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

PDP, Data General & more (TV show Maniac)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > From: Camiel Vanderhoeven <camiel.vanderhoeven at vmssoftware.com> > Subject: Re: PDP, Data General & more (TV show Maniac) > > Looks more like a model 30 to me; the model 40 panel has regular lamps > rather than the lights behind an overlay. > Like the 360 Model 30 panel on this page? http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/interesting_computer_items/ibm-control… You missed these MTI cluster storage servers http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/mti-storage-servers -- Michael Thompson

7 years, 5 months

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i860: Re: modern stuff

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > From: Ken Seefried <seefriek at gmail.com> > Subject: i860: Re: modern stuff > >the i860 found at least a little niche on graphics boards, so somehow > >not a complete failure ;-) > > I have a Quad-i860 VME board in one of my Sun systems. Michael Thompson

7 years, 5 months

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PDP, Data General & more (TV show Maniac)

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2018 19:00:15 -0400 > From: Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> > Subject: Re: PDP, Data General & more (TV show Maniac) > > Looks like a PDP-8/L to me, with a PC04 high-speed paper tape > punch/reader below it. > > -ethan > Like this 8/L? http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/pdp-8-l And the 11/05 above it? http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-1105 And the 11/35 above it? http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-11-35 And the 11/04 below it? http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/dec-pdp-1103-analogic And the DG S/130 to the right of it? http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/Home/equipment/data-general-eclipse-s-130 Michael Thompson

7 years, 5 months

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Anyone Have a Working DEC Pro 350?

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

Is there anyone who has a working DEC Pro 350 who would be prepared to probe a few pins on the system board with an oscilloscope? I'd like to understand what signals I should be expecting in the reset logic, which seems to be quite complex. Thanks Rob

7 years, 5 months

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PDP, Data General & more (TV show Maniac)

by stephane.tsacas＠gmail.com

Hi all, TV show Maniac (available on netflix), S1E2 @28.48, at least a PDP 11/40, 11/05 or 04, RX01, PDP-8, and 2 Data General Eclipse, DEC doc binders, and maybe an IBM front panel and more. See https://imgur.com/a/L3iA9CD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniac_(miniseries) -- ??phane tsacas

7 years, 5 months

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MSDN CD disposition

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 04:29 PM 10/29/2018, geneb via cctalk wrote: >There's a ton of them on the IA already. I would /love/ to get the early ones. My collection begins at 1997 so I would *eagerly* take anything previous to that. Oh, I'd guess I have them all from '94 to 97 at least, including the non-Intel MIPS and Alpha sets. Does the Internet Archive had an easy tool that lets me put a CD in my drive and it'll tell me if they already have it? - John

7 years, 5 months

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Looking for HP Laserjet IIp+ power supply

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

Actually I just fixed it ;) <Emily Litella> Never Mind. I took the supply all the way apart and found one secondary filter cap that had leaked electrolyte. Cleaned and fixed that, but still no luck. 155 volts on the main filter cap. Then I noticed that occasionally it would try to start for a blink but then the voltages would just drop to zero. So I started looking around the section that had to be for bootstrap power to the switching regulator, a common TL494 chip with datasheets online. Sure enough, a small electrolytic on the primary side had blown its bottom out. The diodes around it were still good. Changed that cap and a couple more suspicious looking small ones and the voltages came right up (including the 24V once I pushed the cover-open microswitch). Put it back in the printer, screwed it all together (a very modular design for easier field servicing) and fired it up. Test page printed perfectly. Saved some $ on a new laser printer. For now :) I like these old cinder-block-sized (and weight) printers too. They last ALMOST forever... Charles

7 years, 5 months

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Looking for HP Laserjet IIp+ power supply

by charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net

The main power supply for my ancient Laserjet IIp+ printer has given up. Fuse is not blown. Power switch has continuity... don't feel like trying to debug and repair the "brick". There are two Sony labels: One says Model RG1-1782 (I think that's the HP part number) and the other Model CD-91A, 100-115V. Does anyone have a working one in their junkbox? This is the LAST time I repair it before it goes to the recycler! I think I've changed every module except this one. It has become my grandfather's axe: new head and new handle, but it's still my grandfather's axe :) thanks Charles

