I took a better picture of the panel for this yesterday
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dlcCompany/cowculator
Other than a couple of want-ads from the early 60's I've
not been able to turn up any more information on this.
I'm assuming you optimize by adjusting the parameters to
zero on the meter.
Other than what is on the panel, I've not found anything
on the DLC Company in Linthicum, Md.
The discussion on raised floors in data centers reminded me of an interesting past experience. My company had installed its first supervisory process control system in an enzyme plant. The plant had been around for quite some time and the process control system was part of a retrofit of the facility. Part of that retrofit was remodeling a room for the PDP-11/44 and the related racks of industrial controllers. There were hundreds of cables carrying various analog and digital signals and control signals under the raised floor that they installed.
The only bad thing about the location of the data center was that it was directly under some tanks that were installed on the roof. One tank was for concentrated sulfuric acid which was used to adjust pH in the fermenters. That acid tank was filled from tanker trucks that would come from time to time. One day a trucker who was filling the tank was not paying attention and over filled the roof tank and acid overflowed over onto the roof which should have held the overflow, but it was a flat roof designed to protect from rain not concentrated sulfuric acid. Down in the data center the operator noticed that liquid was flowing down the walls of the room and past the raised floor tiles into the space below. It was easy to confirm it was acid since it was attacking the paint on the wall. The acid pooled under the floor with the cables.
That was when they called the research chemists next door. We came in and determined that there were some drains under the floor (it had been a factory room before it was converted) and we suggested that they flush the space under the floor with water to dilute the acid to get as much of it out as possible. Then they used fans to try to dry out the room and the space under the floor.
After all this, miraculously everything seemed ok, but about once every 6 weeks or so that PDP-11/44 would develop some issue and the DEC field service guy (it was under contract) would come out and swap a board or two, marveling at how he had never seen boards that were so corroded. In retrospect I?m amazed that 11/44 survived as well as it did.
Mark
I have an old floppy disk drive by Hewlett-Packard, their 9895A Flexible
Disc Memory. We got this from an estate cleanout and I would like to sell
it. It has been powered up and one bay door works when the button is pressed
and the other doesn't. It is a large, very heavy machine. I have it on ebay
for $299 ( <https://www.ebay.com/itm/254242280384>
https://www.ebay.com/itm/254242280384) but that was just a shot in the dark.
Any reasonable offer considered.
Mark
mark at meba.com
I should have been more clear in my last response. The 2x2 grid of the floor tiles does not extend to the floor, but to an intermediate layer with wider spacing of the supports at the floor level.
The NCAR Wyoming Supercomputer Center has raised floors of about 20 feet. The auxilary cooling and PDUs are installed down there. Needless to say, you don't pull a floor tile there unless you are on the facility staff!
These four binders are in Toronto, Canada.
* VAX DATATRIEVE - User's Guide
* VAX DATATRIEVE - Handbook
* VAX DATATRIEVE - Reference Manual
* VAX DATATRIEVE - Guide to Writing Reports, Guide to Using Graphics,
Guide to Programming and Customizing
But I don't see on bitsavers -- Can anyone else confirm? I have the
ability to ADF scan before recycling. Or can ship to anyone prepared to
pay cost.
--Toby
> On May 22, 2019, at 11:00 AM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote:
> From: Grant Taylor <cctalk at gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net>
>
> On 5/21/19 5:33 PM, Craig Ruff via cctech wrote:
>> The NCAR Wyoming Supercomputer Center has raised floors of about 20 feet.
>
> Did the support posts go all the way down? Or was there some sort of
> grid work that supported the raised floor above an open area that
> contained the PDUs?
It was moderately open below the floor, there are columns that support the grid. I looked, but I don't have a picture in the under floor area when I was up there years ago, and didn't see anything obvious on the NCAR or Wyoming web sites. There is a video at https://www.youtube.com/embed/u4H7U5Weopw <https://www.youtube.com/embed/u4H7U5Weopw> that shows some of the support equipment briefly, but not the underfloor area.
> On the LSI-11/2, with the machine stopped, 'run' was off, and the
> output on AF1/AH1 was always high (i.e. not asserted).
> I don't have any guesses as to what the behaviour of yours is about.
Hah! Eureka! I had a brainwave, and decided to look at my machine with
the serial console board pulled out!
I then get the exact same behaviour on SRUN as you're seeing - a very brief
spike every so often (about every 25 usec, here).
So I'd be looking pretty hard at your DLV11-E; start by making sure it is
configured correctly.
Past that, you'll need prints; Manx claims there aren't any online, but there
are a set in the jumbo assemblage, ET-LSI-11 (MP00706); the DLV11-E prints are
on pp. 31-37.
All you have to do to get a nice 'scope loop is to power the machine on; the
CPU will dutifully try and read the RCSR, in a fairly tight loop.
Probably worth picking up a spare DLV11 of some type for fault localization
via board-swapping/etc; DLV11-J's can be found on eBait for not a large sum.
Noel
anyone know where i could find manual or drawings on this im up in northern
manitoba canada picked it up at a rr auction to experiment with as a audio
interface not sure if the jacks on the side are the weird pins nasa had or
another standard i can find?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/1ajs/albums/72157705166193482
> From: Jos Dreesen
> And so the story continues....
> https://ibms360.co.uk/
Wow, what a great recover, and a great site documenting it!
Renting temporary local storage was a great idea; it would have been hard
to get all that out of there on schedule any other way. (Alas, I don't
know any hauliers who can help them get it all back to the UK!)
They should have tried to get the raised floor too (I guess it wasn't
included in the sale), since i) it'll be useful if they try and get the
machine up and running, and ii) it'll probably just get scrapped. Although
there may already be raised floor where they're planning to put it.
Noel
well the? good? thing? is? Marc? with? turn over in? industrial? facilities? and? updating? tech...? ? what? you? are? looking? for? ?should? come? available at a? reasonable? ?price....? ?yikes? I? am amazed? how? cheaply? ? some of the normal? biological? scopes? ?go? ?for? ?now... we have been offloading? some? of? ours? ?from the? collection as? for? instance? with? a ziess standard? we? have? 3? and? ?really? should? only? have? one as? an? example....? ?they are? ?a partial? price? of? what? ?they would? have? been? 10? years? ago. Let? me? know? how? you? ?do.? looking? ?for? Nomarsk? ?stuff. We? ?do? not? have? any? extra. We? may? have? something? extra in? Nikon? ?with? Francion Yamatto? ?somewhere though,
Ed#
I? have? not? been? to may? ?auctions at? any of? the industrial? facilities or? auctioneers? ?in? years? to? look? ?for? ?hi? power? ?semiconductor? ?scopes? ?but? that? is? where? they? used to? show? up.
In a message dated 5/20/2019 10:36:40 PM US Mountain Standard Time, curiousmarc3 at gmail.com writes:
Nomarski microscopy, Ed. Differential phase contrast microscopy. Makes very small height differences (partial wavelength) on mostly planar objects pop out, and creates amazing color effects as a biproduct. Pretty much a stalwart of any good cleanroom microscope. Every manufacturer offers it, usually a pretty expensive option as all your optics have to be stress-free. I dream to own one of these one day.
Marc
?
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Reply-To: "COURYHOUSE at aol.com" <couryhouse at aol.com>, "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Date: Monday, May 20, 2019 at 11:20 AM
To: "COURYHOUSE at aol.com" <couryhouse at aol.com>, <spacewar at gmail.com>, "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: HP-01 calc watch go withs - brochures, t- shirts, booklets, ad copy who else collecting?
should? say
?Francion Yamamotto? ?not ?Yrancion Yamamotto
In a message dated 5/20/2019 10:07:04 AM US Mountain Standard Time, couryhouse at aol.com writes:
Since? we? have? nice? microscopes at? the museum? project? we? were? hired? to? photo? some IC? innards? years? back. This? ended? up? becoming? a minor obsession? for? a short? time? as? the? artwork under? various? illuminations? is? fantastic.?
One of the things? that? seemed? to show the mots? difference in? detail between layers and highs? etc... was? differential? interference contrast? (after? nomorski (sp?) ( this? was on our? Ziess Ultraphot? and? seems? to be? a Zeiss? only? ? offering.0? ?on? the? Japanese? side of? things? Nikon? had? ?Yrancion Yamamotto (sp?)? method? which? seems? ?nice? ? but? I? preferred? the? ?Nomeriski.
Using? these? ?methods? you? may be? able? to extract? more usable? detail? ?than? with traditional methods.? ?and? wow? the? color? photos? are? ?frame-able!
