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

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

Greetings; I'm delving deeply into the manuals that came with my IBM System/34 and in the Core section it mentions that the logic is "VTL and Dutchess". TTL, ECL, CMOS sure... but I've never heard of VTL or Dutchess, and Google doesn't seem to be providing (although forest/trees problem exists). Is this just another footnote in our history, does it go by another name, or am I missing something important here? Thanks all; - JP

15 years, 9 months

6
5
0 0

Rebuilding Altair 8800b

by nick.allen＠comcast.net

Just recently acquired an Altair 8800b (turnkey model)! Came with case, power supply, back-plane and the front control board, but no other cards. Anyone have any cards for the altair 8800b (cpu, ram, serial, parallel) they are willing to sell or trade? nick dot allen at comcast dot net

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Microwriter MW4 help

by john_a_s2004＠hotmail.com

Hi, I have finally made an adapter to read the 2564 ROM from my Microwriter on my EPROM programmer (which can only read the 2764). There were about 5 pins to rewire, I'll write some notes later on the differences. I've upload the ROM image to: http://www.vintagecomputers.btinternet.co.uk/mw4/mw4.zip The file looks OK, but there are a lot of FF bytes on the ROM, which hopefully implies that the whole 8K bytes weren't needed rather than the ROM is faulty. Hopefully Tony can compare this with his ROM and come back with any further tips or questions. If anyone else has a fully working MW4 please make contact. I haven't tried to disassemble the ROM yet (thanks Phil for the link to DASMx), maybe one day. Regards, John ================================================================== John S john_a_s2004 at hotmail.com Wed Sep 8 15:40:20 CDT 2010 >> I recently obtained a Microwriter with an LCD display. >> >> Else it may be faulty >> I found Tony's post from 2009 asking for a 'good' EPROM image maybe >> mine is failing in a similar way. Tony wrote: > FWIW, I am still stuck... I am pretty sure the Firmware EPROM in mine is > corrupted, some 'chords' do not produce the characters I would expect My one can generate all the letters, numbers and punctuation marks so fingers crossed the EPROM is OK. > IIRC, the EPROM is a 25C64 (which is slightly different to the more common > 27C64). If you have a programmer capable of reading out that device, it > would be interesting to compare the ROM in mine with it. OK, I'll try and read the EPROM. This might take me some time, but I am keen to do it as there is very little technical stuff about the MW4 on line. I might try and disassemble the code too (but I don't think IDA has a 1802 option!) Regards, John

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Compaq luggable, what next?

by rdawson16＠hotmail.com

I got this gem for $25 today. What would you guys recomend next: ISA ide card for storage, recomendations? Ethernet to get it on line, and what stripped down browser would work? I remember flight simulator was pretty good with the 600x400? graphics Autocad 2.6 too, I dont know yet if I have the math chip installed How could I go wrong for $25? They have another one if anybody wants it (Surplusgizmos.com) Randy

15 years, 9 months

8
12
0 0

EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by holger.veit＠iais.fraunhofer.de

Am 08.10.2010 17:28, schrieb Holger Veit: > Am 08.10.2010 16:20, schrieb Christian Corti: >> On Fri, 8 Oct 2010, Alexander Voropay wrote: >>> JFYI: I have one non-DEC Q-Bus card, a tape controller with Z80 CPU >> >> I have several non-DEC Q-Bus cards with MC68000 and a non-DEC Q-Bus >> machine with MC68020 ;-)) >> >> Christian > > PCS Cadmus, right? > > Regards > Holger

15 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Looking for IBM 5250 TwinAx terminal in Australia

by nigel.d.williams＠gmail.com

Cloning JPs request but I'm seeking Twinax terminals in Australia please. Having acquired a clutch of AS/400s, my only true IBM 3197 twinax terminal is dead. If anyone knows the trick about how to open the video section of an IBM 3197 I would be interested in knowing. I removed the two self-thread screws from the bottom which seems to release part of the case but something still holds the top, presumably needs some leverage to unlock. Aside: I was intrigued to see that the logic of the IBM 3197 is powered by an Intel 8088.

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

capacitor aging claim

by legalize＠xmission.com

On alt.sys.pdp11 it was recently claimed: > Lack of use speeds up deterioration of things like capacitors > (especially electrolytics). Now I know that capacitors tend to the component most likely to fail on a piece of vintage equipment, but this is the first time I recall seeing it claimed that lack of use accelerates deterioriation of capacitors. Comments? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>

15 years, 9 months

17
48
0 0

P112 project scrubbed

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I'm sorry, but the effort to make a new run of P112 kits has been scrubbed. I was unable to get more than 12 kits presold when I needed at least 35 to go forward and get the boards made. Since I'm so far behind 35, I decided to start the refunds now. Those of you who preordered should be seeing the refunds roll in over the next week as funds get transferred from my bank account to Paypal. This won't be the last of the P112. I hope to be able to do a run a few months after I land a new job. Hopefully I'll have the money to finance the project without the need to take preorders. Thanks for all your faith in me and interest in this project. -- 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?

