Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
>In article <4B7AF1F7.8030008 at softjar.se>, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> writes:
>> > After searching the net for a while, I think it is an E&S graphic
>> > system. ES340 seems most likely, but ES390 might also be it.
>
> I doubt its an E&S system because its raster based.
That was a bad argument against it... :-)
> AFAIK, all the E&S terminals and DEC peripherals were vector based
> until the PS/390. If this were a PS/390, then it would have the
> characteristic black enclosure for the monitor, keyboard and tablet.
> Also, E&S products were high-end and had hardware line drawing at a
> minimum, whereas this system appears to be a simple memory-mapped
> frame buffer with no additional hardware acceleration.
I think we should keep E&S systems apart from DEC systems. They are not
the same, and mixing them up just confuses the issue.
The system in the video was not something by DEC. However, DEC had
bitmapped graphic systems long before this, but not with the resolution
and depths shown in the video.
> The PS/390 was the first "Picture System" to support raster
> operations. The primary market for these peripherals was the
> molecular design/molecular modeling community and they needed very
> high quality line renderings of their models. Until the antialiasing
> technology for raster graphics introduced on the PS/390 the only way
> to achieve that quality was to use a vector based display. The raster
> display decoupled the display refresh rate from the frame rendering
> rate, allowing very high quality renderings of complex models at the
> cost of interactivity.
Well, the E&S PS/340 also was a raster display system, as an add-on to
the PS/330.
See http://www.bmsc.washington.edu/people/merritt/graphics/ps330/ps330.html
I think it might very well be that which is shown on the video.
Raster operations are another issue. The video is showing a bitmapped
high resolution picture, and it obviously isn't too fast at loading
another high res picture. And that is all we see them doing. No raster
operations of any kind (unless you count the basic setting and clearing
of pixels).
> Similar technology to that used in the PS/390 was used in E&S's first
> workstation the ESV. I worked on the ASIC that performed this process
> in the ESV in the summer of 1989. The workstation was released in Q4
> 1989. All the E&S products were raster from then on, with the
> exception of calligraphic light overlays used in the simulation
> products.
>
> I have a PS/390 base and several ESV workstations in my collection.
Nice.
Johnny
I am looking for a few things:
I recently picked up an iSeries 270 and an AS/400 Model 200. A terminal
and an 8-port Twinax hub were included, but not the cable to connect the
terminal to the hub. The terminal has a "Y" cable with a DA15 and two
female Twinax connectors. The connectors on the hub are also female, so
I think that what I need is an M-M Twinax cable. I'm not sure if a
terminator is required for the un-connected Twinax connector on the "Y"
cable or not (I'm not really very familiar with AS/400s).
I have an AlphaServer 1000A 4/266 which is missing the terminator for
the internal SCSI backplane (because this is missing, the SCSI drives
sometimes stop responding and cause the system to hang). It is also
missing the cable to connect the two sections of the backplane. Does
anybody have either of these?
I have a DEC 3000/300X that no longer boots. The diagnostic LEDs show
"FA", which represents a memory test failure. I think that one of the
SIMM slots is damaged. When I got it, it would only boot after I removed
and re-installed the SIMMs. I tried cleaning the SIMMs and slots with
99% alcohol, so I don't think that dirty contacts are a problem. I think
that replacing the motherboard would fix the problem.
I am also looking for an RS/6000 (preferably one with PCI rather than
MCA). Does anybody have one that they want to get rid of for free or cheap?
Dear Madam/Sir,
My name is Thomas Bervenmark and I work at XaarJet AB in Stockholm, Sweden.
We are looking for a very old vison card "Transtech Parallel, TMB08" with a module TTG-F card mounted on the motherboard.
Is this something you could help us to find?
I am not a list subscriber and so would appreciate
direct email responses rather than replies to the list.
Many thanks for your help in advance.
Best regards,
Thomas Bervenmark
XaarJet AB
__________________________________________
XaarJet AB
Box 516
SE-175 26 Jarfalla, Sweden
Phone: +46-(0)8-580 887 00
Fax: +46-(0)8-580 887 77
Website: http://www.xaar.se/
Xaar is a market-leading manufacturer of innovative digital inkjet printing
technology.
Note: The information contained in this e-mail is intended for the named
recipient(s) only. It may also be privileged and confidential. If you are
not an intended recipient, you must not copy, distribute or take any action
in reliance upon it. No warranties or assurances are made in relation to
safety, content and/or any attachments. No liability is accepted for any
consequences arising from it. No warranties are given by Xaar, and no
liability is accepted by Xaar, in relation to any loss arising from reliance
placed on the information supplied in this email and attachments, other than
those warranties expressly stated in Xaar's Standard Terms and Conditions of
Sale. Xaar's Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale apply at all times. Xaar
plc, registered in England no.3320972, XaarJet ltd, registered in England
no.3375961, Xaar Technology ltd, registered in England no.2469592, Science
Park, Cambridge, CB4 0XR, Tel +44(0)1223423663, Fax +44(0)1223423590
Folks,
Got a PDP 11/04 on the bench here at work with an H777 (54-11599) PSU in
with a sticker on it that says 'pop, bang & smoke'. I've downloaded the
maintenance printset from Manx (yay Manx) but before I even begin I've
noticed a terminal block on the transformer that indicates a jumper between
terminals 1&2 and 3&4 for 115V and an additional jumper between 2&3 for
230V.
