 000546 000027 MTD .BIC 9-JAN-85 12 000564 000030 001103.BIN 6-JUN-80 9 000600 000031 TT .BIN 23-JAN-85 24 000611 000032 T .BIC 12-APR-90 1 000641 000033 TOME .CCC 21-FEB-85 1 000642 000034 TST1 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000643 000035 TST2 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000651 000036 TST3 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000657 000037 TST4 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000665 000040 TST5 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000673 000041 TST6 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000701 000042 TST7 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000707 000043 TST8 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000715 000044 TST9 .BIC 24-JUN-81 6 000723 000045 HILFE .TXT 24-JUN-81 5 000731 000046 KOMUPD.TXT 24-JUN-81 6 000736 000047 PUFFER.BIN 9-APR-80 1 000744 000050 DOR00 .BIN 11-APR-84 1 000745 000051 0 .BIN 11-APR-84 1 000746 000052 I2 .CCC 27-MAR-85 1 000747 000053 DIR .CCC 21-MAY-85 1 000750 000054 MK .BIN 28-FEB-85 1 000751 000055 ZETST .CCC 1-JUL-85 1 000752 000056 ZETST .BAK 1-JUL-85 1 000753 ... this is a german version. Is this an old XXDP or what? I've tried to run the Program REAS.BIn and get that: .R REAS TITS 75 19DEC79 FOR: 11/03 WITH: TRAP VGDISP LDEV PDEV ...entered some numbers and finally an 'L', than it hung. Maybe it wanted to load something from the Tape Reader or so, there is none connected... 1207 421 12706 ? ? 105067 L What the heck is TITS? (Yes, I know that womans have tits, and I know how to mount them :-)) I don't think that this is a russian Program, does anybody knows something about it? Kind Regards, Holm -- Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, Freiberger Stra?e 42, 09600 Obersch?na, USt-Id: DE253710583 www.tsht.de, info at tsht.de, Fax +49 3731 74200, Mobil: 0172 8790 741

14 years, 6 months

2
2
0 0

Beehive International's first terminal in 1968

by legalize＠xmission.com

I've been reading through the documentation included with some Beehive B100s that I purchased. Included in that was a statement in a brochure that Beehive started with their first terminal product in 1968. I'm interested if anyone knows any additional information about these early Beehive terminals. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 version available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

14 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Can PDP-11/23 boot MSCP devices

by pontus＠update.uu.se

Hi The topic says is all, can a PDP-11/23 (on a M8189 card) boot from MSCP devices? My guess is that you need proper roms on your BDV11 ? Would these usually be included? Regards, Pontus.

14 years, 6 months

8
23
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Xyplex terminal server

by tsw-cc＠johana.com

I have a nice Xyplex 1640 terminal server that for the most part works just fine. The little problem is that I am attempting to get the memory card functional. To that end, I enter the command: Xyplex>> show card status To which I get the response: Xyplex -786- Memory Card Feature disabled So my question is: How do I enable this nice feature. Is it a function of the software image (I'm using V6.3S15), or some magic command that I need to sprinkle holy water upon? I write this message here, since this is an older device and somebody here probably knows the secret incantation. As always, I thank all for their help. -- Tom Watson tsw at johana.com being at home for the present.

14 years, 6 months

2
1
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Anyone have a case or memory for an HP 9000 712/60

by james＠slor.net

I have a 712/60 in fine working condition, but the top case is darn near splitting in half. If anyone happens to have a spare case in good shape, I'd love to replace the cover on mine. Secondary to that, I also wouldn't mind upgrading the memory to something bigger than the 32 MB that's in it now. I'm in Indianapolis, IN. Thanks! James

14 years, 6 months

7
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teaching programming to kids - Re: Looking for 8080/Z80 BASIC

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message: Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:50:11 -0500 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> > There have always been lazy, disinterested programmers who don't care > about becoming better programmers. Now it's pretty much ALL of them. ---------------- I thought _you_ were a programmer; shouldn't that be 'us' instead of 'them'? Oh, I see, you exclude yourself of course, and perhaps even a few select members of this group, right? What other "them"s do you make denigrating generalizations about? Plumbers? Women? Jews?