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Looking for IBM 5250 TwinAx terminal...

by jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com

Anyone in the US (preferably close to Iowa, but I suspect that's wishful thinking) got a 5250 that they might be able to spare? I now have the space to work on bringing my System/34 to working order and it didn't come with a terminal. While I'm at it, anyone particularly familiar with the /34 that would be willing to lend me their ear now and then as I'm working on it? Thanks; - JP

15 years, 9 months

6
9
0 0

Repairing Debian on an Alpha 433au

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

The 433au I have came with an instance of Debian which has DECnet installed on it, I am not sure what version of Debian it is. After a power outage the superblock on DKA200 was corrupted. I managed to install another instance of Debian (3.1r0) on DK0 and run e2fsck -p on the DKA200 disk to fix it. However when I try to boot the original Debian instance it says it can't find /dev/sdb3. In the new instance of Debian I can mount the sdb3 disk without issue. Below is the output on the console when it fails to boot. There is a message about the driver sd needing to be updated, but this was a working system so I am not convinced that is the problem. Can anyone offer any insight as to why this will still not boot? Thanks Rob aboot: loading uncompressed vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-alpha-generic... aboot: loading compressed vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-alpha-generic... aboot: zero-filling 854608 bytes at 0xfffffc000167c980 aboot: loading initrd (1421885 bytes/1388 blocks) at 0xfffffc0013d70000 aboot: starting kernel vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-alpha-generic with arguments ro root=/d ev/sdb3 console=ttyS0,9600n1 [ 0.000000] Initializing cgroup subsys cpu [ 0.000000] Linux version 2.6.26-1-alpha-generic (Debian 2.6.26-13) (waldi at de bian.org) (gcc version 4.1.3 20080704 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.2-24)) #1 Sat Jan 10 17:21:47 UTC 2009 [ 0.000000] Booting GENERIC on Miata using machine vector Miata from SRM [ 0.000000] Major Options: MAGIC_SYSRQ [ 0.000000] Command line: ro root=/dev/sdb3 console=ttyS0,9600n1 [ 0.000000] memcluster 0, usage 1, start 0, end 236 [ 0.000000] memcluster 1, usage 0, start 236, end 40959 [ 0.000000] memcluster 2, usage 1, start 40959, end 40960 [ 0.000000] freeing pages 236:2048 [ 0.000000] freeing pages 2985:40959 [ 0.000000] reserving pages 2985:2986 [ 0.000000] Initial ramdisk at: 0xfffffc0013d70000 (1421885 bytes) [ 0.000000] pci: cia revision 1 (pyxis) [ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pag es: 40679 [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: ro root=/dev/sdb3 console=ttyS0,9600n1 [ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 16384 bytes) [ 0.000000] HWRPB cycle frequency bogus. Estimated 433127999 Hz [ 0.000000] Using epoch = 2000 [4194001.855599] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25 [4194001.855599] console [ttyS0] enabled [4194003.204231] Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 524288 bytes) [4194003.294075] Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 262144 bytes) [4194003.414192] Memory: 313552k/327672k available (2158k kernel code, 11952k re served, 3313k data, 304k init) [4194003.551887] Security Framework initialized [4194003.603645] Capability LSM initialized [4194003.650520] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 [4194003.707161] Initializing cgroup subsys ns [4194003.757942] Initializing cgroup subsys cpuacct [4194003.813606] Initializing cgroup subsys devices [4194003.877082] net_namespace: 1208 bytes [4194003.924934] NET: Registered protocol family 16 [4194003.983528] EISA bus registered [4194004.024543] pci: passed tb register update test [4194004.081184] pci: passed sg loopback i/o read test [4194004.139778] pci: passed pte write cache snoop test [4194004.199348] pci: failed valid tag invalid pte reload test (mcheck; workarou nd available) [4194004.298957] pci: passed pci machine check test [4194004.353645] pci: tbia workaround enabled [4194004.403449] pci: enabling save/restore of SRM state [4194004.468879] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:14.0 [4194004.515754] IO window: 8000-8fff [4194004.557746] MEM window: 0x09000000-0x090fffff [4194004.614387] PREFETCH window: 0x0000000009100000-0x00000000091fffff [4194004.701301] Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay [4194004.785285] NET: Registered protocol family 2 [4194004.850715] IP route cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 32768 bytes) [4194004.937629] TCP established hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 262144 byt es) [4194005.027473] TCP bind hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 131072 bytes) [4194005.109504] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 16384) [4194005.190558] TCP reno registered [4194005.233527] NET: Registered protocol family 1 [4194005.289191] checking if image is initramfs... it is [4194006.371222] Freeing initrd memory: 1388k freed [4194006.430792] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1 [4194006.479620] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 8192 bytes) [4194006.560675] msgmni has been set to 615 [4194006.608526] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 253) [4194006.699347] io scheduler noop registered [4194006.748175] io scheduler anticipatory registered [4194006.805792] io scheduler deadline registered [4194006.859503] io scheduler cfq registered (default) [4194006.918097] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards... [4194007.324346] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found [4194007.417120] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharin g enabled [4194007.512823] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A [4194007.588018] serial8250: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A [4194007.684698] brd: module loaded [4194007.731573] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1 [4194007.793096] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12 [4194007.858526] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice [4194007.924932] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0 [4194007.974737] atkbd.c: keyboard reset failed on isa0060/serio0 [4194008.047979] TCP cubic registered [4194008.088994] NET: Registered protocol family 17 [4194008.145635] registered taskstats version 1 [4194008.197393] drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0) [4194008.275518] Freeing unused kernel memory: 304k freed [4194008.352666] atkbd.c: keyboard reset failed on isa0060/serio1 [4194008.698369] SCSI subsystem initialized [4194008.765752] qla1280: QLA1040 found on PCI bus 1, dev 9 [4194009.400517] scsi(0:0): Resetting SCSI BUS [4194012.454227] scsi0 : QLogic QLA1040 PCI to SCSI Host Adapter [4194012.454227] Firmware version: 7.65.06, Driver version 3.26 [4194012.625125] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods [4194012.704226] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access COMPAQ ST32550W 6415 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 /bin/cat: [4194012.818484] scsi(0:0:0:0): Sync: period 10, offset 12, Wide, Tagg ed queuing: depth 31 /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 1 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 2 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 4 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up [4194018.073364] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 4110000 512-byte hardware sectors (2104 MB) [4194018.160278] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [4194018.223755] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, s upports DPO and FUA [4194018.332153] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 4110000 512-byte hardware sectors (2104 MB) [4194018.419067] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [4194018.482544] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, s upports DPO and FUA [4194018.588012] sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 [4194018.657348] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 8 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 16 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/dev: No such file or directory Device /sys/block/sdb/dev seems to be down. /bin/mknod: missing operand after `b' Special files require major and minor device numbers. Try `/bin/mknod --help' for more information. /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 1 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 2 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 4 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 8 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Waiting 16 seconds for /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev to show up /bin/cat: /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev: No such file or directory Device /sys/block/sdb/sdb3/dev seems to be down. /bin/mknod[4194075.827241] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! : missing operand after `b' Special files require major and minor device numbers. Try `/bin/mknod --help' for more information. mount: special device /dev/sdb3 does not exist Switching root ... /usr/lib/yaird/exec/run_init: current directory on the same filesystem as the ro ot: Success