7 years, 5 months

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2 huge warehouses full of old computers

by sales＠elecplus.com

Thursday I visited Computer Fusion near Dallas, TX. They have 2 huge warehouses that they have been filling up since the 1990s. I saw a lot of old Sun gear, lots of 90s era PCs, etc. Not all of it is listed on his site, but if there is something specific you want, go to http://www.cfusion.com and send them a request. Yes, he still has working ESDI, MFM, etc drives J 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

7 years, 5 months

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The Andromeda Disk Controller again

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

When we talked about this little bit ago I thought there were a couple other people who had them.? Any chance someone has a copy of the utilities disk they could rip and email to me? I just tried to read? mine and it appears to have a bad spot right on the oct.sav file which is the program for configuring the card. bill

7 years, 5 months

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i860, was : Re: modern stuff

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Al Kossow > CHM has a rather large Intel Paragon system. > I just recently snagged the software and manuals for it on eBay > which we didn't have Excellent! Congratulations! So, I'm curious - what's the 'most important missing thing' at the CHM - either am important machine that you don't have at all, or part of something (like the above) that you really need to complete something? Noel

7 years, 5 months

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Books available ACM CALGO Vols I, II, III, loosleaf+microfice

by cclist＠sydex.com

Anyone interested in three hardbound volumes of ACM CALGO, starting with Algorithm 1, plus a large looseleaf binder and assorted microfiche (assuming that I can still find them)? Drop me a line if so. --Chuck

7 years, 5 months

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If you archive old data for the public...

by ethan＠757.org

If any of you are archiving old data for the public, like CD-ROMs or whatever, and you are low on disk space.... A friend gives me surplus data center hardware often, and I have some SATA disks. They have 4 years or so on them so backup / redundancy is important, but I can offer some to people that are running public archives of classic computer stuff to help. You just can't resell the hardware. -- : Ethan O'Toole

7 years, 5 months

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Seeking User Manual for DEC M1710 Unibus Interface Foundation

by etherbrat＠hotmail.com

Seeking User Manual for DEC M1710 Unibus Interface Foundation: I have been looking everywhere, without success. The closest I have come is a 3-page description in a DEC Logic Handbook from bitsavers. Thanks in advance for any leads. Neil

7 years, 5 months

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Microsoft-Paul Allen

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

I would like to make a correction: Paul Allen helped to create Micro-Soft not MicroSoft as I had written. When trying to preserve computing history it's really not permissable to make such an error.(It's the prof. in me!) Happy Computing! Murray :)

7 years, 5 months

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Desktop Metaphor

by rlloken＠telus.net

On Tue, 23 Oct 2018, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: > How many graphical Unix desktops are sold or distributed in the world > today that are not Linux? Excluding Mac OS X as I specifically address > that point, I think. I am replying to this email on a FreeBSD 10.3 box and Motif. I don't know what FreeBSD runs out of the box because I immediately delete it and install Motif. FreeBSD may not have the installed base of Linux but it has a its fans. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV : "...underneath those tuques we wear, Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!" ** rlloken at telus.net ** : - Arthur Black

7 years, 5 months

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70's computers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Koning > A lot more comes from the CPU architecture. The instruction set, of > course (arguably the first RISC). An observation about RISC: I've opined before that the CISC->RISC transition was driven, in part, by the changing balance of CPU speed versus memory speed: with slow memory and fast CPUs, it makes sense to get as much execution bang out of every fetch buck (so complex instructions); but when memory bandwidth goes up, one needs a fast CPU to use it all (so simple instructions). It occurs to be that the same balance probably applies to memory _size_. When memories are small, one wants dense code (which probably means CISC); only with larger memories does RISC, with its less-dense code, make sense. Noel

