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

by vcf＠siconic.com

http://www.evenson-consulting.com/flexusergroup/pdfs/floppy.pdf -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 1 month

3
2
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Opinions? BeOS

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I picked up a Cd and manuals for BeOS today. Anybody here use it? What do you think of it? Joe

21 years, 1 month

9
18
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ASCII

by elf＠ucsd.edu

Scott Stevens wrote: > I believe hearing about (and seeing) a whole rendering > of Star Wars for ASCII. Unfortunately, I remember it > being 'released' as a MacroMedia Flash object. Telnet on over to <telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl/>towel.blinkenlights.nl and see Star Wars in all its ASCII glory. :-)

21 years, 1 month

1
0
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Got Videotrax card working

by James＠jdfogg.com

> In case anyone cares, I ended up getting working that > Videotrax card I wrote about a day ago. What might be useful > to know is that I followed Dwight's advice and re-seated the > only socketed chip on the board (that customy Motorola chip). > After doing this everything seems to be working peachy. I'm > more than halfway through dumping another 10 megabytes of > data from one of the VHS data tapes I have; so far so good. Long ago I had one of these brand new. I never got it to reliably restore. It might have been the quality of my tape deck or the tapes, but I gave up.

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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Got Videotrax card working

by vcf＠siconic.com

In case anyone cares, I ended up getting working that Videotrax card I wrote about a day ago. What might be useful to know is that I followed Dwight's advice and re-seated the only socketed chip on the board (that customy Motorola chip). After doing this everything seems to be working peachy. I'm more than halfway through dumping another 10 megabytes of data from one of the VHS data tapes I have; so far so good. New maxim: when all else fails, re-seat. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

MicroVAX II - TK50 problem

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 12 2005, 15:18, John Willis wrote: > Here's an update, for all who may be interested in it: > > The MicroVAX II now has the following configuration: > > A B C D > +-------------------------------------+ > | CPU | > +-------------------------------------+ > | Memory | > +-------------------------------------+ > | TQK50 | EMPTY | > +-------------------------------------+ > | DHV11 | > +-------------------------------------+ > | DRQ3 | > +-------------------------------------+ > | RQDX3 | EMPTY | > +-------------------------------------+ > > > I'm trying to get my hands on a DELQA or a DEQNA. Will > this require yet another re-shuffle of the cards, or can I > move the RQDX3 to the end and put the DELQA/DEQNA where > the RQDX3 is now? Common concensus is that a DELQA is better than a DEQNA -- more reliable and less prone to dropping/corrupting packets. In either case, though, you want it fairly high up the bus because it's not very happy waiting too long while other things get their interrupts or DMA requests serviced. Also I have a feeling that DEQNA support was dropped from VMS round about 5.something -- but I'm not a VMS expert, so I stand to be corrected by others (is the driver much different? The actual Ethernet part certainly is). I'd suggest you move the DHV11, DRQ3, and RQDX3 down a slot, and put your network card in the slot below the TQK50, with your grant card beside it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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Sun 4/470 with plenty of spare bits available, Wellington - New Zealand

by jplist＠kiwigeek.com

Greetings; I have a Sun 4/470 available in Wellington, New Zealand, available for pick-up to whoever wants it. This was my VERY FIRST collected machine, and I truly and honestly loathe to let it go, but I have since emigrated the country and it needs to be removed from my parents house. (If anyone is famaliar with Actrix, the first public ISP in New Zealand (and one of the first in the world), this 4/470 *was* Actrix for a couple years, shemal.actrix.gen.nz) The machine does work, I bought a 'new' CPU card for it in 1999 as the original was flaky. The machine has the stock 33mHz processor and 128MB memory (4x 32MB cards) installed, two 1.3GB SCSI disks and four 911MB IPI2 disks. The 4/470 is in two cabinets (VME chassis & IPI2 disk chassis), desk side arrangement. All cabling is included, plus spare processor card, a stack of peripheral cards, spare backplane and power supply. At one point I had two entire 4/470s (four chassis), and ended up gutting one set of chassis and dumping them, keeping the parts. Pictures & little bit of (old) info: http://www.kiwigeek.com/hjp/comps/Sun_4s/ There is only one stipulation/problem - the machine can ONLY be picked up during June of this year. Thanks; JP

21 years, 1 month

1
0
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B&K PRECISION 540 COMPONENT TESTER Manual??