15 years, 9 months

3
6
0 0

An interesting development in vintage system emulators

by lproven＠gmail.com

I (re-)discovered a remarkable tool last week, which absorbed a day and a bit. Even if you're not interested in the ZX Spectrum, I think it's worth a look. It's called BASin. There's no good homepage for it, alas. The current "official" one is here but it contains little content: http://sites.google.com/site/pauldunn/ There's also a blog: http://zxdunny.wordpress.com/ You can download it here (although v14c is not a very current version): http://www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html The latest stable version I've been able to find mention of is 14d - you can see a record of its deletion in the site activity page of the GooglePages site. I've not managed to find a download of it, though. There was an experimental build, 15.6, which I found a download of somewhere - just the binary, no installer or other resources. Past the EXE on top of the EXE of an installed copy of 14c and it works, though. A little more (obsolete) info: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.sinclair/msg/4eeb4ffc8725beec?pli=1 Essentially, it's a Spectrum emulator for Windows, reworked so that the display and the BASIC editor are 2 separate windows. One is a proper native Sinclair display, with attribute clash and all the other horrors that make Speccy fans nostalgic. The other is a Windows window, in which you get a 128K Spectrum-style editor - typed keywords rather than arcane keystrokes to enter keywords in a single keypress, but with modern Windows niceties: cut & paste, a ruler, a syntax helper, bracket matching, error messages as dialogue boxes with verbose text, line-by-line execution tracing, variable checkpoints, etc. etc. You can set the speed of the emulator, so you need not wait hours to see what a real 3.5MHz Spectrum would do - you can run stuff at an emulated 55MHz (on my PC) to see if it works, then slow it down to real speed to see what genuine hardware would do. The Help file contains the entire Sinclair manual turned into a modern hyperlinked Help system, along with program help. You can zoom the display, change the fonts used in the editor and so on. Files can be loaded and saved into the native Windows filesystem using the menus, but the emulator can still handle cassette-tape images and so on. It is a really pleasant environment to work in: you get the pleasure of working in the old environment, but also the facilities of Windows. It may not encompass all the very best of both worlds, but it is the closest I've ever seen. I really like the way it merges the fun of playing around with an emulated 1980s 8-bit environment with the luxuries of a modern GUI OS. Trying to write code with an emulated Spectrum brings back many of the horrors of working on those machines for real - lousy editors, tiny screens, poor file-storage, instability, slowness, etc. It strikes me that there's no need for this concept to be limited to the Spectrum, although that happens to be my favourite 8-bit machine & the one I'm far and away most familiar with. It would be an interesting way for emulators of almost any vintage system to develop - separating display and code editor, enhancing the editor with modern native-OS facilities while keeping the classic execution and display environment. It might be a little less applicable to text-only terminal-based OSs, but not exclusively so, I think. I'd love to see such an environment for a whole load of the old graphics-oriented 8-bit home computers of the 1980s, though. I'm sure some people would consider it heresy to pollute a classic platform with modernities, but it strikes me as a really productive blending. I'm going to try to resurrect some of my unfinished Speccy projects that were just too painful to try to finish on the original machine. By the way, although it's a Windows 32-bit binary, it runs fine on Windows 7 64-bit, under XP in VirtualBox on Linux, and stably if a bit slowly under WINE on 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04. -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