This third jumper is missing so have the owners of this PDP just put 230V
across a PSU jumpered for 115V?
Thanks!
--
Adrian
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> wrote:
On Monday 15 February 2010, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> > The two companies that springs to my mind here are Intergraph, who
>> > did CAD systems based on VAXen. They usually based their systems on
>> > the VAX-11/750, but I don't think there was any technical reason
>> > that an 11/780 shouldn't be possible as well.
>
> FWIW, the VAX-11/780s I have were a part of an intergraph setup at one
> point. I didn't save the drafting-table sized drawing tablets/cad
> terminals that were with it, because of a lack of space...
>
> Alas, the setup they had didn't look like the Intergraph stuff I saw.
Cool. Nice information, thanks.
After searching the net for a while, I think it is an E&S graphic
system. ES340 seems most likely, but ES390 might also be it.
There are information about an older system for the PDP-11 machines by
E&S on the net, which strikes me as very similar, and probably a kind of
predecessor.
Johnny
Hi All.
I just stumbled upon this video of a computer tablet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPC_w9yYe5M
They show a VAX-11/780 with RP06 and TU70 (I think) and claim its doing
the graphics. But I'm curious, what terminal and software is used? Does
anyone have a clue?
Regards,
Pontus.
I ordered my board as soon as I got the announcement on Thursday. I received
the board today (Saturday) and took it for a spin - imaged an Apple
16-sector disk and an MSDOS 1.2M disk using a YD-380 as the source drive.
Both worked great - the Apple disk produced a .dsk file that opened and read
in CiderPress and the DOS disk produced a .img file that looked good in
WinImage.
I was tempted to hook it up to an 8" drive using my DBIT adapter but
hesitated based on the discussions here. Would the DBIT adapter provide the
necessary buffering to drive a Shugart 801? I really like the idea of an 8"
drive connected to a netbook.
Jack
Hi all,
a source for a BNC to VGA cable ?
(Yes, I have a soldering iron, but like to buy some ;-))
The other way around (VGA->BNC) is easy to get, but don't find any
BNC->VGA(15 pin)
Cheers & thanks
Forget the 230V bang issue, it IS a 115v PSU from an industrial site! Now we
just have to find out what's gone pop...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Adrian Graham <binarydinosaurs at gmail.com>
Date: 24 February 2010 15:39
Subject: DEC H777 PSU
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <
cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Folks,
Got a PDP 11/04 on the bench here at work with an H777 (54-11599) PSU in
with a sticker on it that says 'pop, bang & smoke'. I've downloaded the
maintenance printset from Manx (yay Manx) but before I even begin I've
noticed a terminal block on the transformer that indicates a jumper between
terminals 1&2 and 3&4 for 115V and an additional jumper between 2&3 for
230V.
This third jumper is missing so have the owners of this PDP just put 230V
across a PSU jumpered for 115V?
Thanks!
--
Adrian
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk
--
--
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk
Curiosity demands that I ask about the DWQVA. The module catalog(ue)
lists it as "2 channel fiber optic interface (IFQ), Qbus to Stealth
bus". What IS the stealth bus?
No, I am not going to buy any of the ones on epay.
I'm trying to find some info on the IBM 3633 Optical Disk Drive. I am
selling things for infoage, and this is among the stuff. I have the drive,
cable, MCA controller card, "IBM Binder Manual," and several blank disks. I
haven't seen any sold on ebay.
Joe
Trial lawyers are part of making case law. Legislators make statutory law. Case law is *usually* very narrowly targeted. Statutory law tends to be where you find the overbroad, overreaching and uninformed regulation of how we live our lives and do our business.
Stakeholders are... us. I'm part of an advocacy group for a particular area of interest that has been very effective in our efforts to educate our legislators regarding our issues. We've been able to get good legislation introduced, heard and passed, and bad legislation killed. Next week, I am meeting (by invitation) with the head of one of the state regulatory agencies that impacts my interest area. She wants to know what I think. I know because she's asked before, and evidently included my input (on behalf of the stakeholder community) in her decision process.
If you include in the concept of 'lobbyists' citizens who show up, unpaid, and speak to the issues with data, not just impassioned rhetoric (although we have some of that, too), then you are not incorrect. But I suspect you are repeating the oft-stated belief that only paid, high-powered lobbyists are really making a difference. My small, not-for-profit advocacy group has beat those people at their own game on more than one occasion. I don't get paid for the time I spend in the state capital, and I pay my own way when I visit D.C. I'm paid back when stupid things don't happen, and even more richly when good things DO happen.
In my experience, at least at the state level, they're listening to the people who are talking: the decisions are made by the people who show up. Yes, sometimes the dragon wins, but in my experience the dragon loses often enough to well-informed and passionate citizen stakeholders that I keep going back. -- Ian
________________________________________
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ken Seefried [ken at seefried.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2010 9:18 PM
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Asbestos: (was: RE: Tubes & Computers of Olden Days)
Dad was an executive and principle engineer at a hazardous waste abatement firm. Lots of asbestos and superfund site cleanups. I got a lot of collateral knowledge.
From: Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com>>The primary metric is the 'friability' of the asbestosPrecisely. Not all asbestos is created equal; much is completely harmless, some is frighteningly damaging. Friability is a fancy way of saying how finely do the asbestos fiber shatter under stress. The finer the particles, the more dangerous.