But? ?kinda? what? I? wanted to mention? to is? depending? on? what? era? ?the chips? were? the? over? coatings? ? seemed? to? worsen? the view? the newer the chip? or? so? I? thought at the? time.
Such? great? ?fun? to? photo? ?the? little? ic innards!? ?even? a? standard? ?illum.? ?scope? with the? vertical? episcopic? illumination? gives? ?some? ? fun? photos? too,? especially? on the? earlier? ?chips.
Don't? know? if? any? of? ?this? will help on the? HP-01? roms? but? sure? was? fun to talk about? again
ed sharpe archivist for? smecc
In a message dated 5/20/2019 9:00:09 AM US Mountain Standard Time, spacewar at gmail.com writes:
Only just within the last month I finally obtained a ROM dump from a production HP-01, for potential use in my Nonpareil simulator. Previously I only had the preproduction code listed in a US patent. I'm not sure when I'll have time to actually work on the simulation, though.
My original plan had been to crack open an HP-01 module and try to read the ROM bits optically, as Peter Monta did for the HP-35. However, that didn't work, probably due to a passivation coating on the ROM dies.
> From: Glen Slick
> According to the M7270 LSI-11/2 Microcomputer Module User's Guid[e],
> it uses BC1, BD1, BE1, BF1 for SCLK3 H, SWMIB18 H, SWMIB19 H, SWMIB20 H.
Oh, thanks! I wonder how I missed that, looking at the prints? (The
drawings have these nice dark arrowheads to indicate backplane
connections.) I just visually blew past it, I guess.
BH1 is also used there (for SWMIB21 H); and on the previous page, the STOP L
output is on AE1, and MTOE L (whatever that is) can be fed from AK1.
Not quite sure how a Q22 memory card causes the problem, electrically, since
those lines are inputs on the memory card, so it's an input<->input connection
(i.e. voltage sources in TTL), but obviously it does.
And I also don't see why Q18 cards are a problem; BDAL16 and 17 are
AC1 and AD1 respectively, which I don't see in the 'extra pins' list
for the LSI-11/2. Oh well, not too important to track it down.
Thanks again for catching my miss! Wow, it's been a loooong time since
I worked with an LSI-11 - about 40 years! :-)
Noel
> From: Mister PDP
Well, I verified that the LSI-11/2 should work in a Q22 backplane -
in the sense that the only pins it tries to talk to are standard
QBUS pins, and AF1/AH1 for SRUN. It doesn't drive BREF, which might
cause issues in later QBUS systems.
Although it's a different board from the LSI-11, it uses the same CPU
chip set, so it should give us some useful comparison data.
So after a certain amount of issues (see next), I got my LSI-11/2 working.
(It doesn't seem to work with Q18 memory, such as the MSV11-D. Attempts to
write 0 to memory from ODT wind up leaving the bits in the high byte set.
I have no idea why - anyone have any ideas? With Q22 memory, the symptoms
are even stranger; the system hangs with the 'run' light on - even with
the HALT switch on! Luckily I had an MMV11, and it worked OK with that.)
> I took a picture of the readouts for SRUN
Odd. On the LSI-11/2, with the machine stopped, 'run' was off, and the
output on AF1/AH1 was always high (i.e. not asserted).
I don't have any guesses as to what the behaviour of yours is about.
> Checking the BSYNC, it looks like there is life. It oscillates at
> 58.605 KHz, and has wider peaks than the SRUN signal.
The frequency is not as useful as plain timings - especially for signals
which don't have a 50/50 duty cycle. For example, on the -11/2, while in
the ODT console CSR read loop (below), BSYNC is asserted for 2.5 usec
(which sounds about right for a complete read cycle), then off for 1.0
usec.
Also, in the pictures, it's not clear which part of the cycle is asserted
(which, on the QBUS, is 0V - i.e. inverted) and which is idle (~3V). Is
this the actual bus signal we're seeing, with high being idle, zor on the
other side of an inverting receiver?
The image shows some timing numbers, but it's not clear that they mean.
E.g. above, it says "4.00 usec" - but is that per division, the whole
horizontal, what? Below, I see below "17.06 usec", and if that's the
rising edge -> next rising edge interval, that sounds like a bus timeout
is happening.
> This signal does not respond to the Run/Halt switch being toggled,
> but I would assume that to be normal
Right; while in ODT the CPU is trying to read the console CSR, and
so you should see BSYNC cycling.
At this point, you might want to look at BRPLY, which will tell us
if the console is responding to the read of the CSR.
Also, I don't know if your /73 system has a KDJ11-A (dual width card, no
onboard console) or a KDJ11-B (quad width card, onboard console); if the
former, it might be worth swapping the DLV11 card into that system to
see if _it_ is working.
Noel
I liked? raised? flooring....? ? ?you can? clean the room up? fast? by stashing? stuff in the non critical to airflow? areas!? ----see
we? were? lucky? when? comshare? of an arbor? ? division on? phx? ? moved out? ?where? they? designed? IBM channel interfaces? for? xerox sigma 9s
We? got their? space next to? us? ?and bought? their? their? flooring? rather? than them? shipping? back? to ann arbor Mich.? to put? our? HP? stuff on.
best? thing? ever? did? ?it? kept? things neat, clean and? provided? xtra storage.?
In a message dated 5/20/2019 9:11:04 AM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
> I guess it would look right for the era, but I'd never build a data center
> with raised flooring after my experiences with them.? It's such a pain to
> work with compared to a sealed concrete floor and overhead cable trays.
But with a raised floor, you can whack the tile puller down in such a
way that it makes an enormously loud pop that startles everyone in the
datacenter!
I cannot imagine difficult it would be to run S/360 era cables in
overhead trays. Many are an inch or more in diameter.
--
Will
--
Will
-----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis via
> cctalk
> Sent: 21 May 2019 22:33
> To: Grant Taylor via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> Subject: Re: Pleas ID this IBM system....
>
> On 5/21/19 1:17 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote:
>
> > I'm sure that was /a/ problem. But I'm not comfortable attributing
> > that problem to the raised floor.
> >
> > I expect that the same problem would be effected by an elevator that
> > doesn't stop perfectly level with the floor, or has too wide a gap
> > between the car and the floor, or even on tiled floor.
> >
> > That really seems to me like it's a sub-optimal design, pushed past
> > it's operating parameters by overloading it.
> >
> > I can't fault the raised floor for that problem.
>
> No, but it's just one of the anecdotes that go with the terrain, like leaving a
> box or two of cards or a stack of tapes or your dinner on top of a 1403N1
> when it ran out of forms..
>
> How well sealed were the raised floors? I ask this because i recall an episode
> or two where a disk drive would spring a leak and make a beautiful slippery
> pool on the floor, just waiting for the next operator to dash by. I always
> wondered how much of the stuff made it to the subfloor.
>
I think the joints were often tight. Otherwise you got drafts or a breeze.
Speaking of breezes, we found our plotter ( kept over-heating.)
Some one kept closing the floor vent.
We eventually found it was the plotter operator who was a young lady with a short skirt.
When loading the mag tape with the plots she had to stand over the vent which blew out cold air,
So she closed the vent.....
... it took some tact to get this info, and we then moved the tile with the vent and the plotter stayed cool...
At another place we had a disk drive drop through a tile. We had had the joiners make some temporary tiles while we were having an upgrade.
The ran out of plywood and joined two scraps, but not very well. The rocking of the drive broke the joint and the drive fell through.
We were surprised it kept working without a head crash....
> --Chuck
Dave
On 05/19/2019 09:46 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
> There's a switch labeled "IRIG" which stands for Inter Range
> Instrumentation Group, and refers to a standard for
> telemetry encoding. There is a standard for time code, a
> standard for modulating analog signas onto a bunch of FM
> carriers, and a standard for multiplexing several analog
> signals onto one FM carrier.
In this case IRIG stands for Inertial Reference Integrating Gyroscope, one
of three inside the Intertial Measurement Unit of the spacecraft. This
adapter is used to test the PSA tray (Power Sub Assembly) which had modules
such as the Coarse Alignment Amplifiers that were used to drive and measure
the gryos (and the accelerometers).
It also drives the sextant optics for star sighting in the CM (thus you see
the knobs labeled Sxt Shaft and Sxt Trun) Those same circutis would be used
with the Rendezvous Radar for the PSA installed in a LM.
> Apollo documents are probably VERY hard to come by these days.
