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

by nospam212-cctalk＠yahoo.com

Trying to figure out a fair value for the following: Altair 8800b with two Altair floppy drives. System is clean but hasn't been turned on since the 70s. No software or manuals available. Contains the follow boards: 1 CPU 2 Floppy disk controller 3 MITS 16k dynamic memory boards (48k ram total) 1 MITS 8800 Disk BD1 Rev 0 x4 1 SIO board with 2 serial ports 1 MITS 8800 PMC Rev01 2k Prom Board Can reply off list. Thanks. David

6 years, 3 months

4
3
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Chuck Peddle passed away

by cliendo＠gmail.com

https://www.team6502.org/ This was on the Team 6502 facebook page ==================================================================== I just received an email from Bill Mensch that Chuck Peddle has died. He died on December 15. Chuck Peddle was one of the team of eight Motorola employees and engineers who worked on the 6800 microprocessor and left the company for MOS Technology in 1974 along with Harry Bawcom, Wil Mathys, Rod Orgill, Ray Hirt, Mike Janes, Terry Holdt, and Bill Mensch. Peddle considered the $300 price point of the 6800 a disadvantage, and urged Motorola management to pursue a more affordable microprocessor that could be used in a wider array of applications. When they refused, Peddle convinced seven other Motorola employees, including my father Terry Holdt, to pack up their homes and move across the country to begin work on what would become the 6502 microprocessor at MOS Technology, a wafer-fab company in Valley Forge, PA founded by a former colleague of his from General Electric, John Paivinen. After Commodore Business Machines purchased MOS Technology in 1976, Peddle oversaw the creation of the Commodore PET computer, the predecessor of the Commodore 64, the best-selling personal computer of all time. While curating the information for the team6502.org website, one of my favorite anecdotes comes from MOS Technology employee, Frank Slattery, who wrote: "What a great bunch of guys the Motorola eight were. I was the manager of the layout people and it was my duty to make sure that the Motorola eight had every opportunity to do their design work with no problems. I was standing next to Chuck Peddle when he said to Jack Tramiel, the CEO of Commodore Business Machines, 'With this chip we can build a personal computer.' It was the first time I ever heard the words, 'Personal Computer.'" The rest, as they say, is history... Chuck was one of the giants of the personal computing industry. Now he belongs to the ages.

6 years, 3 months

1
0
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8048 Family Applications Handbook

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

Hi All, I have a copy of this Intel book, 8048 Family Applications Handbook, January 1980. Does anyone know if scans of this book are online anywhere? I did a quick Google search and didn't find this particular book. If it isn't available anywhere I would like to get it scanned and posted somewhere (bitsavers?), but the only way I have to do a decent scan is destructive. A picture of the cover is here: http://wrcooke.net/DSC01633.JPG Thanks, Will "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery "The names of global variables should start with // " -- https://isocpp.org

6 years, 3 months

3
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FW: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

I wonder if there is any interest here... -----Original Message----- From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net <greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of John Lawson Sent: 10 December 2019 17:41 To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net Subject: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free Greetings List! I have a couple of "DURA" Selectric ASR terminals. I also have some limited documentation on them. Neither of them work as far as I know. I tried to run the one in the pic when I first got it, but it's jammed - so on the shelf it went. They appear to be an 8-level code, dunno if ASCII, EBCDIC, or what. These are joining the ever-expanding list of "Projects Never to be Completed", so if anyone is interested, lemme know. They are free, you pay shipping, they are about 50 pounds each and will require some thoughtful packing. Local pickup is happily offered, and I could possibly be bribed into delivering them within a day's drive of Carson City (weather permitting). Cheers John KB6SCO Carson City

6 years, 3 months

6
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Bad heads on RL02: Worth replacing

by cz＠alembic.crystel.com

So one of my RL02 drives (bought on Ebay years ago) is eating RL02 packs. Makes tings, then the disks have errors in my other RL02 drive. Took a bit to figure out which drive was eating what, but I'm 100% certain it's this newer drive. So pulled the heads. The top one had significant gunk on it, the bottom one a bit. Pics below. Top: https://i.imgur.com/FELhF9X.jpg Bottom: https://i.imgur.com/Tmsf5Nd.jpg With alcohol and lintless swabs I managed to clean both of the heads up. Top: https://i.imgur.com/gmACM4R.jpg Bottom: https://i.imgur.com/SfZQV5F.jpg Then put them back in the drive and mounted a scratch pack. With finger on the load/run I let the drive spin up and when I heard tinging I immediately spun down. Hopefully I didn't trash my scratch pack. Top head has gunk, bottom one had a few flecks, but looks pretty ok. Top: https://i.imgur.com/EAvgmuH.jpg Bottom: (picture didn't upload) Obviously the head is crashing, any idea why and if it's worth replacing the head or should I put this drive out for parts? Yes I cleaned the RL02 pack before putting it in. Never dull. CZ

6 years, 3 months

5
10
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Odd Symptom PDP 8e Running Programs

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Hi - I am looking for some help. I have had a PDP 8e with RK05 drives that has run pretty reliably for many years, but after moving it a strange symptom has come up, preventing it >from operating correctly. I am hoping someone can advise. Here is an example 1. Power up drives and PDP 8e 2. Load OS/8 3. Load ADVENT 4. Program loads, asks if I want instructions. I can enter Y or N and the system responds. The familiar scrolling light pattern appears on the front panel to indicate awaiting input 5. As soon as I attempt an action such as "S" (with no quotes) the front panel freezes and I have to CTRL+C to exit ADVENT, dumping me to the dot prompt. Similar issue when running the MUSIC.SV program. I can load the program and get up to the point of entering a song, but when I enter a song name the system freezes on the first note. BASIC works fine however. Which tells me that I have a CPU problem, not a RAM problem but this is just my hunch. Any ideas how to diagnose this? Running MAINDEC programs is always frustrating. I am attempting to load the main DECX8 SYSTEM EXERCISER to see if there are any clues from this as to the cause of the freezing system. . https://www.pdp8online.com/os/os8/os8_cmd.shtml#DECX8 Thanks Bill

