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Searching digital copy of KD11-K (PDP-11/60) Processor Technical Manual

by henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com

Hi Guys, I am trying to get my PDP-11/60 up and running, and I very much like to read the Processor Technical Manual. It?s ?name? is EK-KD11K-TM and I am looking for a PDF of it. I do have this manual on a microfiche, but reading a manual >from the fiche reader screen is not much fun. Maybe I need to find a municipal service that allows you to copy fiche images one by one on A4 paper. The city of Venlo had that in the 1990ies, and I used it to copy the cache manual of the 11/34 from fiche to paper back then. Thanks, Henk

6 years, 8 months

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IBM PC-RT 6150 looking for help

by peter＠turczak.de

In preparation of moving, I dug out a IBM 6150 PC-RT from my basement. This was my first proper computer as a child, which was donated to me by a local company that upgraded their CAD system. So it would be interesting to bring it back to life. The machine is equipped with an 320 MB ESDI, 10 MBit Baseband Ethernet adapter and an IBM Megapel graphics adapter. This baby was quite a sight in 1993 when I got it, with its elegant console font designed by Knuth. Now I'm trying to revive the old machine, but there are some hassles: The hard disk seems to be stuck or the drives electronics are broken, it does not spin up. As these drives are quite rare, I'm looking for the SCSI card (Model 6lX700l). Is it right, the PC-RT can boot off SCSI? While I made images of the install floppies, it seems the AIX base system 2.0.0. disk #1 is missing. The AIXWindows floppies where not imaged and seem to be unreadable. Otherwise all VRM/extendes svcs, etc floppy images are at hand. So there is a big pile of problems with this box, maybe someone can help me out with parts and floppy images? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Peter

6 years, 8 months

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Intergraph 751 system free to good home, but act quickly

by echristopherson＠gmail.com

There's an Intergraph 751 system (VAX architecture apparently, including hard disk, printer, and two rebadged DEC racks full of who knows what) free to a good home in southern Wisconsin. Appears to be in not-great shape. Unfortunately, it's been on Craigslist for a while and it sounds like the owner's really fed up with it and wants it gone ASAP or a realty company will take possession of it (and who knows what they'll do with it). He originally said last Saturday, but in an email to me yesterday afternoon he said it would have to be gone by today (7/29). Also unfortunately, there have been several people besides myself emailing the owner trying to arrange a pickup, and he hasn't responded to them. I personally have no way to move or store it, so I've been trying to relay what I hear from him to the one person I thought was in the best position to take it. The owner gave me his personal email address and phone number, and told me the name of the realty company in case anyone wants to get it after it's out of his hands; but I don't think it would be cool to post those details here. So please let me know personally if you'd like those details. https://janesville.craigslist.org/sys/d/evansville-intergraph-751/693621784… -- Eric Christopherson

6 years, 8 months

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IBM 5160 with oddball MDA input/output card

by jules.richardson99＠gmail.com

Hi all, Someone on one of the Facebook vintage groups found an IBM 5160 with an MDA display for sale in Australia, except that it's a bit odd in that the machine had what appears to be an MDA card, the output of which is then connected via a short external cable to the input on another card, and then an output that card is what's actually hooked up to the monitor. The only internal photo of the machine is very poor, unfortunately. I'm reasonably confident that the "first" card in the "mystery" chain is MDA, it's full-length and alongside the DE-shell video output has the usual DB-25 for parallel. The "mystery" card is also full-length, and there's another full-length card immediately adjacent to it with no external connectors - that one could easily be RAM, or the hard disk controller etc. but I suppose it's possible that the mystery item is actually a two-card set. Anyway, any guesses as to what it might be? The implication is that the mystery card adds functionality to the MDA card (reminiscent of 3DFX boards years later), but of course is operating within the confines of what the MDA display's capable of. cheers Jules

6 years, 8 months

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keycaps / switches for Tek 4006

by fritzm＠fritzm.org

Hi folks, I recently obtained a Tek 4006 from eBay as a repair/restoration project. It is missing a few keycaps (both SHIFT keycaps, COPY, LINE FEED, and :/*). In addition, one of the key mechanisms has a broken plunger. Last, the little green paddle line power toggle power switch at the back appears to be broken. Pinging here to see if anybody has spares of these in their collection which they'd be willing to part with? Alternatively, recommendations on compatible key mechanisms/caps, or even 3D models to print some temporary replacements would be appreciated! cheers, --FritzM.

6 years, 8 months

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Resurrecting integrated circuits by cooking them.

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

Does this mean that, like me scratching a bit at the package to expose enough nub of broken-off pin to get a blob of solder on to hold a new leg made of wire can theoretically be extended to shaving off the top of the package to expose the IC and then tack soldering the severed wire back onto it? This would probably require some serious equipment I don't have, but sounds possible in extremity. RSVP YHOSvt. ** TNM ** Dwight said: "Message: 6 Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2019 05:52:31 +0000 From: dwight <dkelvey at hotmail.com> To: Pete Rittwage <peter at rittwage.com>, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Resurrecting integrated circuits by cooking them. Message-ID: < BYAPR01MB5608F4C8A3860C2A7D2BC172A3C10 at BYAPR01MB5608.prod.exchangelabs.com > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" "Failure of the POKEY chip were likely bonding wire failures. Voltage stress failures are not likely to self repair. I would agree, the fix is likely temporary. Many early chips used gold wire for bonding but later chips used aluminum. Which is better is always a question. The pads on the die were usually aluminum, while the package was often gold. These are acoustically bonded. One wonders if one put a capacitor on the lead with a non-lethal voltage and used such a heating method, it might be able to arc weld the wire back on. Using the method of heating might enhance the success as well. Dwight"

6 years, 8 months

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MicroPDP-11/23+ cabinet kit cables

