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

DEC OS/8 Question (getting an error TOO BIG INIT)

by rshepprd＠gmail.com

I?m just going to guess (I have no experience with this architecture) ? would that mean either file corruption ? or possibly the last record needs to be padded out with ?empty? blocks to be the same size as the others?

6 years, 2 months

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Converting Documents

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Hi All, somebody scanned documents for me in .pdfs. Looking into them, they are pages of jpgs embedded in .pdf .. (100 pages resulting in 350MBytes ...) Any easy way to convert them into some b/w .pdf file? It is all text, no drawings ... Pointers? Thanks

6 years, 2 months

3
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Old FORTRAN programs, libraries, graphics

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Being stuck at home, was musing the idea to look into some graphics software from the '70's, or early 80's ... Looking for some wire frames, hidden line removal, 3d graphics... Any pointers? View month ago or longer, somebody on this list recovered some large package of FORTRAN code, and wanted to invest it, but I think it was posted under a wrong subject, so I can't find it anymore ... THANKS!

6 years, 2 months

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ISO: Documentation for Interphase SMD 2181 disk controller

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Subject line says it all. The Lambda uses this as its disk controller and it's looking like the one in mine needs some debugging. There doesn't seem to be any documentation for this controller out there. There are docs for the Interphase SMD 2180 on Bitsavers but it appears to be a very different board. Thanks! Josh

6 years, 2 months

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State of New Jersey needs COBOL programmers

by commodorejohn＠gmail.com

> From: Neil Thompson <albiorix at gmail.com> > > I'm convinced that Dijksta (and anyone else who came out with similar > comments were full of horseshit. In my opinion, it's the ability to > translate a real world "thing" into an algorithm that is the essense of > programming, and anyone who has managed to learn (particularly on their > own, as many of us did) that ability has learned something that transcends > the language (or tool) you use to implement the algorithm. There's definitely truth to this. The main thing that makes a good programmer isn't memorization of language features or syntax, it's good mental organization and thinking habits; the ability and practice of really *thinking through* the steps involved in solving a problem, building a solid mental model of the relevant data structures and algorithms, and then breaking those down into component steps until one arrives at a suitable representation in native-language operations. If someone has a good understanding of that, they can apply it (with varying amounts of blood, sweat, and tears) in any language; if they don't, there's no language in the world that can impart it to them (no matter *what* the flavor-of-the-decade Savior Of All Programming Forever is - "Try Swift! It's the new Pascal!") *That said,* there are definitely some languages that are more conducive to building these habits than others (and, within each group, many that emphasize different aspects more or less strongly.) I can't speak to COBOL as I've never had cause to get any experience with it, but I would say that BASIC (as in, the old-school, unstructured BASICs of the Bad Old Days) really does teach you a bunch of habits that you end up needing to un-learn as soon as you start working with better languages (not even *newer* languages - ALGOL and Lisp both predate it.) Line-#-and-GOTO programming imposes the same burden of bookkeeping and space-management on the programmer as direct machine-code monitor hacking and the most primitive assemblers, but without any rational explanation as to why, so that any novice attempting to create a program of any real complexity ends up being instilled with a superstitious dread over the ludicrous non-question of where to put things - do I space statements N numbers apart? What if I need to add more than N-1 intervening statements later!? Should I place my subroutines on even 1000s for easy reference? Will the line numbers even go high enough!? - the lack of scoped/local variables or any parameter-passing mechanism for GOSUB makes any non-trivial modularization nearly impossible, and the READ/DATA structure is just flat-out demented. And all that mental exhaustion *before* the newbie even gets to the *real* challenges of learning to program! Now, Dijkstra was a self-important ponce given to wild all-or-nothing proclamations and manifestos (manifestes? Manifesti?) and even if we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that his statements quoted here were meant tongue-in-cheek they're still pretty ridiculous. And God knows the Appointed Language Messiah in that great holy war, Pascal, was its own special breed of Hell for novices and experts alike (array size as type qualifier? Just kill me now...) And it's definitely true that plenty of people can and did learn to program in BASIC and still went on to learn better and do Good Things down the line. But there absolutely are such things as bad programming languages.

6 years, 2 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 67, Issue 6

by athornton＠gmail.com

On Apr 6, 2020, at 10:00 AM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > > They play with the > pennies to discover that they can roll around, and learn that they're not > food or nasal suppositories, I was with you up till here, but wait, what? I?m one of those kids who was just the right age. Five years older and I would have been in the Car Club, and would have ended up being a damn good mechanic without a lot of career opportunities. Five years later and not every damn computer on the planet would have come with a BASIC interpreter in ROM and who knows what my tinkering instinct would have led to. But I, born in 1971, had an Atari 2600 and its BASIC programming cartridge, and in the fall on 1982 I got a VIC-20, and sometime in 1983 my parent bought me an Apple //e. So I did grow up with Microsoft BASIC as my first language, and, sure, it doesn?t lend itself well to structured programming, but then when I wanted to know ?well how do you do _that_?? I ended up in 6502 assembly, and picked up P-System PASCAL and Logo along the way. Then in the summer of ?89 I interned in a physics department, and got OK at Turbo Pascal and sort-of-vaguely-able-to-write C. College brought REXX on (IBM VM/CMS; I didn?t get an Amiga until the 2010s, well after its relevance) and Perl and Scheme and SPARC assembly, and grad school (both for irrelevant degrees: Ancient Mediterranean Civilization and History?but wait, there?s a footnote) 680x0 assembly and Java. (The footnote is, well history of computing, so I got a lot of deep-dive stuff into other languages and architectures.) Since then, whatever I needed to learn when I needed to learn it. I?ve programmed COBOL for money, which has joined the ranks of things I?m not super-proud to have done for money but hey it paid the bills when I needed it. Since then?Python, C, Go, TypeScript, whatever was needed. These days it?s mostly Python. But really what it was was that I was lucky enough to be in that small age window where computers were, one the one hand, something middle-class families could afford while still being capable of doing cool things, and on the other hand, simple enough that a smart adolescent could pretty much understand them more-or-less in their entirety. Adam