They are being rapidly and steadily digitized and made available. Many of
the PSA schematics are now accessible. The test point adapter itself is not
going to be easy to find, but you can find the wiring harness schematics
that would tell you what each of your 91 leads in the connector does.
Carl
I'm going to be in Australia and then New Zealand for most of June, and was
wondering if there was anything interesting classic computer wise to visit?
I'm planning on being in Sydney for the Australia half of the trip, and
haven't made many plans for New Zealand yet besides flying in/out of
Auckland.
Pat
I have an empty PDP-11 rack that must be gone by Thursday, 5/30. I am
asking $90 OBO. I also have a UNIBUS SMD disk controller (asking 150). I
will ship the controller, but not the rack.
I am located in Houston, TX.
Thomas Raguso
832 374-2803
Hi,
I got a stash of documentation yesterday. Found a book "WANG 370
calculating system, program library volume 1" which I don't have any use
for. Looks to be almost unread, it has become a bit yellow and it has a
small sticker on the front page. Printed in 1968.
Is there anybody that want's it (free pickup in south Sweden or for
postage fee)?
/Anders
OK ?Marc.. guess, ?patent ran out. this was eons ago I was involved initally... ?so thus my dated ?"who had and not ?list"... remember the leitz episcopic.. ? phase contrast? system... ighhh...!, ?have,an otholux set up like that... another fun one is the Wild m20 ?with episcopic... bright field AND darkfield.
Marc .. yes... as u said....Nomarski microscopy, is Differential phase contrast microscopy. Makes very small height differences (partial wavelength) on mostly planar objects pop out, and creates amazing color effect.... ?the francon yamotto method seems simular in images,and colors...
?
-----Original Message-----
From: Curious Marc <curiousmarc3 at gmail.com>
To: COURYHOUSE at aol.com <couryhouse at aol.com>; cctalk at classiccmp.org <cctalk at classiccmp.org>; spacewar <spacewar at gmail.com>
Sent: Mon, May 20, 2019 10:36 PM
Subject: Re: HP-01 calc watch go withs - brochures, t- shirts, booklets, ad copy who else collecting?
#yiv6703816687 #yiv6703816687 -- _filtered #yiv6703816687 {panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} _filtered #yiv6703816687 {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} #yiv6703816687 #yiv6703816687 p.yiv6703816687MsoNormal, #yiv6703816687 li.yiv6703816687MsoNormal, #yiv6703816687 div.yiv6703816687MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;} #yiv6703816687 a:link, #yiv6703816687 span.yiv6703816687MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv6703816687 a:visited, #yiv6703816687 span.yiv6703816687MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;} #yiv6703816687 p.yiv6703816687msonormal0, #yiv6703816687 li.yiv6703816687msonormal0, #yiv6703816687 div.yiv6703816687msonormal0 {margin-right:0in;margin-left:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;} #yiv6703816687 span.yiv6703816687EmailStyle18 {font-family:sans-serif;color:windowtext;} #yiv6703816687 .yiv6703816687MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;} _filtered #yiv6703816687 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;} #yiv6703816687 div.yiv6703816687WordSection1 {} #yiv6703816687
Nomarski microscopy, Ed. Differential phase contrast microscopy. Makes very small height differences (partial wavelength) on mostly planar objects pop out, and creates amazing color effects as a biproduct. Pretty much a stalwart of any good cleanroom microscope. Every manufacturer offers it, usually a pretty expensive option as all your optics have to be stress-free. I dream to own one of these one day.
Marc
?
From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> on behalf of "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Reply-To: "COURYHOUSE at aol.com" <couryhouse at aol.com>, "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Date: Monday, May 20, 2019 at 11:20 AM
To: "COURYHOUSE at aol.com" <couryhouse at aol.com>, <spacewar at gmail.com>, "cctalk at classiccmp.org" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: HP-01 calc watch go withs - brochures, t- shirts, booklets, ad copy who else collecting?
?
should? say
?Francion Yamamotto? ?not ?Yrancion Yamamotto?
?
?
In a message dated 5/20/2019 10:07:04 AM US Mountain Standard Time, couryhouse at aol.com writes:
Since? we? have? nice? microscopes at? the museum? project? we? were? hired? to? photo? some IC? innards? years? back. This? ended? up? becoming? a minor obsession? for? a short? time? as? the? artwork under? various? illuminations? is? fantastic.??
?
?
One of the things? that? seemed? to show the mots? difference in? detail between layers and highs? etc... was? differential? interference contrast? (after? nomorski (sp?) ( this? was on our? Ziess Ultraphot? and? seems? to be? a Zeiss? only? ? offering.0? ?on? the? Japanese? side of? things? Nikon? had? ?Yrancion Yamamotto (sp?)? method? which? seems? ?nice? ? but? I? preferred? the? ?Nomeriski.
Using? these? ?methods? you? may be? able? to extract? more usable? detail? ?than? with traditional methods.? ?and? wow? the? color? photos? are? ?frame-able!
But? ?kinda? what? I? wanted to mention? to is? depending? on? what? era? ?the chips? were? the? over? coatings? ? seemed? to? worsen? the view? the newer the chip? or? so? I? thought at the? time.
?
?
?
Such? great? ?fun? to? photo? ?the? little? ic innards!? ?even? a? standard? ?illum.? ?scope? with the? vertical? episcopic? illumination? gives? ?some? ? fun? photos? too,? especially? on the? earlier? ?chips.
?
Don't? know? if? any? of? ?this? will help on the? HP-01? roms? but? sure? was? fun to talk about? again
ed sharpe archivist for? smecc
?
?
?
?
?
In a message dated 5/20/2019 9:00:09 AM US Mountain Standard Time, spacewar at gmail.com writes:
Only just within the last month I finally obtained a ROM dump from a production HP-01, for potential use in my Nonpareil simulator. Previously I only had the preproduction code listed in a US patent. I'm not sure when I'll have time to actually work on the simulation, though.
My original plan had been to crack open an HP-01 module and try to read the ROM bits optically, as Peter Monta did for the HP-35. However, that didn't work, probably due to a passivation coating on the ROM dies.
?
should? say
?Francion Yamamotto? ?not ?Yrancion Yamamotto?
In a message dated 5/20/2019 10:07:04 AM US Mountain Standard Time, couryhouse at aol.com writes:
Since? we? have? nice? microscopes at? the museum? project? we? were? hired? to? photo? some IC? innards? years? back. This? ended? up? becoming? a minor obsession? for? a short? time? as? the? artwork under? various? illuminations? is? fantastic.??
One of the things? that? seemed? to show the mots? difference in? detail between layers and highs? etc... was? differential? interference contrast? (after? nomorski (sp?) ( this? was on our? Ziess Ultraphot? and? seems? to be? a Zeiss? only? ? offering.0? ?on? the? Japanese? side of? things? Nikon? had? ?Yrancion Yamamotto (sp?)? method? which? seems? ?nice? ? but? I? preferred? the? ?Nomeriski.
Using? these? ?methods? you? may be? able? to extract? more usable? detail? ?than? with traditional methods.? ?and? wow? the? color? photos? are? ?frame-able!
But? ?kinda? what? I? wanted to mention? to is? depending? on? what? era? ?the chips? were? the? over? coatings? ? seemed? to? worsen? the view? the newer the chip? or? so? I? thought at the? time.
Such? great? ?fun? to? photo? ?the? little? ic innards!? ?even? a? standard? ?illum.? ?scope? with the? vertical? episcopic? illumination? gives? ?some? ? fun? photos? too,? especially? on the? earlier? ?chips.
Don't? know? if? any? of? ?this? will help on the? HP-01? roms? but? sure? was? fun to talk about? again
ed sharpe archivist for? smecc
In a message dated 5/20/2019 9:00:09 AM US Mountain Standard Time, spacewar at gmail.com writes:
Only just within the last month I finally obtained a ROM dump from a production HP-01, for potential use in my Nonpareil simulator. Previously I only had the preproduction code listed in a US patent. I'm not sure when I'll have time to actually work on the simulation, though.
My original plan had been to crack open an HP-01 module and try to read the ROM bits optically, as Peter Monta did for the HP-35. However, that didn't work, probably due to a passivation coating on the ROM dies.
I used to have an ADM-3A Dumb Terminal... fixed it up, and made my own
lower-case ROM from a 2716 EPROM and a lot of small wires.
Sold it around 2005 or so, but can't remember who bought it.