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Douglas Taylor > I'm putting together a MicroPDP-11/23 in a BA23 box. Have the M8189 CPU > quad width board and the bulkhead cabinet kit .. how the cabling goes > from the M8189 CPU board to the bulkhead cabinet kit? I _think_ this might be the cable you need: https://www.ebay.com/itm/CK-KDF11-CABLE-ONLY-P-N-70-20451-1C/151622708242 but I'm not familiar with the cab kit, so I'm not sure. > The 10 pin connectors on the CPU board don't seem to be keyed ... > Is there something that gives the orientation away? These 10 pin EIA connectors (same in the DLV11-J, KDJ11-B, etc) are keyed, with a missing pin. DEC cables for these connectors have a plug in the matching hole. > From: Glen Slick > In the photos that I have found of the M8189 console panel there is a > '1' just above the top right of the 20-pin connector indicating Pin 1. > A trace can be seen leading from that pin to the baud rate circuitry. > So that pin would go to Pin 1 of one of the 10-pin connectors on the M8189. Y'all love to re-invent the wheel, I see: http://gunkies.org/wiki/DEC_asynchronous_serial_line_pinout#10_pin_header I should check to see if the KDJ11-B has the same external baud rate selection support, and if so, update the page to add it. Oh, that's the other way to tell the orientation, with non-flat-cable cables; with the loopback jumper on pins 7&9. Noel

6 years, 8 months

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DEC Pro380 problems

by dittman＠dittman.net

I pulled my Pro380 out of storage after getting a replacement VR201 monitor. I connected it all together and on powerup I get the following display: http://www.dittman.net/pro380/screen.jpg The tech manual says this is an error from slot 1 (the hard drive controller) and the error is "Non-existent memory trap occurred for longer than 20 seconds". I reseated all the cards. I noticed three ICs are missing on the hard drive controller but I don't know if they are empty or someone removed the ICs (I can't remember where I got this system). I can't find a picture of the controller to compare. The missing ICs can be seen here: http://www.dittman.net/pro380/missingics.jpg These are the installed option cards: http://www.dittman.net/pro380/cards.jpg Any ideas? -- Eric Dittman

6 years, 8 months

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MicroPDP-11/23+ cabinet kit cables

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

I'm putting together a MicroPDP-11/23 in a BA23 box.? Have the M8189 CPU quad width board and the bulkhead cabinet kit, with two DB25 connectors and switches to set the baud rate.? On bitsavers the 'MicroPDP11 system technical manual' shows how to set jumpers on the M8189 to allow this cabkit set the baud rate, but only briefly mentions the cables needed. Does anyone here have a anatomically correct MicroPDP-11/23+ in a BA23 box and can tell me how the cabling goes from the M8189 CPU board to the bulkhead cabinet kit? Doug

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question (Is destruction of old tech docs a moral crime?)

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

I'm posting a private email (anonymized) and my reply because it's a significant issue. >{Note private reply} > > > When the scanning process involves destruction of the original work > > ... But if it's a rare document, or even maybe so rare that it's the > > last one, then destroying it now just to produce a digital copy > > inadequate to the aims of cultural preservation - that's a crime. > > One right up there with genocide > >While I agree that making a non-optimal digital copy in such cases, is, >well, non-optimal (because for _many uses_, the basic information is still >available, wheras for many important documents, not even that remains), >there's no way it's "right up there with genocide" - and if you really >think so, you definitely need to examine your sense of scale, because it's >seriously defective. > > [name removed] I agree that when historical documents are lost without even any kind of digital copy made, that's the worst. However I was pretty careful to preceded that quoted paragraph with conditionals. Specifically referring to a case where someone has a rare work, that isn't in danger of falling apart, and there's no good reason why they couldn't wait till better scanning methods became available, and they destroy it to produce a crappy quality digital image. Thus ensuring there can never be a high quality digital copy and the rare physical original is forever gone. That's criminal. A high level crime against humankind. Where it's done in bulk to entire collections, it _is_ the cultural equivalent of genocide. I don't care if you disagree. Could it be that you are upset because you do this (destroy docs), and don't like to be accused of being a criminal? I am sure that the future WON'T take your position on this. They are going to be sooo pissed, that so many old works were destroyed and all they have left is crappy quality horrible-looking two-tone scans. This is _already_ the case with many electronics instrument manuals. There are so many people who think that the physical manuscript is unimportant, and nothing matters other than posting a minimally readable smallest-possible-file online, with the least effort and so it's OK to destroy the original for convenience. Private reply noted. Still going to repost on the list, as from anon. Guy

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question (Is destruction of old tech docs a moral crime?)