6 years, 2 months

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State of New Jersey needs COBOL programmers

by boris＠summitclinic.com

At 16:12 05-04-20, you wrote: >On 4/5/20 6:28 PM, geneb via cctalk wrote: >>On Sun, 5 Apr 2020, Neil Thompson via cctalk wrote: >> >>>I'm convinced that Dijksta (and anyone else who came out with similar >>>comments were full of horseshit.? In my opinion, it's the ability to >>>translate a real world "thing" into an algorithm that is the essense of >>>programming, and anyone who has managed to learn (particularly on their >>>own, as many of us did) that ability has learned something that transcends >>>the language (or tool) you use to implement the algorithm.? When I first >>>started programming professionally, we had "programmers" (or sometimes >>>designers) who specified the algorithms and "coders" who implemented them. >>>That never worked well >>Yep.? You can write horrible code in /any/ language. ;) >>BTW, I scanned & uploaded this last week.? Oddly relevant. >>https://archive.org/details/cobolcodingform > >I still have lots of them. And Printer Output Forms. And Fortran >Programming Forms. And all kinds of other Programming forms. And >Flow Chart Forms. You know all that stuff we actually used to >engineer programs before the software engineers came along and said >we were all doing wrong. > >bill Ran into a bunch of my FORTRAN programs from over 50 years ago as well as the obligatory flowcharts I would do first before writing a single line of code. Code written in pencil so could erase errors and only then would I use a keypunch for final version. Also a few FORTRAN coding forms. Back then, with sometimes a 48 hour delay between submitting my card deck and getting program output, it was well worth spending an hour or two to print out contents of cards and carefully check that there weren't missing commas and or other errors that would mean correcting the stupid mistake and resubmitting ones card deck. Never got into COBOL as my main interest was real-time computing and so next step up was access to PDP-8 which had FOCAL and quickly learned that programming in assembler was the way to go. Still like assembly language programming and suspect my early experience of learning to code in an environment where there wasn't really a dividing line between software and hardware (people would build custom boards for PDP-8's/PDP-11's to speed up data acquisition) that the biggest change I made in my programming style was to switch to VB as it allowed me to easily create the graphical interface I needed but still let me link to C or Assembler routines in my VB6 code until windoze became too locked down to be of any use. Still haven't got all my VB6 programs running under Wine on Linux but at least Linux has FORTRAN and C. Part of what I've noticed is that I can't sit down at a keyboard and write code (as one is supposed to do nowadays) and it turns into a total mess. I still use flowcharts when I'm dealing with tricky code and the nice thing about flowcharts is that one can easily create a hardware state machine from them. Was nice in 1970's, but now a Propeller chip, even using interperted Spin code, works far faster than the TTL state machines I used to make. Other paleo-programmer related deficits include being totally unable to use RDB and still make use of linked lists and hash tables to create my databases as have been doing this for 50 years. Software Tools was probably the most important book I read in 1983 as it got me out of my rut of writing a massive FORTRAN program to do a specific task that I'd have no idea how to modify even 6 months later to small useful tools that could be strung together. Back then engineers I worked with would have total disdain for Comp-Sci types who would still be working out their code indentation scheme while we would already be using a quickly written throwaway program to perform a particular task. The other thing I should bring up is that my wife is after me to get rid of a lot of my old books. While rumaging through the attic of my shop found boxes of old computer books which I'd like to keep but have been told that if I haven't looked at them in 15 years that it's unlikely I will in future. Will check in see if some of them have been scanned onto bitsavers or other sites but have 68000 programming books, 6502 and other microprocessor related books as well as lots of Mac books when I just had to get into the guts of a Mac to do what I wanted. Have a number of PDP-11 Unibus cards which likely won't use and will have to get all of that sorted out. Once have a list of what I've got will post it on my web site. I live in Kamloops, BC if there's anyone on this list who lives close by who's interested.

6 years, 2 months

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OT: Weller soldering irons

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

A few hours ago I started looking at three "smart" light switches that need LEDs replaced, and switched on the soldering iron, and ... nope. It's a Weller WP80 and it seems the sensor in the heating element has died. I discovered that only after resetting and then dismantling the control unit to check it out with a DVM, of course. Clearly I need either a new WP80 element, or a new soldering iron. I could get a WSP80 for far less than the cost of a new element for the WP80, but I'd get the element faster. So which, if any, is the better iron? What would you guys do? I begrudge paying UKP 92 for a new element. That's the cheapest I could find -- /half/ the most expensive price -- but just seems ludicrously extortionate for what amounts to a piece of swaged stainless steel tube with a short length of resistance wire and an even shorter length of thermocouple wire inside it. I could buy a whole new solder station with more bells and whistles, albeit of a "lesser brand", for less. -- Pete Pete Turnbull

6 years, 2 months

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Prime documentation

by drb＠msu.edu

For those interested in playing with Jim's emulator, a few resources: Bitsavers has some doco and bits: http://bitsavers.org/pdf/prime/ http://bitsavers.org/bits/Prime/ I have been assembling what I hope will be the definitive Prime info site. It's not complete, but contains manuals scanned by, among others, AEK and Jim Wilcoxson, as well as material from my Prime-using past, etc. I have more documentation and software to add as I have time. https://sysovl.info/reference_prime.html Of particular use might be this writeup on installing PRIMOS Revs 22 or 23 on the emulator. It's set up for the old demo version of the emulator, so needs a fair amount of updating, but may help get you started. I'll work on it soonish. https://sysovl.info/reference_prime_drb_installing_primos.html De

6 years, 2 months

6
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pdp11/05 key?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

From: Tom Uban > Does anyone have information on having a replacement PDP-11/05 key made? Google is your friend; here: https://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/05#Keys I don't recall if there's anough info there to create new keys without an original to copy. At one point I made a run of copies (after posting a call here); I suppose I could do so again. Noel

6 years, 2 months

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APL-11

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

>According to the Ref Manual, that's the one I was looking for. >Now to mount the RL on RSTS and see what it takes to build it >there. I'll let the list know how I make out in case someone >else is interested. > >bill The RL02 image is RSX Files-11, and I?m not sure if you can mount that with RSTS. I could move it to a RT-11 formatted RL02 or if your RSTS system is on HECnet I can put it where you could get it that way. I looked for the original DOS-11 formatted DEC distribution tape but can?t find it at this time. Let me know if you need anything. Mark

6 years, 2 months

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Identifying Machine for DEC Memory

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I mistakenly bought some memory thinking it was for a VAXstation 4000 VLC. It turns out that it isn't. It physically fits a VAXstation 4000 Model 60, but putting it in that machine the machine fails to power up. The part number is 50-19464-02, and I am unable to identify what machine it works in. Can anyone tell me where to find out? Thanks Rob

6 years, 2 months

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ISO: Cipher F880 tape drive, Fujitsu Eagle disk drive

by derschjo＠gmail.com

I'm working on restoring an LMI Lambda, which is missing both its tape drive and its disk drive. If anyone has a Cipher F880 9-track drive or a Fujitsu Eagle SMD drive, drop me a line. Be nice if they were in working condition, but so long as they're repairable I can work with 'em. Thanks! Josh

6 years, 2 months

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FYI: ACM library opened

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

This might be of interest to many of the people on the list. paul > Begin forwarded message: > > >> Also, ACM has currently opened up all of its digital archives during these pandemic times, ... https://dl.acm.org/action/doSearch

6 years, 2 months

5
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Monroe 7860

by wcn440＠gmail.com

I know this doesn't count as a general purpose computer, but does anybody have detailed technical information about the Monroe 7860 business calculator/printer? I think it was produced in the early 1980's. Specifically, I'm looking for information about the rom OS for this machine. e.g. are there more built-in commands like "dir". Maybe, is there a basic interpreter I can get at? On the hardware side, does anybody know about the mag stripe paper that the machine is supposed to work with? It appears to store user data on the mag stripe on the paper that it prints on...interesting idea, although limited. Thanks. Bill Newman