15 years, 9 months

3
3
0 0

US Library of Congress: Copyright is Destroying Historic Audio

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.osnews.com/story/23888/US_Library_of_Congress_Copyright_Is_Destr…

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Evolution of the Apple Mouse

by marvin＠west.net

I saw an article on Mashable with photos of the evolution of the Apple mouse. Kind of interesting. http://mashable.com/2010/09/26/evolution-apple-mouse/ Marvin

15 years, 9 months

40
163
0 0

EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by alexander.voropay＠gmail.com

JFYI: I have one non-DEC Q-Bus card, a tape controller with Z80 CPU

15 years, 9 months

5
4
0 0

Ted Nelson autobiography

by evan＠snarc.net

New book .... Ted N.'s autobiography .... *http://tinyurl.com/23ewehv*

15 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

An interesting isa card

by brianlanning＠gmail.com

I just picked up one of these: http://www.berkprod.com/Product_Web_Pages/isa_pc_watchdog.aspx >from ebay for $7. It looks like it watches the machine for locked up software, then presses the reset button for you. What else can I do with this? What's the db-9 port for? brian

15 years, 9 months

13
19
0 0

Another huge collection for sale

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

> > Message: 17 > Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:50:48 -0600 > From: Richard <legalize at xmission.com> > Subject: Re: Another huge collection for sale > To: cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <E1P3coy-0006l0-0x at shell.xmission.com> > > > In article <4CACED38.2000900 at snarc.net>, > Evan Koblentz <evan at snarc.net> writes: > > > See ebay # 170546160874 .... no affiliation. > > All microcomputer stuff that was made in the gazillions of units > quantities. I'm not sure how the owner determined that the value is > "$75K" to collectors. If you're going to list something for more than > $1,000 on ebay, the least you could do is make sure that the listing > is complete when you post it, particularly if you've got only ~30 > hours left on the listing. If this was me, I would sell each item separately, or find someone to do it for me, for the next few years. I'd have two or three items posted per week so that I could answer questions individually. You'll only get a wholesale price with such a huge lot, but I assume the seller is motivated by time. Certainly this is a two feet in the ocean vintage computer collection none the less, even if there are not a lot of really rare items. For all we know the seller is keeping the "good stuff" and purging his more common items. Or, it may be a must sell thing, we all have had our backs against the wall and need to sell of stuff to pay the bills. I wish him well and I hope that these items find themselves in the hands of a person who will keep them in good shape. Bill

15 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

3D

by ragooman＠gmail.com

-----Original Message----- Date: Thursday, October 07, 2010 5:15:40 pm To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subject: Re: 3D On Thu, 7 Oct 2010, Chuck Guzis wrote: > On 7 Oct 2010 at 21:11, Tony Duell wrote: > > > > THIRTY years ago, CCTV monitors and home TV sets. > > There were (monochrome) high-resolution TV systems 50 years ago. In > particular, the Soviets were fooling around with an 1125-line > technology in 1958: > http://rus.625-net.ru/625/2007/01/tvch.htm And did that come with a mercury delay line frame buffer ? :) =Dan

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Odd Voltage Requirements (was: TU55 an ebay)

by silent700＠gmail.com

Here's an oddball, too: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220676550260 42V, 50hz. Apparently, there were mains lines that delivered those values to special plugs in Russian schools. How would one go about powering such a device in the US? -- jht

15 years, 9 months

6
7
0 0

MAC stuff that needs to go

by auringer＠tds.net

I currently have only an LC II, and it is headed to recycle heaven. I have the following MAC stuff that will go that way also, unless someone really wants it. I can't guarantee that all the floppies are readable. Link to photos below. Located in 53714. Make me an offer I can't refuse. -Jon -- Micronet model MS-120x external hard drive with manual and floppy disk - worked last time I tried it Tekalike terminal emulation - complete with manual and case Pile of original disks, including: -several versions of Excel -Pagemaker -MacDraft -Laserwriter -Mac System disks -Fullpaint -Expressionist -MS Basic -Cricket Graph http://www.flickr.com/photos/jja572/sets/72157625115800420

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

HP 9845A's Birth

by technobug＠comcast.net

An interesting article on the gestation of the HP 9845A: <http://www.edn.com/article/510813-Brute_force_brings_better_board.php> CRC

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Fujitsu Line printer manuals

by auringer＠tds.net

I have come across the following manuals for the Fujitsu M304X Series Line Printer: OEM Manual (good condition other than some notes written inside and on the cover) Operator's Guide (good other than rubber band residue on covers) CE Manual (good other than rubber band residue on covers) Located in 53714. Anyone interested? -Jon

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

P112 pre-order deadline

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

The deadline for pre-ordering a P112 kit, October 11, is approaching. I need to have 35 pre-orders before I can go ahead and have the boards made. I've only been able to pre-sell twelve kits. If I can't get 24 more kits sold by then, I'll have to cancel the project. I don't have the spare cash to finance the project entirely on my own. For those who are curious: I set the cutoff to October 11 because that's 60 days after the first order was placed. I can refund Paypal payments and get the fee back only within that window. The minimum of 35 pre-orders was chosen because for that number, I'll have the money to have 100 boards made and get parts for 35 kits. From that point on, the process becomes self-sustaining. -- 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?