7 years, 5 months

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"Object Oriented GUI"

by commodorejohn＠gmail.com

> Message: 28 > Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2018 13:16:44 -0400 > From: "Jeffrey S. Worley" <technoid6502 at gmail.com> > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: "Object Oriented GUI" > Message-ID: <01e83dac0a96469e425a0632bd07319351c9362d.camel at Gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > I used OS/2 from 1993 to 2003 almost exclusively. It has the most > beautiful GUI on the planet, is object-oriented to a fault, and is the > target of all the claims Microsoft was making with regard to the > Object-orientedness of their new windows 95. > > Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell mentions some > important attributes of a truely object-oriented gui. > > Someone mentioned inheritance and polymorphism. These are two products > of true object oriented gui design. Applications inherit the ability > to manipulate and use whatever objects exist in the system. A word > processor is not limited to just text files, for example, or to only > the files the programmer originally set out for it. The system allows > the applications to grow in functionality as new object types are > developed/assembled by other applications or the user. All these years later, I'm still trying to wrap my head around what the purpose of that in an OS/desktop environment/file-manager context is. I guess that, say, you could have new file types implement their own methods for things like printing, so the OS doesn't have to know the details of the document structure or require a particular application installed to be able to print it, but this seems like an awfully limited use case to me - sure, it would be nice to have things like audio and video codecs be universal and pluggable or things like that, but I have a hard time seeing how it's all that revolutionary, and I can easily see it being just as limiting as other non-OOP format standards (after all, it's not going to magically add functionality that the file format itself doesn't support, is it? And doesn't it ultimately just come down to diking out a chunk of the application code for the OS to use? What if two different programs both offer their own handlers for the same file type?)

7 years, 5 months

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Bunches of old AIX software...

by sales＠elecplus.com

http://www.appx.com/appx-server-413-ibm-aix http://bio.gsi.de/DOCS/AIX/docs.html http://yips.idevcloud.com/wiki/index.php/PASE/OpenSourceBinariesArchive Maybe these will be useful to someone? Cindy Croxton --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

7 years, 5 months

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Anyone have HP 24612-90013 A-Series Diagnostic Operating and Troubleshooting Manual?

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Does anyone have copies of these two manuals? 24612-90010 Introduction to the A-Series Computer Diagnostics Manual 24612-90013 A-Series Diagnostic Operating and Troubleshooting Manual They are referenced in this manual: RTE-A Primary System Software Installation Manual 92077-90038, April 1995, Rev 6200 http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/hp/1000/RTE-A/92077-90038_RTE-A_PrimInst.pdf The hpmuseum.net site has some older versions of the 24612 manuals, which date from 1983. The final versions of those manuals would be nice to have.

7 years, 5 months

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Astounding Asking Price

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

My jaw dropped when I saw this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223201002247?ul_noapp=true It looks nice externally, and it has the pedestal, which is nice, but the seller has not even give the spec or posted pics of the innards and it is "untested". At that price I would expect a bit more information.. As it happens, I am trying to fix my 350 at the moment. Regards Rob

7 years, 5 months

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70's computers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Chuck Guzis > Danny Hillis' CM-1 also used lots of 1-bit processors. Does anyone know why they didn't catch on? Was it something like 'commodity 'ordinary' processors became so cheap one could build large parallel machines out of them, and each node had a lot more computing capability', or something like that? I wonder how many CM's are still in existence at this point? Noel

7 years, 5 months

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pdp-11 ethernet boot

by chd＠chdickman.com

The boot ROMs for uPDP-11 contain loaders for XH (ethernet) was there any kind of standard for the server? It tries to load from a MOP DL server and I have modified mopd from NetBSD to respond and load 2.11bsd a.out. So I have a solution, but was curious if there was some DEC standard.