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 07:07 PM 23/07/2019 -0700, you wrote: >Nonetheless, comparing some small amount of lost information It's not a 'small amount of lost information', because destroying rare technical works in order to scan them, or afterwards because "now they are scanned there's no need to keep the paper copy" is a widespread practice. Very many works in original form are being lost because of this. >to genocide, which is a real thing that has happened and is still happening in the world today, > and which has affected people on the list and those they are close to, is more than a bit offensive. Let me tell you about my wife. She's Cambodian, and very barely lived through the Pol Pot genocide in Cambodia. Many of her family and relatives didn't make it. The Khmer Rouge were mostly insane, as a result of the secret US bombing campaign, in which they napalmed every Cambodian country village they could spot. So virtually all country folk in Cambodia had lost people close to them to poisonous fire from the sky. (Napalm contains phosphorus, can't be extinguished, and even if you only get a few spots on you and survive the burning, you die slowly of phosphorus poisoning.) The countryside people were virtually all uneducated and knew nothing of the outside world, and had no idea why this was happening. In this context the Khmer Rouge arose, with the central creed being that Cambodia had to be purged, since all 'foreign influences' equated to the burning from the sky. By 'purged' they meant _everything_ and _everyone_ with any trace of foreign influence. That included all the people in the major cities, since they spoke with foreign (French, Chinese) accents among other things. It also meant all machines and books. Did you know sewing machines are evil? No? Well they were to the Khmer Rouge, so they destroyed them all. As a result my future wife (from Phnom Phen) spent several years on sub-starvation diet, only kept alive in a camp because she could hand-sew uniforms for the Khmer Rouge. As in needle and thread only. I guess needles and scissors were not considered 'machines'. Ditto rifles. They weren't big on logical consistency. The camps were intended as temporary people storage, while they sorted out who to kill. Almost everyone, though there was a lot of mission drift. They didn't have enough bullets, so the daily killings were done via simpler, zero cost means. A common method was for three people to kill one. Two held the victim's arms back, pulling them against a tree trunk. The third sawed through the victim's throat with the edge of a palm frond. This happened very often, daily. We met and married here in Australia, had a family etc. Wonderful person. But her past haunted her and she slowly developed PTSD. Is far from who she once was. This is why I dislike the practice of destroying things (information and still useful tech-tools) for reasons that seem sensible to some, but are fundamentally superficial consequences of social fads and groupthink. It's a mindset - destroying old things, and destroying people, go hand in hand. If you can justify one, the other maybe too. >Please be more considerate of this and, as was suggested by the person whose correspondence you posted, >examine your sense of scale. My sense of scale is OK I think. There was a major global human genetic bottleneck around 12,000 years ago, probably caused by the metorite impact that left the Hiawatha crater in Greenland. That one nearly wiped us out. About 30,000 years ago 'something' caused a mega-tsunami that washed right across the north end of the southern island of New Zealand, creating the 'buried kauri forests' effect. There was a relatively high-tech civilization in the Mediteranean area sometime around 300BC, that made the Antikythera Mechanism - that one required mathematics, accurate astronomy, metalurgy and precision machine tools, plus all the necessary cultural support. Completely lost. The Umm al Binni lake (in Al Amarah marshes of southern Iraq, approximately 45 km northwest of the Tigris-Euphrates confluence) is believed to be a Holocene (8,000 BC to present) impact crater. There are traces in ancient texts of a prior civilization in that area that was apparently completely wiped out. Just a few of a long list of dramatic natural events in quite recent times, very little known by the public. Currently humans have achieved a pretty nice level of technological capability. But few understand how fragile that is, and what kinds of events could crash it back to primitive levels. Very very few are aware of factors like tech being not easily restartable, since we've used up all the easily mined resources, now running on ores and energy sources that require existing high tech. Almost no one is aware of the long-life isotope stocks issue, that could make a technological collapse permanent for many millions of years, by raising background environmental radiation worldwide to levels untenable for higher life forms, if our radioactives containment facilities were degraded during even a hundred years of no-tech. And ALL our existing digital storage media are very ephemeral. Factors like these, make detailed, robust and widely distributed _paper_ documentation of technological artifacts *much* more important than most realise. They are 'safety margin.' Always maintain a good safety margin, in anything life-critical. Guy

6 years, 8 months

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Sgi crimson for sale

by lyokoboy0＠gmail.com

Hello, Havent posted here for a while. I usually post about pdp11 and vax stuff. I am big into sgi equipment, I have many deskside coputers and a full onyx 1000 rack. I have just about every machine in the sgi linup and I need to clear out most of my big sgi stuff. I was big into the nekochan forums, but sadly since that shut down, supoprt has been limited, and i want to get this stuff to someone that can use it. I have a sgi crimson for sale. Possible intermittent power supply issue. Problem with the IO3 board prevents it from booting I have an onyx2 for sale in full working order. Its my main machine, im migrating work to a Octane2. I also have a loaded origin / onyx2 loaded with hardware, but i havent been able to get it to post or get to the serial console. Good machine for parts or to try and fix. Many octane 2 machines, a couple are fully loaded with 8gb of memory, dual processors, pci expansion box, etc. Enough indys to make a jenga tower. Indigo with keyboard indigo 2 with matching keyboard. Might be persuaded to sell the onyx 1000 rack, im not going to part it out, and needs a forklift to be moved. 2 Sgi tezro's in working order. I picked them both up a year or two ago, i used them in a headless serial console fassion, i was not able to get my monitor to sysc with either of them. They both work aside from Battery/RTC warnings. I am open to offers, Im not looking to just give them away. Im hoping to recoup some of my money to move and pay for college. Open to answer any questions about them --Devin D.

6 years, 8 months

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Old test equip for sale

by sales＠elecplus.com

https://www.elecshopper.com/tools/b-k-1077b-television-analyst.html https://www.elecshopper.com/tools/heathkit-it-18-transistor-checker.html https://www.elecshopper.com/tools/home-brew-dc-milliamp-box.html https://www.elecshopper.com/tools/micronta-digital-multimeter.html Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 cell sales at elecplus.com --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

6 years, 8 months

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PDP stuff in MA--attn collectors

by sales＠elecplus.com

Charlie at Qei Inc in MA is an old-time DEC dealer from back in the day. I asked him if he has any PDP stuff left, and he said yes. He much prefers emails. He works from pictures and lists of PN or model numbers. Send your requests to qeiinc at verizon.net. Large items will need to be picked up. Items under 25 pounds that are not too fragile can usually be sent UPS. Be patient; he has a huge warehouse and finding things can be a challenge. It may take more than a week to get an answer, but he will look into all requests. Cindy Croxton --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

6 years, 8 months

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wanted: scan of Rockwell R6500 Programming Manual, Rev 2, January 1983

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I'm looking for a scan (or hard copy) of the later revision of the Rockwell R6500 Programmming Manual which includes coverage of the additional R65C02 instructions. I believe this is Rev 2 dated January 1983. There are several different scans of the original revision that did not cover the R65C02, so I don't need those. I'm not sure whether they also issued a new revision of the Hardware Manual, but if so, I'd like to get a copy of that as well. As with the Programming Manual, I already have scans of the original revision. Best regards, Eric

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question (Is destruction of old tech docs a moral crime?)

by flash688＠flying-disk.com

Guy Dunphy <guykd at optusnet.com.au> wrote: > Ditto for a service/schematics manual for the Documation > TM200 punch card reader. No copy can be found. I don't know about the TM200, but I have the technical manual for the Documation M-200 card reader. If that will help you, I would be happy to scan it for you. It is already on my list of manuals to scan for Bitsavers. This is the August 1974 update containing the recommended spares list for DEC. Amazingly, I knew exactly which moving box it was in, and it took less than five minutes to find that box! Alan "Pack Rat" Frisbie

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question (Is destruction of old tech docs a moral crime?)