6 years, 3 months

3
2
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ISO: Service info for an ADDS Envoy 580

by derschjo＠gmail.com

Got me an ADDS Envoy 580 (at least, I'm pretty sure it is -- it has no model designation apart from "Envoy" but looks identical to Jim's pictures at http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/05/adds-envoy-portable-terminal.html ). It's non-functional at the moment so it's going to need some repairs, and I can't find much on it -- anyone have anything? Thanks, Josh

6 years, 3 months

1
0
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RCA 1802s available

by w9gb＠icloud.com

Harris still manufactures the RCA/Intersil/Harris 1802 processor. I do not know if the Silicon on Sapphire (SoS) process versions (Sandia Labs, radiation hardened) are still used by DoD. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_1802 Alltronics Harris CDP1802ACE (3.2 MHz, 5 Volts) $4.95 https://www.alltronics.com//cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=CDP1802ACE Harris CDP1852CE, Parallel, 8-bit, PIO : $3.95 https://www.alltronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=CDP1852CE Intersil CDP1802 Spec Sheet (1997) https://www.alltronics.com/alltronics_assets/acrobat/CDP1802ACE.pdf Lee Hart sells the Bare PC boards for his 1802 Membership Card. Josh Bensadon has ELF-LINK for parallel port control/access http://www.sunrise-ev.com/1802.htm For the 40th anniversary, in 2016, VCF Midwest hosted the VCF ?COSMIC ELF project? with generous donations of time and materials by Lee A. Hart, Josh Bensadon, Ed Keefe, Dave Ruske, Walter Miraglia, Chuck Yakym, Bill Rowe, and Norm Nelson; and to our many advisors and volunteer builders. http://www.sunrise-ev.com/vcf-elf.htm After 18 years, Dave Ruske announced in October that maintenance of the Cosmic ELF group (cosmic elf.com) is being assumed by Josh Bensadon. http://www.cosmacelf.com/news/new-cosmac-elf-group-owner.html greg, w9gb chicago == Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:30:55 -0600 (CST) From: wrcooke at wrcooke.net To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: RCA 1802s available An ad was emailed to me today with an interesting item: RCA 1802 processors. I thought there may be some folks here interested: https://www.bgmicro.com/9z1509.aspx Not affiliated in any way other than a customer. Will ==

6 years, 3 months

2
1
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RCA 1802s available

by wrcooke＠wrcooke.net

An ad was emailed to me today with an interesting item: RCA 1802 processors. I thought there may be some folks here interested: https://www.bgmicro.com/9z1509.aspx Not affiliated in any way other than a customer. Will

6 years, 3 months

5
5
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Tap, tap, tap, is this working???

by ucespamdump＠gmail.com

Signed up this new account exclusively for CCtech and CCchat. Hopefully its working. Why do this? I had to shut off the other subscription for spam reasons. Allison

6 years, 3 months

4
9
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Tapestar for DOS

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

Hello, Can anyone please point me towards a copy of the Tapestar utility package for DOS? I have already contacted Qualstar and they cannot help. TIA! -Ali

6 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

Seeking information on the CSTS Timesharing service

by jfehlinger＠comcast.net

On Mon, Dec 16, 2019 at 8:42 PM jim stephens via cctalk wrote: > > Does anyone have any information on Infonet, which was a timesharing > which CSC put out? I've got some info that it had a timesharing service > called CSTS and would like info on that. https://web.archive.org/web/20170421223052/https://wiki.cc.gatech.edu/folkl… ------ Jerry Reich has brought to my attention the operating systems written by Computer Science Corporation (CSC) for its Infonet time-sharing network. In the late 1960s, CSC developed CSCX, which was a highly modified EXEC II [*] with time-sharing and multiprogramming capabilities. CSCX later evolved into the CSTS time-sharing system used on the Infonet 1100s throughout the 1970s. Commercial time-sharing networks were widespread during the 1960s and 1970s. ==== [*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_EXEC_II ------ EXEC II is a discontinued operating system developed for the UNIVAC 1107 by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) while under contract to UNIVAC to develop the machine's COBOL compiler. They developed EXEC II because Univac's EXEC I operating system development was late. . . EXEC II is a batch processing operating system that supports a single job stream with concurrent spooling. ==== I have reason to believe that my very first exposure to digital computers (in the spring of 1969, at a high school in northern Delaware taking advantage of a Federal grant to equip a room with some teletype machines and acoustic couplers) was to "Conversational Fortran V" running on a Univac 1108 at Computer Sciences Corporation. Presumably the operating system was CSC's own modified version of Exec II (CSCX) rather than Exec 8, but I believe the Fortran V language processor would have been the same in either case. That taste of high-end timesharing was a luxurious experience, never to be repeated -- the following year, those same teletype machines were connected to an overloaded IBM 1130 at the University of Delaware running BASIC. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED126934.pdf ------ Walzl, F. Neil The Development and Implementation of a District Computer Education Program. Final Report. Newark School District, Del. Nov 75 . . . During the 1968-69 school year, three major activities were conducted. . . Computer time was purchased >from the Philco Ford Company, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, and the Computer Sciences Corporation, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. . . ==== https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/why-python-best ------ For you Fortran folks, I need to explain Fortran V. Based on Fortran IV, Fortran V was implemented on Univac 1100-series hardware (and probably other Univac systems such as the 494) by Computer Sciences Corporation in the late 1960s. It extended Fortran to include parameter statements?basically a way to define constants, conditional compilation, and statement functions?basically macros that produced in-line code. In 1970, I went to work for Computer Sciences Corporation working on systems testing of a new timesharing system they were developing called CSTS. While some of my work was done in assembly language, the majority was done in Fortran V. For me, it was the "best scripting language" I had available. (It was also the only language I had available on CSTS itself for a while.) ====