6 years, 2 months

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VAX/Smalltalk-80?

by commodorejohn＠gmail.com

Just in the middle of getting a fresh OpenVMS install set up on my VAXStation (the original having been done years ago when I barely had any idea what I was doing,) and looking through various repositories for interesting software to put on there, and I got to thinking about something I recalled reading about a few years back. I know from the book "Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice" - http://sdmeta.gforge.inria.fr/FreeBooks/BitsOfHistory/BitsOfHistory.pdf - that, back when, there were two implementations of Smalltalk-80 for VAXen - the first was Unix-based, done by an independent research group, while the second ran under VMS and was actually developed within DEC. This version - VAX/Smalltalk-80 - was headed up by Stoney Ballard and Stephen Shirron; anybody know if there's a surviving copy out there, if it was ever available outside DEC to begin with?

6 years, 2 months

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REL APL-11

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 10:58:46 -0400 > From: Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com <mailto:bill.gunshannon at hotmail.com>> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org>> > Subject: APL-11 > Message-ID: > <MWHPR22MB0878D888143DFB8F78B81AE2EDCB0 at MWHPR22MB0878.namprd22.prod.outlook.com <mailto:MWHPR22MB0878D888143DFB8F78B81AE2EDCB0 at MWHPR22MB0878.namprd22.prod.outlook.com>> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed > > > Haven't given up on DIBOL. May try installing the RT-11 version and > see if it runs. > > But now another language of interest has reared its ugly head. :-) > > Anybody have an image of the tape for APL-11? Manual claims it > runs on all of the PDP-11 OSes and it is another language from > my past that I haven't touched (other than to read some programs > out of curiosity) in more than two decades. Bill, I have the APL-11 V2.1 source files on a RL02 disk image. I will make it available at http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.zip <http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.zip> Once you mount the disk image with Simh, the are two ready to run task images that will run under RSX11M or M+ In [201,200]APL6OK.TSK and APL7OK.TSK that are the REAL*4 and REAL*8 versions of APL-11. On the disk are the Original .MAC sources as well as files from a RSX SIG tape that modified APL-11 for I/D under RSX11M+ that increased The workspace (.BXWA from ~30000 to ~60000 bytes). It also contains a character set for Vt220 for the APL character set. When you install the APL task experiment with the /INC to maximize the available workspace, On my system, I can INS APL6.TSK/INC=37000 to max the workspace for the single precision version. Also, the scanned APL-11 reference manual can be downloaded at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL-11-Ref-Man.pdf <http://www.rsx11m.com/APL-11-Ref-Man.pdf> and the APL11 installation guide at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL11ins.pdf <http://www.rsx11m.com/APL11ins.pdf> The RSX SIG files that have the info to change APL-11 to an I/D RSX11M+ task are at [370,360] on the RL02 disk. I remember having this work back in the mid-1980s butI have not been able to get it to work today. If I link it with ODT it seems to blow up when the first overlay is loaded. If anyone could help with that I?d really appreciate it! Best, Mark > > I have the source to something called APL-11 for Unix but it is > not the same thing. Actually, not even close. :-) > > Would love to see a few pointers. > > Oh, and in case anyone is curious about my endeavors.... > The SIMH system I am using now is based on the 11/70 and was built > with only 2M of memory. Why you would do that under SIMH where there > is really no memory constraint at all, I can not fathom. I used to > have a bunch of 11/44's and that has been my favorite since my original > 11/24 system died long, long ago./ I am going to configure a SIMH > System using the 11/44 as my model and then reinstall everything in > order to have a really good system for playing with this stuff. > > Sure wish there was a way to find some of the third party stuff from > the sourcebooks. A lot of nice software that should have been saved > for historical reasons, if nothing else, has been lost. > > bill

6 years, 2 months

5
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Power Supply Recap

by david＠thecoolbears.org

There's been a lot of discussion of late about replacing power supply capacitors in DEC power supplies. I have a BA123 and I believe that it uses an H7260 power supply. I feel like it might be a good idea to replace the capacitors before a disaster occurs. I haven't been able to find a schematic for the H7260 and I'm wondering which/how many caps need to be replaced. Does anyone know what specific part# to replace them with? I'd prefer to purchase the replacements before I dig in to the machine, that way I don't have to remove the power supply twice. I also own a BA23. Does anyone know if that power supply uses the same caps as the H7260 and how many are required for that supply?

6 years, 2 months

1
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H7874 power supply

by bob＠jfcl.com

Does anybody have a maintenance print or service manual for the DEC H7874? This is the power supply used in the BA4xx and R400x cabinets. As you might guess, I have one that tries to power up but shuts down after a second. Probably a bad capacitor (or several), but this thing is ridiculously complicated and not all that easy to disassemble, either. I'd like to be able to trouble shoot it rather than just firing the proverbial parts cannon at it. FWIW, none of the electrolytic (of which there are many) have obviously failed - no leaking, no bulges, etc. Of course, that proves fairly little. Thanks, Bob Armstrong

6 years, 2 months

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APL-11

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

>Problem with that is all the files get jumbled into one directory >and I am sure the build will want them in the right proj,uid locations >in order to work. I am thinking a backup tape may do the job. SPD's >seem to say that later versions of RSX and RSTS had compatible BACKUP >formats. We'll see. If that don't work there is always kermit. :-) >It must be possible because the installation manual says the >installation tape works for all four PDP-11 OSes. Bill, I?ve looked extensively to see if I can find the original distribution tape image and can?t find it. At one point DEC donated the APL-11 to DECUS and I think that is when I got it back in 1984 or so. The files I have include the Macro-11 source code which as near as I can tell was not on the DEC distribution when it was a layered product. I now think that the copy of APL-11 I have must have come from a restored backup tape from my old system. In the DEC distribution, it was a DOS-11 tape which could be read by all the PDP-11 OSes as you say. I just attempted to create a DOS-11 tape similar to the DEC distribution, but when I try to run the installation against it I get a task build of APL that doesn?t work. It immediately exits and I think is due to some differences between the auto overlay code in RSX11M+ V4.6 and the V2.1 M+ that I used to have. I added the .MAC files and .CMD files (for assembly, and linking) to the tape and make it available at: http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.tap <http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.tap> Let me know if that works for you. It may build under RSTS fine. A backup plan to make it available is that also on the same web site are two disk images for the PiDP-11/70 folks that is a complete RSX11M+ V4.6 ready to run under Simh. On the DU1 disk image in [201,50] and [201,200] are all the APL-11 files I have. That system also installs a working APL-11 for RSX. Mark