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 07:16 PM 22/07/2019 +0200, Mattis Lind wrote: >> BTW. I have three IBM 026 card punch machines as a future restoration project. But can I find >> a service manual? No. None online, only one for the later 028. And even if there was a PDF >Have you seen these: >http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/A24-0520-2_24-26_Keyp… >http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/225-6535-5_24-Base_Ma… >http://ibm-1401.info/IBM-026-Wiring-228005P.html Last time I looked, in Sept 2018 I had previously found: http://www.righto.com/2017/12/repairing-1960s-era-ibm-keypunch.html https://www.flickr.com/photos/pfsullivan_1056/16296856470 http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/029/225-3357-3_29_FE_Main… Bitsavers has a user manual: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/A24-0520-2_24-26_Keyp… And a field manual: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/225-6535-5_24-Base_Ma… But no schematics still. Your first URL is 404'd, though I already had that doc. Seems there's been a tree structure re-org. Now there's these: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/punchedCard/Keypunch/024-026/ 123-7091-3_24_25_Parts_Catalog_Apr1963.pdf 225-6535-5_24-Base_Machines_FEMM_Dec65.pdf 22-8319-0_24_26_Customer_Engineering_Preliminary_Manual_of_Instruction_1950.pdf 229-3125_24-26_Operators_Guide.pdf A24-0520-3_24_26_Card_Punch_Reference_Manual_Oct1965.pdf Downloaded. Looks like a good complete set, for mechanicals. Still no overall schematic. Maybe it didn't exist? Gosh it's a scary-complicated machine. I'm not looking forward to finding the gotchas, like obscure parts buried deep in the guts that have perished rubber bits, complex precision surface-hardened things that are just plain worn out and unobtainium, etc. >> I expect it would be the usual terrible quality. Pleasant surprise! The image quality of all those PDFs is pretty good. But all still a mix of 2-tone and JPG encoding, with all their various artifacts. Fortunately at high enough res to preserve all information. High enough even to (mostly) preserve the ink screening dots in images. I'd still like to find original paper copies, both as a historical set with the machines, and to scan-encode-wrap 'my way' for better looking digital versions. >> Ditto for a service/schematics manual for the Documation TM200 punch card reader. No copy can be found. >Do you expect the TM200 to be substantially different from the M200? My guess is that they are quite similar. > Gone down the route of reverese engineering the differences? The TM200 has extra circuitry (more cards, wiring) than the M200, since it also reads optical mark-sense cards. Which means if ultimately I'm forced to reverse engineer the diferences, it's going to be a lot of work. There's no rush and plenty of other projects. I'd rather just wait more to see if a correct manual turns up. Not to mention that I'd like to find that manual in order to scan it. Guy

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning Results

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 11:41 PM 19/07/2019 -0600, you wrote: >OK. I've done the first of the manuals I have. Thanks for all the helpful >hints. > >I took apart the Rainbow User's Manual's metal spiral spine. I scanned it >with scansnap and ran it through the indexing function. I think I tweaked >the settings in a reasonable way. > >The results look good to my eye, but I'm not 100% sure, so I thought I'd >post it here for feedback: > >https://people.freebsd.org/~imp/EK-P100E-OM-001_Rainbow_100_Owner's_Manual-Nov-1982.pdf Congratulations, that is nicely done. I like the way you took the trouble to keep the purple ink on some page's LED diagrams, and the cover images. I'm not fond of that two-tone encoding of B&W text, but that is an artifact of PDF. (Unless you go to ridiculous bits/pixel formats, ie large file sizes.) Since PDF does not allow inclusion of images encoded as PNG. And PNG does the best B&W text image compression, in run-length encoded 4 bits/pixel grayscale. Which preserves character and line edges very nicely, while still achieving better file compression. I wish I knew why ISO and Adobe never updated PDF to include PNG images. It's one of the worst failings in PDF. Just that one alone makes PDF unacceptable. :) Maybe because trying to type the right one (PDF vs PNG) is really error prone? When you scanned the pages, what was the raw save format? (If any.) If it was any format like RGB/24, or indexed 256 color, did you keep the raw files? >Second, how do I submit this to bitkeepers? I've looked around and don't >see how. maybe I'm just being blind... http://www.bitsavers.org/ bitkeepers is something else. The site's contact email is right down the bottom of the front page. Visual, to stop spambots. Also Al posts here in cctalk. Guy

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question (Is destruction of old tech docs a moral crime?)