>I agree that a simple knee-jerk reaction to asbestos is
>silly - but that's how legislators most often write laws.
Well...not exactly (IMO). The legislation followed the trial lawyers making "asbestos" the equivalent of "plutonium" or "cyanide" in the minds of the public and therefore the jury pool. It's really tough to convince a jury that this asbestos is potentially lethal, but that form is harmless, especially when platiff is coughing his lungs up in the corner.
P.S. - I am *not* saying there wasn't a cavalier attitude toward the stuff, and a lot of people were hurt without cause.
>(Unless stakeholders are there to help them understand
>the facts.)If you're refering to the legislators, the the stockholders are lobbyists, and you don't always get the desired outcome.
KJ
Dad was an executive and principle engineer at a hazardous waste abatement firm. Lots of asbestos and superfund site cleanups. I got a lot of collateral knowledge.
From: Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com>>The primary metric is the 'friability' of the asbestosPrecisely. Not all asbestos is created equal; much is completely harmless, some is frighteningly damaging. Friability is a fancy way of saying how finely do the asbestos fiber shatter under stress. The finer the particles, the more dangerous.
>I agree that a simple knee-jerk reaction to asbestos is
>silly - but that's how legislators most often write laws.
Well...not exactly (IMO). The legislation followed the trial lawyers making "asbestos" the equivalent of "plutonium" or "cyanide" in the minds of the public and therefore the jury pool. It's really tough to convince a jury that this asbestos is potentially lethal, but that form is harmless, especially when platiff is coughing his lungs up in the corner.
P.S. - I am *not* saying there wasn't a cavalier attitude toward the stuff, and a lot of people were hurt without cause.
>(Unless stakeholders are there to help them understand
>the facts.)If you're refering to the legislators, the the stockholders are lobbyists, and you don't always get the desired outcome.
KJ
At 12:00 -0600 2/23/10, Randy wrote:
>If you look at one in the microscope, it looks like an LED with some
>sort of phosphor painted over the semiconductor. Is that how these
>things work, its really a high efficency IR LED, with a phosphor
>doubler to bring the wavelength into visible? Just speculating...
There are a few crystals that can double frequency (halve
wavelength, thereby *increasing* the energy per photon). I think
these are used in laser ranging, to bring a powerful IR laser beam up
into the visible so it'll transmit better through the atmosphere.
I think no phosphors can do that. They can bring frequency
*down* (ie absorb an ultraviolet photon, emit 2 visible or one
visible and one IR or some combination). In fact, I don't recall ever
hearing of a device that can do that with non-coherent light (well,
as direct conversion). The problem is trying to gather 2 low-energy
photons into a single high-energy photon. That turns out to be tough
to do in general.
There are phosphors that can be "pumped" by blue or UV light,
then stimulated to re-emit visible light when IR photons hit them. (I
think the Germans made IR goggles this way in WWII.)
--
- Mark 210-379-4635
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Large Asteroids headed toward planets
inhabited by beings that don't have
technology adequate to stop them:
Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.
On 22 Feb 2010, at 18:00, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>
> Message: 19
> Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:45:19 +0000
> From: Colin Eby <ceby2 at csc.com>
> Subject: Re: Tubes & Computers of Olden Days
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Message-ID:
> <OF71E503B7.7C3067C5-ON802576D2.003F9F40-802576D2.00409310 at csc.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
>
> I'm rather surprised this thread hasn't brought up what has to be the most
> complete, working order, and fully programmable of the remaining tube
> machines. There are a couple of interesting systems in the process of
> restoration, but for my money, the best of the running examples is the
> Science Museum's (London's) Ferranti Pegasus. Unlike the Collosus replica,
> this is an actual relic, and recognizably a programmable computer in the
> modern sense. The Colossus and most of the later small systems are
> pegboard programmed and therefore cannot alter their instructions in
> flight. That Ferranti is demo'd regularly (though I never seem to be around
> on the right day). I'm sure everyone can do their own Googling, but it a
> pretty complete setup. I keep a loving photo of it in my office cubicle.
>
> Thanks,
> Colin Eby
> Technical Architect
> NR Performance Engineering
> CSC
>
I think you were right, and I hope you will be again, but last thing I heard was there had been an incident and it was shut down awaiting a health and safety review. If my memory serves me right some twit reported the blown fuse had asbestos in it. I expect most of the steam boilers in the building do too. We've gone health and safety mad, but when I reported someone had fly tipped a load of asbestos on a country verge the council collected 75% of it and left the rest behind and now some of it has got driven over and is being pulverised into the mud.
Roger Holmes,
Computer Conservation Society and 1301 working party member
On 21 Feb 2010, at 07:45, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
>
> Message: 26
> Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:46:08 +0000
> From: Nigel Bailey <nig.bailey at virgin.net>
> Subject: Re: BBC S.E. news classic computer feature
> To: cctech at classiccmp.org
> Message-ID: <4B7EDC70.7020407 at virgin.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Presumeably that's "Flossie"
> I watched the local BBC news, but we're in the Anglia region. Did you
> "youtube" the clip?
I think the BBC would not like me putting their copyright programmes up on U-tube.
I'm looking for a VT100 advanced video option board. Or, failing that, if anyone has a .100 spacing, 50 pin dual row female connector so I can makes one...