15 years, 9 months

1
0
0 0

Another huge collection for sale

by evan＠snarc.net

See ebay # 170546160874 .... no affiliation. (A few people asked me if this is Sellam's. The answer is no.)

15 years, 9 months

2
1
0 0

Spec of Memory for a DEC Alpha 433au

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I am trying to work out what kind of memory to look for to fit in my 433au. I can see it need 168-pin ECC SDRAM, but I am not clear if it can be unbuffered or if it must be registered and whether I need PC100 or PC133. I can also see that the notches on the side to hold the DIMMs in place seem to be higher up than on most of the DIMMs I can find, not sure if there is a particular technical term I should include in my searches for this. Can anyone tell me the required spec? Thanks Rob

15 years, 9 months

5
4
0 0

Anyone have docs for a Digital Engineering Retro-Graphics ("VT640") board?

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

Hi, All, Jack Rubin sent me a Retro-Graphics upgrade board and cage that seem to have had an unpleasant interaction with mud daubers (I only have the boards, but the report is that the PSU of its former host did not survive). I'd like to clean an resurrect it, and I'd like to find any tech docs to go with. The closest I've found so far is a manual on Bitsavers for a version of the product for an ADM-3A terminal: http://computer-refuge.org/bitsavers/pdf/digitalEngineering/RG-512_Users_Ma… I found a query from John Wilson (D-Bit) some months back where he's seeking a programmers' manual, so it appears there are more questors than answers. Does anyone have anything on this device? It's a DEC-quad-height-sized card, with connectors appropriate for a VT100 enclosure, a few cables (PSU and data to/from the main VT100 board) and a metal cage, possibly just the standard DEC cage from a VT100. I think I can see how to plug it all in, but beyond cleaning and checking for dead shorts, I'd like to know something about it before I apply voltage. Some very nice photos can be found here: http://www.fairlightcmi.com/VT640-board-set-eBay-photos.html Googling has so far only returned references to its use with the Synclavier II synthesizer (and its modern replacement, a "VT640" emulator for MacOS X) and various science and engineering apps from the heyday of VMS and dumb terminals. No technical data beyond a few control sequences. I know how to drive a Tektronix 4000-series graphics terminal (and have some nice Tek files from some recent research on my Tek 4105), but I'm really looking for hardware docs more than just lists of command sequences. Thanks for any assistance -ethan

15 years, 9 months

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TU55 an ebay

by aswood＠t-online.de

Hello, there is a tu55 DecTape at ebay item 260670657286. I'm quite surprised - this is the second tu55 within four weeks. I've never seen any on ebay before. I'm not associated with the seller. --

15 years, 9 months

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IKOS system manual

by auringer＠tds.net

I have a User's Guide for the "IKOS Systems AT Host", which is apparently a logic validation system. It happens to be in a binder labeled Graphics Plus GP-220 from Northwest Digital Systems. Both are in good condition. If either of these items is of interest, make me an offer to keep it from the recycle bin. Shipping will be from 53714 -Jon

15 years, 9 months

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Manuals for printers & plotters available (omission)

by auringer＠tds.net

I neglected to mention that shipping is from 53714. -Jon

15 years, 9 months

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Manuals for printers & plotters available

by auringer＠tds.net

I have the following manuals that I am willing to save from the recycle bin, if they are worth something to someone. Offers above shipping cost will be required to make it worth my time. All are in good condition, unless otherwise noted. HP 7580B, 7585B and 7586B Drafting plotters Operators manual HP 7580B, 7585B and 7586B Drafting plotters Interfacing and Programming manual (fair condition) Citizen MSP-40/45 User's Manual Dataproducts Model 9030/9040 Operating Guide Comrex ComRiter IIE User's Guide Star Gemini-10X/15X User's Manual Panasonic KX-P3151 Operating Instructions Star radix-10 pc radix-15 pc Users's Manual (good condition w/writing on cover) Mannesmann Tally Spirit-80 Operator's Manual Star Gemini-15 Operation Manual [preliminary] (photocopy, fair condition) -Jon

15 years, 9 months

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Mike Ross Contact Info

by thomas.gardner＠sbcglobal.net

If Mike is still on this mail list: yr email at mike<AT>corestore<DOT>org has been bouncing for about a week now, with a "Sorry, I wasn't able to establish an SMTP connection. (#4.4.1) message. Does anyone have an alternate email address for Mike? Tom

15 years, 9 months

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Royal calculator available

by auringer＠tds.net

For the calculator collector: Royal 8HPD battery operated handheld printing calculator. It seems to be fully functional. Comes with two rolls of paper. I will accept the first decent offer above shipping costs from 53714. See a picture here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jja572/sets/72157625108629242 -Jon Jon Auringer

15 years, 9 months

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EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Steve asks: > With my limited exposure to the DEC/PDP stuff, this looks strange... > Z-80 chips on a QBus card? Is it noteworthy? worth bidding on? > unusual? just plain junk? What would it work with/in /on? > item no 250693741192 These were circa early 80's and this board was 4 CP/M systems. I think there were single and double boards too. There were some bizarre hooks between the CP/M BIOS and the Unibus (usually VAX/VMS... but there may have been others) filesystems that I never really grokked. The relationship to VMS printers was more straightforward. But yeah, you need some specialized drivers etc. probably not updated since VMS 3.x to use this. We had these in the 80's and the secretaries would connect to the VAX, then connect to the embedded CP/M system, and edit files using CP/M word processor, then print to printers on the VAX. Pretty convoluted. Later on the same secretaries used an emulated IBM PC inside the VAX. Tim.