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 10:41 AM 21/07/2019 -0600, you wrote: On Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 4:16 AM Joseph S. Barrera III via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: >I'd suggest that in 2019 when bits are cheap and high-quality scanners >nearly as cheap, "crappy quality digital image" is a bit of a straw man. >Yes, I've seen plenty of barely-readable or practically unreadable scans, >but they were made years or decades ago. There are still plenty of bad scans being done today, for various reasons. The technology of producing a final digital copy continues to improve and has a way to go yet. *This* is why I strongly oppose destroying rare docs to scan them, now. Better to wait till non-destructive scanning methods become available. >What dpi qualifies as not "crappy"? 300dpi? 400? 600? Points: 1. Both the DPI and bits/pixel affect the visual result. Having shaded pixels on curved edges makes the eye see a smooth curve, where the same resolution in two-tone (B&W) would look jagged. Achieving an optimal balance of resolution and shading levels for various types of content and fineness of detail, vs file size, is a bit of an art. But ultimately it's a simple test: look at the paper original, and your final result on screen (at 1:1 final scale.) Does the quality look the same? Is your copy how the original publisher would have wanted the doc to appear? People only auto-producing PDFs rarely catch on to this, because PDF ONLY encodes as one of: two-tone B&W (fax mode), or JPG (or JPEG2000 rarely) or the excreable JBIG2 (Never use this!) Experiment with PNG encoding, via a tool like Irfanview, which allows flexibly setting PNG bits/pixel, raw, indexed color or gray scale. PNG is a lossless encoding, and so the only resolution loss is by your choice while rescaling in post-processing. 2. The resolution you scan at, and the final presentation resolution, won't be the same. Especially when the pages include elements like screened color or B&W images. To deal with these properly you MUST scan at a resolution several times higher than the screen dot pitch. Otherwise there will be moire patterns (beats) between the scan sampling and the screening dots. Then you post-process to eliminate the screening, and end up with a truly tonal image at the resolution the eye would perceive when viewing the original screened image. This avoids any moire patterning, realizes the original publisher's visual intent, and enables minimizing the final file data size. B&W text should be encoded with at least 16 gray levels available to edge shading. ie 4 bits/pixel. B&W tonal images need at least 256 level gray scale, or the eye sees quantization of shades (aka posterization.) Colour images need either 24 bit/px, ie 8 bits each for RGB, or if there are a limited number of flat colours an indexed color scheme may work. 256 colors or less, ie an 8 bit index per pixel. Typical utilities will generate the color table automatically (which can sometimes ba a pain.) PDF does not allow any of these kind of user choices. 3. The final page images, don't have a 'dots per inch' dimension. They have only total number of pixels in H & V. When doing final page image down-scaling and choice of encoding, you have to make an aesthetic decision on final pixel dimensions. If your original page was A4 (8.5" wide) and you scanned at 600 DPI, that's 5100 pixels wide. But you'll likely find that the final copy can be scaled to around 1000 to 1200 pixels wide, with 4 bits/px (if B&W text), for an on-screen page image indistinguishable from the original. 4. All post processing should be done in 24 bit RGB, at the full scan resolution. Keep staged backups. NEVER use any indexed color scheme when scaling, rotating, etc. The result is unavoidably bad. The final two steps should be: rescale to desided X-Y pixel size, THEN down-code to final color system and file encoding. There's a discussion of this in http://everist.org/temp/On_scanning.htm In general, 'acceptable' resolution VERY MUCH depends on the content. >I just scanned my Rainbow 100 User's Manual at 300, 600 and 1200dpi using the scansnap default settings. You see a jump between 300 and 600, but little difference going on up to 1200 for this material. I posted the 300dpi results and even they are acceptable. Some of the diagrams look heavier than the 600dpi version and at high zoom you see pixelated letters, where the 600 doesn't. The 1200 is hard to see any big difference and takes 4x as long to scan. I think I'll be scanning the remaining rainbow docs at 600dpi. The file is 22MB vs 12MB, so that's worth it. The 1200dpi version was almost 70MB which is starting to get a bit large for a 60 sheet document. The sweet spot seems to be 600dpu, at least for this material. Just wondering if you're aware of the freeware util Irfanview? https://www.irfanview.com/ It's very capable for batch processing large sets of images. Rescaling, changing coding, cropping, etc. Guy

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question

by imp＠bsdimp.com

So, I have a bunch of old DEC Rainbow docs that aren't online. I also have a snapscan scanner that I use for bills and such. There's four kinds of docs, and I'm looking for advice: (1) wire-ring bounded. What's the best way to scan these? The easiest is to just clip the wire binding and drop it in the scanner. But then what? (2) Folded with staples. These are booklet format, with stables in the middle. I could easily remove the staple and scan. but how do I replace the staple? (3) Gum bound. These books are bound with some kind of gum / goo on the spine. Some of these are so old I could just remove it and have no real degradation of the state. Others have spines that are still in good shape. (4) Three ring binder. This is easy: remove, scan, replace. Right? Finally, how do I get the resulting scans into bigkeeper? Any fancy options I should enable to make the pdfs maximally useful? Warner

6 years, 8 months

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UNIVAC IBM AND APOLLO - -History --Background

by couryhouse＠aol.com

Great info!https://www.zdnet.com/article/to-the-moon-ibm-and-univac-appollo-11s-i…

6 years, 8 months

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WordPerfect 5.1+ for VMS

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

Hi, This crossed my radar earlier today. I figured that someone on the CCTalk mailing list might be interested in it. Link - Vintage 1995 Novell WordPerfect 5.1+ for VMS TK50 Tape Digital DEC VAX - https://www.ebay.com/itm/133114102939 Buy It Now for $49.95 ($14.95 S&H) or Make an Offer. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

6 years, 8 months

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Simulators for NCR Century series computers

by bob＠jfcl.com

Is anyone aware of a simulator for the NCR Century series computers? And no, simh doesn't do them. Thanks, Bob Armstrong