The circuit is really simple, it's just a plug-in board that gives the VT100 some extra RAM so it can display 24 lines of text in 132 column mode, and do some extra character attributes. I cooked up plans to build my own based on the schematics in the printset (and using some newer SRAMs), but when I actually pulled the logic board out of the terminal I realized that the header connector it plugs into is a stupid spacing - .1 instead of the usual .156.
-Ian
I have a SawStop Contractor's saw and am pleased with it, even though I have not had the need to test its stopping feature. I did see one demonstrated with a hot dog at a trade show, though. The maker of the electronics (National Semi, IIRC) was doing the demo.
The stop works by slamming a block of aluminum into the blade, so if it fires, you have to replace both the blade and the stop mechanism, which I consider a trivial cost compared to replacing one or more fingers! The electronics do have a POST, but you are right that there is no way to fully test the unit without destroying it. If you do not have a spare brake unit, there is a keyed over-ride.
I think some of the reasoning in having to replace the whole brake unit is that (1) the electronics are a small part of the unit so the added cost is minor, and (2) there is much less chance of someone incorrectly installing the unit. While I would be willing to use a unit re-assembled by Tony, there too many incompetents out there who I would not trust to even plug in the unit correctly, much less reassemble one from parts.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
Message: 6
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 19:19:53 +0000 (GMT)
From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
Subject: Re: Soldering (Was: Re: HP-IB, Amigo/cs80 ... )
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Message-ID: <m1Niurz-000J3xC at p850ug1>
Content-Type: text/plain
> This is a pretty cool design for table saws:
>
> http://www.sawstop.com/
>
> "We're passionate about preventing saw accidents.
> That=92s why SawStop=AE saws are equipped with a safety
> system to stop the blade within 5 milliseconds of
> detecting contact with skin."
I am not convinced. My main moan is that you have to replace the complete
safety device if it trips? Why? I am darn sure you could make something
as quick-acting that was resetable.
Due to this, if it trips in the middle of a job and you don't have a
spare one to hand, you are going to find some way to disable it. Which
means you have no protection, but subconciously you will think you do and
won't take as much care.
Also, since you have to replace all the driver electronics every time
(why not just the fuse wire?) how do you know it's going to work? If it
was resetable, you could test it every month or som wy touching the side
of a the blade with a soft metal rod. If it trips, fine, if not, you fix
it. Better than that it not work when you need it. ?Of ocurse even if
you're prepared to waste a safety module every month to do that test, it
doesn't tell you anything. You don;t know the new one you've fitted is
going to work.
-tony
Hi,
Speaking of tubes, television variety or otherwise, does anyone know
if there are any tube-based computers, large or small, still in
existence?
I saw parts of one a few years ago at the Computer History Museum in
Silicon Valley but none that have approached a 'working' unit or
sub-unit!
Murray--
I'm rather surprised this thread hasn't brought up what has to be the most
complete, working order, and fully programmable of the remaining tube
machines. There are a couple of interesting systems in the process of
restoration, but for my money, the best of the running examples is the
Science Museum's (London's) Ferranti Pegasus. Unlike the Collosus replica,
this is an actual relic, and recognizably a programmable computer in the
modern sense. The Colossus and most of the later small systems are
pegboard programmed and therefore cannot alter their instructions in
flight. That Ferranti is demo'd regularly (though I never seem to be around
on the right day). I'm sure everyone can do their own Googling, but it a
pretty complete setup. I keep a loving photo of it in my office cubicle.
Thanks,
Colin Eby
Technical Architect
NR Performance Engineering
CSC
Some of you know that I have been selling some CDC disk packs on Ebay
- ones I pulled out of CyberResources.
I have noticed lately that there are some others selling packs on Ebay
- and they are using the text from my auctions.
My packs are either from Cyber's replacement stock, or are clearly
marked as crashed - the ones on Ebay are not. Consider these other
packs from these sneaky vendors as VERY QUESTIONABLE.
My Ebay name is TOOBER. Currently I have no packs on auction.
--
Will
the was posted to a amiga ircchannel some time ago,
http://www.softpres.org/glossary:kryoflux
Looks interessing, if there will be better drivers and accessable info
for writing or chaning the code on it, drive situation cant be much worse
than what we have with the catweasel.
Regards
--
Jacob Dahl Pind | telefisk.org | fidonet 2:237/38.8
FYI: the Living Computer Museum presentation will be a joint one, including my colleague Rich Alderson. Rich has been an active member of the 36-bit community for many years. -- Ian
________________________________________
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rob Jarratt [robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 11:27 AM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: DEC Legacy Event, Windermere, UK, 17th-18th April
I am sending the message below on behalf of the organiser of this event, as
he has been unable to resubscribe to the list:
Greetings,
I hope you don't mind me sending you an update on the DEC Legacy Event the
weekend of 17th & 18th April this year.
There are lots of exciting talks and demonstrations now lined up and lots of
kit to use, with more to come in the weeks ahead.
Please feel free to visit the website http://declegacy.org.uk for updates
and come join us for an interesting and social weekend in the Lakes!
Regards, Mark.
Current highlights are:
Kevin Murrell will be talking about the work at the National Museum of
Computing and the Computer Conservation Society preserving and restoring DEC
hardware. There will also be a video-link back to the museum to demonstrate
some of their 'less portable' DEC equipment, including the Blacknest PDP/11
used for seismic monitoring and their VAX fault tolerant system. He's
bringing along some choice exhibits in their collection including a PDP/8,
DEC Mate III and DEC Professional running RT11.