7 years, 5 months

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SUN keyboard for grabs

by db＠db.net

I am tossing a pile of old PC keyboards but found one SUN type C keyboard. It's missing a few keys :-( but might interest anyone needing spare parts. Missing Find/Cut left keypad "."/Suppr on right keypad "c" key is missing one foot is missing I'll ship if you pay postage. - Diane -- - db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://artemis.db.net/~db

7 years, 5 months

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The DosFish (object oriented GUIS)

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

This was circulating in 1995/6. IBM had been shipping the very good OS/2 for some years and Microsoft was trying to catch up. Someone did a very nice parody. Jeff *****The Legend of the Pea Sea***** Long ago, in the days when all disks flopped in the breeze and the writing of words was on a star, the Blue Giant dug for the people the Pea Sea. But he needed a creature who could sail the waters, and would need for support but few rams. So the Gateskeeper, who was said to be both micro and soft, fashioned a Dosfish, who was small and spry, and could swim the narrow sixteen-bit channel. But the Dosfish was not bright, and could be taught few tricks. His alphabet had no A's, B's, or Q's, but a mere 640 K's, and the size of his file cabinet was limited by his own fat. At first the people loved the Dosfish, for he was the only one who could swim the Pea Sea. But the people soon grew tired of commanding his line, and complained that he could neither be dragged nor dropped. "Forsooth," they cried, "the Dosfish can only do one job at a time, and of names he knows only eight and three." And many of them left the Pea Sea for good, and went off in search of the Magic Apple. Although many went, far more stayed, because admittance to the Pea Sea was cheap. So the Gateskeeper studied the Magic Apple, and rested awhile in the Parc of the XerOx, and he made a Window that could ride on the Dosfish and do its thinking for it. But the Window was slow, and it would break when the Dosfish got confused. So most people contented themselves with the Dosfish. Now it came to pass that the Blue Giant came upon the Gateskeeper, and spoke thus: "Come, let us make of ourselves something greater than the Dosfish." The Blue Giant seemed like a humbug, so they called the new creature Oz II. Now Oz II was smarter than the Dosfish, as most things are. It could drag and drop, and could keep files without becoming fat. But the people cared for it not. So the Blue Giant and the Gateskeeper promised another Oz II, to be called Oz II Too, that could swim fast in the new, 32-bit wide Pea Sea. Then lo, a strange miracle occurred. Although the Window that rode on the Dosfish was slow, it was pretty, and the third Window was prettiest of all. And the people began to like the third Window, and to use it. So the Gateskeeper turned to the Blue Giant and said, "Fie on thee, for I need thee not. Keep thy Oz II Too, and I shall make of my Window an Entity that will not need the Dosfish, and will swim in the 32-bit Pea Sea." Years passed, and the workshops of the Gateskeeper and the Blue Giant were many times overrun by insects. And the people went on using their Dosfish with a Window; even though the Dosfish would from time to time become confused and die, it could always be revived with three fingers. Then there came a day when the Blue Giant let forth his Oz II Too onto the world. The Oz II Too was indeed mighty, and awesome, and required a great ram, and the world was changed not a whit. For the people said, "It is indeed great, but we see little application for it." And they were doubtful, because the Blue Giant had met with the Magic Apple, and together they were fashioning a Taligent, and the Taligent was made of objects, and was most pink. Now the Gateskeeper had grown ambitious, and as he had been ambitious before he grew, he was now more ambitious still. So he protected his Window Entity with great security, and made its net work both in serving and with peers. And the Entity would swim, not only in the Pea Sea, but in the Oceans of Great Risk. "Yea," the Gateskeeper declared, "though my entity will require a greater ram than Oz II Too, it will be more powerful than a world of Eunuchs." And so the Gateskeeper prepared to unleash his Entity to the world, in all but two cities. For he promised that a greater Window, a greater Entity, and even a greater Dosfish would appear one day in Chicago and Cairo, and it too would be built of objects. Now the Eunuchs who lived in the Oceans of Great Risk, and who scorned the Pea Sea, began to look upon their world with fear. For the Pea Sea had grown and great ships were sailing in it, the Entity was about to invade their Oceans, and it was rumored that files would be named in letters greater than eight. And the Eunuchs looked upon the Pea Sea, and many of them thought to immigrate. Within the Oceans of Great Risk were many Sun Worshippers, and they had wanted to excel, and make their words perfect, and do their jobs as easy as one-two-three. And what's more, many of them no longer wanted to pay for the Risk. So the Sun Lord went to the Pea Sea, and got himself eighty-sixed. And taking the next step was He of the NextStep, who had given up building his boxes of black. And he proclaimed loudly that he could help anyone make wondrous soft wares, then admitted meekly that only those who know him could use those wares, and he was made of objects, and required the biggest ram of all. And the people looked out upon the Pea Sea, and they were sore amazed. And sore confused. And sore sore. And that is why, to this day, Ozes, Entities, and Eunuchs battle on the shores of the Pea Sea, but the people still travel on the simple Dosfish.