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 08:51 PM 18/07/2019 -0600, you wrote: >On 7/18/19 3:50 PM, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote: >> So, I have a bunch of old DEC Rainbow docs that aren't online. I also >> have a snapscan scanner that I use for bills and such. >> >> There's four kinds of docs, and I'm looking for advice: > >I always wanted to apply (fiber) optics to this. I wanted something >that was akin to a (glass) block that I could set on the bed of a >scanner that would be tall enough that I could open books 90???110?? with >the to be scanned side sitting on top of the raised / extended scanner >bed with the book pages laying off to one side. Much like you would see >if someone was reading the book while laying on their back. > >I don't know if anything like this exists or is even possible. Same thing, much simpler. Called an Edge Scanner. (google) It's just a normal travelling sensor scanner, but without all the wasted space along one side. They usually can scan to within a small few mm of the edge of the glass plate, and there's no side structure beyond the glass plate edge. You just raise the scanner up on blocks to give sufficient vertical clearance at the side for your book width. There's still the issue of compressing the book to ensure the pages lay properly flat on the glass. For this 'small edge' you pay a lot extra, even though many existing scanners can be hacked to be edge scanners just by cutting away excess garbage at one side. The usual corporate calculated feature-limitation bullsh*t. I have a few related UNFINISHED articles online: http://everist.org/temp/edge/20150214_hacking_edge.htm http://everist.org/temp/On_scanning.htm http://everist.org/temp/20140812_disconnecting_the_dots.htm And threads like this make me hate myself for not having finished those. Too busy, and they are all halted by dependencies on _other_ unfinished/ unsolved problems. I have a lot more to say about the wisdom of destroying original publications to scan them, especially when you are not already an expert at scanning and the many tradeoffs. But have to go afk just now. Guy

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning Results

by imp＠bsdimp.com

OK. I've done the first of the manuals I have. Thanks for all the helpful hints. I took apart the Rainbow User's Manual's metal spiral spine. I scanned it with scansnap and ran it through the indexing function. I think I tweaked the settings in a reasonable way. The results look good to my eye, but I'm not 100% sure, so I thought I'd post it here for feedback: https://people.freebsd.org/~imp/EK-P100E-OM-001_Rainbow_100_Owner's_Manual-Nov-1982.pdf I have the manual still apart and can do additional scanning runs easily enough. The paper is in great shape. Second, how do I submit this to bitkeepers? I've looked around and don't see how. maybe I'm just being blind... Warner

6 years, 8 months

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Decision Data Keyboard for sale

by sales＠elecplus.com

https://www.elecshopper.com/decision-data-keyboard.html For parts or repair. I am going to be adding quite a few keyboards in the coming week, so if you want them before the "keyboard kids" get them, please turn on your rss feeds. https://www.elecshopper.com/rss/ Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 cell sales at elecplus.com --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

6 years, 8 months

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Scanning question

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 04:50 PM 7/18/2019, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote: >(1) wire-ring bounded. What's the best way to scan these? The easiest is to >just clip the wire binding and drop it in the scanner. But then what? Those are going to snag on each other, no? I'd trim the edges off. >(2) Folded with staples. These are booklet format, with stables in the >middle. I could easily remove the staple and scan. but how do I replace the >staple? Cut along the middle using a paper cutter. >(3) Gum bound. These books are bound with some kind of gum / goo on the >spine. Some of these are so old I could just remove it and have no real >degradation of the state. Others have spines that are still in good shape. Probably needs a pro paper cutter. - John

6 years, 8 months

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Another warehouse closing

by sales＠elecplus.com

https://www.facebook.com/KemnerEnterprises/ Located in Pottstown, PA. Still open Fri afternoons and Saturdays. Cindy Croxton --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

6 years, 8 months

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Setting up RSS feeds

by sales＠elecplus.com

If you have Thunderbird, go to Blogs and News Feeds. Click on the RSS icon, and enter the info for each site you want to follow. If you have Outlook, the process is very similar. If you have Chrome, you can use an add-on, such as https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rss-feed-reader/pnjaodmkngahhkoih… If you have Firefox, see this areticle https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/4757633/feed-readers/ Cindy

6 years, 8 months

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Looking for Pangolin QuadMod cards (Amiga)

by ethan＠757.org

Just a random one... I'm looking for old Zorro II boards made by a company called Pangolin. It's the QuadMod16 and QuadMod8 which are used with the Amiga. If a QuadMod2000 or QuadMod32 showed up I might have slight interest in that as well. These are laser projector controllers for light show use. I have a QM16 now but it might be a "slave" card and the software can't see it. -- : Ethan O'Toole

6 years, 8 months

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VCFMW drop offs and visits

by useddec＠gmail.com

If anyone going to VCFMW needs any (mosyly) DEC items dropped off there please let me know so I can plan ahead. Trades are sometimes workable for other DEC equipment, even more so for US and foreign coins and currency. I plan on arriving Friday afternoon and returning Saturday night. If anyone wants to stop by and look around, please let me know of tentative plans so I can plan accordingly and not have too many people tripping over each other. Please contact me off list. Thanks, Paul

6 years, 8 months

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VCFMW

by useddec＠gmail.com

If anyone from the UK is coming over to VCFMW and would be willing to bring me some nice crisp uncirculated currency I will be happy to trade you for US currency or DEC computer items. I can make up a list over the next few days. I don't know when the new 50 is coming out, and I'm also interested in the Steven Hawkins coin, coins from the isles, pre-decimal and other foreign coins. Please feel free to contact me off list. Thanks, Paul

6 years, 8 months

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AGC software bloat 'what if' musing

by steven＠malikoff.com

It's well documented that in 1967 or so the AGC code was bloated (amongst other problems) and looked like it was not going to be ready in time for the landings, so much so that NASA sent in Bill Tindall to MIT to kick heads. Could they perhaps have given the under-pressure programmers some breathing space - a contingency - by carrying another set of ropes with the excess (return mission) code on them, whilst still working on the all-in-one set? That is, fly to the moon with everything required up to P65 etc then once on the surface, exchange the rope modules for the return software and throw the first rope set out onto the surface to save weight. Power cycling the AGC in flight was possible and even done later on Apollo 13 and surely they would have done this in simulations. And they could presumably have left the IMU running and aligned, as sufficient power was available? Steve