14 years, 6 months

4
5
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Steve Gibson's SBC6120 loader

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I was looking at Steve Gibson's tools for playing with the SBC6120 at http://www.grc.com/pdp-8/os8utils-sbc.htm and started wondering. Does anyone here know how to do under Linux what those three utilities do? I suppose the WinToAta and AtaToWin could be replicated with dd(1) and some glue shell scripting. The third one appears to be a disk partitioner. What's going on there? -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

14 years, 6 months

1
0
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Contact request: Curtis Wilbar

by mtapley＠swri.edu

All, apologies, I'm trying to reach Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. If you have contact info for him, please let me know at your convenience. Thanks, -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

14 years, 6 months

1
0
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The PDP-8/L at the RICM is running!

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

After seven months of Saturdays the PDP-8/L at the Rhode Island Computer Museum is finally running. It had 22 broken flip-chips, almost 20% of the modules in the system. Without lots of help from Warren Stearns, suggestions from Vincent Slyngstad, and donated spare modules from Vince Pavlicek we never would gotten it running. See: https://sites.google.com/a/ricomputermuseum.org/home/Home/equipment/pdp-8-l for details on the system and the debug process. Does anyone know of a source for peripherals that we use with the 8/L? -- Michael Thompson

14 years, 6 months

6
12
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VCF East keynote announced

by evan＠snarc.net

Hi all -- this year's VCF East 8.0 keynote speaker is Tom Kurtz, who co-developed BASIC while at Dartmouth in the mid-1960s. There will (probably) be a second equally awesome speaker announced soon .... I wish I could reveal who, but he's not confirmed yet. ;) The show is May 5-6 this year, at our usual location in New Jersey. - Evan

14 years, 6 months

1
0
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Cromemco FDC

by james＠attfield.co.uk

> James Attfield wrote: > > > > FYI the ROM on the 'FDC flips in and out the entire top 32K bank. > > I just double checked the schematics and this is not correct. > The 16FDC feeds address lines 15-12 through a 74ls30 to do a > specific decode for a 4K address range, normally set to $C000-$CFFF. > If the high four address bits do not match, the card will not > respond. > > Bill S. My sloppy work, apologies, I was referring to the top bank of the memory cards - the top 32K of a 64KZ will remain disabled until RDOS has relocated itself during boot or test sequences then it switches it back in. Ignore comment about port 40H - that is used for bank switching in 8-bit systems. Jim

14 years, 6 months

1
0
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Cromemco FDC

by james＠attfield.co.uk

> Hi Jim, > Are you the same Jim I'm corresponding with elsewhere about a broken > 256/1024KZ? > If so, you and I can discuss the 64FDC off-list; I haven't heard from Jerry. > I do have some IMI drives, both the 8" 11MB and the 5" 5MB and 20MB units, > but I'm pretty sure at least some of them are non-functional.What > size/capacity are you looking for? > IMI drives were also used by Corvus; as a matter of fact the two companies > ultimately merged. The IMI 20MB mechanism was also available with a normal > ST412/506 interface card and used in XT clones etc., in case you have a > defective drive with a good IMI board and can find one of those drives. Hi Mike, yes I am - I'm about to start in on the 256KZ just now. Agreed we take this off-list - I'll drop you an email. Jim

14 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

FORTRAN vs. BASIC [was RE: Right toolf for the job (Was: teaching programming to kids]

by RichA＠vulcan.com

From: Fred Cisin Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 7:54 PM On Wed, 4 Jan 2012, allison wrote: >> Never used Fortran. > Think of it as an old-style version of BASIC. WRITE is like PRINTUSING, > with FORMAT being where you specify the print pattern. Any variable whose > name starts with the letters I J K L M or N (alphabetic letters between I > and N (which is the start of "INteger")) is assumed to be an int, unless > you tell it otherwise. Many brands of it require giving a line number to > every line. CALL instead of GOSUB, . . . There are so few differences > that you can list them! You corrected/clarified the statement regarding "line numbers", but it's still not correct. FORTRAN does not have line numbers, it has *statement* numbers, and they need not be sequential, nor increasing from beginning of program to end. Certain constructs, such as the DO loop and the FORMAT-driven I/O statements, *require* statement numbers: DO 10 I=1,10 WRITE (7,100) I 10 CONTINUE 100 FORMAT (1X,1I3) Statement numbers occur in the first 5 columns of the input card; a character other than a space in column 6 marks a card as a continuation of the preceding statement. Spacing within columns 1-5 is not significant. >> My first language was Darthmuth BASIC on GE Tymeshare. > I've always assumed that Kurtz and Kemeny's intent was just to make > getting started in FORTRAN a little easier for beginners. You don't have to assume. They state as much in the early documents. Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/