Anyway I'd like to buy it back if the current owner is out there and isn't
using it :)
Thanks
Charles
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> From: Mister PDP
> After a day of confusing and mixed up signals (I don't really use
> this type of equipment very often) .. I switched over to the
> oscilloscope
Don't feel bad, I too prefer to rely on an oscilloscope by default; not
only does it let you see what's really happening (intermediate voltages,
noise, etc) but it's simpler, and there are less ways to get incorrent
info.
> to confirm that the four clock signals on the MCP-1600 chipset were
> working properly .. and was able to see that the very basics of the
> CPU were working.
It's not necessarily good if the 4 clocks (I take it that's what the
latter refers to) are working, because if one or more of those were broken,
it's a relatively easy/simple fix, whereas if they are working, and
the CPU's still not running, it could be a failed CPU chip, and the only
fix there is to replace it.
> the SRUN signal coming off of the backplane.
Note that SRUN isn't crucial to the machine's operation, it's just user
info. If SRUN is somehow broken on it's own (i.e. failed component
somewhere between where the CPU generates it, and the display LED) finding
and fixing that issue won't help.
Far more useful, in terms of getting the thing running, would be to know
if BSYNC on the QBUS is hopping around (as ODT tries to talk to the
console - an easy thing to check into, too). If not, that's a show-stopper
that needs to be looked into.
> From: Glen Slick
> the SRUN L signal is driven on to the backplane bus line AF1.
The '78-'78 "microcomputer processors" says (pg. 3-15) that on the LSI-11
it's also on CH1; just to complete the complexity, it also says (pg. 3-32)
that on the LSI-11/2 it's also on AH1!
> From: Mister PDP
> I hooked the oscilloscope up to SRUN off of E68, and found that it
> oscillates low at 58.68KHz. .. Hitting the Run/Halt switch does not
> have any effect on the period or amplitude of the oscillation.
So maybe the CPU is actually running after all? Although turning
RUN/HALT to 'HALT' should stop it - the Run light would I think go
out when ODT is running. (It certainly does on the /23.)
Can you check that BHALT on the QBUS is actually asserted (i.e. 0V)
when the switch is in HALT?
Noel
Since? we? have? nice? microscopes at? the museum? project? we? were? hired? to? photo? some IC? innards? years? back. This? ended? up? becoming? a minor obsession? for? a short? time? as? the? artwork under? various? illuminations? is? fantastic.??
One of the things? that? seemed? to show the mots? difference in? detail between layers and highs? etc... was? differential? interference contrast? (after? nomorski (sp?) ( this? was on our? Ziess Ultraphot? and? seems? to be? a Zeiss? only? ? offering.0? ?on? the? Japanese? side of? things? Nikon? had? ?Yrancion Yamamotto (sp?)? method? which? seems? ?nice? ? but? I? preferred? the? ?Nomeriski.
Using? these? ?methods? you? may be? able? to extract? more usable? detail? ?than? with traditional methods.? ?and? wow? the? color? photos? are? ?frame-able!
But? ?kinda? what? I? wanted to mention? to is? depending? on? what? era? ?the chips? were? the? over? coatings? ? seemed? to? worsen? the view? the newer the chip? or? so? I? thought at the? time.
Such? great? ?fun? to? photo? ?the? little? ic innards!? ?even? a? standard? ?illum.? ?scope? with the? vertical? episcopic? illumination? gives? ?some? ? fun? photos? too,? especially? on the? earlier? ?chips.
Don't? know? if? any? of? ?this? will help on the? HP-01? roms? but? sure? was? fun to talk about? again
ed sharpe archivist for? smecc
In a message dated 5/20/2019 9:00:09 AM US Mountain Standard Time, spacewar at gmail.com writes:
Only just within the last month I finally obtained a ROM dump from a production HP-01, for potential use in my Nonpareil simulator. Previously I only had the preproduction code listed in a US patent. I'm not sure when I'll have time to actually work on the simulation, though.
My original plan had been to crack open an HP-01 module and try to read the ROM bits optically, as Peter Monta did for the HP-35. However, that didn't work, probably due to a passivation coating on the ROM dies.
This is a continuation of my post from about a week and a half ago. The
weekend I had some free time, so I returned, armed with a oscilloscope and
logic analyzer, to try and figure out what is wrong with my H11A. At first,
I tried to use the logic analyzer to confirm that the four clock signals on
the MCP-1600 chipset were working properly. After a day of confusing and
mixed up signals (I don't really use this type of equipment very often), I
realized that my logic analyzer was picking up the signals incorrectly. I
switched over to the oscilloscope and was able to see that the very basics
of the CPU were working. After that, I decided to try and find out why the
Run/Halt light was not coming on when I hit the switch. Looking at the H11
schematics, the light relies on the SRUN signal coming off of the
backplane. The problem I am currently facing is I cannot find where the CPU
board generates the SRUN signal. If anyone who is more experienced that me
knows how the M7264 generates the SRUN signal, that would be wonderful.
Thank You, Gavin
I have a DEC VT420 terminal which works pretty well. However, I am
concerned that sometimes the characters on the screen seem to get torn
sideways and jump around a little on a timescale of less than one second.
My guess is that there is some issue with the power supply, but that is
just a guess.
Does anyone have any experience of this and know what I should look at in
order to fix it. If it never gets worse, I can live with it, but I fear
that one day it will just die.
Cheers
Peter Allan
Just a reminder: "Tape seal" is a generic name (or defunct trademark?) for the wrap-around plastic tape hanger for half-inch magtape reels. There's a flexible white (soft plastic) or beige (hard plastic) belt with a clamp (sometimes black) and a hanger. They usually had a little place to put a label in them too. They usually came with a new reel of tape but you could also buy them by themselves.
20 years ago I had thousands of 9-tracks hanging from decaying tape seals. Every couple days I would find a couple of tapes dropped to the floor and their tape seal broken. At the time it was no problem to find surplus tapes with recent tape seals to rehang them, and tape seals were still available new. Most of mine came from Southern California where I think the ozone in the atmosphere severely limited useful life of the plastics.
Here in 2019 I only have a few dozen tapes and few remaining tape seals. I suspect any source I found of tape seals would be selling 20-year old tape seals.
Is there any outfit that sells "new tape seals"? Or a preferred better way to hang tapes in 2019? It wouldn't surprise me if an archivist told me hanging tapes was the wrong way to store them but I never have really noticed (temperature/humidity changes seem to be a way bigger problem than storage orientation).
P.S. Yes all these tapes were imaged decades ago. Not really sure why I still have them around unless say I need to boot a PDP-11 or VAX OS from 9-track which I guess hasn't happened in at least a decade for me.
Tim N3QE
at the? time,? the hp-01 was? discontinued? when i? became a? dealer.? for the? calc/ hppc? ?line.? ? one? is? well? worn? and? ?could? ?be? ?sold/traded? ? the other? ?i? got? as? new? condition? and just? ?wore? to? hp 3000? conferences? etc.? and? will remain? with the museum...
Yea? might? ?be? ?fun? to look? for? some of those other? ones? ?you? mention... but the HP? ?one is? ? our? main? ? thing? we? cluster? ad? materials and go withs? around.
We? ?do? have a? ?few? ?extra? go withs? and? adverts? etc. to off? at? some? point
and? yes,? ?have the? tee shirt? from the? Corvallis? pipnic? (no misspelling)
Ed#
In a message dated 5/19/2019 3:50:27 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
I never had an HP-01.
But, I had several Casio CFX-40 and CFX-400 (wristwatch scientific
calculator with "programmer" features (hexadecimal, octal, etc.)
I replaced broken case on a few, including Bob Wallace's.? Probably still
have some.? underneath everything else.
A number of years ago (2002), Scott Mueller (author of "Reapair And
Upgrade PC") had some extras of those that he was selling.
I have an Epson RC-20 wrist computer (Z80-like, RAM, ROM, serial port,
touch screen)? Never imported into USA, so I had to learn to read
some katakana.
But, the book had example programs, with Z80 mnemonics.
NO, nobody has ported CP/M to it.
There was a Seiko "smart" watch, that had a "candy-bar" keyboard.
Gave that away.
I have a Fossil watch, which runs Palm Pilot OS.? It is here and handy.
It responded when I plugged in the charger!? I'll give it a day to see if
it charges.
I have numerous OQO (SNAZZY! 4x5x1 inch XP computer)
MOST of the big pile of lithium batteries that I have for them will
probably not charge.? They refuse to try if below low threshold, but
sometimes a little jump will get them started, and charge up.