15 years, 9 months

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IBM 5022

by robin＠hx-20.com

Hello Does anyone have a serviceable IBM 5022 disk drive unit, or perhaps have technical documentation on this drive that they would be prepared to scan and email? I have a single-platter disk pack (written in 1974) that I'd like to read. I believe it was written by a System/7. Am based in UK and US (MN). Thanks Robin

15 years, 9 months

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EPAY DEC Qbus Z-80

by shumaker＠att.net

With my limited exposure to the DEC/PDP stuff, this looks strange... Z-80 chips on a QBus card? Is it noteworthy? worth bidding on? unusual? just plain junk? What would it work with/in /on? item no 250693741192 steve

15 years, 9 months

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Tadpole/RDI UltraBook NVRAM problem...

by erik＠baigar.de

Dear Vintage-Computer experts, over the last year I "lost" two Tadpole/RDI UltraBook notebooks. These are Ultra Sparc based machines available in various configurations. Both machines refuse to boot, i.e. they pass all tests and print the right messages, but after initializing the memory they fail to load the kernel (boot disk) or do not send any network messages (boot net). I noticed, that there appear strange strings in the environment variables for hardware-revision for example and further investigation shows that the NVRAM (DS1643) must have lost a part of its content which are filled with e.g. 55 hexadecimal now. My question is, whether someone out there has got such an UltraBook up and running and is willing to read out the NVRAM and send me the contents. The machine has not to be opened to do this since the contents can be listed via the OpenBoot firmware. As most of the bytes should contain 00 it would for example be sufficient to take some low resolution photographs of the hex dump pages containing non-zero bytes and I'd be happy to type them into a hex editor myself... I'd post step by step instructions how the NVRAM's contents can be displayed... Best regards, Erik. P.S. The two UltraBooks are of the following type: U20-14-9-512P, Part No MU20014PCI36, Serial U20/1040, Serial ID 8527455. This one has got THREE hard drives. U200-14-3-128P, Part No MU20014PCI36, Serial U20-1253, Serial ID8526256 with two hard drive bays and one for the battery.

15 years, 9 months

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How much would you reckon a Mac Performa 630 is worth?

by lproven＠gmail.com

25MHz 680LC40, 36MB RAM, MacOS 8.1. TV and Ethernet cards. Because to my astounded delight, I just got ?50 for mine, from a chap who found me via eBay. The auction he was originally interested in, for an LC475, ended for just ?8. But then, that chap only wants the hard disk drive... -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

15 years, 9 months

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Free LA-100 posting

by cclist＠sydex.com

Fellow is posting an LA100 for shipping on Eric's VCF: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/showthread.php?22269-FREE-DEC- LA100-LetterWriter --Chuck

15 years, 9 months

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IS501 sensor -- my solution

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Some days ago I was asking about a source for an IS50 OPIC optical sensor used in the shaft encoder of my Olivetti Sparkjet printer. And it appears this device is unobtainium In an earlier message tonigth I mentioned I had recently bought a cheap PS/2 mouse, and that it is now very dead. These 2 events are connected... The reason I boguth a cheap mouse is that it was optomechancial, rather than optical. And the reason it was PS/2 is that that was the cheapest one I could find. The salesdroid in Maplin thought I was craxy when I daid I didn't care what the interface was. On the other hamd, trying to ecplain classic computing to him was going to take too long, so I simply said that PS/2 was what I wanted... And of coruse the reason I wanted an optomechancial mouse is that it contains a pair of dual phototranssitor sensors to sense the motion of the encoder wheels. Of ocurse I took the mouse apart. It was very cheaply made, with the slotted disks and spindles moulded in one piece, then clipped into 'bearings' moudlded in the base of the mouse. Ouch. But I didn't care about that. I soon desoldered the sensorts which appear to be dual phototransistors with a common collector connection. And the pitch of the slots in the mouse's encoder disks was very close to that in the disk in my Sparkjet printer. Next job was to carefully remove and dismantle the encoder in the Sparkjet. I desoldered the OPIC, which shed a couple of pins in the process, but I cared more about the PCB. I also removed the dual resistor assockated with the OPIC> I then fitted one of the mouse sensors in place of it, common collector to the +5V tack. And with a little cut and muper, I routed the 2 emitter connections to pads that had held the dual resistor. I carefully ressembled the sensor and fitted 10k resisotrs in placeof the dual resistor assembly. That would do as an emitter load for testing. Turning the spindle produced a change in voltage, but it was close to +5V all the time. Dropping the resistors would help, in the end I foudn that 470 ohms (yes, that low) was ideal. I added a 74LS14 schmitt trigger IC on a bit of stripboard to clean up the signals, conneted the outputs to the pins on the connector to the printer's main board and gave it a try. Using the logicDart I could get a display of the wavefortms, and by adjusting the encoder PCB position I got a pretty good pair of quadrature signals. Doing the self-test on the printer got the carriage jiggling about is it should do (the printer was dismantled so that there was no platten, HV generartor, carriage rails, stc, so I couldn't see if it was preinting anything, but I coudlsee the montion of the carriage drive). Alas evey so often it would miscount and the carriage would jump in position. Much gabbing of signals with the LogicDart later, I spotted the odd glitch in one of the output waveforms. No idea what was causing it, but a 1nF camacitor in parallel with the 470R resistor on each phototransitor cleared it up. And cleaered up the posiiton problem Now 'all' I have to do is align the carriage rails properly. Iv'e refitted the rest of the printer mechansim, and it does print, but it fades out after few lines, to recover only wne I clean the end of the ink cartridge. I suspect the spark is flying in slightly the wrong direction and putting carbon ('ink') on the end of the cartridge, causing HV leakage. So, the replacement for the IS501 consisted of the sensor from a cheap mouse and a 74LS14, a couple of R's and a couple of C's from my junk box... -tony