14 years, 6 months

3
3
0 0

Fwd: IEEE Spectrum article about UNIX

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

One of my colleagues sent this; I figured the list might find it interesting. paul Begin forwarded message: > ... > Subject: IEEE Spectrum article about UNIX > > Thought you might find this interesting: > > http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-strange-birth-and-long-life… >

14 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Visiting the Cryptologic museum

by mark.kahrs＠gmail.com

Over the break I visited the NSA's museum (just a stone's throw from Ft. Meade). For those who like crypto machines, it is definitely, definitely worth a visit. The curators and staff are very enthusiastic (they even brought out a machine from the back vault) and of course you can buy an NSA t-shirt if your heart desires. They had a mix-up with the Y-MP processor board and memory board on display (I told them) but otherwise it's fun just to see a Cray I up-close-and-personal. They have the tape jukebox being run from a PC. And the CM is flashing lights, but that's about it. The modern crypto gear is shown but the commentary is sparse at best. (In case you're wondering, the boxes are empty -- so I was told). There is little mention of public key cryptosystems. Or controversial questions like key length or key escrow. But worth a detour? Definitely.

14 years, 6 months

6
7
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teaching programming to kids - Re: Looking for 8080/Z80 BASIC

by dm561＠torfree.net

------- Original Message: Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:09:54 -0500 From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> On 01/05/2012 10:52 AM, Liam Proven wrote: ... >> I have read the first few pages of The Little Schemer, generally hailed >> as the best introduction to Scheme there is, and I found it completely >> incomprehensible - and I am a skilled computer professional with around a >> quarter century of experience. --- > It is my opinion that you should not feel it's unusual that you don't > "get" that stuff even though you are "a computer professional". ... > The only reason *I* see the difference is because I do both...otherwise > I'd probably not get it either. -------- Reply: Well! I guess he told you! Too funny...

14 years, 6 months

2
1
0 0

Cromemco FDC

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------------------- Original Message: Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 13:38:16 -0000 From: "James Attfield" <james at attfield.co.uk> Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 10:02:11 -0800 (PST) From: Jerry Wright <g-wright at att.net> Subject: Re: Looking for 8080/Z80 BASIC >> Josh, I would love to get your 64FDC for my Cromemco 68020 machine that >> is missing one. I have 16 FDC and other Croemeco Z-80 Boards to go along >> with it. > Which model 68020 Cromemco is it? I might be able to find a spare 64FDC... > mike Long shot, but if you have another or Josh doesn't take it I'd love to give it a home. I have a complete Cromemco board set here in an IMS-5000 chassis and a pair of TM848's but have consistently failed to get the 16-FDC to talk to them reliably. I'd dearly love to get a 64-FDC for it to go with the ZPU and/or an STD hard disk controller (or an IMI drive to go with the WDI-II controller I have). Anyone? FYI the ROM on the 'FDC flips in and out the entire top 32K bank. During boot RDOS ensures that the top 32K flips in and RDOS then flips out giving a clean 64K map. All done through port 40H. Jim -----------------------Reply: Hi Jim, Are you the same Jim I'm corresponding with elsewhere about a broken 256/1024KZ? If so, you and I can discuss the 64FDC off-list; I haven't heard from Jerry. I do have some IMI drives, both the 8" 11MB and the 5" 5MB and 20MB units, but I'm pretty sure at least some of them are non-functional.What size/capacity are you looking for? IMI drives were also used by Corvus; as a matter of fact the two companies ultimately merged. The IMI 20MB mechanism was also available with a normal ST412/506 interface card and used in XT clones etc., in case you have a defective drive with a good IMI board and can find one of those drives. m

14 years, 6 months

1
0
0 0

Cromemco FDC

by dm561＠torfree.net

----- Original Message: Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:10:08 -0500 From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> James Attfield wrote: > >> FYI the ROM on the 'FDC flips in and out the entire top 32K bank. > I just double checked the schematics and this is not correct. > The 16FDC feeds address lines 15-12 through a 74ls30 to do a > specific decode for a 4K address range, normally set to $C000-$CFFF. > If the high four address bits do not match, the card will not > respond. > Bill S. -------------------------------------------------- The 16FDC does indeed have a set of jumpers to select a 4kB block, normally at $C000, but the 64FDC that we were talking about only uses A15, i.e. the upper 32kB; also, the 64FDC's RDOS ROM is 8kB vs. the 16FDC's 4kB. In any case, the memory boards are usually configured to map out the upper 32kB.

14 years, 6 months

1
0
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