6 years, 3 months

1
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Seeking information on the CSTS Timesharing service

by jwsmail＠jwsss.com

Does anyone have any information on Infonet, which was a timesharing which CSC put out?? I've got some info that it had a timesharing service called CSTS and would like info on that. I've got info on the original version of the Pick system which IP was owned by TRW and was called GIM.? The CSTS Infonet service provided access in some way to IGIM, which is in a manual I just obtained. So I want to know if there is any CSTS manuals or documents (ideally) anyone may have. Secondly it looks like rather than IBM mainframes for timeshare, the systems that Infonet shared were Univac 1108s.? So looking for verifying that. Especially if the systems were all Univac was IGIM running on the 1108. The time frame for the manual is 1974.? GIM dates from 69 to 70 from a TRW contract.? Actual product was obviously running in one form in 1974.? There is information that it ran on PDP 11s as well in another form. While searching for information with Google, I found some court proceedings, including a precedent related to RICO charges on individuals in Infonet.? If anyone finds the original indictment, or can get to it on pacer, I'd appreciate a copy to read, or send message, I'll supply the citation.? A better source like Pacer probably will retrieve the original indictment.? I only find a decision which was reversed related to the indictment.? I suspect there would be a lot of history in the indictment around the 1980 ish timeframe of the indictment about how CSC ran Infonet. Short story on what you will find online a lot of spots is a precedent set by the 4th Circuit of Appeals which resolved a technicality about whether individuals and corporations were the same WRT charges.? The ruling that RICO applied to individuals and not corporations was filed by a trial court.? But the appeals court said that the actions if they constituted RICO by individuals could be go back on the corporation they operated in was the precedent. Obviously not a good one for corporations. Thanks, Jim

6 years, 3 months

2
1
0 0

Is IBM RPG classic?

by decguy＠songdog.eskimo.com

Is it classic enough to ask about on this list? A friend of mine finds himself in the awkward position of being asked to take on some RPG programming, but knows nothing about it. Can anyone here suggest some good resources for a crash course in RPG? Yes, any web search engine will throw up a lot of hits, but I'm hoping someone here can help select the most useful ones.

6 years, 3 months

13
19
0 0

Zetaco SCSI Controller

by skelly＠bowerandbailey.co.uk

Hi, Would anyone happen to have or know the whereabouts of a technical manual and/or schematics for a Zetaco SCZ-2 controller? Or the same for any other Zetaco SCZ (hoping that they all used the same back-plane presentation :) ) Many thanks Sean (www.datageneral.uk) Bower & Bailey LLP Please don't reply to e-mails purporting to ask for our bank account details to be changed. Always speak to the lawyer acting for you to check any changes to payment arrangements. We will also require independent verification of changes to any bank account to which we are asked to send money. Bower & Bailey LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under registered number OC353093 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, (SRA number 534676). The registered office is at Willow House, 2 Heynes Place, Station Lane, Witney, OX28 4YN at which a full list of members is available for inspection. We use the word 'partner' to refer to a member of Bower & Bailey LLP (or employee of equivalent status). The content of this email (and any attachment) is confidential, may be legally privileged and intended solely for the person or organisation to whom it was addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not copy, distribute, store or take any action in reliance upon it or any attachment. If you have received this email and any attachment in error, please notify the sender by replying by email and then delete the email entirely from your system. Where the content of this email (and any attachment) is personal, or otherwise unconnected with the firm or its business, Bower & Bailey LLP accepts no responsibility or liability for such content. We do not accept service of legal process by email. Whilst Bower & Bailey LLP has anti-virus protection systems installed, we accept no liability for any loss or damage which may be caused by viruses or interception/interruption of this email or any attachments. You should carry out your own virus check before opening any attachment. Personal Information that we obtain or hold about individuals is processed in accordance with our Privacy Notice which is available to view on our website. Offices at: Banbury, Oxford, Swindon and Witney For further information please visit our website: www.bowerandbailey.co.uk

6 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

PBX (or something) for modem testing

by brain＠jbrain.com

To continue validating modem functionality, I think it makes sense to set up a closed loop phone system in my lab that will function well enough to allow modems to connect to each other (dial tone, ringing, busy signal, etc.). I know I can probably whip something up with a 9 v battery and a piece of cable with rj11s, but I think that will fall short. That said, I went out to eBay to see if I could source a 2-8 line something to help, and got smacked around with my lack of telephone system knowledge. So, any ideas (or links to eBay auctions) of brands/models/etc. I should focus on? Also, if anyone has any modems lying around gathering dust, I probably should source a few more models. tcpser handles Hayes "+++" spec correctly, but I should probably support TIES as well, to cite one example. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

6 years, 3 months

12
22
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FS: System/36 Kansas City

by dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com

In case any one is interested.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/retrocomputers/permalink/3042809669082227/ Dave Wade G4UGM & EA7KAE

6 years, 3 months

4
5
0 0

WANTED: DEC TU56 DECtape drive

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Thomas Moss > Probably a long-shot, but I'm looking for a DECtape drive for my > PDP-8/e. Long shot indeed! DECtape drives are one of the rarest DEC peripheral, and un-surprisingly, one of the most valuable. (A TU56 sold on eBait for $7K back in 2015.) Would a TU55 do, or does it have to be a TU56? (The interface is basically compatible, I think, but I have yet to dig into the details, so I can't say for certain. But I think I recall seeing systems with one or the other, and AFAIK the controllers aren't drive-type specific - the cabling might be, though.) Noel