6 years, 2 months

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REL APL-11

by mark＠matlockfamily.com

Bill, The APL-11 files on DECUS RSX85A are not a complete distribution but a modified version that was intended to run under I/D on M+. I have the APL-11 V2.1 source files on a RL02 disk image. I will make it available at http://www.rsx11m.com/apl11.zip Once you mount the disk image with Simh, the are two ready to run task images that will run under RSX11M or M+ In [201,200]APL6OK.TSK and APL7OK.TSK that are the REAL*4 and REAL*8 versions of APL-11. On the disk are the Original .MAC sources as well as files from a RSX SIG tape that modified APL-11 for I/D under RSX11M+ that increased The workspace (.BXWA from ~30000 to ~60000 bytes). It also contains a character set for Vt220 for the APL character set. When you install the APL task experiment with the /INC to maximize the available workspace, On my system, I can INS APL6.TSK/INC=37000 to max the workspace for the single precision version. Also, the scanned APL-11 reference manual can be downloaded at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL-11-Ref-Man.pdf and the APL11 installation guide at http://www.rsx11m.com/APL11ins.pdf The RSX SIG files that have the info to change APL-11 to an I/D RSX11M+ task from RSX85A are also at [370,360] on the RL02 disk. I remember having this work back in the mid-1980s but I have not been able to get it to work today. If I link it with ODT it seems to blow up when the first overlay is loaded. If anyone could help with that I?d really appreciate it! Best, Mark

6 years, 2 months

3
3
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PDP-8 Straight 8 restoration

by brendan＠mcneill.co.nz

Here in NZ and around the world many of us are in lockdown and spending more time on our computers, if that were possible. I have just completed the restoration of a PDP-8 Straight 8 which I believe is the only one in New Zealand. You can view the restoration story and find appropriate resources here: https://pdp-8.nz <https://pdp-8.nz/> While it plays Chess, it would be great if someone wanted to write (say) a Prime Number Generator, or some other application and email it to me off list. I have Focal-69 and can probably source other languages for this wonderful old machine with 4K of memory. --------------//---------------- brendan at mcneill.co.nz +64 21 881 883

6 years, 2 months

12
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APL-11

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

Haven't given up on DIBOL. May try installing the RT-11 version and see if it runs. But now another language of interest has reared its ugly head. :-) Anybody have an image of the tape for APL-11? Manual claims it runs on all of the PDP-11 OSes and it is another language from my past that I haven't touched (other than to read some programs out of curiosity) in more than two decades. I have the source to something called APL-11 for Unix but it is not the same thing. Actually, not even close. :-) Would love to see a few pointers. Oh, and in case anyone is curious about my endeavors.... The SIMH system I am using now is based on the 11/70 and was built with only 2M of memory. Why you would do that under SIMH where there is really no memory constraint at all, I can not fathom. I used to have a bunch of 11/44's and that has been my favorite since my original 11/24 system died long, long ago./ I am going to configure a SIMH System using the 11/44 as my model and then reinstall everything in order to have a really good system for playing with this stuff. Sure wish there was a way to find some of the third party stuff from the sourcebooks. A lot of nice software that should have been saved for historical reasons, if nothing else, has been lost. bill

6 years, 2 months

7
9
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LegacyOS.org

by peters-cctech＠techwiz.ca

I just stumbled over https://legacyos.org/ and checking here for what you say about it only to find out that it seems like you missed it. Have you all missed it or is it just not interesting ? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Techwiz, Peter Sjoberg GPG key (42DDDDDD) on keyserver & homepage Key fingerprint = EB81 3135 1636 576A DA83 826B 2455 0E88 42DD DDDD Homepage: http://www.techwiz.ca/~peters Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/henahadu/ Enigma: http://meinEnigma.com

6 years, 2 months

2
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Split Ceramic Disk Capacitor

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Since I am forced to stay at home more than I would like I though I would check some more PSUs. One I wanted to check was the H7109-C from one of my VAXstation 4000 VLC machines. I found a leaked capacitor and some other high ESR ones, so I will replace those. However, I also noticed a ceramic disk capacitor that appears to be split all around the edge. Is that a known failure mode? Regards Rob

6 years, 2 months

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help needed: Document scan of ISS Sperry Univac Driver Exerciser avalaible for bitsavers upload

by p.gebhardt＠ymail.com

Hello list, I have a scan of a manual with schematics for a ?ISS Sperry Univac Driver Exerciser for 7330 and 843x type of disk drives that was kindly scanned and provided to me by Mark from the Computer History Archivies Project, since he and myself happen to come accross such exercisers. I contacted two times Al via email for access credentials to upload the document as I did in the past years for numerous scans, but I never got an answer. He is probably very busy during the last months. In case anybody has access for uploading documents on this list, can you contact me so that we can make this document available to everybody? Best regards, Pierre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.digitalheritage.de

6 years, 2 months

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DIBOL and RPG for RSTS

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

Does anyone have a .tap image of a DIBOL install tape for RSTS? And while I am at it, was there ever RPG for RSTS? I am so bored I have decided to really load up a SIMH system and just live in the past for a while. I have Fortran-IV, Fortran-77, COBOL-81 and C installed now as well as BASIC and MACRO. But I haven't had the chance to do any DIBOL or RPG for quite some time and would love to try them again. bill

6 years, 2 months

7
12
0 0

Unable to download Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk

by dave.dunfield＠gmail.com

>Patrick Finnegan pat at vax11.net Tue Mar 24 18:14:05 CDT 2020 > >It looks like the magic that updates the 5-digit number in the URL doesn't >work after the classiccmp.org recovery. Try: >http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img54306/imd118.zip > >The rest of the things should be in the same directory. >>On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 1:47 PM Christian Groessler >> Hi, >> >> the link on http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm for >> "ImageDisk 1.18" doesn't work. Apparently most (or all) links on this >> page don't work. The "magic" is me, it has nothing to do with the classiccmo recovery. The links are something I update manually from time to time, and I've recently updated some pages to correct links to my now expired commercial site, and failed to amend these with the current transient page. Should be fixed now - may have to refresh your browser if It cached the bad links. Dave

6 years, 2 months

4
3
0 0

Fonts for Dataproducts printers?

by rdbrown0au＠gmail.com

In the "Dataproducts (300/600 LPM) Line Printers Maintenance Guide" (1984) at (23Mb) https://www.wang2200.org/docs/fiche/742-0432.MNL.2273LinePrinterMaintenance… Table 1-2. 300 LPM Character Band & PROM Set Kits p. 1-10 (p. 30-31 in PDF) & Table 1-3 600 LPM .... p1-12 (p. 32-33 in PDF) List "Country/Language","Character Band Number","PROM Number"."Number of Printable Characters","Description","Font Style","Spacing" Band???????????????? Desc????????????????? Font Style 250035-019 64 Utility?? ? ? ? ?? ???? DPC-C 250042-022 96 Upper/Lower???? DPC-B/C 250045-022 96 Upper/Lower???? DPC-C 250088-039 96 ASCII/Modified? DPC-B "Number of Print..." is 64 or 96 ... except for an Arabic one "Spacing in characters per inch" is always 10, except for 4, 15 pitches "Font Style" is either DPC-B, DPC-B/C, DPC-C, DPC-15, DPC-D for Thai, Arabic Are there fonts available for the common Font Styles (DPC-B. DPC-B/C, DPC-C)? The fonts for the Dataproducts (64-char) drum printers may be in that set. It's possible that the Dataproducts laser printers may have provided the fonts, but googling hasn't shown anything, the Dataproducts website is on archive.org, and my searches showed that the Computer History Museum has a printer and a few bands. The HP2614A Drum printer we had in 1980 was probably one of those and we had band printers later. I should look through my printouts ... There's a font for the IBM 1403 http://ibm-1401.info/IBM140310Pitch-Regular.otf "Chainprinter Regular Font" at http://legionfonts.com/fonts/chainprinter-regular may be related to the IBM 1403 one too. This assumes that fonts might be useful for OCR at some stage, or for checking retyped data, or for fun on SIMH.