7 years, 5 months

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DEC 8640 Pinout

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

I am trying to trace the reason why the CPU on my Pro 350 is apparently being constantly reset. I have reached a DEC 8640 chip. Does anyone have a pinout for it, perhaps even a datasheet, so I can understand what it is supposed to do and whether the pin is an input or an output? Thanks Rob

7 years, 5 months

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DEC 8640 Pinout

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Rob Jarratt > DEC 8640 chip. Does anyone have a pinout for it, perhaps even a > datasheet, That's almost certainly a DS8640; a quad NOR unified bus receiver. Data sheets for the are readily available. Noel

7 years, 5 months

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"Object Oriented GUI"

by technoid6502＠gmail.com

I used OS/2 from 1993 to 2003 almost exclusively. It has the most beautiful GUI on the planet, is object-oriented to a fault, and is the target of all the claims Microsoft was making with regard to the Object-orientedness of their new windows 95. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell mentions some important attributes of a truely object-oriented gui. Someone mentioned inheritance and polymorphism. These are two products of true object oriented gui design. Applications inherit the ability to manipulate and use whatever objects exist in the system. A word processor is not limited to just text files, for example, or to only the files the programmer originally set out for it. The system allows the applications to grow in functionality as new object types are developed/assembled by other applications or the user. I gather, though I have not had the opportunity to play with it, that the Next Gui was also extreme in its object-orientedness, though I can't see that from MACOS (its inheritor), I understood that to be the case? At any rate, if you want a fantastic example of a object-oriented graphical user interface, check out the Workplace Shell. Jeff

7 years, 5 months

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Cossor/Raytheon DIDS-400

by camiel.vanderhoeven＠vmssoftware.com

I just rescued a Cossor DIDS-400 terminal from ending up at the garbage dump. Cossor was a UK company, that ended up as a Raytheon subsidiary, and the Cossor DIDS-400 was marketed as the Raytheon DIDS-400 in the US. My terminal is model no 402-2/C15, part no D/GA 800260, serial no 023, option table code 321121. Date codes on the IC?s are in 1968. Internally, there?s some interesting technology; ITT MIC9xx DTL IC?s, a piano wire delay line for character storage, and a Raytheon Symbolray monoscope tube as the character generator. I?d love to get this terminal working again, and to that end I?m looking for any kind of service documentation (any other documentation would be welcome too, as I have nothing). The power supply in this terminal consists of two parts, manufactured by Best Products Ltd, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, models 508-L (low voltage supply), and 508-H (high-voltage supply). Any documentation on these would be most welcome, too. Kind regards, Camiel Vanderhoeven

7 years, 5 months

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VAX Lisp, Macsyma, Maxima

by david＠thecoolbears.org

Does anyone know if any of these are still available for OpenVMS VAX?

7 years, 5 months

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source for smt probe clip

by aek＠bitsavers.org

Has anyone seen a source for these clips? http://bitsavers.org/mysteries/salea_clip.JPG They come with the Salae logic analyzer, and are like the HP logic analyzer clips in that the wire is detachable, instead of the common style you can buy where you have to solder on a wire.