6 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

Looking for a Motorola Universal Data Systems 212A/D manual

by mbbrutman＠brutman.com

I ran across this modem (circa 1982) and saved it, but I have no idea on how to control it. Bitsavers doesn't seem to have a manual for it. It's a big, blue plastic box and it looks wonderful. There is an array of 8 lights and 6 buttons; the HS button enables 1200 bps operation, otherwise it is 300 bps. It echoes characters and responds correctly to DataTerminalReady not being asserted, so I think that if I can find the command set it might be functional. It's a little more primitive than my original Hayes 1200 that I first got in 1984. (I'm not expecting a standard command set.) A picture of it can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zWBPimcpZNUch6G28 Thanks, Mike

6 years, 3 months

3
3
0 0

8 inch floppies

by aek＠bitsavers.org

anyone know what system these floppies are for? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-33-8-034-Floppy-Disks-/184071352445

6 years, 3 months

9
19
0 0

Mac 3.5" floppies for anyone who wants them

by david＠kdbarto.org

A collection just came to me. These are the original disks, with whatever labels are on them. As a set. First come first served. If you are in San Diego I?ll arrange a swap with you locally. If remote, we can arrange shipping. 1.44MB unless otherwise noted. Copyright years noted so version number might be determined along with what version of Mac it might support. GRAVIS Mac Blackhawk Version 1.0 (2 disk) ClarisWorks 4.0 (6 disks) ClarisWorks Small Business Solutions Pack. Correct Grammar For Mac Version 3.0 (2 disks) APS PowerTools V 1.3.1 Mac ally Port Xpander Driver Program (copyright 1995-1997) Welltris, Spectrum Holobyte (800K disks, S/N 013045, 2 disks) MicroSoft Excel Version 4.0. (800K disks, 7 Disks, copyright 85-92) MicroSoft PowerPoint (800K disks, 4 disks, copyright 87-89) MicroSoft Mail Version 2.0 (800k?, Copyright 85-89) Conflict Catcher 3 (800K 1 disk) dantz Retrospect (2 disks, copyright 97) Suitcase II, (400K disk, S/N 4200-0103685 Copyright 86) Hayden Books - The Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh Disk. Contains: Eudora 1.4 Fetch 2.1.1 InterSLIP 1.0 MacTCP 2.2 Stuffit Expander 3.03 TurboGopher 1.07 Nova Development - American Handbook of Business Letters (800k?, Copyright 90) Aladdin Stuffit Lite (800k?, Copyright 87-92) Aladdin Spring Cleaning (Copyright 96) Connectix Ram Doubler (800k?, 1.5.1 hand written on disk, copyright 94) CTSNET Macintosh Internet Signup Since my Father in law as Mac Only, I had no idea where these came from Windows Syquest SCSI installation Diskette 1, copyright 94 Windows 95 Syquest Installation diskette 2 DOS/Windows & OS/2 SCSI installation diskette 3

6 years, 3 months

3
5
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SMD disk specifications

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, I also was searching about a clear SMD specification years ago, I found something in disk documentation from CDC, but doubts remain, because some disks call the interface SMD, some other CMD, never understood the difference... Andrea

6 years, 3 months

5
7
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SMD disk specifications

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Hello, well maybe my memory has blank spots. I have two CDC Lark Disk modules I would like to revive, they are in good shape, but only one has a cartridge included, and they are not identical. Not sure if the other one could be employed without cartridge. I never found a manual with exact model correspondence, I found years ago a manual for very similar drives. IIRC there was a sort of adapter board between SMD and (xxx blank spot) interface. There was a description of the interface, it was really similar to SMD, but wasn't SMD... Maybe I should check again the Lark model number. Andrea

6 years, 3 months

4
4
0 0

M906 flip chip boards wanted (2x)

by roelof_klaas＠yahoo.com

Hello everyone,? Can anyone help me to get two M906terminator flip chip boards?? Thanks in advance,?Roland Huisman

6 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

SMD disk specifications

by ggs＠shiresoft.com

Hi, I?ve been trying to find *detailed* specifications (mainly detailed signal timings) for the SMD disk interface but all I?ve found so far are the interface specifications for individual disks (CDC, Fujitsu, etc). I?ve looked in the usual places (bitsavers mostly) and haven?t found the spec itself. If anyone has any pointers, I?d appreciate it. Thanks. TTFN - Guy

6 years, 3 months

3
4
0 0

WANTED: DEC TU56 DECtape drive

by mosst＠SDF.ORG

Hi All, Probably a long-shot, but I'm looking for a DECtape drive for my PDP-8/e. Either to buy or to trade with something. (PDP-8/11 parts, 11/34, Intel MDS, ASR-33?) I'm in South-West England but also have an address near LA. Can travel to pick-up. Regards, -Tom mosst at sdf.lonestar.org SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

6 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

P112

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

Let's try again with the right name in the Subject line! It's not really classic (although it does try to pretend to be but does anyone here do anything with the P112 SBC? I am trying to get 8" disks running on it but I am seeing some rather strange behavior. bill

6 years, 3 months

20
37
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Large List of Commodore 64 Games and Software from Sellam's Collection

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

Winter is upon us. Time to snuggle up in front of your Commodore 64 with some old timey games and applications, and I've got plenty of them to keep you busy throughout the holidays. The complete list is too long to reproduce here, so please go to the following link, which will take you directly to the Commodore 64 Software section of my Virtual Warehouse of Computing Wonders: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I53wxarLHlNmlPVf_HJ5oMKuab4zrApI_hi… The disks are untested. I can test upon demand but then the price will go up for my time involved. Otherwise they are sold as is. They were all stored under proper conditions, with many of the packages having been stored in ziplock bags. Some of the manuals have highlighting in them from the previous owner but otherwise most everything is in very good to excellent condition, as indicated for each listing. Photographs accompany each listing (the link under the Additional Information column). Rather than attempt to price these individually, I'll simply take offers on one, some, many, or all of these titles. Preference and priority will go to the larger orders. Please direct any questions to me directly via e-mail. Thanks! Sellam