BTDTHTSFP
Been There Done That Had T-Shit Form the Picnic
On Sun, 19 May 2019, ED SHATTNER via cctalk wrote:
> heh! none? ?for? ?you? ?fred
>
> In a message dated 5/18/2019 7:04:22 PM US Mountain Standard Time, cctalk at classiccmp.org writes:
> t-shits form those picnic events.
>
>
> On Sat, 18 May 2019, ED SHATTNER via cctalk wrote:
>> HP-01 calc watch go-withs - brochures, t- shirts, booklets, ad copy who
>> else collecting?
>> We have a? ?few? ?spare? ?items? ? has? anyone? put?
>> together? a? checklist? of? ?go-withs?
>> Apparently? there? was a? ?series? of? ?picnics and? t-shits?
>> that? came? form those? events.
>>
>> Drop? ? us? a? note? off list --?
>> ?Thanks? Ed#
>> (Fondly? remembering the? days? ?Jerry and? I? would? shake? our? HP-01s? at? each other at? ?3000? meetings...)
>
--
Fred Cisin? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? cisin at xenosoft.com
XenoSoft? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? http://www.xenosoft.com
PO Box 1236? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (510) 234-3397
Berkeley, CA 94701-1236
Hi Guys
?????? Well the RD53 in my 11/93 finally clapped out.
?????? The CPU is a late model KDJ11-E with everything on the one board.
?????? So its a switch from MFM to SCSI Drives.
?????? A CQD220A will drive the hard disk and the RQDX3 will stay to
look after the RX50
?????? I've? put the Hard Drive on the primary CSR address (17772150)
and I will shift the RQDX3 to an alternate CSR
?????? Comments as to if this is the right way round and what CSR's to
use for the two controllers invited.
????? Rod
--
From: Paul Anderson
> They did make the RT100, RT340, etc. which were rugidized versions or
> the VTs.
We also ran into a VT52 (I think, although possibly it was a VT100) which
apparently had been TEMPEST secured; the inside of the casing had been
coated with a metallic film. (Or perhaps it was built to operate in
an environment with a high E-M radiation level, and kept stuff out, not
in.) I don't recall anything else about it now, alas - it's been almost
40 years!
Noel
Last Saturday I went out to the location where the collection mentioned by Kristina Kaur resides, to take photos, create an inventory to the best of my abilities, and help her solicit proposals for the various items.
I?m going to lead off with one of my last sentences in this email: PLEASE DO NOT WRITE KRISTINA, OR ME, DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OFFERS. Use the contact form in the Google Drive folder (see below) I?m pointing to and send your proposal to laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com <mailto:laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com> . I have no power over the disposition of any of this?I am just the chronicler?and Kristina wants to route all proposals for acquiring these things through the family's lawyer.
The basic background is this: all of this stuff belongs to a man who has run a bulk-mailing business for many years, and who wrote a bunch of his own software for PDP-11 machines to do that bulk mailing. He has continued to use the PDP-11s until, apparently, quite recently.
He also, unfortunately, has recently had a stroke, and although he is expected to recover, he is not going to be able to continue running the business, and particularly not from these machines. So his daughter, Kristina, has decided to make the collection available to people who will do right by it (preferably in a public museum), rather than just send it to the scrapper, which is awfully nice of her.
I want to express my gratitude to Kristina for allowing me to go out there and root through the collection, and to Ruthann, who provided good company during the digging and invaluable service during the search.
There are three locations for all these items. Computing equipment is either in a climate-controlled garage, and apparently has been running until quite recently, or it is in a warehouse, which I do not believe to be climate-controlled but is walled and roofed and kept dark, which are all good things in Tucson. All the manuals were on a bookshelf in the home office, and were kept climate-controlled and relatively dust-free. The manuals are in excellent shape considering their age, with no environmental damage, although some of them are clearly worn from use.
Let me get a couple things out of the way first: it was rumored there was an 11/40 here. I didn?t see one, but I saw a mystery PDP-11 in the garage that I believe to be an 11/70. As near as I can tell, there are two PDP-11 systems in the garage (the mystery 70 and an 11/45), which I believe to be in running or near-to-it shape.
There?s also a *lot* of stuff out in the warehouse, much of it apparently bought from the University of Arizona at auction over the years, largely shrinkwrapped (sometimes to pallets, sometimes not) or stored in plastic bags. My guess would be that the things in the garage were in general never used after their acquisition, although some may well have been migrated out there after their useful lifespan was over. This is a GUESS.
I have no idea of the condition of any of it, or what was cannibalized as spares for other things; I can say that, in general, it?s been stored out of the weather and doesn?t seem to be water damaged or (for Tucson anyway) very dusty.
I (and the Kaur family, and everyone) make NO GUARANTEE AT ALL of the condition of any of this. Everything here is sold WHERE IT IS and AS IT IS and it may or may not work or be restorable. It is YOUR responsibility to pick it up, and if it can?t reasonably be restored, tough luck. We don?t know, and the one man in the world who DID know is not in any condition at the moment to tell us.
As you might expect from a bulk-mailing business, this collection is super-heavy on printers and various paper-handling devices, as well as tape drives. These are things I know almost nothing about: I have mostly collected 8-bit micros and videogame systems, and only recently have started acquiring and restoring DEC equipment.
There may well be pictures of things Kristina doesn?t want to include as part of this lot?all the more modern printers and paper-handling stuff is destined for people in the printing-and-mailing world in Tucson. But there?s an awful lot of stuff here where ?uh, it looks like a lineprinter to me, and maybe you connect it to a PDP-11?? or ?that?s probably a disk drive?? or ?it?s a controller for _something_.?
So among the things I?m asking you to do is to please help identify what I took pictures of. I?ll call out the things I find particularly interesting and baffling.
I have already offered first pick of the manuals to Al Kossow and bitsavers.org <http://bitsavers.org/>, the Living Computer Museum and Labs, and Jason Scott at the Internet Archives, since that is likelier to get them scanned and preserved than if they just vanish into people?s private collections. The LCML has indicated interest, and I have not heard back yet from the other two. If there?s something from the manual collection you particularly want, and one of those three also wants it, you will probably have to work it out with them. Most of the manuals seem to be for fairly major software, which I suspect (but have not looked to check) that bitsavers already has a copy of.
Kristina asks that you please put together a proposal for what you would like from the collection BY MAY 31, and please use the form on ?Equipment Proposal v2.docx? (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oJFVg8MsTie3e3fpdzmfoWmIuQo96aQP <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oJFVg8MsTie3e3fpdzmfoWmIuQo96aQP>) to do that. She and her family?s lawyers will evaluate the various received proposals and she will decide on a division of items.
The pictures I took?and many of them are terrible. In many cases I don?t know what I was looking at, and in other cases, the items were not in convenient spots to photograph; sometimes both.
All are in the folder at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kECm7hiYComNDTrLEwPPKIdIZ3MqKJ6y <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kECm7hiYComNDTrLEwPPKIdIZ3MqKJ6y> .
My inventory of these things is in CSV form at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xv5aYu9tE3BUYZOicgJTTJhrDhy2ci89 <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xv5aYu9tE3BUYZOicgJTTJhrDhy2ci89> and in slightly-better-looking Numbers (a Mac spreadsheet) form at https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi <https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi> .
I make no representation as to its accuracy?it?s just the best I could do in the time I had available. For most of the items, there is both a line number (some numbers are missing: this is intentional. They correspond to which spreadsheet line it is, and there are some blank ones) and a reference to the picture of said item, which is the filename (i.e. ?IMG_2xxx.JPG?) in the folder. I didn?t bother to do image IDs for the manuals?they are mostly in order, and I figure everyone can read, so matching the title to the image is generally straightforward.
A few notes about the items. It looks to me?and I could be wrong?that there are two PDP-11 systems in the garage. One is obviously an 11/45, and judging from the structure of the panel, the other is some kind of 11/70, but I?ve never seen a front panel quite like this: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi <https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi> . Based on the fact that there are two Datasystem 570s out in the warehouse, I suspect it?s a Datasystem with a Frankensteined front panel, but I don?t know. I think that basically it?s two two-cabinet systems, each with a CPU and a disk in one cabinet and a tape drive in the other cabinet, but again, I?m not sure.
I have no idea whether the pair of Datasystem 570s in the warehouse are intact or not. There are also three VAXes out there, one 11/750 and two 11/730s. One of the 11/730s clearly has an attached RL02, but I don?t know about the other two. Most of the stuff out there, generally, looks like it?s in good shape in the sense that it was put in the warehouse, often in shrink-wrap, and not exposed to light or weather for a long time. Sometimes a very long time.