15 years, 9 months

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Sparcstation Voyager media?

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Hey folks, This is a question about a piece I have in my personal collection: a Sparcstation SS240 Voyager. It's a sun4m architecture luggable workstation with an LCD screen. The whole thing fits into a large shoulder bag - large enough it wouldn't be accepted for carryon luggage. It's cute, and it runs (after I replaced the NVRAM chip). When I got it, the machine had been set up with NetBSD, but being the masochistic sort I am I wanted to restore it to its original software. It just so happens I had Solaris 2.6 and gave it a crack. Solaris starts up just fine, but the device won't go into CDE, claiming that it can't find the framebuffer driver. Looking at the firmware, I see that it identifies a device called bwthree. Solaris 2.6 has a driver for bwtwo, but I've been unable to find a bwthree anywhere. (Google gives me pages and pages of "BW3," refusing to believe I want what I typed. Sometimes software is too helpful.) The original documentation for the Voyager describes custom install media - which presumably includes this driver. Does anyone happen to have such a CDROM? Can you confirm for me that there is in fact a driver so named? And if you have a running Voyager, is that what's in your /platform/kernel/drv directory? Otherwise, I guess I could just run NetBSD, but it's just not as fun. :) Thanks - Ian

15 years, 9 months

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200+ vintage computers for sale - LaCrosse, WI

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I am posting this on behalf of Carl - see below: -------------------------------------- Carl W. Thurston writes: I have about 1500 cubic feet of classic computer systems, peripherals, manuals, software, and parts for sale. Nearly every Apple, Atari, Amiga, Compaq, Commodore, to mention a few. Some notable models like: Calcomp Terrac, DEC Rainbow, Kaypro, Osborne 1, IBM PC luggable, Zenith luggable,etc. Lots of NOS parts, service manuals, and Diagnostics. Would like to sell entire collection (was part of a Technology Museum), contact me about particulars or questions. See big list here: http://popbottlecaps.com/temp/accession.html Contact: Carl W. Thurston Western Technical College La Crosse, WI 54601 ThurstonC at westerntc.edu --------------------------------------

15 years, 9 months

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Looking for HP LaserJet part

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I now have a HP LaserJet IIp Plus printer, (initially free, and I got it working at a cost about equal to buying a good used one, but that's another story)... anyhow, I am trying to find the "Optional Lower Cassette" that holds 250 sheets of paper and fits underneath the printer (instead of feeding them 20-30 at a time through the front door). No luck in the usual places. Does anyone have a "parts" IIp from which I can buy the cassette & paper tray? thanks Charles

15 years, 9 months

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Tandy DeskMate floppies

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I uncovered some "vintage" Tandy DeskMate software on five 3.5" floppies. Labeled (Radio Shack?) Catalog No. 25-3551, (C) 1984, 1990. Anyone want them for $5.00 plus Media Mail postage from 65775... please contact me offlist. thanks.

15 years, 9 months

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IP Fragments - Worth doing, testing strategies?

by mbbrutman-cctalk＠brutman.com

I have been working on my TCP/IP stack for DOS, adding IP fragmentation support. There are not too many more features that I want to add to make it 'complete' before I open source the code and IP fragment support was a big one. I am having a terrible time testing it though. It seems that IP fragments out in the wild are pretty rare. I tried connecting to a slew of remote FTP sites hoping to find one that was behind a really bad network, and thus would have fragments coming from it. No joy. It seems that there are a lot of tricks out there to prevent fragments >from being created, especially when using TCP. The only way I can test the code is to send myself oversized UDP packets. If it works for UDP then it should work for TCP too, but I'd really like to test the TCP path explicitly. Combine the tricks with modern broadband and getting fragments is really difficult. Even on the home network I am having a hard time getting fragments. I put a Linux box between the DOS PC and a Windows machine, and set one of the Ethernet MTUs to 576. Well, that didn't force fragments because the Windows box is too clever. I could start turning everything off in the registry, but I really don't want to get that involved. Off the top of my head I think I am going to have to get another Linux box and dumb that down, if it is possible. Dumbing Linux down to turn off the features and then restoring it to a good state is probably safer/easier than doing it with Windows. Does anybody have a good technique for setting up a simple network that will result in IP fragments of TCP? On a related note, is this even worth it? I don't know of anything that needs to send fragments except for NFS over UDP. There might be other applications that send big packets over UDP but those would be the only class of applications that absolutely require fragment support. With TCP it is nice, but a user should be able to get around any problem by setting the local MTU to 576. Mike