7 years, 5 months

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source for smt probe clip

by cclist＠sydex.com

On 10/27/18 4:51 PM, corey cohen wrote: > >> On Oct 27, 2018, at 7:42 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: >> >>> On 10/27/18 4:19 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: >>> Has anyone seen a source for these clips? >>> >>> http://bitsavers.org/mysteries/salea_clip.JPG >>> >>> They come with the Salae logic analyzer, and are like the HP logic analyzer clips >>> in that the wire is detachable, instead of the common style you can buy >>> where you have to solder on a wire. >> >> Pomona 5790? >> >> > > I thought I saw some that would work at Halted/HSC in Santa Clara this past week. They were right across from the counter where you pay. > There's also these "micrograbber" clips at All Electronics for $2 the each: https://www.allelectronics.com/item/mtc-9b/micrograbber-test-clip-w/0.64mm-… I don't like them as much as the Pomonas--the cheapies use only a single contact, rather than the "pincer" style of the Pomona. --Chuck

7 years, 5 months

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FP11-A Technical Manual

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

So, I bought a copy of the FP11-A Technical Manual (EK-FP11A-TM), but when it got here, it was the 'Preliminary' version (-PRE), with type-written text, some of the figures are hand-drawn, etc. This manual does not seem to be generally available online, although at one point a copy was available for download briefly; although it's not the greatest scan job, I have put it up here: http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/dload/EK-FP11A-TM-002.pdf So, is it worth my scanning the -PRE version, or should I just punt, and we'll go with that scan of the -002? Noel

7 years, 5 months

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PinOut of DEC F11 Chips in a Professional 350

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Rob Jarratt > The chips where I believe the RESET is oscillating on pin 23 have been > labelled E151 and E152 ... But I am not really sure if I have > identified them and the pin correctly. E151 is the main CPU chip: http://gunkies.org/wiki/F-11_chip_set E152 is the KEF11-A floating point chip, and E150 is the KTF11-A memory management chip. Pin 1 of E150 is definitely in the lower left corner (in the photo); there's an indent on the left-hand side of the chip, for the usual DIP orientation. I'm pretty sure the other two have the same orientation. Noel

7 years, 5 months

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PDP-8 screws

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

One the original PDP-8 ("Straight 8"), the front panel has two aluminum strips on the sides, one on the left and one on the right. Each should have a pair of flathead countersunk screws, likwly Phillips head. Can someone tell me the exact specs, basically thread, length, head, and material of the screws? Thank you. -- Will

7 years, 5 months

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PinOut of DEC F11 Chips in a Professional 350

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> I'm pretty sure the other two have the same orientation. They do; I looked at the KDF11-A prints in the /23 print set, and then looked at an actual /23. (I should put a hi-res picture of one on the CHWiki page; the one that's there is pretty miserable.) Noel

7 years, 5 months

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TRS-80 Model I modification

by bill.gunshannon＠hotmail.com

Does anyone have a description of how to put 48K of memory in the TRS-80 Model I without using an Expansion Interface?? I seem to remember there being some published back in the old days but can't find anything on the web.? I think it was done with 4164's and a few pieces of wire wrap wire to jumper the missing address lines. bill

7 years, 5 months

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PinOut of DEC F11 Chips in a Professional 350

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I am trying to repair a DEC Professional 350 system board. I think I know the pinout of the F11 chips >from a KDF11-A printset, can anyone confirm that pin 23 of the DIL package is the RESET signal? If that is correct then it is oscillating and resetting the machine constantly. I am trying to trace the source, but it seems to go through quite a few chips and I haven't yet traced its source. The chips where I believe the RESET is oscillating on pin 23 have been labelled E151 and E152 in the following photo: https://rjarratt.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/system-board-labelled.jpg But I am not really sure if I have identified them and the pin correctly. Thanks Rob

7 years, 5 months

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70's computers

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

PS: > Not the simplest machine to implement, mind - the -8 is a lot > simpler. As a rough measure of how much more complex, the -8/E and -11/20 are roughly contemporaneous, and built out of the same technology (SSI TTL on larger boards): the -8/E CPU is 5 quad boards, and the -11/20 CPU is 9 quad board (equivalents - some are duals, etc). Noel

7 years, 5 months

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DAT tapes anyone?