6 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

Vaxstation 400/90 power supply

by emu＠e-bbes.com

Hi all, I have 4000/90 which behaves funny. It only starts, after switching on twice. The first time, all LEDs stay on, flipping the switch off/on, it boots happily. Any insight? THANKS!

6 years, 2 months

4
5
0 0

Unable to download Dave Dunfield's ImageDisk

by chris＠groessler.org

Hi, the link on http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/img/index.htm for "ImageDisk 1.18" doesn't work. Apparently most (or all) links on this page don't work. Where can I get the latest ImageDisk version? regards, chris

6 years, 2 months

3
3
0 0

HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

by johnhreinhardt＠thereinhardts.org

For those interested, HPE has finally, formally announced the end of their participation in the OpenVMS Hobbyist Program.? A number of people have received the below message from HPE, probably everyone they have on record as having current Hobbyist licenses. If you have any current or future ( at least before the end of 2021 ) interest in Hobbyist licenses for any version of OpenVMS from 5.0 through 8.4 for VAX ( only up to 7.3) or Alpha and Itanium, then register now.? HPE is looking to find out how many are interested in Hobbyist offerings and even though the new license will be good through 2021, I don't expect them to be generating them past the end of 2020 and maybe sooner. Register for Hobbyist PAKs at one of the following (I suggest the HPE address first): https://www.hpe.com/h41268/live/index_e.aspx?qid=24548 http://plato.ccsscorp.com/hobbyist_registration.php Note the underscore between hobbyist and registration in hobbyist_registration. One Hobbyist user reports this: I?ve just received an update from the OpenVMS Customer lab: Here?s the message from the OpenVMS team.? The idea was that hobbyists would visit the site and renew their licenses, and in response, we would provide the final set of licenses, explaining the scenario: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ? As we approach the end of the HPE OpenVMS V8.4 standard support period, HPE ??plans to conclude the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program. ? The HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses we are issuing in 2020 will be the last set. ??Subsequently, HPE will not issue new HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses. Attached ??is the final set of the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist licenses. These final licenses ??are valid through December 31st, 2021. We hope that this additional validity ??period will enable users to plan for the future. ? Users who wish to avail of HPE OpenVMS long term licenses are encouraged to ??purchase permanent licenses at standard prices. You may contact [Fellman, Jon] ??<jon.fellman at hpe.com <mailto:jon.fellman at hpe.com>> for the same. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cheers, Wiz!! John H. Reinhardt *From:*owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] *On Behalf Of *David Moylan *Sent:* Saturday, 7 March 2020 4:14 PM *To:* hecnet at Update.UU.SE *Subject:* [HECnet] HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing Hi all, Just received the e-mail below. I?ve hunted around all the various Hobbyist locations and licensing pages and can?t find any additional information. I?ve already replied back to ask what the impact of Hobbyist renewal licensing will be. I have no further information at this stage. Have others received this as well? Does anyone have any further knowledge on this? I can see a few people have forwarded/posted the same message on comp.os.vms. Cheers, Wiz!! *From:*OpenVMS Customer Lab [mailto:openvmscustomerlab at hpe.com] *Sent:* Saturday, 7 March 2020 3:13 PM *Cc:* OpenVMS Customer Lab *Subject:* OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification Dear HPE OpenVMS hobbyist, This is to inform you that HPE is concluding the HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program in alignment with the HPE OpenVMS support roadmap. If you wish to understand more details, please reach out to us at the earliest through the usual license renewal webpage. Thank you. HPE OpenVMS team

6 years, 2 months

42
93
0 0

Getting rid of dec writer II pdp11/83 vt320s

by philmac750＠virginmedia.com

Hello all, I hope you are all staying safe and healthy in current times.? Forgive the cold email, I got your email addresses as collectors of DEC computer history.?The reason for email is that I am clearing out some of my stuff as we are thinking of moving house, I live in Wakefield.?In February 2019 I salvaged a PDP11 which was used in a simulator for a coal fired power station steam turbine unit at DRAX Power Station, where I was working as a contractor up until Dec 2019.In the same building I was also allowed to take a DecWriter II, some manuals and a couple of VT320s with some other smaller hand held kit.?I have supporting documentation from the power station to state that these items are now mine.?They were all in working order as the simulator was last powered up in Nov 2019.? I am not in a position to power up the PDP 11 at home, but have plugged in the VT320s and the DEC Writer and they all work.? The dec Writer has 1 sticky key, and has the original product/shipping notice stuck inside the unit dated 1977 !! I even bought some new ink and ribbons, as my intention was to get these and the PDP11 setup and working in my office.? I used the Dec Writer in school, many many years ago, my first introduction to computers, paper tape and punched cards, a foam modem through to the college from my secondary school ! (Fortran IV)?I simply could not let these items go to scrap, which is where they were heading, so I approached the manager of the building at Drax and agreed to remove these items from site at zero cost to Drax.? The entire simulator, all it?s hand built boards and electronics were simply heading for the skip as they were demolishing the entire training centre in favour of new Gas turbine plant.? ?I am wondering if you know any forums or contacts that might be interested in purchasing these items, I am not asking silly money as these need to go to a collector and preserved, the issue will be shipping or I might even transport them myself, as they are extremely heavy items.?If not, I will google a little more and failing that, contact a UK museum to see if they would be interested in these historic pieces.?Thank you for reading.?PhilSent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