I am quite curious about what the Sun Microsystems item (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZLpoP6ZoHfs3_dvdOFkv9uy68X29OSjV <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZLpoP6ZoHfs3_dvdOFkv9uy68X29OSjV>) is?I couldn?t really get to it, and it?s about the right size and shape for a 3/160, but it could also easily be something like a tape drive that Sun OEMed. It has a plate on it identifying it as part of an ?IRAF? system, and what I know about IRAF is that it?s astronomical software (I am helping design something that the LSST project hopes is a ubiquitous successor to it, sort of), and so I kinda suspect this came out of the astronomy department or Steward Observatory at UA.
There are no pictures of the 13-or-so Decwriters in the warehouse: they?re on a shelf about 10 feet up and you?re going to need either a forklift to get them down, or be extraordinarily brave. The ADM-3A (well, I think. It?s obviously an ADM terminal, and these match my mental image of 3As, but I could be wrong about the model) was obviously the terminal of choice here and there are a dozen or so. Sorry about that, VT-xxx fans.
Again: PLEASE DO NOT WRITE KRISTINA OR ME directly with your offers. Use the contact form and send your proposal to laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com <mailto:laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com> .
I hope this is useful to folks.
Adam
I've been working on archiving two Sniffers (ethernet and wan) and
was wondering if anyone had a spare manual set. I have access to a
set, but it is bound and would have to be scanned a page at a time
> From: Ed Cross
> I saw a mystery PDP-11 in the garage that I believe to be an 11/70.
Yeah, I think so; someone has transplanted a few red/purple toggles into it
(perhaps some of the original blues got broken), but it's a /70 front panel,
which won't (without major kludging/surgery) work on any other model.
Without pictures of the insides of the main pull-out bay, and any others
(there should be at least one, for the main memory) it's impossible to
say how complete a system it is; -11/70 CPU boards are easy to find, though.
> please help identify what I took pictures of.
A couple of things I hoticed quickly: 2349 shows a PR05 high-speed paper tape
reader (like the PC05, but reader-only), and 2325 a CR11 card reader (a
Documation unit re-badged by DEC).
My impression from looking at it all is that it's a huge pile of stuff, and
some is probably just junk that should go to the scrappers.
Their process, with the lawyer, is probably too top-heavy for a lot of the
smaller items (e.g. 2387 shows a partial PDP-11 front panel which might be of
some interest - e.g. I'd buy it if it showed up on eBait). Perhaps some
one/group who is local can take everything that's left, after the main items
(e.g. the VAX 750 - those are rare, I'm sure someone will scoop that up) are
picked out, as a cheap lot, and sort out the good bits and put them up on
eBait, and scrap the crap.
> I hope this is useful to folks.
Yes, very; thanks very much for putting in the effort.
Noel
Last Saturday I went out to the location where the collection mentioned by Kristina Kaur resides, to take photos, create an inventory to the best of my abilities, and help her solicit proposals for the various items.
I?m going to lead off with one of my last sentences in this email: PLEASE DO NOT WRITE KRISTINA, OR ME, DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OFFERS. Use the contact form in the Google Drive folder (see below) I?m pointing to and send your proposal to laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com <mailto:laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com> . I have no power over the disposition of any of this?I am just the chronicler?and Kristina wants to route all proposals for acquiring these things through the family's lawyer.
The basic background is this: all of this stuff belongs to a man who has run a bulk-mailing business for many years, and who wrote a bunch of his own software for PDP-11 machines to do that bulk mailing. He has continued to use the PDP-11s until, apparently, quite recently.
He also, unfortunately, has recently had a stroke, and although he is expected to recover, he is not going to be able to continue running the business, and particularly not from these machines. So his daughter, Kristina, has decided to make the collection available to people who will do right by it (preferably in a public museum), rather than just send it to the scrapper, which is awfully nice of her.
I want to express my gratitude to Kristina for allowing me to go out there and root through the collection, and to Ruthann, who provided good company during the digging and invaluable service during the search.
There are three locations for all these items. Computing equipment is either in a climate-controlled garage, and apparently has been running until quite recently, or it is in a warehouse, which I do not believe to be climate-controlled but is walled and roofed and kept dark, which are all good things in Tucson. All the manuals were on a bookshelf in the home office, and were kept climate-controlled and relatively dust-free. The manuals are in excellent shape considering their age, with no environmental damage, although some of them are clearly worn from use.
Let me get a couple things out of the way first: it was rumored there was an 11/40 here. I didn?t see one, but I saw a mystery PDP-11 in the garage that I believe to be an 11/70. As near as I can tell, there are two PDP-11 systems in the garage (the mystery 70 and an 11/45), which I believe to be in running or near-to-it shape.
There?s also a *lot* of stuff out in the warehouse, much of it apparently bought from the University of Arizona at auction over the years, largely shrinkwrapped (sometimes to pallets, sometimes not) or stored in plastic bags. My guess would be that the things in the garage were in general never used after their acquisition, although some may well have been migrated out there after their useful lifespan was over. This is a GUESS.
I have no idea of the condition of any of it, or what was cannibalized as spares for other things; I can say that, in general, it?s been stored out of the weather and doesn?t seem to be water damaged or (for Tucson anyway) very dusty.
I (and the Kaur family, and everyone) make NO GUARANTEE AT ALL of the condition of any of this. Everything here is sold WHERE IT IS and AS IT IS and it may or may not work or be restorable. It is YOUR responsibility to pick it up, and if it can?t reasonably be restored, tough luck. We don?t know, and the one man in the world who DID know is not in any condition at the moment to tell us.
As you might expect from a bulk-mailing business, this collection is super-heavy on printers and various paper-handling devices, as well as tape drives. These are things I know almost nothing about: I have mostly collected 8-bit micros and videogame systems, and only recently have started acquiring and restoring DEC equipment.
There may well be pictures of things Kristina doesn?t want to include as part of this lot?all the more modern printers and paper-handling stuff is destined for people in the printing-and-mailing world in Tucson. But there?s an awful lot of stuff here where ?uh, it looks like a lineprinter to me, and maybe you connect it to a PDP-11?? or ?that?s probably a disk drive?? or ?it?s a controller for _something_.?
So among the things I?m asking you to do is to please help identify what I took pictures of. I?ll call out the things I find particularly interesting and baffling.
I have already offered first pick of the manuals to Al Kossow and bitsavers.org <http://bitsavers.org/>, the Living Computer Museum and Labs, and Jason Scott at the Internet Archives, since that is likelier to get them scanned and preserved than if they just vanish into people?s private collections. The LCML has indicated interest, and I have not heard back yet from the other two. If there?s something from the manual collection you particularly want, and one of those three also wants it, you will probably have to work it out with them. Most of the manuals seem to be for fairly major software, which I suspect (but have not looked to check) that bitsavers already has a copy of.
Kristina asks that you please put together a proposal for what you would like from the collection BY MAY 31, and please use the form on ?Equipment Proposal v2.docx? (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oJFVg8MsTie3e3fpdzmfoWmIuQo96aQP <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oJFVg8MsTie3e3fpdzmfoWmIuQo96aQP>) to do that. She and her family?s lawyers will evaluate the various received proposals and she will decide on a division of items.
The pictures I took?and many of them are terrible. In many cases I don?t know what I was looking at, and in other cases, the items were not in convenient spots to photograph; sometimes both.
All are in the folder at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kECm7hiYComNDTrLEwPPKIdIZ3MqKJ6y <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kECm7hiYComNDTrLEwPPKIdIZ3MqKJ6y> .
My inventory of these things is in CSV form at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xv5aYu9tE3BUYZOicgJTTJhrDhy2ci89 <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xv5aYu9tE3BUYZOicgJTTJhrDhy2ci89> and in slightly-better-looking Numbers (a Mac spreadsheet) form at https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi <https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi> .
I make no representation as to its accuracy?it?s just the best I could do in the time I had available. For most of the items, there is both a line number (some numbers are missing: this is intentional. They correspond to which spreadsheet line it is, and there are some blank ones) and a reference to the picture of said item, which is the filename (i.e. ?IMG_2xxx.JPG?) in the folder. I didn?t bother to do image IDs for the manuals?they are mostly in order, and I figure everyone can read, so matching the title to the image is generally straightforward.