Colin Butcher is keeping us up to date by presenting technical details of
the new OpenVMS 8.4 release (including Clustering over IP/DECnet over IP,
performance enhancements etc.) as well as facilitate a mini-bootcamp where
participants will get an opportunity to try their hand at installing VMS,
clustering VMS or any other topic which is of suitable interest.
Ian King from the Living Computer Museum is joining from the USA and is
giving a presentation on the restoration of the DEC machines in their
collection. These include a PDP-10 model 2065 running Tops-10, a TOAD-1
running TOPS-20 and a VAX-11/780-5 running OpenVMS 6.2.
Dave Goodwin will be making a presentation on his PhD "Digital Equipment,
its Rise and Fall" answering the research question whether the sale to
Compaq was necessary or could DEC have survived on its own with the
technology it had.
Stephen 'Hoff' Hoffman, founder of HoffmanLabs, OpenVMS coder, publisher and
regular presenter at OpenVMS-related events will be joining us for a
presentation by video-link.
Jim Austin, Professor of Neural Computing, University of York, will be
demonstrating something of interest from his museum of DEC related hardware.
Equipment that will be on show includes:
PDP/8, DECmate III, DEC Professional running RT11, MicroVAX II & Microvax
3100 M80, VAXstation 4000/90, VAXstation VLC, DEC 3000/600 AXP, DEC
AlphaServer 1000A, ALPHAbook 1 Laptop, HP ZX6000, HP RX2600 server... with
more to come!
I am sending the message below on behalf of the organiser of this event, as
he has been unable to resubscribe to the list:
Greetings,
I hope you don't mind me sending you an update on the DEC Legacy Event the
weekend of 17th & 18th April this year.
There are lots of exciting talks and demonstrations now lined up and lots of
kit to use, with more to come in the weeks ahead.
Please feel free to visit the website http://declegacy.org.uk for updates
and come join us for an interesting and social weekend in the Lakes!
Regards, Mark.
Current highlights are:
Kevin Murrell will be talking about the work at the National Museum of
Computing and the Computer Conservation Society preserving and restoring DEC
hardware. There will also be a video-link back to the museum to demonstrate
some of their 'less portable' DEC equipment, including the Blacknest PDP/11
used for seismic monitoring and their VAX fault tolerant system. He's
bringing along some choice exhibits in their collection including a PDP/8,
DEC Mate III and DEC Professional running RT11.
Colin Butcher is keeping us up to date by presenting technical details of
the new OpenVMS 8.4 release (including Clustering over IP/DECnet over IP,
performance enhancements etc.) as well as facilitate a mini-bootcamp where
participants will get an opportunity to try their hand at installing VMS,
clustering VMS or any other topic which is of suitable interest.
Ian King from the Living Computer Museum is joining from the USA and is
giving a presentation on the restoration of the DEC machines in their
collection. These include a PDP-10 model 2065 running Tops-10, a TOAD-1
running TOPS-20 and a VAX-11/780-5 running OpenVMS 6.2.
Dave Goodwin will be making a presentation on his PhD "Digital Equipment,
its Rise and Fall" answering the research question whether the sale to
Compaq was necessary or could DEC have survived on its own with the
technology it had.
Stephen 'Hoff' Hoffman, founder of HoffmanLabs, OpenVMS coder, publisher and
regular presenter at OpenVMS-related events will be joining us for a
presentation by video-link.
Jim Austin, Professor of Neural Computing, University of York, will be
demonstrating something of interest from his museum of DEC related hardware.
Equipment that will be on show includes:
PDP/8, DECmate III, DEC Professional running RT11, MicroVAX II & Microvax
3100 M80, VAXstation 4000/90, VAXstation VLC, DEC 3000/600 AXP, DEC
AlphaServer 1000A, ALPHAbook 1 Laptop, HP ZX6000, HP RX2600 server... with
more to come!
I have now completed the detailed inventory of the museum.
Please see:
www.pdp12.org
for the extensive list. I will be entertaining offers until Sunday,
February the 28th for the entire museum in one lot. Contact me for
details at rkrten at gmail.com. I will make a decision Monday, March
1st.
Cheers,
-RK
--
Robert Krten
From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Solderless breadboarding (and 68010 vs 68000)
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
<snip>
>> [1] The local pound shop (a similar concept to dollar stores) was selling
>> a camping lamp with 24 white LEDs for a pound.
>I'd buy that for a pound! (and repurpose it, as you have).
-ethan
---------
Check your local Dollar store; I just happen to have a couple of those
24 LED lamps in front of me at this very moment that cost $1.50 ea.
(modding and putting them under the kitchen cabinets).
Lots of neat stuff in Dollar stores; amazing that they can sell a solar
powered/battery backed scientific calculator for $1.00 these days, esp.
considering shipping and several middlemen also making a profit...
Button cells 5/$1, $7 ea. at the Shack...
etc.
Again for 2010, I am crossing the country and am offering to pickup,
haul, and deliver large items for list members. In mid/late April, I
will be leaving New York, to arrive in California near the start of
May, and I will be passing thru Chicago and Denver on the westbound
trio, and likely Minneapolis on the eastbound. If business calls, I
can hit other cities as well.