6 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

[HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download --> Decnet

by R.Voorhorst＠swabhawat.com

It looks there is some decnet on the disk. Exec list gives phase-III router: $ mc ncp NCP>show exec char Node Volatile Characteristics as of 21-MAR-2020 15:16:42 Executor node = 0 Identification = DECnet-VAX V3.0, VMS V3.0 Management version = V3.0.0 Incoming timer = 45 Outgoing timer = 45 NSP version = V3.2.0 Maximum links = 32 Delay factor = 64 Delay weight = 2 Inactivity timer = 60 Retransmit factor = 10 Routing version = V1.3.0 Type = routing Routing timer = 600 Maximum address = 1 Maximum circuits = 0 Maximum cost = 1023 Maximum hops = 31 Maximum visits = 63 Maximum buffers = 2 Buffer size = 1000 Default access = incoming and outgoing So ..... playtime ....? R.V. -----Original Message----- From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of R. Voorhorst Sent: Saturday, 21 March, 2020 14:48 To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE; 'Ray Jewhurst' <raywjewhurst at gmail.com>; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Cc: 'simh' <simH at trailing-edge.com>; 'John Dundas' <dundas at caltech.edu> Subject: RE: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download --> boot on Vax8600/50 Boot on Vax8600: HK0: 'F:\Shares\Distribution\VMS\Vms_30\VAXVMSV3.0-26APR1982\vmsv30.rk07' Contains ODS2 File system HK0: Volume Name: VAXVMSRL3 Format: DECFILE11B Sectors In Volume: 53790 sim> b hk0 Loading boot code from internal vmb.exe %SYSBOOT-W-ECO or microcode version less than minimum required for VMS. %SYSBOOT-E-Unable to locate file SYSLOA SC.EXE HALT instruction, PC: 0000325A (CLRQ R8) sim> So some work to do or not (very well) possible. So it will run on Vax11/780 the original workhorse from then. Somewhere a Decnet-3.0 around for Vms to make it complete? Best regards, R.V. -----Original Message----- From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Paul Birkel Sent: Saturday, 21 March, 2020 13:56 To: 'Ray Jewhurst' <raywjewhurst at gmail.com>; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; hecnet at update.uu.se Cc: 'simh' <simH at trailing-edge.com>; 'John Dundas' <dundas at caltech.edu> Subject: RE: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download According to the Release Notes it works on the 11/750 and 11/730 as well. See: AA-D015D-TE https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_decvaxvms3leaseNotesV3.0May82_5458871… -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ray Jewhurst via cctalk Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 8:34 AM To: hecnet at update.uu.se Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts; simh; John Dundas Subject: Re: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download >From 1982 I see. I know that this will run on the 780/785 but what about the other VAX-11s or the 8600? I am purely a simulator and have never used the real thing and I am not sure what years the models in question were released. Sorry if my questions seem ignorant. Ray On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 8:08 AM Supratim Sanyal <supratim at riseup.net> wrote: > John Dundas' distribution of VAX/VMS version 3.0 (April 1982) can now > be downloaded from my Dropbox. > > The SYSTEM password is MANAGER. > > Note: Dropbox does not force you to create an account, if you look > carefully you will see a "Continue to view" link at the bottom of that > pop-up. > > Here's what it boots into: > > > VAX/VMS Version V3.0 26-APR-1982 16:21 > > > PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM) 21-MAR-2020 11:58 > %JBC-I-NEWQUEUE, new queue file created %OPCOM, 21-MAR-2020 > 11:58:34.51, logfile initialized by operator OPA0 > logfile is SYS$MANAGER:OPERATOR.LOG > Login quotas - Interactive limit=64, Current interactive value=0 > SYSTEM job terminated at 21-MAR-2020 11:58:39.91 > > Username: SYSTEM > Password: > Welcome to VAX/VMS version V3.0 $ $ > > Grab it from https://bit.ly/vaxvms30 > > Regards, > Supratim > > -- > Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT > 39.19151 N, 77.23432 W > QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet > >

6 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

[HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download --> boot on Vax8600/50

by R.Voorhorst＠swabhawat.com

Boot on Vax8600: HK0: 'F:\Shares\Distribution\VMS\Vms_30\VAXVMSV3.0-26APR1982\vmsv30.rk07' Contains ODS2 File system HK0: Volume Name: VAXVMSRL3 Format: DECFILE11B Sectors In Volume: 53790 sim> b hk0 Loading boot code from internal vmb.exe %SYSBOOT-W-ECO or microcode version less than minimum required for VMS. %SYSBOOT-E-Unable to locate file SYSLOA SC.EXE HALT instruction, PC: 0000325A (CLRQ R8) sim> So some work to do or not (very well) possible. So it will run on Vax11/780 the original workhorse from then. Somewhere a Decnet-3.0 around for Vms to make it complete? Best regards, R.V. -----Original Message----- From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On Behalf Of Paul Birkel Sent: Saturday, 21 March, 2020 13:56 To: 'Ray Jewhurst' <raywjewhurst at gmail.com>; 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; hecnet at update.uu.se Cc: 'simh' <simH at trailing-edge.com>; 'John Dundas' <dundas at caltech.edu> Subject: RE: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download According to the Release Notes it works on the 11/750 and 11/730 as well. See: AA-D015D-TE https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_decvaxvms3leaseNotesV3.0May82_5458871… -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ray Jewhurst via cctalk Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 8:34 AM To: hecnet at update.uu.se Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts; simh; John Dundas Subject: Re: [HECnet] VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download >From 1982 I see. I know that this will run on the 780/785 but what about the other VAX-11s or the 8600? I am purely a simulator and have never used the real thing and I am not sure what years the models in question were released. Sorry if my questions seem ignorant. Ray On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 8:08 AM Supratim Sanyal <supratim at riseup.net> wrote: > John Dundas' distribution of VAX/VMS version 3.0 (April 1982) can now > be downloaded from my Dropbox. > > The SYSTEM password is MANAGER. > > Note: Dropbox does not force you to create an account, if you look > carefully you will see a "Continue to view" link at the bottom of that > pop-up. > > Here's what it boots into: > > > VAX/VMS Version V3.0 26-APR-1982 16:21 > > > PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM) 21-MAR-2020 11:58 > %JBC-I-NEWQUEUE, new queue file created %OPCOM, 21-MAR-2020 > 11:58:34.51, logfile initialized by operator OPA0 > logfile is SYS$MANAGER:OPERATOR.LOG > Login quotas - Interactive limit=64, Current interactive value=0 > SYSTEM job terminated at 21-MAR-2020 11:58:39.91 > > Username: SYSTEM > Password: > Welcome to VAX/VMS version V3.0 $ $ > > Grab it from https://bit.ly/vaxvms30 > > Regards, > Supratim > > -- > Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT > 39.19151 N, 77.23432 W > QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet > >

6 years, 2 months

2
1
0 0

VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download

by supratim＠riseup.net

John Dundas' distribution of VAX/VMS version 3.0 (April 1982) can now be downloaded from my Dropbox. The SYSTEM password is MANAGER. Note: Dropbox does not force you to create an account, if you look carefully you will see a "Continue to view" link at the bottom of that pop-up. Here's what it boots into: ? VAX/VMS Version V3.0 26-APR-1982 16:21 PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY? HH:MM) 21-MAR-2020 11:58 %JBC-I-NEWQUEUE, new queue file created %OPCOM, 21-MAR-2020 11:58:34.51, logfile initialized by operator OPA0 ??????? logfile is SYS$MANAGER:OPERATOR.LOG ? Login quotas - Interactive limit=64, Current interactive value=0 ? SYSTEM?????? job terminated at 21-MAR-2020 11:58:39.91 Username: SYSTEM Password: ??????? Welcome to VAX/VMS version V3.0 $ $ Grab it from https://bit.ly/vaxvms30 Regards, Supratim -- Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT 39.19151 N, 77.23432 W QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet

6 years, 2 months

11
11
0 0

SS Voyager: DC / DC Board

by salgernon＠me.com

I?ve been rehabilitating a SparcStation Voyager when I get time (of which I seem to have some now). The display did work off and on but doesn?t show anything now. As per the troubleshooting docs, I check the DC/DC board voltages but the service manual (from oracle!) has wire colors that bear no resemblance to my board. I found a pin that starts out at 12v but decays fairly quickly. Does anyone know if the pin3=12v, 4=5v, 5=5v, 6,7,8=gnd and 9=3.3 from the manual is correct? This one voltage that drops to zero after initially showing 12v - is that a reasonable symptom for a bad power supply? Is that kind of thing fixable? I don?t expect I?ll be able to find a replacement board. I don?t see any blown capacitors or expressed smoke. I?m not sure how the pin counting is supposed to go for this 10 pin molex power connector. The female side on the main board looks from the top like: OOOOO OOOOO \-/ Where the little thing at the bottom is the locking tab. The power board itself has a line of wires coming out, and they are numbered 1-11 with #10 not connected. But again, the color of those wires don?t seem to bear any resemblance to the manual. On the off chance: anybody have a spare DC/DC converter for a Sparcstation Voyager that they want to unload cheap? Part number is, I think 300-1234. Cheers, ?sma

6 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

stuff for sale - recent move

by joezatarski＠gmail.com

Hello Everyone, I recently moved and just got my storage unit of stuff transported to the new house. I'm starting to go through it all because I know there's a good mixture of stuff I want and stuff I don't want but may be useful to someone else. I've started inventorying a lot of the stuff I'd like to pass on here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19vhF-o6vx9g7l-D8cvLJ5OPJzpdmU9PTTkn… I'm not looking to get much out of any of this, pretty much just recover whatever I paid for it plus effort for shipping (generally should be 50% or less ebay value, plus cost of shipping). Alternatively, I'm in the west suburbs of chicago if anyone local wants to pick something up. Quick run down of what I've got posted so far: -a couple DEC Alpha items (RAM and SCSI caddy stuff, possibly a couple drives later) -HP jetdirects for laserjet 4/5 (standalone to come later) -a KVM or two (more to come) -Mac network cards (nubus and one for IIsi or SE/30) as well as a couple other accessories (Dayna Mini Etherprint, AAUI transceiver, more accessories to come) -misc cables/adapters, if you have something specific in mind, let me know -PSU - mostly just some random ATX PSUs -a few telephone accessories (more to come) -ISA, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe cards (network, video, SCSI, FC) -possibly notable, Compaq ELSA GLoria Synergy graphics cards for Alpha PWS? If anyone has further questions, wants pics, more description, testing of item before sale, etc. feel free to contact me on or off list (if on list, please CC me, I'll see it quicker) or on Freenode IRC (nick is joe_z). As I recently moved, I don't have 24/7 internet available as of right now, but once I do I'll have a bouncer on IRC 24/7. Best Regards, Joe Z

6 years, 2 months

3
4
0 0

SWTPC SuperClock II board

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

In the midst of cleaning up, I came across this board. Can't seem to find any info online about it. There's another board from another company, not SWTPC, with the same name?apparently a timekeeping board for an Apple II. https://imgur.com/a/j8pyqMZ I assume this is a way to generate a composite video signal with the current time displayed? Anyone have schematics or a parts list? Thanks, and stay healthy! Kyle

6 years, 2 months

3
2
0 0

soviet resistor identification help and maybe lamps?

by tdk.knight＠gmail.com

trying to identify these soviet resistors anyone familiar with how they marked them i see 620 on these ones for the panel bulbs https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/49633358106/in/dateposted-public/ want to test all the lamps with power but i dont know where to start with testing. i see markings for 220V on the power feed plug https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/49621260392/in/dateposted-public/ bulbs https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/49623473996/in/dateposted-public/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/49623475146/in/dateposted-public/

6 years, 2 months

6
8
0 0

NetBSD on a VAX 3100 (DV-31AT1-A)

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Hi All With the upcoming demise of VMS/VAX I thought I might give NetBSD/vax a try. Downloading a bootable image and burning it onto a CD was not a problem. On the 3100 with attached RRD42 and SCSI drive RZ26l the CD duly booted ito the NetBSD install menu. All of versions 7,8 and 9. failed after partitioning at the point where the system is copied to the hard disk. Has anybody successfuly installed NetBSD on a VAX.? If which version on which VAX Rod Smallwood --

6 years, 2 months

5
4
0 0

NetBSD on a VAX 3100

by commodorejohn＠gmail.com

I have it running on a MicroVAX 3100/90, but I can't for the life of me remember what version it is (current was 7-ish when I set it up, but I may have had to drop back to an earlier version.) I'll have to check when I have a chance. It's definitely not a speed demon, but it works reasonably well. OpenBSD on the other hand was utterly unusable; it took minutes just to respond to input over the serial port.

6 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

MSV11-Q info and interesting observation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> It includes a table which says which chip each bit in the memory is > stored in Oh, there's an entry (well, actually two) missing from the table, which is the parity bits (2; byte parity); I'll work them out and add them. (I know, by elimination, which two columns of chips are the parity bits; I just don't know which is for the high byte, and which for the low.) The flippping documentation doesn't say whether it's even or odd parity, though! I'm assuming odd (which seems to be the usual: probably so that totally failed memory - all 0's - generates an error), but now that I think about it, it should be pretty easy to work out. I'll just store a '0' word, and looking at either parity bit should give me whether it's using even/odd; storing '-1' should confirm. Then I can do byte writes to work out which chips the high/low parity bits are in. I'm assuming the DEC memory diagnostics (for people using them, not their own) will call out parity failures, and high/low, so people will know which chips to replace. Noel

6 years, 2 months

1
0
0 0

NetBSD on a VAX 3100

by david＠thecoolbears.org

Not exactly the same thing, but I've run several different versions of NetBSD on both a real 3900 and on SIMH. I have not tried current, but I have tried the 3 series, the 4 series and the 5 series - all seem to work well. In this context, "well" is defined as (in order of decreasing importance): The ability to run colossal cave adventure (the 350 point version) The ability to boot into multi-user The ability to TELNET to remote hosts, e.g., oath.com The ability to TELNET to local hosts The ability to run "vi" The ability to compile/link/run "hello.c" I have not tried to recompile the kernel I have not tried to compile other more obscure/exotic, but less useful operating systems like emacs The only problem I've come across is that the hash function on passwords is VERY slow on the new versions of netbsd (> the 3 series).