A few notes about the items. It looks to me?and I could be wrong?that there are two PDP-11 systems in the garage. One is obviously an 11/45, and judging from the structure of the panel, the other is some kind of 11/70, but I?ve never seen a front panel quite like this: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi <https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi> . Based on the fact that there are two Datasystem 570s out in the warehouse, I suspect it?s a Datasystem with a Frankensteined front panel, but I don?t know. I think that basically it?s two two-cabinet systems, each with a CPU and a disk in one cabinet and a tape drive in the other cabinet, but again, I?m not sure.
I have no idea whether the pair of Datasystem 570s in the warehouse are intact or not. There are also three VAXes out there, one 11/750 and two 11/730s. One of the 11/730s clearly has an attached RL02, but I don?t know about the other two. Most of the stuff out there, generally, looks like it?s in good shape in the sense that it was put in the warehouse, often in shrink-wrap, and not exposed to light or weather for a long time. Sometimes a very long time.
I am quite curious about what the Sun Microsystems item (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZLpoP6ZoHfs3_dvdOFkv9uy68X29OSjV <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZLpoP6ZoHfs3_dvdOFkv9uy68X29OSjV>) is?I couldn?t really get to it, and it?s about the right size and shape for a 3/160, but it could also easily be something like a tape drive that Sun OEMed. It has a plate on it identifying it as part of an ?IRAF? system, and what I know about IRAF is that it?s astronomical software (I am helping design something that the LSST project hopes is a ubiquitous successor to it, sort of), and so I kinda suspect this came out of the astronomy department or Steward Observatory at UA.
There are no pictures of the 13-or-so Decwriters in the warehouse: they?re on a shelf about 10 feet up and you?re going to need either a forklift to get them down, or be extraordinarily brave. The ADM-3A (well, I think. It?s obviously an ADM terminal, and these match my mental image of 3As, but I could be wrong about the model) was obviously the terminal of choice here and there are a dozen or so. Sorry about that, VT-xxx fans.
Again: PLEASE DO NOT WRITE KRISTINA OR ME directly with your offers. Use the contact form and send your proposal to laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com <mailto:laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com> .
I hope this is useful to folks.
Adam
Last Saturday I went out to the location where the collection mentioned by Kristina Kaur resides, to take photos, create an inventory to the best of my abilities, and help her solicit proposals for the various items.
I?m going to lead off with one of my last sentences in this email: PLEASE DO NOT WRITE KRISTINA, OR ME, DIRECTLY WITH YOUR OFFERS. Use the contact form in the Google Drive folder (see below) I?m pointing to and send your proposal to laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com <mailto:laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com> . I have no power over the disposition of any of this?I am just the chronicler?and Kristina wants to route all proposals for acquiring these things through the family's lawyer.
The basic background is this: all of this stuff belongs to a man who has run a bulk-mailing business for many years, and who wrote a bunch of his own software for PDP-11 machines to do that bulk mailing. He has continued to use the PDP-11s until, apparently, quite recently.
He also, unfortunately, has recently had a stroke, and although he is expected to recover, he is not going to be able to continue running the business, and particularly not from these machines. So his daughter, Kristina, has decided to make the collection available to people who will do right by it (preferably in a public museum), rather than just send it to the scrapper, which is awfully nice of her.
I want to express my gratitude to Kristina for allowing me to go out there and root through the collection, and to Ruthann, who provided good company during the digging and invaluable service during the search.
There are three locations for all these items. Computing equipment is either in a climate-controlled garage, and apparently has been running until quite recently, or it is in a warehouse, which I do not believe to be climate-controlled but is walled and roofed and kept dark, which are all good things in Tucson. All the manuals were on a bookshelf in the home office, and were kept climate-controlled and relatively dust-free. The manuals are in excellent shape considering their age, with no environmental damage, although some of them are clearly worn from use.
Let me get a couple things out of the way first: it was rumored there was an 11/40 here. I didn?t see one, but I saw a mystery PDP-11 in the garage that I believe to be an 11/70. As near as I can tell, there are two PDP-11 systems in the garage (the mystery 70 and an 11/45), which I believe to be in running or near-to-it shape.
There?s also a *lot* of stuff out in the warehouse, much of it apparently bought from the University of Arizona at auction over the years, largely shrinkwrapped (sometimes to pallets, sometimes not) or stored in plastic bags. My guess would be that the things in the garage were in general never used after their acquisition, although some may well have been migrated out there after their useful lifespan was over. This is a GUESS.
I have no idea of the condition of any of it, or what was cannibalized as spares for other things; I can say that, in general, it?s been stored out of the weather and doesn?t seem to be water damaged or (for Tucson anyway) very dusty.
I (and the Kaur family, and everyone) make NO GUARANTEE AT ALL of the condition of any of this. Everything here is sold WHERE IT IS and AS IT IS and it may or may not work or be restorable. It is YOUR responsibility to pick it up, and if it can?t reasonably be restored, tough luck. We don?t know, and the one man in the world who DID know is not in any condition at the moment to tell us.
As you might expect from a bulk-mailing business, this collection is super-heavy on printers and various paper-handling devices, as well as tape drives. These are things I know almost nothing about: I have mostly collected 8-bit micros and videogame systems, and only recently have started acquiring and restoring DEC equipment.
There may well be pictures of things Kristina doesn?t want to include as part of this lot?all the more modern printers and paper-handling stuff is destined for people in the printing-and-mailing world in Tucson. But there?s an awful lot of stuff here where ?uh, it looks like a lineprinter to me, and maybe you connect it to a PDP-11?? or ?that?s probably a disk drive?? or ?it?s a controller for _something_.?
So among the things I?m asking you to do is to please help identify what I took pictures of. I?ll call out the things I find particularly interesting and baffling.
I have already offered first pick of the manuals to Al Kossow and bitsavers.org, the Living Computer Museum and Labs, and Jason Scott at the Internet Archives, since that is likelier to get them scanned and preserved than if they just vanish into people?s private collections. The LCML has indicated interest, and I have not heard back yet from the other two. If there?s something from the manual collection you particularly want, and one of those three also wants it, you will probably have to work it out with them. Most of the manuals seem to be for fairly major software, which I suspect (but have not looked to check) that bitsavers already has a copy of.
Kristina asks that you please put together a proposal for what you would like from the collection BY MAY 31, and please use the form on ?Equipment Proposal v2.docx? (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oJFVg8MsTie3e3fpdzmfoWmIuQo96aQP <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oJFVg8MsTie3e3fpdzmfoWmIuQo96aQP>) to do that. She and her family?s lawyers will evaluate the various received proposals and she will decide on a division of items.
The pictures I took?and many of them are terrible. In many cases I don?t know what I was looking at, and in other cases, the items were not in convenient spots to photograph; sometimes both.
All are in the folder at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kECm7hiYComNDTrLEwPPKIdIZ3MqKJ6y <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kECm7hiYComNDTrLEwPPKIdIZ3MqKJ6y> .
My inventory of these things is in CSV form at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xv5aYu9tE3BUYZOicgJTTJhrDhy2ci89 <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Xv5aYu9tE3BUYZOicgJTTJhrDhy2ci89> and in slightly-better-looking Numbers (a Mac spreadsheet) form at https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi <https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi> .
I make no representation as to its accuracy?it?s just the best I could do in the time I had available. For most of the items, there is both a line number (some numbers are missing: this is intentional. They correspond to which spreadsheet line it is, and there are some blank ones) and a reference to the picture of said item, which is the filename (i.e. ?IMG_2xxx.JPG?) in the folder. I didn?t bother to do image IDs for the manuals?they are mostly in order, and I figure everyone can read, so matching the title to the image is generally straightforward.
A few notes about the items. It looks to me?and I could be wrong?that there are two PDP-11 systems in the garage. One is obviously an 11/45, and judging from the structure of the panel, the other is some kind of 11/70, but I?ve never seen a front panel quite like this: https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi <https://drive.google.com/open?id=15i1hEKjB108cq4g4B7c7gNpn-HDbgRIi> . Based on the fact that there are two Datasystem 570s out in the warehouse, I suspect it?s a Datasystem with a Frankensteined front panel, but I don?t know. I think that basically it?s two two-cabinet systems, each with a CPU and a disk in one cabinet and a tape drive in the other cabinet, but again, I?m not sure.
I have no idea whether the pair of Datasystem 570s in the warehouse are intact or not. There are also three VAXes out there, one 11/750 and two 11/730s. One of the 11/730s clearly has an attached RL02, but I don?t know about the other two. Most of the stuff out there, generally, looks like it?s in good shape in the sense that it was put in the warehouse, often in shrink-wrap, and not exposed to light or weather for a long time. Sometimes a very long time.