6 years, 3 months

1
0
0 0

WANTED: Cromemco EXC extender board...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Hi All, I would like to buy, but I will borrow/rent if I have to for VCF East 2020. I'm looking for ONLY the Cromemco EXC, no others. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

6 years, 4 months

2
2
0 0

Canon MDD210

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I've got a thoroughly tested and working Canon Mdd210 5.25" floppy mechanism here. I don't need such a special mech, any 360k drive would do. If you want this particular mechanism for some reason, just let me know and we can arrange a trade for a more ordinary one. Best, Jeff

6 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

Converting C for KCC on TOPS20

by dave＠661.org

I'm trying to convert some C code[1] so it'll compile on TOPS20 with KCC. KCC is mostly ANSI compliant, but it needs to use the TOPS20 linker, which has a limit of six case-insentive characters. Adam Thornton wrote a Perl script[2] that successfully does this for Frotz 2.32. The Frotz codebase has evolved past what was done there and so 2.50 no longer works with Adam's script. So I've been expanding that script into something of my own, which I call "snavig"[3]. It seems to be gradually working more and more, but I fear the problem is starting to rapidly diverge because it still doesn't yield compilable code even on Unix. Does anyone here have any knowledge of existing tools or techniques to do what I'm trying to do? This is part of a project to get Infocom and other Z-machine games running once again on PDP10 mainframes, either real or emulated. First up is to get the bare minimum of a current Z-machine emulator running on TOPS20. Then we can work on screen-handling, a disk pager[4], and porting to other PDP10 operating systems. I'm hoping that this will lead to fun exhibits wherever PDP10s are displayed in museum or faire settings. [1] https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz [2] https://github.com/athornton/gnusto-frotz-tops20 [3] Change an objects shape. [4] Infocom's Z-machine emulators paged zcode from disk, but Frotz simply sucks the whole zcode file into memory. -- 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, 4 months

6
6
0 0

ZedRipper

by rtomek＠ceti.pl

Hello, Surfaced on Ycombinator. This one looks good. Something old, something new, etc. Like my kind of project :-) :: ZedRipper: A 16-core Z80 laptop http://www.chrisfenton.com/the-zedripper-part-1/ and some comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21756243 -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com **

6 years, 4 months

1
0
0 0

FTGH - SORD Keyboard

by trash80＠internode.on.net

Was going through a box of stuff someone gave me ages ago in keeping with my philosophy of grab first ask questions later. At the bottom found a SORD keyboard (regrettably not the whole thing) - looks like it comes from a M68. Photo: http://koken.advancedimaging.com.au/index.php?/albums/interesting-finds/con… As this is all I have of a SORD (so I am unable to test it) I figure it may be of use to someone else on this list. (Would appreciate coverage of package and postage from Mortlake Victoria Australia 3272 please. Please note that its the size of a keyboard and is a little weighty so you'll need to factor that in. Alternatively I will be in Melbourne in January 2020 if someone more "local" wants it). Thank you. Kevin Parker

6 years, 4 months

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getting your data from yahoo

by aek＠bitsavers.org

someone just posted this on twitter they seem to have sent an email to everyone and didn't bother to mention this https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/getmydata

6 years, 4 months

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Zilog 8000 system replacement boards

by zilogz80.swing＠yahoo.ca

Original asked by : Evan Koblentz?cctalk at snarc.net On Thu Jul 19 14:36:27 CDT 2018..Zilog 8000 system (model 20 and model 32) replacement boards ..As far as the System 8000 model 20 are conserved their microprocessor board schematics and firmware can be found on the internet but the microprocessor and the MMU's might be hard to get. ? (out of production for some time now). .. As far as the MMU's are concerned some System 8000 clones used a different MMU with a custom mapping PROM and or others use a Intelligent MCU to emulate the Zilog MMU's....As far as the Model 32 is concerned that a little different, without the original microprocessor board you could always down grade it to a lesser model. It would be easy to get the Z8001 microprocessor on to a 32 bit data bus.? Just some extra data latches if you could find some one to make a custom microprocessor PCB.Use the Z8001 microprocessor pins Bit//word, AD0, AD1 for data bus size signals.AD1 is for data bits 17 to 24 and data bits 17 to 32 depending on the status of Bit//Word and AD0 singals.AD0 is for data bits 0 to 16 with the correct status of Bit//word and AD0 signal.??Bit//Word with AD0 controllers either a upper byte/Lower byte or 16-bit word transfers...Memory greater that 16M with the Z8001 microprocessor on a full 32-bit address bus is possible with a paged memory management circuit. Drivers ?? by who ??..With the model 32 (and some if its clones) on board firmware and or operating enhancements where used for Z8001 ( and some Z80,000)? microprocessor compatibility.? The only other solution is to reverse design a AT&T 3B2 computer back to the Zilog System 8000 bus or use a custom made ARM based microprocessor card with Z8001 emulation in ROM.?..Most of the Z8000 based microprocessor system I have dealt with are newer than the model 32 or are older then the Zilog MMU's chips.?..Any feed back on this email is welcome at ZilogZ80.swingatYahoo.ca? ? ?At=@ please have a subject (Anti spam)..