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

I picked this up yesterday and got it working last night. Does anyone have a manual for it? It's a small Oscilliscope-like device that's used for testing transistors and the like. Oh yeah, I'm going to use it to fix my vintage equipment. Joe

21 years, 1 month

2
2
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Create a VAX CPU with FPGA?

by vax9000＠gmail.com

There are many "soft CPUs" around. I wonder how hard it is to create a soft VAX CPU core that can be load into an FPGA. Other than to design from scratch, I think it might be easier if we grab the VAX-11/780, 750, or 730 schematics, and throw them into an FPGA compiler. The 780 was implemented with TTL, the 750 with gate array, and 730 with AMD 2901. I think the 730 scheme might be the easiest to implement with an FPGA. So, does anybody have the 730, 750 or 780 schematics? No, I do not plan to start the project. I just want to make sure whether it is feasible. Thank you. vax, 9000

21 years, 1 month

9
20
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Seeking Motorola S38FC012PIO2

by vcf＠siconic.com

I'm trying to find a Motorola chip marked S38FC012PIO2. I've checked around and can't find anything online. Does anyone recognize this chip? I need to find one to replace a chip I have on an interface card here in the hopes that replacing the chip will fix it. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 1 month

3
3
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Sunshine T-5000 IN-CIRCUIT BOARD PROGRAMMER??

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Is anyone here familar with this programmer? It's about the size and layout of an old Kaypro portable computer. This is Sunshine Co. of Calfornia and not the Sunshine Co. of Taiwan that made a lot of the cheap PC based EPROM programmers. Brief description here <http://www.sunriseelectronics.com/t5000.htm>.. Joe

21 years, 1 month

2
2
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USB Universal Floppy Disk Controller

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

Re: "But yep, agreed. I certainly need *something* that can archive / restore classic formats to/from modern(-ish!) media. Shift register + counter + high speed RAM. Could even do it with an FPGA if you wanted. Buffering an entire track with 8x oversampling is going to be hellishly memory intensive though." I'd really rather see it done with a real FDC chip. While there might be some loss of flexibility in dealing with a few formats, I didn't mean to imply that I was ONLY interested in reading. With the right software, I could open an "explorer" window on an XP machine and "drag-and-drop" files .... to an 8" CP/M diskette. Or write a "system track". [As long as this is only a wish-list, why not stretch].

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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USB Universal Floppy Disk controller

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

What we need so badly is a USB universal floppy disk controller. It has to do 8" (single and/or double sides & density), 5.25" (both 360k and 1.2MB) and 3.5", at least 2 drives of each type. Ideally totally configurable to read/write any format, even "non-standard" formats (including 1k sectors on 8" drives, Microsoft's 3.5" "DMF" format, etc.) Can't anyone design one? It's way over my head, but I'd buy one in a flash. I'm desperate enough that I've been taking apart 3.5" USB drives hoping to find one that was a USB controller with a standard 3.5" drive. So far, they have ALL been "integrated" devices.

21 years, 1 month

6
10
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Not quite 10, but FREE alphaserver 800 5/400

by rich_bramante＠yahoo.com

I am posting this from another list. Please reply to the email below. I have no other knowledge of this system. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Digital starion 910 alphaserver 800 5/400. works, but OLD. probably ok for parts; innomax monitor, cambridge soundworks speakers model SPS52; HP Deskjet 540 printer. works well, but is slow. I live in Raymond NH & work in Northwood - pickup can be made either place. kmbiery03077 at yahoo.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

kdj11-sd eproms

by ericj＠speakeasy.org

I recently attempted to modify a decserver board to use the 11/53 roms. I installed the pullup and burned the images into a pair of am27128A-2dc eproms, but when I powered up the board it couldn't pass test #1 with the "KDJ11-D/S 1.00" message. I reverified the contents of the eproms and thought that I must've damaged the board when installing the pullup. Just to be sure though, I remapped the 11/53 images with "cat 261E5.bin 261E5.bin > 1.bin", "cat 262E5.bin 262E5.bin > 2.bin", then erased the original 27256's and burned the new images into them. After reinstalling these I powered up, and the board came up okay: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Commands are Help, Boot, List, Map, Test and Wrap. Type a command then press the RETURN key: So my question is, did I botch the pullup install or did I use the wrong eproms? What eproms should work in the kdj11-sd? The originals were am27256dc. My next step is to test a teac fd55gfr 149-u5 floppy drive for use as an rx33. It appears to have the correct jumpers, but I haven't seen it listed as one known to work. Can anyone confirm whether this model can be configured as an rx33? Thanks, -- Eric Josephson