6 years, 8 months

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DEC Purchase Specifications, particularly 23-000A9-01

by nf6x＠nf6x.net

I've been studying scanned documents for the M9312 UNIBUS bootstrap/terminator card because of reasons. They refer to Digital Equipment Corporation Purchase Specifications 23-000A9-01 and 23-000F1-01 for the PROMs, and I'm wondering whether those documents have been preserved anywhere? I'd love to see them. Ok, about the reasons: My PDP-11/34A has an M9301-YF bootstrap/terminator card, which doesn't have bootstrap code for a couple of the newer devices I'd like to use in the system such as RL02 and emulated TU58. The newer M9312 card looks more flexible for changing out bootstraps than the M9301 series. I'm working on getting my hands on an M9312, but I don't know yet whether I'll be able to get original PROMs for the specific bootstraps that I want. I haven't identified a trustworthy source for blank old-timey bipolar PROMs yet (and I'm not sure if I have a suitable device programmer for them), and I was thinking about making some sort of PROM emulations that I can swap around like they're going out of style. It would probably be helpful (and definitely interesting) if I could learn details about the original part specifications, such as what speed ratings DEC used. I don't have an M9312 in my hands yet, and I'm not yet sure about how rapidly the card performs its little 4-to-16 bit deserialization stunt. If 70ns access time parts are sufficient for the M9312's PROMs, then I may design an emulation with a 5V compatible 28 series EEPROM. If they need to be faster, then I may need to do something fancier. Or maybe I'll find the original PROMs that I need and then get distracted and wander off. It may well be easier to design a replacement for the entire M9312 card than trying to emulate the individual 512x4 bipolar PROMs, but since when do I do anything the easy way? I sure wouldn't be playing with 40 year old computers if I was concerned with practicality and ease of use! -- Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net> http://www.nf6x.net/

6 years, 8 months

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Computer Reset shop, liquidation. (USA)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 10:29 AM 7/17/2019, Patrick Finnegan via cctalk wrote: >On Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 10:17 AM Ethan O'Toole via cctalk < > There are likely to be similar places around flyover America. You been poking around my warehouse? >I'd agree in prinicpal, but if even 0.1% of LGR's 1M youtube followers try >to show up one day, it'd be a Problem. More people going will create a >bigger headache for the volunteers helping to deal with the situation and >might end up in no one getting anything. YouTube subscriber numbers versus reality; you'd have a hard time getting 0.00001% of those subscribers to do anything in the real world. >I've been overwhelmed trying to >deal with my own collection sometimes; I can't imagine having 10-20x the >space filled up would be like. I'm overwhelmed and it's time to purge. The problem isn't a desire for old computers, the problem is having too much space. You might like motorcycles or tractors or Beanie Babies, but if you have the space and the inclination, you can eventually fill your available space. > There's some threshold where >instead of "more people getting retrocomputers", it's "This is too much >stress, so it's all going to a landfill". Yes, assuming you expended the effort to organize and document, then organization makes dispersal slightly more easy... but most of the problem is still there. You want to advertise what you have? Effort. Put a value on it? More effort. Want to give it away? Sell it? All that takes time and effort. Lots of time. Packing, shipping, even just dealing with schedules and communication and meet-ups and those who don't show up. And yes, if you're in "flyover America" you have far fewer enthusiasts to attract for local pickup. Even sending it all to recycling takes a tremendous amount of effort. I put some stuff on eBay the other day, some server stuff less than ten years old plus some other items, like 18 VoIP phones with a starting bid of 99 cents... the only thing seeing a bid so far is a NIB toner cartridge for an HP laser printer. So, to deal with my own hoarding / collecting, I'll strive to make a list of stuff I haven't touched in 10, 20, 30 years, and I'll post here to see if anyone is interested. Too much lingering obligation and future debt, even if it only has to go to recycling. I've considered taking a truckful to VCF Midwest, but apparently I'd need to make a big scary sign that says "If you don't take it now, it's going to recycling" because I can't imagine that I'd be able to give away half the load. - John

6 years, 8 months

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IBM documentation is San Antonio

by sales＠elecplus.com

A friend of mine is an old IBM dealer. His mother started the business, and they have documentation going back to the beamspring days. He has agreed that he will pack all the stuff into boxes and pack the boxes on a pallet. These are not free; he wants an offer, since he has to pay a guy to pack, cost of boxes, etc. There are several hundred pounds of stuff. Think of a 5 foot wide 6 foot tall cabinet stuffed to the gills, and then multiply that by at least 4. If interested, let me know. Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 cell sales at elecplus.com --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

6 years, 8 months

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Computer Reset shop, liquidation. (USA)

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

>So, to deal with my own hoarding / >collecting, I'll strive to make?>a list of stuff I haven't touched in 10, 20, >30 years, and I'll >post here to see if anyone is interested.? >Too much lingering >obligation and future debt, even if it only >has to go to recycling.This is always a good first step. If people don't know what you have people can't reach out.Just saying ;)-Ali

6 years, 8 months

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Computer Reset shop, liquidation. (USA)

by cctalk＠ibm51xx.net

>It's unfortuante that this wasn't a well >known business/resource before it>was an overflowing burden for the family >to deal with.??Actually it was. They used to sell on eBay all the time. Guy was an old timer, nice enough once you got to know him but he wasn't very friendly or easy to deal with initially specially through eBay (listing with ridiculous S&H, no response to messages, etc).The place was on my list of if "I ever have the time and money" but life caught up to them before I hit the lottery :D.-Ali

6 years, 8 months

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Mystery DEC backplane on eBay

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

For those who saw this item: https://www.ebay.com/itm/183639487495 but didn't know what it went to (Web searches for "5409818" and "5009817" didn't turn up anything useful for me), it turns out to be a "Configuration 2" backplane for a PDP-11/05-/10: http://gunkies.org/wiki/PDP-11/05#Backplane_versions with slots for one MM11-L memory unit, and 4 SPC slots. Noel