6 years, 4 months

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TRS-80 Model IV PALs

by rescue＠hawkmountain.net

I have a TRS-80 Model III with a IV upgrade in it (non gate array). I have a hunch that one or two of the HALs are bad (the primary one being 8075208). Anyone have the JED files to program any of these HALs into PALs or GALs ? Anyone know a source for these ? Anyone know if these can be read, or if they are protected (for example, if I were able to borrow some working ones, could they be duplicated ?) ? Thanks, -- Curt

6 years, 4 months

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HP 7220C plotter port settings

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Hi all, I picked up an HP 7220C flatbed plotter the other day which (after freeing the stuck carriage) is responding to panel commands in 'local' mode. For the terminal RS-232 interface, does anyone happen to know: a) The character size (7 or 8 bits)? b) If the connection between terminal and plotter is supposed to be straight through (i.e. 1:1 pin mapping), null modem, or something else entirely? I'm not sure if the plotter considers itself DTE or DCE, given that it has a modem output port (i.e. it sits partway along in the chain of things). Oh, there's a "conf test" switch setting on the back - does anyone know the purpose of that? I'm wondering if it's supposed to echo back to the terminal any data that's sent to the plotter, but that's purely a guess. Sadly there don't seem to be any docs online (or much in the way of any info, to be honest). thanks, Jules

6 years, 4 months

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DEC CR11

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Can the DEC M8291 CR11/CM11 controller card work with a DEC branded Documation M600 reader as well as the M200? -- Will

6 years, 4 months

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PBX (or something) for modem testing

by dave＠mitton.com

Jim, FWIW: Last time I had company money to deal with this issue I bought a similar model of this: A Viking DLE-200 https://www.amazon.com/Viking-DLE-200B-Two-Way-Line-Simulator/dp/B004PXK314 Dave. Sent from Mail for Windows 10 Message: 18 Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2019 22:35:40 -0600 From: Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> ? To continue validating modem functionality, I think it makes sense to set up a closed loop phone system in my lab that will function well enough to allow modems to connect to each other (dial tone, ringing, busy signal, etc.). I know I can probably whip something up with a 9 v battery and a piece of cable with rj11s, but I think that will fall short. That said, I went out to eBay to see if I could source a 2-8 line something to help, and got smacked around with my lack of telephone system knowledge. So, any ideas (or links to eBay auctions) of brands/models/etc. I should focus on? Also, if anyone has any modems lying around gathering dust, I probably should source a few more models. tcpser handles Hayes "+++" spec correctly, but I should probably support TIES as well, to cite one example. Jim -- Jim Brain brain at jbrain.com www.jbrain.com

6 years, 4 months

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DEC CR11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Donzelli > My manual only mentions the M200, but it may be an early edition What is it, and what date is it? DEC-11-HCRB-D, avilable online, is March, '72. DEC-11-HCRMA-C-D is June, '73. I see that EK-CR11-TM-004 is also available online: http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/www.computer.museum.uq.edu.au/… It's from July '75, and also mentions the M600. > From: Bill Degnan > I believe I have the engineering drawings document if this is not > otherwise available. Bitsavers has the August '71 edition; if yours is later than that, it would be useful, _particularly_ if it has the M8291, which is the later card. Noel

6 years, 4 months

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DEC CR11

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: William Donzelli > Can the DEC M8291 CR11/CM11 controller card work with a DEC branded > Documation M600 reader as well as the M200? Should do; the 'CR11/CM11 system manual' (DEC-11-HCRMA-C-D) mentions it, although it doesn't provide extensive coverage. I guess that version of the CR11 manual isn't available online; please let me know if you need me to scan it. Noel

6 years, 4 months

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FS: VAX-11/780 w/ CSPI array processor

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Unfortunately I need to sell my VAX - an original 11/780, but with a CSPI array processor hidden in a third matching DECcabinet. This was used to control an xray crystallography machine years ago, so the VAX itself is fairly minimal, but with quite a lot of number crunching horsepower. It has not been powered up in perhaps 15 years, but is in fantastic condition. The only real flaw is that at one point some water dripped on the top, so the blue paint marred in one spot. The easy way to take care of that is to simply replace the sheet metal with a nice one from another standard DEC cabinet. Or stack a few books on top! I have tapes with the CSPI software (does Al need it?). Lots of DECdocs as well. Throw me a number if you are interested. This is not a fire sale, so be reasonable. I will work on getting some pictures. There are no drives with this. I suppose eventually this will go on Ebay - but I really hate Ebay at this point. The only issue is that right now is not the time to move the beast. Snow snow snow, and cleaning the dock is a big job, so shipping might have to wait until spring. -- Will, IBM land in the Hudson Valley

6 years, 4 months

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P112

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

On 12/3/19 11:00 PM, Lamar Owen wrote: > > > On Dec 3, 2019 8:55 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctech > <cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > Especially RSX180 as I have some other plans for that one. > > RSX180?? Learn about something new everyday!? This tidbit alone was > worth watching the thread. > Well, glad it helped. And here's more... I have succeeded in getting RSX-180 installed on a hard disk. In doing so I have learned some things that others might consider valuable as well. Disk sizes and formats are more important than one might realize >from reading the support page. Oversized hard disk partitions cause really strange behavior totally unrelated to disk I/O. When I tried to use a disk partition that was too big the system merely spewed garbage to the screen. But the second lesson is even more important. The Support Page states: "For best performance format the floppy first under CP/M, so the sectors will have the optimum interleave value for the P112 hardware. Otherwise, disk accesses will be very slow." This is not accurate. When I used a brand new pre-formatted floppy without formatting it under CP/M it booted but many of the commands failed to work and even th4e directory could not be seen. Formatting on CP/M and then using rawrite to place the image on the floppy fixed that. I have been having a problem getting CP/M 3 to boot and now suspect it may be the same problem. Again, I used a pre-formatted brand new floppy and rawrite. When I try to boot it starts loading and then spews what looks like random garbage to the screen. I am going to try using a CP/M formatted floppy and I actually expect it will fix the problem. bill

6 years, 4 months

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P112

by cruff＠ruffspot.net

Just in case someone else hasn't already responded, the P112 does not use DOS style fdisk partitioning for a hard disk. It is done in the BIOS image, and then the logical disks have to be initialized. This is described in the "P112 GIDE Construction.pdf" document. I've only used 3.5" floppies, which work fine. You can also attach a PATA CD-ROM drive and access disks with a program that escapes my memory at the moment.