15 years, 9 months

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iPad? Really? (was RE: Voice recognition will never kill the keyboard was: Re: Evolution)

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Please, I just ate.... The iPad is another Apple marketing success, but it isn't "defining" in any sense. Just because the bleating masses bought a bunch of them doesn't mean it's a meaningful step in any direction except profit. It just means that the marketeers at Apple are without peer. That's not a compliment. Keep in mind that I'm typing this on a PowerBook - I'm not anti-Mac. I own and really enjoy a 7" Android tablet device - I'm not anti-tablet. (I also own a Fujitsu Stylistic Tablet PC that I bought a long time ago, and if you want to sit down over a couple of beers I'd be happy to talk about its strengths and weaknesses and why the "Tablet PC" was ultimately doomed.) I'm not anti-"device", as I've been saying for some time that the "Personal Computer" has had its day and will be supplanted by "devices" that are not recognizable as computers - and it's happening, with the proliferation of mobile devices as the primary mechanism for consumption of information technology for millions of people around the world. (Why does Microsoft do so poorly in this market? Because it's in their DNA to tie it to the Personal Computer.) But the iPad? Yuppie status symbol. Yet another expression of Steve Jobs' control freak personality. Dead end. IMHO -- Ian ________________________________________ From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Liam Proven [lproven at gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2010 9:15 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only Subject: Re: Voice recognition will never kill the keyboard was: Re: Evolution On 2 October 2010 19:59, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: >> For the existing apps that are mouse-centric, I see touchscreens >> replacing them, but for things that are text-centric I don't see that >> as a good transition. > > TOuchscreens have been tried in the past (the most obviosu example is the > HP150 'Touchscreen PC') and I think they were always found to be less > convenient to use than a mouse or trackball. You have to move your hand > further (keyboard to screen rather than keyboard to mouse on desk near > keybaord), and you arm/hand is not supported (e.g. by resting it on the > desk) when you are doing the pointing. Well, yes, in 1983 they quite definitely weren't viable yet. :?) The iPad is the defining device of this technology, at least so far. It isn't a desktop computer and doesn't try to be. It's not a Mac, it's not Mac-compatible. It has no windows, no desktop, no menu bar, no Dock or trashcan. No keyboard, no screen, no system unit, no removable media, no hard disk or floppy drive. It is a *device*, not a "computer". (Even though it runs Unix.) It sits in cradled in your lap or held in your hands as you operate it with your thumbs. The screen /is/ the computer. It weighs under a kilo and the battery lasts a day of use. And despite it being nothing like anything anyone is used to, it sold about three million devices in its first month or so. -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

15 years, 9 months

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Janus programming language for CP/M-86

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I came across a set of disks labeled "Janus CP/M-86 Compiler", "Janus CP/M-86 Linker" and "Janus CP/M-86 Support" from RR Software. I presume these have nothing to do with the Janus lanuage created in 1990[1], but instead has something to do with reversible computing, if Wikipedia is accurate on this. How rare is this find? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_(programming_language) -- 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?

15 years, 9 months

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1981 Xitan S-100 system for sale - Norwalk, CA

by tosteve＠yahoo.com

I am posting this on behalf of Todd - see below: ------------------------------------- I have a Xitan XOR-100, which is an S-100 bus system with 8-inch floppy drives running CP/M. Along with that is a Televideo TVI-950 terminal. I have most of the manuals and other documentation. I also have a non-booting Apple Macintosh SE (10MB internal disk) with a third-party external 20MB SCSI drive. toddlitwin at charter.net -------------------------------------

15 years, 9 months

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Another 935 shot...

by mdavidson1963＠gmail.com

Ok, can't resist. I'm just so happy to have this machine! Mark http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5153811&l=e3d7fbce9f&id=734972117 http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5153808&l=e4aaef5843&id=734972117

15 years, 9 months

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anyone coming up through MD towards (or to, or beyond) MA sometime this year ?

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

Have a BA23 pedestal enclosure I'd like to get from Rockville MD area.... and the local UPS store down there wan'ts $60ish for packing materials/packing charge (the $30+ to ship). So, thought I'd see if anyone was making a run through that area up this way per chance. Probably not, but thought I'd check anyway. Let me know if you are. Thanks, -- Curt

15 years, 9 months

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TI calculator battery packs cont'd

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

I just found another great site in Germany: http://www.stschmid.de/calculators/ in which he redesigned the dc-dc converter board inside the BP-8 with surface-mount components, and even sells them... for $25 plus $12 postage :( Guess I'll be using 9V batteries, or perhaps tuck a rechargeable one (which is really only 8.4 volts) inside the plastic case with a suitable diode and resistor for charging from the wall-wart.

15 years, 9 months

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