6 years, 8 months

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RF08 light panel

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ethan Dicks > Did anyone here get it? Yeah, me - although I didn't expect to! Because of my work on DEC indicator panels (this one's a 10-1/2" panel, unusual): http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/DECIndicatorPanels.html I put in what seemed to me a lowish bid, expecting not to get it (I figured I'd make do with the image from the sale), and was rather surprised that I got it. I don't have an RF08, of course, so if anyone actually has an RF08, I'll happily do a deal to get it to you. > I did not bid because I have zero parts of an RF08 (and if I ever > make a modern RF08 emulator, I might as well make one of these to > match). Yeah, for the QSIC indicator panels, we built totally new ones, too. We took advantage of that to change the interface; the DEC originals have a wire per light, which is kind of klunky. Ours time-multiplexes a single data line (there are 'clock' and 'latch' lines too); visually, it seems to look identical to the DEC originals in operation. Noel

6 years, 8 months

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Artsearch software for MicroVax?

by ethan＠757.org

Anyone happen to have the Artsearch software for Microvax? It's my understanding the the software drove a laserdisc player. A friend has the laserdiscs but not the software. -- : Ethan O'Toole

6 years, 8 months

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5 1/4 diskettes available

by guykd＠optusnet.com.au

At 03:47 PM 11/07/2019 -0500, you wrote: >> On 7/10/19 11:32 AM, Will Cooke via cctalk wrote: >> >> > https://www.bgmicro.com/4-pack-of-5-25-floppy-diskettes-with-sleeves.aspx >> >> They have hub rings, so they are probably 360K > >Weren't these 89 cents when this was first posted? Well they're $1.89 now. >You're altering the market! So they are! Oops. Sorry! Maybe they had a rush of orders, and it's not entirely my fault? Or maybe the 89c price was a typo, and my order alerted them? They confirmed my order. Fingers crossed they actually ship them, and it doesn't turn into an argument about honoring transactions. Though probably, a higher postage cost would be fair. 88 floppies and covers will weigh a bit. (Should have bought 100.) 4 Pack of 5.25" Floppy Diskettes with Sleeves COM1147 22 $0.89 $19.58 Subtotal: $19.58 Shipping & Handling: $6.95 Tax: $0.00 Order Total: $26.53 That's an easily altered market. I am a lovely butterfly, fear my flapping wings! Guy

6 years, 9 months

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We are looking to buy RCA VP3501 keyboard or any of the 3000 data term items please drop us a line off list ( and art material photos posters etc too to add to display as well as hardware)

by couryhouse＠aol.com

We are looking? to buy RCA? VP3501 keyboard or any of the 3000? data term items please? drop us a line off list (and art material? photos posters etc too to add to display as well as? hardware) Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC

6 years, 9 months

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Margaret Hamilton Guardian interview.

by lyndon＠orthanc.ca

Another of the un-acknowledged people in the upcoming July 29 'celebrations'. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/13/margaret-hamilton-comput… --lyndon

6 years, 9 months

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RF08 light panel

by aek＠bitsavers.org

bet this won't go cheap https://www.ebay.com/itm/372706567865

6 years, 9 months

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visit to Bletchley Park / comp museum - Elliot 803

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Hi all - Gatwick Airport was closed for many hours. Without getting into all of the details it became impossible to make it to the museum during my layover. As it was everything had to be perfect. I went to London for a few hours instead. My goal was to see the Elliot 803 at the computer museum in Bletchley so I could learn more about how it worked, I found some code written for the 802, which would work on the 803, and I thought it might be worth the experience to see or maybe even operate the actual machine. There is no simH that I know of for the 802/803 but I have read some attempts at it. I realize I could not see the whole museum and would be rushed, but given I was only in London for an extended 17-hour layover, why not try? Peter Onion Elliott 803 Team leader was going to meet me. Thanks everyone for their feedback. I am going to try to visit next spring for a longer period so I can take my time. I also would like by then to try the same technique I used for the LGP-30 to get that running on simH, applied to the Elliot 803. I'd have to get my head back into that project. Complicated. Bill

6 years, 9 months

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SGI Personal Iris information

by pmackinlay＠hotmail.com

I'm currently working on emulating the 4D/20 in MAME, and looking for anyone who might have actual hardware, software or documents that might help. Right now, most useful would be some high resolution images of the system boards, especially the GR1 graphics boards, or even schematics if they're out there. Appreciate any information or input at all. -- Pat.

6 years, 9 months

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Box of HP 1000 series MUX cards - 12040

by gerardcjat＠free.fr

The right question is : Does theses worth $ 600 as gold scrap ?? Certainly NOT, so ..... This is "If you want that scrap, you pay a premium ". A premium for what ? ( or for who ) ??

6 years, 9 months

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Box of HP 1000 series MUX cards - 12040

by jesse＠cypress-tech.com

If anyone wants 87 HP 1000 series mux cards for gold or to play around with, I'm starting to clean house. The ebay link is below. https://www.ebay.com/itm/383039137321

6 years, 9 months

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Margaret Hamilton Guardian interview.

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Richard Loken > I have never heard of her before and had no idea. There are two books from participants in the development of the AGC software (both of which I highly recommend) which mention her: Hugh Blair-Smith, "Left Brains for the Right Stuff: Computers, Space, and History", Sdp Publishing, East Bridgewater, 2015 Don Eyles, "Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir", Fort Point Press, Boston, 2017 The latter has somewhat grumpy note (pg. 342) which points out that she was only appointed to a management role in early 1970, after the first landing. It also points out that Hal Laning originated the concepts of "asynchronous software" and "priority scheduling". Eldon C. Hall's excellent project history, "Journey to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer" (which covers both h/w and s/w) doesn't mention her. Noel

6 years, 9 months

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