by db＠db.net

I rescued a pile of DAT and a drive from scrap locally. I have no use for it. I'd rather not ship :-( but I am two hours drive from Montreal 4.5-5 hours from Toronto here in Ottawa. Anyone want this box? Diane -- - db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://artemis.db.net/~db

7 years, 5 months

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Desktop Metaphor

by rickb＠bensene.com

Liam Proven wrote: <snip> >On the one hand, the cosmetics. *Every* Unix desktop out there draws >on Win95. I take exception to the "*Every*" in Liam's statement above. Replacing "Unix" with "Linux" would make the statement more correct. X-Windows-based desktop metaphor UI's existed within the Unix world long before Win95 came on the scene. The whole desktop metaphor UI existed long before Windows 95 in non-Unix implementations by Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) with the pioneering Xerox Alto, introduced in 1973, which implemented Alan Kay's concepts for the desktop metaphor that were postulated in 1970 using Smalltalk as the core operating system. Windows 95, and the earlier versions of Microsoft's desktop metaphor UI's, were patterned after these implementations. Microsoft simply took concepts that already existed in the world of UI design, and made their own implementation based on those concepts. -Rick -- Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

7 years, 5 months

25
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Scan of Micro Peripherals Inc MPI 91/92 Product Manual Avail?

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I got a request for a scan of the Micro Peripherals Inc MPI 91/92 Product Manual. I have the manual, I will scan it and post if no one has a copy. But I don't want to go through the effort if it exists somewhere already. I noticed on bitsavers there was no MPI nor Micro Peripherals Inc section so it very well may be that there is no copy of this manual out there.. Thanks in advance. Bill

7 years, 5 months

8
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trouble imaging badblocks on rl02

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Has anyone modified Warren's VTServer to ignore errors (or at least keep trying upon encountering them)? I'm trying to image some rl02s I found and am getting flack on some tracks, killing the whole recovery process. 200K received wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwrl(0,0,0) err cy=14, hd=0, sc=28, rlcs=104275, rlmp=4 Copying done. Either reset the system, or hit <return> to exit the standalone program. Or is there a better way? thx jake

7 years, 6 months

1
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does a reverse-engineering EDA tool exist?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

To draw out the schematics for the Displaywriter I have a bunch of boards to trace out, and I don't want to do the usual "scribble on yellow pad" to do it. Has someone written a graphical tool for doing this? What I would like to find is a tool that puts up a bunch of footprints with internal IC functions shown, then a way to rapidly enter the buzzed out interconnections, generating a netlist. This is exactly backwards workflow from normal schematic entry and pcb layout. I suspect I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and write it..

7 years, 6 months

8
15
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High res e-readers

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Kobo have a quite plain Linux, run on iMX processors, and are very easy to modify/script, and last but not least, to unbrick in case of severe problems. In many models, the internal memory is an SD card, so it can be expanded easily. Then you have also external SD. On the software side, try koreader. It's an open source reader, developed for eink devices. It works very well with PDFs, and can do intelligent text reflow, even on raw scans of books, via a sort of OCR. The nice thing is that it doesn't convert bitmap to text, but seems to split long lines of text in shorter sections, then rearranges the pieces on the screen, following font size options. It can be instructed to work as expected on multi column pages. Very nice! Andrea

7 years, 6 months

1
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Advice needed: Entry point into things PDP-8