I will have a van and a trailer, and can take fairly large items, like
6 foot racks. Weight is not much of an issue, with maybe a limit of
1200 pounds or so. Items hauled on my trailer are fully caccooned and
tarped. Loading and unloading are included. I use the hauling to pay
for my expenses on the trip (mostly fuel), so my rates are quite
reasonable. Smaller items are welcome, of course.
Some of my capacity is already taken for both the westbound and
eastbound sections, but there is plenty of room for more. Also, from
Denver to California I will be almost completely empty.
Please inquire off list, please.
--
Will
>
> Gene Buckle wrote:
>> On Thu, 18 Feb 2010, William Donzelli wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> The chances of more tube computers coming out of the woodwork is very,
>>> very slim, but it has happened in the past few years. It is actually
>>> reasonable to think that someone could have an IBM 650 or Bendix G-15
>>> tucked away in a basement or garage.
>>>
>> Here's one that last I heard was in service with the RAF:
>>
>> http://199.254.199.10/BehindTheScenes/lockheed.html
>>
>> The company that owned it was bankrupted by the training market downturn
>> after 9/11. It was sold in 2003.
>>
> I'm pretty sure Colossus is running again at Bletchley Park. I only
> wish I could get over there to see it in person. There are some youtube
> videos available.
> Later,
> Charlie C.
To say it is running again is a little bit misleading. A huge amount of work was done by my fellow members of the Computer Conservation Society, including some of the people who designed Colossus in the first place and it is great to have it but Winston Churchill had the Colossi(?) broken up into small bits and so this is a replica, an extraordinarily correct replica but a replica all the same, therefore it is now running, not running again.
Apparently they had less problems getting the difficult bits working as the plans had been released from UK government archives, than the off the shelf 'commercial' items, plans of which had long since been lost except for the odd hoarder like me and probably you. Also thing like switches were available off the shelf, with a high priority job they had first call on things and selected Spitfire fighter switches which were then being produced in good quantities and good quality.
Roger Holmes
I've recently been restoring an H8/H17 system. Almost all of
the problems involved capacitors, including a bad electrolytic
in the H17 (diskette unit) power supply. I repaired the H17
supply using a dummy load but apparently the H17 was run with
the bad supply before I got it. I say this because some of the
tantalum caps on the logic boards of the Wangco model 82 diskette
drives popped and/or burned when correct power was supplied to
them. I've seen plenty of the "teardrop" tantalums pop, but I've
never seen one of the "black suppository" types (used on these
drives) go. I believe this was the result of bad ripple in the
supply.
Anyway, one of the Wangcos now runs perfectly and the other runs
fine for a while but fails after about an hour of applied power.
The difference between the two is that, on the flaky drive, a cap
in series with an inductor did a slow burn, resulting in the
inductor having a "nice brown toasty" appearance and a small split
in one side that some red resin leaked from. By the way, the only
way I know this is an inductor is that it is labeled "L5". It
looks like a large beige resistor with too many color stripes on it.
Inductors are a weak area in my electronics knowledge. How would
you know for sure that one has failed? Does it fail open?
Other info: When the drive fails, it can not read any data and,
when seeks are attempted on it, it sounds "funny", not the nice
sharp click it makes when operating correctly. The inductor does
not feel hot to the touch when the drive has failed. I'm out of
cool spray. Tonight I will try to apply an ice cube in a plastic
bag to it to see if that gets it out of failure mode.
Finally, assuming it is the problem, what do I need to replace it?
The stripes on it are:
Wide silver (covering one end)
Red
Yellow
Brown
Gold
Thanks,
Bill
On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 13:49, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> The main problem is that those breadboard are terrible. It's not the
> clock speed that matters, it's the swtiching time of the IC. Most modern
> ICs have ouptus that switch so fast that when you combine them with the
> stray capacitances on the breadboard and the relatively high impedance
> power connections, you get power and ground lines bouncing all over the
> place. Without a _good_ 'scope it's impossible to know why your circuit
> doesn't work. If you stick to 4000 series CMOS you'll be alright, but
> modern 74xxx familes are pushing it. Really pushing it.
But if you're just learning high speed don't matter, even with full
computer prototypes. Incidentally, I just saw this:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/building_a_cpm_68k_computer_from_s…
Crazy, but I'm cheering for him! Retrotastic! :-)
Joe.
--
Joachim Thiemann :: http://www.tsp.ece.mcgill.ca/~jthiem
Is there anyone in or near Mountain View, CA who would be willing
to pick up a light PC-tower-sized box and ship it to me? If so,
please contact me off-list.
Thanks,
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
> Message: 12
> Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:33:58 +0000 (GMT)
> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Subject: Re: HP-IB, Amigo/cs80 was Re: hp 9153 floppy & disk
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
> Message-ID: <m1NhU7P-000J43C at p850ug1>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> some of them may even end up as products :-( I am sure I've told you
> how
> I once showed a so-called designer who wanted to use a microcontrolelr
> module + input interface modules + ... as part of a control system that
> his problem could be solved using few lengths of wire and otherwise
> unused contacts on his relays and swithces. Hmmm...
>
> -tony
>
I used to work for Volvo, developing the maps for ECUs for engine control.
One of my colleagues wanted a simple indicator showing the injection time,
i.e. for how many milliseconds each engine revolution the injectors were
open, to see how his mapping was working out in practice when test driving.