6 years, 4 months

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Scanning docs for bitsavers

by aperry＠snowmoose.com

I am going through stuff in my office and found that I have some SCSI device docs that aren't on bitsavers. As far as multi-page documents, it seems as if my scanner (or its software) only does uncompressed TIFF. At bitsaver's recommended 400 dpi, that means about 4M per page. What should I do? Scan the docs in and find a tool to convert to lossless compression. Scan the docs in and just submit the huge files? Something else? The docs that I have are copies, not originals. Does anyone here want them after I scan them? alan

6 years, 4 months

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Scanning docs for bitsavers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Guy Dunphy > JBIG2 .. introduces so many actual factual errors (typically > substituted letters and numbers) It's probably worth noting that there are often errors _in the original documents_, too - so even a perfect image doesn't guarantee no errors. The most recent one (of many) which I found (although I only had a PDF to work from, so maybe it's a 'scanning induced error') is described at the bottom here: https://gunkies.org/wiki/KS10 Although looking again at the PDF, the two digits in question are quite clear and crisp, and don't seem like they could be scanning errors. Noel

6 years, 4 months

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Scanning docs for bitsavers

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 01:57 PM 2/12/2019 -0700, you wrote: >On Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 8:51 PM Jay Jaeger via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >wrote: > >> When I corresponded with Al Kossow about format several years ago, he >> indicated that CCITT Group 4 lossless compression was their standard. >> > >There are newer bilevel encodings that are somewhat more efficient than G4 >(ITU-T T.6), such as JBIG (T.82) and JBIG2 (T.88), but they are not as >widely supported, and AFAIK JBIG2 is still patent encumbered. As a result, >G4 is still arguably the best bilevel encoding for general-purpose use. PDF >has natively supported G4 for ages, though it gained JBIG and JBIG2 support >in more recent versions. > >Back in 2001, support for G4 encoding in open source software was really >awful; where it existed at all, it was horribly slow. There was no good >reason for G4 encoding to be slow, which was part of my motivation in >writing my own G4 encoder for tumble (an image-to-PDF utility). However, G4 >support is generally much better now. Mentioning JBIG2 (or any of its predecessors) without noting that it is completely unacceptable as a scanned document compression scheme, demonstrates a lack of awareness of the defects it introduces in encoded documents. See http://everist.org/NobLog/20131122_an_actual_knob.htm#jbig2 JBIG2 typically produces visually appalling results, and also introduces so many actual factual errors (typically substituted letters and numbers) that documents encoded with it have been ruled inadmissible as evidence in court. Sucks to be an engineering or financial institution, which scanned all its archives with JBIG2 then shredded the paper originals to save space. The fuzzyness of JBIG is adjustable, but fundamentally there will always be some degree of visible patchyness and risk of incorrect substitution. As for G4 bilevel encoding, the only reasons it isn't treated with the same disdain as JBIG2, are: 1. Bandwaggon effect - "It must be OK because so many people use it." 2. People with little or zero awareness of typography, the visual quality of text, and anything to do with preservation of historical character of printed works. For them "I can read it OK" is the sole requirement. G4 compression was invented for fax machines. No one cared much about visual quality of faxes, they just had to be readable. Also the technology of fax machines was only capable of two-tone B&W reproduction, so that's what G4 encoding provided. Thinking these kinds of visual degradation of quality are acceptable when scanning documents for long term preservation, is both short sighted and ignorant of what can already be achieved with better technique. For example, B&W text and line diagram material can be presented very nicely using 16-level gray shading, That's enough to visually preserve all the line and edge quality. The PNG compression scheme provides a color indexed 4 bits/pixel format, combining with PNG's run-length coding. When documents are scanned with sensible thresholds plus post-processed to ensure all white paper is actually #FFFFFF, and solid blacks are actually #0, but edges retain adequate gray shading, PNG achieves an excellent level of filesize compression. The visual results are _far_ superior to G4 and JBIG2 coding, and surprisingly the file sizes can actually be smaller. It's easy to achieve on-screen results that are visually indistinguishable from looking at the paper original, with quite acceptable filesizes. And that's the way it should be. Which brings us to PDF, that most people love because they use it all the time, never looked into the details of its internals, and can't imagine anything better. Just one point here. PDF does not support PNG image encoding. *All* the image compression schemes PDF does support, are flawed in various cases. But because PDF structuring is opaque to users, very few are aware of this and its other problems. And therefore why PDF isn't acceptable as a container for long term archiving of _scanned_ documents for historical purposes. Even though PDF was at least extended to include an 'archival' form in which all the font definitions must be included. When I scan things I'm generally doing it in an experimental sense, still exploring solutions to various issues such as the best way to deal with screened print images and cases where ink screening for tonal images has been overlaid with fine detail line art and text. Which makes processing to a high quality digital image quite difficult. But PDF literally cannot be used as a wrapper for the results, since it doesn't incorporate the required image compression formats. This is why I use things like html structuring, wrapped as either a zip file or RARbook format. Because there is no other option at present. There will be eventually. Just not yet. PDF has to be either greatly extended, or replaced. And that's why I get upset when people physically destroy rare old documents during or after scanning them currently. It happens so frequently, that by the time we have a technically adequate document coding scheme, a lot of old documents won't have any surviving paper copies. They'll be gone forever, with only really crap quality scans surviving. Guy

6 years, 4 months

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One old Sol, Two old names...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