by ce.murillosanchez＠gmail.com

Greetings all... I have been pondering something and would love to receive feedback from you.? The thing is, I would like to have something pdp8-ish that would allow me to play a little bit with the programming languages that were available for these machines, FORTRAN 4K and FORTRAN IV in particular.? Now,? I would love to be able to time some FORTRAN jobs just to get an idea about what it was like back then.? I am aware of PiDP-8, simh, as well as SBC6120, SBC6120RBC. I happen to have three VT78 cpu boards (sans the RAM board) and two vt278 cpu boards. All were in rather sorry condition; I picked them up from a junk pile that was stacked several feet high and in which the contents were mostly random. Thus, the VT78 boards' components were scratched and in fact two of them are missing the control panel ROM chip. Otherwise they are complete, but I am missing the RAM boards.? The VT278 boards were further abused by someone who yanked out the oscillators and a few TTL chips, damaging several traces, which I have now repaired.? Alas, only one of them has the HM6120 cpu chip, and I do not know if it is good or not. Both are missing the SMC5037 CRT generator chip.? Other than that, they are complete. So, now that we all know what I have, let me say out loud what I've been thinking: If I try to build actual hardware: I've read that the VT278 has serious software compatibility issues with older software due to the use of the HM6121 I/O chip.? So even if I get an adequate keyboard, buy the CRT chip and manage to use it to drive a monitor, I would need an original floppy drive system and media, because I do not have the DP278 serial comms board that would allow me to send the VT278 a program to run; For the VT78, I would need to hack a memory board, and, since it can be coaxed to accept a program to run if it is fooled into thinking that it is loading a program from an MR78/paper tape, perhaps I could make it boot something.? I would need to wire-up and arduino or something like it to translate the keyboard and display terminal chatter in the serial console into something usable.? But, that's three hardware projects (memory board, MR78-like contraption, microcontrolled serial console translator)... The last hardware option is to go and make an SBC6120RBC;? I would need to buy programmers for the GAL/PAL devices, and I've heard that not all programmers can deal with the kind of chips used in it.? And, if it turns out that the HM6120 chip that I have is bad, I would have to hunt down one of those rare beasts.. It would be awesome, though, to have an SBC6120RBC up and running, and be able to time actual hardware running FORTRAN. And then comes the emulation option, with the PiDP-8.? I have to say that the emulation of the blinkenlights is very, very attractive to me, and this option is a no-brainer hardware-wise. So...? am I missing something in my estimation of the effort involved in these options? What would _you_ do? Carlos.

7 years, 6 months

5
6
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Action Computer Enterprise and ADES

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

Anyone have any manuals or software for an ACE 1600? Or manuals for an ADES hard drive? I've had this one in storage for a while, but it seems fairly interesting and possibly complete. http://imgur.com/a/KR83Okw Thanks, Kyle

7 years, 6 months

1
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Not really vintage computing, but just in case it's of interest to anyone..

by evanlinwood＠hotmail.com

Message: 103 Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2018 09:46:35 -0700 From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Not really vintage computing, but just in case it's of interest to anyone.. Message-ID: <8e90dfc4-8cc2-9d33-9031-52ad4690e76c at bitsavers.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 On 10/24/18 1:08 AM, Evan Linwood via cctalk wrote: > taken from the listing : > > "It was used ( I Believe ) to process Geophysical Seismic Data during the exploration of Oil in Bass Straight. The circuitry is all NASA standard." > > https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/gosford/other-electronics-computers/vintage… > http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?66273-I-am-putting-the-CART-befor… Thanks Al - I hadn't seen that. Hopefully something is still happening with it.

7 years, 6 months

1
0
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UNIX - An Open Solution

by silent700＠gmail.com

I recently came across an eight-volume set of comb-bound, A4-sized booklets titled "UNIX - An Open Solution", by Mick Farmer and Richard Murphy. In trying to uncover more info about them, I found Mick Farmer's old home page: http://www.plan7.co.uk/mick.html. The books are mentioned there with the text "videos and workbook". Has anyone seen the videos from these lessons, or know where they could be found? Mr. Farmer's email is listed on the page - I can check with him if nothing turns up here. - j

7 years, 6 months

1
0
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Selling keyboards without the terminal

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

Here is a great example of why the keyboards and terminals are getting separated https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-3101-beam-spring-keyboard-purchased-new-in-198… Note the price $2000 so far. How could one blame the seller. I wonder if this is the terminal I sold to a buyer in California years ago when I sold my Series/1 computer. All he wanted was the terminal, I donated the rest to what was the MARCH museum. At the time I remember having a few words with the buyer who would not also take the Series/1 system (2 racks) or the manuals. There is a naked terminal up for grabs if you're out his way. Bill

7 years, 6 months

26
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