I am quite curious about what the Sun Microsystems item (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZLpoP6ZoHfs3_dvdOFkv9uy68X29OSjV <https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZLpoP6ZoHfs3_dvdOFkv9uy68X29OSjV>) is?I couldn?t really get to it, and it?s about the right size and shape for a 3/160, but it could also easily be something like a tape drive that Sun OEMed. It has a plate on it identifying it as part of an ?IRAF? system, and what I know about IRAF is that it?s astronomical software (I am helping design something that the LSST project hopes is a ubiquitous successor to it, sort of), and so I kinda suspect this came out of the astronomy department or Steward Observatory at UA.
There are no pictures of the 13-or-so Decwriters in the warehouse: they?re on a shelf about 10 feet up and you?re going to need either a forklift to get them down, or be extraordinarily brave. The ADM-3A (well, I think. It?s obviously an ADM terminal, and these match my mental image of 3As, but I could be wrong about the model) was obviously the terminal of choice here and there are a dozen or so. Sorry about that, VT-xxx fans.
Again: PLEASE DO NOT WRITE KRISTINA OR ME directly with your offers. Use the contact form and send your proposal to laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com <mailto:laura at rubinbernsteinlaw.com> .
I hope this is useful to folks.
Adam
Please find the ?Description? column of the items here below; the spreadsheet is available from the link above.
PDP-11/70?
CDC 9766 #1
CDC 9766 #2
Disks for same system?
System Industries 9400 Controller
PDP-11/45
Kennedy 9401 Tape Drive
Mystery printer
Lineprinter #1
Zoom Modem
Another System Industries 9400 Controller
Lineprinter #2
ADM/3A(?) #1
ADM/3A #2
ADM/3A #3
ADM/3A #4
Hitachi V-1050F Oscilloscope
PDP Datasystem 570 (11/70) #1
PDP Datasystem 570 (11/70) #2
Vax 11/730 w/RL02 disk
Pertech Tape drive #1
Pertec Tape Drive #2
Vax 11/750(?)
Dec Magtape TE16 9-channel
Vax 11/730
RM-80 DEC Disk Drive
Cipher Systems disk drive (?)
CDC disk drives (?)
Kennedy 9400 controller
ADM/3A #5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14 (? +?)
Lineprinter
Prime 300 MB disk drive #1
Prime 300 MB disk drive #1
PDP-11 panel piece
Tektronix 502 Dual-Beam Oscilloscope
Sun Microsystems ???
IBM 029 Punch
Lineprinter
Yet Another Lineprinter
Cabinet full of University Of Arizona Punchcards
Acoustic-coupled modem
Decwriter #1
Decwriter #2
Decwriter #3
Decwriter #4
Decwriter #5
Decwriter #6
Decwriter #7
Decwriter #8
Decwriter #9
Decwriter #10
Decwriter #11
Decwriter #12
Decwriter #13 (?+?)
ODT-11R Debugging Program, PIP File Utility Package, Link-11 Linker and Libr-11 Librarian
PDP-11 Filedump Utility Program
PDP-11 Disk Operating System Monitor Programmer's Handbook
MACRO-11 Manual
PDP-11 TECO User's Guide (binder)
BATCH-11 User's Guide
PDP-11 FORTRAN IV Compiler and Object Time System Programmer's Manual (binder)
PDP-11 Programming Fundamentals
VT-100 Technical Manual
VT-100 User Guide
WS200 Series Word Processing Computer System
CSS Products KMD11-C Multipline DDCMP Multiplexer
Digital Standard MUMPS DSM-11 Technical Summary
Something New Is Sweeping The World Of Educational Computing
PDP-11 TECO User's Guide
VAX-11/750 marketing slick
MA780 Multiport memory marketing
DEC Datasystem 500 Indent Guide
FMS-11 Forms Management System
Datatrieve-11
DIGITAL Software Product Description Jan 1986
MUX200/VAX
PDP-11 RSTS v7.0 Release Notes
RT-11 Programmer's Reference Manual
RT-11 Software Support Manual
FORTRAN IV Enhanced Character Graphics
Programmable Data Processor Yesterday and Today
BATCH-11/DOS-11
PDP-11 FORTRAN IV Compiler Technical Specification
PDP-11 Device Driver Package for Monitor Version v008A October 1972
Computer Engineering: A DEC view of Hardware Systems Design
PDP-11 RSTS/E v7.0 Release Notes for the RM05
RSTS/E v7.0 Documentation Directory
FORTRAN IV-Plus User's Guide
PDP-11 FORTRAN-IV Compiler and Object Time System Programmer's Manual
PDP-11 Disk Operating System Monitor User's Manual
DOS/BATCH FORTRAN Compiler and Object Time System
PDP-11 BATCH user's guide
Introducing the PDP-11/44
EDIT manual
RSTS/E Text Editor Manual
another PDP-11 FORTRAN-IV Compiler and Object Time System Programmer's Manual
RSTS-11 System Manager's Guide
DOS/BATCH Debugging Program (ODT-11R) Programmer's Manual
PDP-11 Software Price List March 1973
DEC Newsflash
BASIC-11 Language Reference Manual
RT-11 Manual
1975 Special Decus Issue Technical Documentation
PDP Systems and Options Catalog 1989 Jan-June
BATCH-11/DOS-11 Assembler (MACRO-11)
A General Purpose System for Interfacing a PDP-8 Computer to Pulse Counting Experiment (DECUSCOPE)
Introduction to RSX-11M
RSX-11D Guide to Writing a Device Handler Task
VAX Software Handbook
VAX11 Architecture Handbook
VAX11/780 Hardware Handbook
RSTS/E RUNOFF User's Guide
Wespercorp DEC TM11-Compatible Tape Controller Diagnostic Manual
Wespercorp Model TC-131 Tape Controller Hardware Manual
Wespercorp Model TC-131 Tape Controller Logic Manual
BATCH-11/DOS-11 Debugging Program (ODT-11R)
PDP-11 BASIC Programming Manual (Single User, Paper Tape Software)
PDP-11 PAL-11S Assembler and LINK-11S Linker Programmer's Manual
PDP-11 Edit-11 Text Editor Programmer's Manual
PDP-11 FORTRAN Language Reference Manual
PDP-11 FORTRAN Language Reference Manual (#2)
BATCH-11/DOS-11 Edit-11 Text Editor Programmer's Manual
DOS/BATCH Text Editor (EDIT-11) Programmer's Manual
RSTS/E Text Editor Manual
another RSTS/E RUNOFF User's Guide
RSTS-11 System User's Guide
RSTS-11 System User's Guide Addendum RSTS Version 4B RSTS/E Version 5C (February 1975)
Computer Programs For Automatic Countouring (McIntyre et al)
FORTRAN IV Computer Program For Fitting Conserved Count Data?.(Ondrick & Griffith)
FORTRAN IV CDC 6400 Computer Program to Analyze Subsurface Fold Geometry (Whitten)
I got some high resolution pictures posted of an early rev main board for
the system, plus the front/back of unpopulated memory expansion and
graphics boards for the system. Maybe someone else out there could find a
use for that PCB artwork :)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ILZ2UgwtfmoAtBMIYYIjaW4h5fKEPUYA
Pat
DEC Legacy 2019 is on!
The next DEC Legacy will take place Saturday 9th November 2019 - Sunday 10th
at the Marchesi Centre in Windermere, North West UK.
With a focus on Digital Equipment Corporation and their legacy of hardware,
software and ethos I'm also extending an open invitation to those who are
interested in SGI, HP, Sun, IBM and other high end hardware to come along
and share their passion with us. Several formal presentations will be mixed
with plenty of hands on time with hardware brought by enthusiasts.
Enthusiasts are encouraged to bring along hardware and software to exhibit.
The personal nature of the event brings a unique atmosphere within which
friendships are easily forged. Registration is now open.
Please visit http://wickensonline.co.uk/declegacy/ for more details.
Regards,
Mark Wickens, M0NOM
> From: Paul Anderson
>> although the /35 was _usually_ supplied in a BA11-D 10-1/2" box
> I'm pretty sure the 11/35 came in a F box too.
That would be why I said "usually"! :-)
Noel
Hello,
I have two DG One, they are however not identical.
One is the older version, the other is more recent and have a different
display.
I never heard of a keypad accessory, it would be a very nice piece indeed!
I should check for connectors on the back?
Thanks
Andrea