I've just had the pleasure of taking a new machine into my collection, a Sol 20. It's particularly interesting for several reasons. First, it was once in the possession of Jim Willing (zoom into the label next to the control key): http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_195224.jpg For those that don't know, Jim was a very early collector of vintage computers and one of the first collectors to put up a web site with pictures of his collection, scans of documents and the like. Also, he was one of the first posters to the original classic computer mailing list: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/cctalk/ That's the first old name. Other interesting things about the Sol include that it has an 80/64 video modification (with patches all over): http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_202606.jpg and a patched personality module socket with a custom ROM: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_195249.jpg which leads to the second old name. One that I don't know: http://wsudbrink.dyndns.org:8080/images/fixed_sol/20191125_211019.jpg Every time that the machine boots it displays that banner: *** DAN CETRONE *** I've done some googling but I can't find out anything about him. I've started to disassemble the contents of the ROM. There are some blocks that look like the Micro Complex ROM, but other sections don't match. I'll publish it when I'm done. Anyway, I don't know if Dan was the author or just wanted to uniquely identify his Sol. If anyone knows, knew, knew about, Dan, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

6 years, 4 months

3
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Scanning docs for bitsavers

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 01:20 AM 3/12/2019 -0200, you wrote: >I cannot understand your problems with PDF files. >I've created lots and lots of PDFs, with treated and untreated scanned >material. All of them are very readable and in use for years. Of course, >garbage in, garbage out. I take the utmost care in my scans to have good >enough source files, so I can create great PDFs. > >Of course, Guy's commens are very informative and I'll learn more from it. >But I still believe in good preservation using PDF files. FOR ME it is the >best we have in encapsulating info. Forget HTMLs. I don't propose html as a viable alternative. It has massive inadequacies for representing physical documents. I just use it for experimenting and and as a temporary wrapper, because it's entirely transparent and maleable. ie I have total control over the result (within the bounds of what html can do.) >Please, take a look at this PDF, and tell me: Isn't that good enough for >preservation/use? >https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7yahi4JC3juSVVkOEhwRWdUR1E/view OK, not too bad in comparison to many others. But a few comments: * The images are fax-mode, and although the resolution is high enough for there to be no ambiguities, it still looks bad and stylistically greatly differs from the original. Pity I don't have a copy of the original, to make demonstration scans of a few illustrations to show what it could be like, for similar file size. * The text is OCR, with a font I expect likely approximates the original fairly well. Though I'd like to see the original. I suspect the PDF font is a bit 'thic' due to incorrect gray threshold. Also it's searchable, except that the OCR process included paper blemishes as 'characters' so if you copy-paste the text elsewhere you have to carefully vet it. And not all searches will work. This is an illustration of the point that till we achieve human-leval AI, it's never going to be possible to go from images to abstracted OCR text automatically without considerable human oversight and proof-reading. And... human-level AI won't _want_ to do drudgery like that. * Your automated PDF generation process did a lot of silly things, like chaotic attempts to OCR 'elements' of diagrams. Just try moving a text selection box over the diagrams, you'll see what I mean. Try several diagrams, it's very random. * The PCB layouts, for eg PDF page #s 28, 29 - I bet the original used light shading to represent copper, and details over the copper were clearly visible. But when you scanned it in bi-level all that is lost. These _have_ to be in gray scale, and preferably post-processed to posterize the flat shading areas (for better compression as well as visual accuracy.) * Why are all the diagram pages variously different widths? I expect the original pages (foldouts?) had common sizes. This variation is because either you didn't use a fixed recipee for scanning and processing, or your PDF generation utility 'handled' that automatically (and messed up.) * You don't have control of what was OCR'd and what wasn't. For instance, why OCR table contents, if the text selection results are garbage? For eg, select the entire block at the bottom of PDF page 48. Does the highlighting create a sense of confidence this is going to work? Now copy and paste into a text editor. Is the result useful? (No.) OCR can be over-used. * 'ownership' As well as your introduction page, you put your tag on every single page. Pretty much everyone does something like this. As if by transcribing the source material you acquired some kind of ownership or bragging rights. But no, others put a very great deal of effort into creating that work, and you just made a digital copy. That the originators probably would consider an aesthetic insult to their efforts. So, why the proud tags everywhere? Summary: It's fine as a working copy for practical use. Better to have made it than not, so long as you didn't destroy the paper original in the process. But if you're talking about an archival historical record, that someone can look at in 500 years (or 5000) and know what the original actually looked like, how much effort went into making that ink crisp and accurate, then no. It's not good enough. To be fair, I've never yet seen any PDF scan of any document that I'd consider good enough. Works created originally in PDF as line art are a different class, and typically OK. Though some other flaws of PDF do come into play. Difficulty of content export, problems with global page parameters, font failures, sequential vs content page numbers, etc. With scanning there are multiple points of failure right through the whole process at present, ranging from misunderstandings of the technology among people doing scanning, problems with scanners (why are edge scanners so rare!?), lack of critical capabilities in post-processing utilities (line art on top of ink screening, it's a nightmare, also most people can't use Photoshop well, and it's necessary), failings built unavoidably into PDF, and not so great PDF viewer utilities. Apart from the intrinsic issues (aside from a few advantages) with on-screen display and controls compared to paper. I hope I have not offended you. Btw my pickiness comes from growing up in a family with commercial art, typography, printing and technical art involvement. And having in later years assisted a little with such things. So at least I know how much effort goes into such things. Keep the original. Methods and utilities will improve, and in 10 or 20 years it may be possible to make a visually perfect digital copy (with minimal effort), worthy of becoming a sole record of that thing (if history goes that way.) Guy

6 years, 4 months

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InfoWorld - May 11, 1992 (3" disk formats)

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

I thought this was fun; stumbled upon it while looking for what words of wisdom Fred had to share about the format of 3" disks: https://books.google.com/books?id=7D0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=3%22+flo… Hopefully Fred will see this and tell me whether the 3" disk format was MFM or GCR given that the Orwellipedia says the 3" disk format was initially designed to work with the Apple ][ floppy drive interface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_floppy_disk?fbclid=IwAR2atb2Z_… Sellam

6 years, 4 months

3
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