6 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

MSV11-Q info and interesting observation

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, a while back someone had a broken MSV11-Q QBUS memory card, and needed info on them. I said I'd provide same, but then got distracted. Well, I finally got to it, and it's been added to the CHW page for them: https://gunkies.org/wiki/MSV11-Q_QBUS_memory It includes a table which says which chip each bit in the memory is stored in (which is what one needs to fix one which is basically working, but has some bad bits). While working out that table, I ran into a hitch, which is a good part of why it took so long. The hitch, when solved, revealed something mildly interesting. The hitch was in my process for finding out which bit was stored in which chip. I whipped up a simple loop to store a word with a single '1' bit, and the rest 0's; I set that running, and used a 'scope probe on the DIn pins to find out which column of chips held bit 0, etc. So far, so good. I then looked on the -Wr pin, to find out which row of chips held which banks. Not so good! There were pulses on -Wr for _all_ the banks, no matter which address I tried to write to. Eventually I worked out what was going on: when writing data, the MSV11-Q sends a 'write' signal to _all_ the banks, and selects the one to _actually_ use by use of the RAS signal. I'm not certain why DEC did this, but since there is no explicit 'read' signal on the DRAM chip, and likely the data outputs from all the banks are wire-OR'd together, use of RAS to select the desired bank works for read, and also for write. Has anyone else seen this trick used anywhere else? Noel

6 years, 3 months

4
3
0 0

Wangtek 5125ES End-of-Tape Sensor

by web＠loomcom.com

Hello all, This is probably a long-shot, but does anyone have any advice for testing the End-of-Tape sensor on a QIC drive? I've recently restored a Wangtek 5125ES (well, "restored" is a bit strong, I just replaced the capstan roller) and after about 5 tape passes, it completely lost its End-of-Tape sensor. I'm not entirely sure whether or not it's producing IR, pr of the sensors are dirty, or what. -Seth -- Seth Morabito Poulsbo, WA web at loomcom.com

6 years, 3 months

2
2
0 0

IBM chip cross reference list?

by mattislind＠gmail.com

I am helping a guy with a dead IBM 3279 terminal The PSU does not seem to work. But as usual it is impossible to find any schematic online for IBM stuff. Just interconnection diagram and high level drawings. Anyone? Now the PSU circuit seems to be quite simple with just one IC in it. A chip marked 4216092. https://i.imgur.com/WMe7DgU.jpg >From the look of mold I guess that the manufacturer is Texas Instruments. At least it matches very well with other TI chips manufactured in the same time frame. The rest is looking like a quite simple flyback mode PSU: A transformer with air gaps, no output filter inductors and one single power transistor. Is there a cross reference list available for IBM numbers to standard chips? It shouldn't be that hard to figure from the how it connected, though, since it is most likely a standard chip. It can be a TL494 or SG3524 perhaps? /Mattis

6 years, 3 months

2
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Make behavior on TOPS20 Panda distribution

by dave＠661.org

I've successfully managed to get a simulated TOPS20 environment going with networking. Now there's a new strange hitch: the behavior of make. Would someone please look at this and tell me what I'm doing wrong? For a simple Makefile, it works fine if I just type "make", but if I type "make <target>", I get the commands sent to the command line, but no responses. The display then stalls at the eighth source file. Strangely, if I scroll up in the xterm, it gets dragged back down as if more stuff is being printed. Just typing "make", I get this: @make cc -c buffer.c -o buffer.rel PANDA TOPS-20 Command processor 7.1(4453)-4 @cc -c buffer.c -o buffer.rel KCC: BUFFER <DAVE.FROTZ>BUFFER.PRE.3 <DAVE.FROTZ>BUFFER.FAI.3 FAIL: BUFFER @ @POP ... and so on until this: @POP cc -o dfrotz.exe buffer.rel err.rel fastme.rel files.rel getopt.rel ... more .rel files LINK: Loading @ @POP @ and we're done. dfrotz.exe is in the current directory and it works. Here's the strange behavior I can't explain: @make dumb cc -c buffer.c -o buffer.rel ?Unrecognized command - Does not match switch or keyword - "dumb" cc -c err.c -o err.rel cc -c fastme.c -o fastme.rel cc -c files.c -o files.rel cc -c getopt.c -o getopt.rel cc -c hotkey.c -o hotkey.rel cc -c input.c -o input.rel cc -c main.c -o main.rel The process stalls at this point, jerking back the terminal to the bottom if I scroll up. Hitting ^C once or repeatedly doesn't seem to do anything. Logging into the from a different terminal, I can see that no .rel files were generated from this operation. Typing "make foobar" results in this: @make foobar ?MAKE: Don't know how to make foobar perror() says: No such file or directory @ Amusingly, "make love" returns this classic reply: @make love Not war! ?MAKE: Don't know how to make love perror() says: No such file or directory @ Here's the Makefile: CC = cc NAME = frotz C = .c O = .rel E = .exe DFROTZ = d$(NAME)$(E) OBJ = buffer$(O) err$(O) fastme$(O) files$(O) getopt$(O) hotkey$(O) \ input$(O) main$(O) math$(O) missin$(O) object$(O) \ proces$(O) quetza$(O) random$(O) redire$(O) screen$(O) \ sound$(O) stream$(O) table$(O) text$(O) variab$(O) \ dblorb$(O) dinit$(O) dinput$(O) doutpu$(O) dpic$(O) dumb: $(DFROTZ) dfrotz: $(DFROTZ) $(DFROTZ): $(OBJ) $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o $(DFROTZ) $(OBJ) .c.rel: $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c $< -o $@ clean: delete *.rel delete *.exe .SUFFIXES: .exe .rel .c *.h This whole thing can be found at https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/ in the tops20 branch. -- David Griffith dave at 661.org 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?

6 years, 3 months

3
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DDCMP over serial lines in RSTS V10.1

by paulkoning＠comcast.net

I thought that I had sent a message to the list a few months ago showing the procedure to use the software DDCMP driver in RSTS V10.1. That's a standard feature, but undocumented and probably unsupported. It works well and interoperates with PyDECnet and with the DDCMP implementation in SIMH. Presumably it will talk to the software DDCMP in RSX, though I have not tried that. Attached are the instructions and the program mentioned. paul

6 years, 3 months

1
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JOSS-II: good news and bad news

by lars＠nocrew.org

Hello, A small group of volunteers are working on restoring JOSS-II, the PDP-6 version, to a working state. We are typing in a program listing provided by the RAND corporation. The listing is the supervisor, which is a large part of the system. So far good news. The bad news is that it's not a complete system. The Computer History Museum seems to have additional program listings here: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102734547 But they have not been scanned. They archvists are willing to let us see the collection, but no one of us lives near the museum. Is there anyone interested in this kind of thing that are willing to help out?

6 years, 3 months

1
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