He asked for help from the electronics lab, who came up with a proposal for
a digital display, all-singing, all-dancing precision device which would
cost $$$$$, come in a nice 19" case and take months to design. He went off
and made his own indicator instead, using a 555, a moving-coil meter and
some passive components. Quite a number of his devices were built for
everybody else in the department, IIRC.
/Jonas
Just wanted to let the European readers of CCtalk know that Ian King and I
will be at the DEC Legacy Event in Windermere in April, and have been invited
to give a presentation on the work we are doing at the Living Computer Museum.
Details on the event are available at http://declegacy.org.uk
We're looking forward to meeting lots of people there.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.orghttp://www.PDPplanet.org/http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/
I've put two Northstar boards on eBay for those who care:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290404578135http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290404577525
And, I've got the following documents that simply need a good home for
the cost of shipping:
* Original PMMI MM-103 Modem Manual
* Copy of Horizon Parallel to Centronics Parallel Cable diagram from
Northstar Computers
* Bunch of Information from Jay Sage on Z-System he sent me.
* Copies of HRAM Original Schematics (Rev A and C)
* Northstar 16K RAM Board original manual (RAM-16-DOC) Rev2
Preferably a home with someone who will ensure they are scanned if not
already.
I also have two COSMAC docs free for cost of shipping:
* Copy of MB-604B RCA COSMAC Microboard Computer CDP18S604B
* Copy of 1802 datasheet (it's a fax, so it's not a great example,
but it's an RCA document, and I could not find a softcopy online)
If you know some of these are available as softcopy, please let me know,
so I don't feel bad if no one takes them and I end up trashing them.
Jim
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X)
brain at jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Home: http://www.jbrain.com
Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
>
> In article <e1d20d631002151910m2cdf9866u4129242000590de6 at mail.gmail.com>,
> William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> writes:
>
>>> The VT102 User Guide on vt100.net shows that you could get a green
>>> antiglare filter: <http://www.vt100.net/docs/vt102-ug/chapter10.html>
>> It is also reasonable to think that DEC did a run of VT100oids with green tub
> es.
>
> I think he's right though. In documentation I've read through, there
> were green and amber models offered for the successive generations but
> I don't recall having read that the VT100 or earlier models had
> anything other than the white phosphor.
I think that is correct.
I've never seen, nor heard of anything but white phosphor VT100s.
*However*, there were clones made by other companies (unfortunately I
don't remember any names here), which looked pretty much exactly like
the VT100, and which did come with green phosphor.
Johnny
On 2/18/10, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
> On 2/18/2010 3:58 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>> P.S. - this project revives, yet again, my occasional interest in
>> hacking a COMBOARD into something less "embedded" - I usually get
>> stuck at the same stage - whether to hack in a 5380 SCSI chip or a
>> TTL-based "IDE" interface. COMBOARDs have serial, but no "disk", so
>> they'd need _something_ (they already have between 32K and 2MB of RAM,
>> depending on the model - I have piles of working boards with 128K of
>> DRAM and a COM5025 USART, smaller piles of other models).
>>
> Send me one and I'll hack in an SD interface complete with FAT support
> :-) Heck, I could even put it on the serial port, if you didn't want to
> hack it in.
I'll go see what I can dig out of the bin - I can easily throw the
Fluke 9010A on one and ensure the RAM and ROM test out OK. It's
harder to test out the bus interface, but unless you plan to stick
this on a Unibus, I don't think you care if the 8641s are all 100%
known-good. ;-)
The basic board is 8MHz 68000, 128K of parity DRAM (array of 4164
DIPs) on a 74S409 DRAM controller, 2x 28-pin JEDEC ROM sockets (2764s
at least, if not 27128s), a socketed COM5025 which could be a good
place to tap into the data bus and some select lines, an MC6821 with a
16-pin DIP exporting at least one of the 8-bit ports ("programmers'
interface"), some sort of sub-100Hz timer, IIRC, for heartbeat
interrupts, two 40-pin off-board BERG connectors (one for sync serial,
one for LP05-type printer, driven by the rest of the MC6821), and 12
edge-visible power and status LEDs (mostly serial status indicators).
I'd send you a link to a picture, but I don't seem to have posted one
(and the salad days of Software Results pre-date the Web). It's a
hex-height card that expects to pull +5V, +15V and -15V of of the
Unibus, so you'd have to either plug it into a DEC module block or
hack in power somewhere.
Naturally, I have all the schematics and PAL equations, but they are
in paper format, not electronic. Overall, my recollection is that the
memory space is divided by A23 and A22 into four 4MB quadrants, RAM,
ROM, I/O, and Unibus DMA engine. Retooling PALs could, of course,
alter that. Unfortunately, the PALs are not always socketed (depends
on the age of the board) and it's a six-layer PCB. I know of no
reason PALs couldn't be replaced with 16V8 and 22V10 GALs, but it
hasn't ever been tried.
Still interested?
-ethan
P.S. - the other models are variations on the theme. The older model
has 32K of 2114 SRAMs and two 6309 PROM sockets, newer models (of
which I have only a handful) have 41256 or 44256 DRAMs and Z8530
DUARTs, but are otherwise quite similar architecturally, if you ignore
the specifics of the host bus interface.
On 2/18/10, Henk Gooijen <henk.gooijen at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I have no experience with SCSI chips...
No harder to wire up than a UART or PIA/VIA, but the rest is all
software to create/interpret the SCSI packets.
> but the software to read and write a sector of an IDE disk is simple enough.
I've written low-level driver code for IDE manipulation on a GG2 Bus+
equipped Amiga.
> A TTL-based interface would
> take not much time. 16 bit data (may need buffering) and a few address
> decoding gates is probably all you need to hook up an IDE drive.
Address decoding gates might not even be required - I have full
schematics for this board (I used to make them commercially) and have
the PAL equations for the memory map PALs.
I think it could be as easy as buffers and a PAL swap (plus software).
I just flip-flop between SCSI and IDE and never get started.
-ethan
At 15:26 -0600 2/17/10, Tony wrote:
>What I don;t get is _why_ there's this aversion to soldering.
I get it. Fumes requiring ventilation, molten metal,
temperatures that can sear flesh or melt most plastics, the
appearance if not fact of irreversability (and in fact, it's not hard
to do damage to the circuit board that is hard to repair). Like
bicycling, cooking, and a host of other activities, it's a very
productive and useful skill to have, and seems to those who have the
skill to be trivial to learn - but to those without the skill, it's
intimidating (partly because there is some potential for damage if
it's done wrong).
I think this is a good case where mentoring or tutoring would
*really* help people who have not done it to "get their feet wet",
and have the confidence to do more on their own.
--
- Mark 210-379-4635
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Large Asteroids headed toward planets
inhabited by beings that don't have
technology adequate to stop them:
Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.
There is a load of printronix printers, and parts coming off service in
St. Louis Mo P300 P600 I suspect, if anyone is interested please email
me, and I'll pass it along. There is at least one QMS board equipped
system involved from what I have been told.
Inventory can be made if interest is there.
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: e.stiebler <emu at e-bbes.com>
Sent: 10 februari 2010 ?. 02:27
To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: hp 9153 floppy & disk
Tony Duell wrote:
> THe Nighthawk drive interface is strange. Very strange. it has the raw
> data signals of an ST412 drive (but on single-ended TTL lines, not
> differential pairs). It also hasa the strangest positioner interface
> you're likely to see. The positioner is a 2-winding stepper motor. You
> get (at the drive interface) to contrtoll the currents through the
> windings (there's a dual DAC in the drive).You also get soem kind of
> position feedback signal from the drive (there's an ADC in there too).
> There is no intellegence in the drive to control te DACs based on the
> output from the ADC, that is done in the controller (I assume in part by
> the 6809 firmware).
>
> Given there's an undocumented ASIC in the drive too, which has a register
> accessible over the interface, and for whaich I have no data, tryign to
> recreate the drive is going to be a big job.
So, what you're saying is, that I should get myself a microcontroller
with an sd-flash and start programming Amigo/CS80 ?
And simply forget about the box I have here ?
;-)
Cheers
You could use HPDIR with a sbc with hp-ib and a flash drive.
I'm building one with a Kontron SBC.
-Rik
I read a message that you posted at some time or another and got your
email from it
I am in desperate need of some tango pcb info
I have an old copy of tango pcb installed on my comp and some old
layouts I desperately need to access/modify
I have lost my dongle. Can you tell me where I might purchase one?
Or even better: I understand they just shorted some pins on a parallel
port connector, any idea what the pinout is?
My name is Carl Hesse. I am in denver colorado
I would pay reasonably well for pinout info
What this means is that I just need to know which pins are shorted or
"common" on the dongle
any desire to help?
> On 2/17/10, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>> >> From trying to teach soldering, the
>>> >> unforgiving nature leads to student frustration.
>> >
>> > I am suprised. I've taught dozens of people to solder over the years, and
>> > every one had success within half an hour.
>
> More particularly, I've taught several people over the past few months
> how to solder at a few workshops. I've had mixed results. All were
> enthusiastic, but not all were, in the old vernacular, "mechanically
> inclined".
A friend of mine was a 3rd grade teacher, and one or two of us would go
in and help them build code practice oscillators. We really didn't have
much trouble with solder joints after we showed them how to preheat the
joint and apply the solder.
The biggest problem at first was getting them to touch the tip to the
joint long enough to heat it to the point the solder would melt when
applied.
The second biggest problem was getting them to realize that the color
codes on the resistors actually meant something as to where they were
inserted :).
On 2/17/10, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> From trying to teach soldering, the
>> unforgiving nature leads to student frustration.
>
> I am suprised. I've taught dozens of people to solder over the years, and
> every one had success within half an hour.
More particularly, I've taught several people over the past few months
how to solder at a few workshops. I've had mixed results. All were
enthusiastic, but not all were, in the old vernacular, "mechanically
inclined".
What would probably have helped is an aspect of the workshop that was
specifically soldering instruction, not kit assembly, with easy to
reach and easy to inspect widely spaced joints. What we had at our
disposal was a few joints on 0.1" boards - either a made-in-class PCB
(not my design, or I'd have made the pads bigger which would have
helped) or a factory-made strip-board (Lilypad prototyping board) that
was soldered to after the web of interconnections were cut to route
the signals.
All of the students learned *something* about soldering, but even
after 90 minutes and several attempts, the success rate (good joints)
was probably between 50%-66%. I had to retouch a number of joints to
get the projects working during the class period.
More practice would have obviously been beneficial.
-ethan