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

USB Universal Floppy Disk controller

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Paul Koning" <pkoning at equallogic.com> > >>>>>> "Jules" == Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> writes: > > Jules> On Fri, 2005-03-11 at 07:51 +0000, Philip Pemberton wrote: > >> ... > >> Shift register + counter + high speed RAM. Could even do it with > >> an FPGA if you wanted. Buffering an entire track with 8x > >> oversampling is going to be hellishly memory intensive though. > > Jules> Well if worst-case is 1mbps data rate at 300rpm and 8x > Jules> oversample, isn't that (8 * 10240 * 1024) / 5 = 1677722 bits > Jules> of memory maximum needed? > > Jules> (div by 5 because 300rpm gives you a whole track in 1/5 of a > Jules> second) > > Jules> So 256KBytes of RAM should always be enough to buffer a whole > Jules> track, regardless of what physical drive or media you use. > >Even if you want 8 bits per sample, that's still only 1.5 MB, and the >data rate is 7.5 MB/s (since a track is 200 ms by your calculation). > >That's a trivial bandwidth requirement; anything better than antique >DRAM will do the job easily, and the space requirement is tiny, too. > >I'm wondering if you can do this job with a microcontroller similar to >a PIC, running the sampling loop in software. If not quite, it should >be pretty close. > > paul > Hi I've always been looking at using a DSP chip for this job. I did expect to read parts of a track at a time and then reassemble them as condensed data. Chips like the Analog Devices 2181 have some 80Kbytes of onboard RAM. Although, it can't all be used for storage at the same time and some is needed for program space. These chips can be implemented with a real minimum of outside circuits. they even have a serial SPI that can be used to read disk data at higher speeds. These processor run at 30 MIPs plus. They can run some operations, such as data moving to arrays in single cycles, including updating of pointers. They can do as many as 5 operations in a single cycle. The can bootstrap from simple slowspeed EPROM of FLASH. One could easily connect one of these to that USB chip that someone pointer to earlier. Dwight

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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2 Scrambled PERQs ... Going, ... Going, ... Help!

by brian.russell＠iclway.co.uk

2 Scrambled PERQs - Going, ... Going, . Help! I have two PERQs for disposal, a PERQ-1 and a PERQ-2, here in the UK. I would like to get some data off them before disposal, but am unable to do this on my own as both machines are somewhat 'scrambled'. I am in contact with half a dozen PERQ owners, who have helped with copious advice, and to whom the machines will be going once I have finished with them. The purpose of this posting is twofold. Is there anyone who can make me replacement boot floppies (I have blank discs onto which copies can be made)? Is there anyone who has successfully archived data from a PERQ to a PC who can speed up the rather tedious process of writing RS232 communications software that I have embarked upon? This is an update on a posting I placed on the alt.sys.perq newsgroup before Christmas. I am officially chairman of the Mil-DAP (Military version, Distributed Array Processor) Resurrection Working Party. These two machines were donated to the CCS (Computer Conservation Society) to help in the attempt to resurrect the Mil-DAP. We have succeeded in bringing together the complete set of hardware for the Mil-DAP itself and its PERQ-2 host computer. The DAP and host PERQ have been handed over to The Science Museum, South Kensington, London. The equipment will go to the Science Museum outstation at Wroughton, near Swindon. The Science Museum does not want our two remaining PERQs, as they are not actually a part of the Mil-DAP itself. The PERQ-1 is thought to contain some DAP-specific software, which we intend to copy off onto floppy discs. Copies will then be sent to the Science Museum. After that, we have no further use for the PERQs and we have nowhere to keep them. I would have been unhappy (euphemism!) to see them chucked in the bin. From contacts made thorough alt.sys.perq, I now have homes for the two machines, but I still have a duty to archive the data on them before I can release them. The PERQ-1 is thought to contain some DAP-specific software, which we intend to copy off onto floppy discs (and, if possible, archive onto CD). This is proving to be more difficult than we expected; any advice would be appreciated! Specifically, does anyone have precisely the right software to build boot floppies for either machine so that the hard discs can be fixed? The states of the two machines are: The PERQ-1 is the machine that might have some DAP software on it. I am effectively in the 'forgotten password' situation (except that I never knew the username or password and have tried most of the usual combinations). This is a PERQ-1 T1 with 4k Control Store, portrait monitor and no tablet. (No, we haven't lost the tablet; it was not there when we picked up the machine! We have now found a possible replacement.) The machine is running POS; the top line of the screen reads: "LogIn version 3.10 POS G.666 a-boot". The machine boots up from its 'rigid disc' and gets to the date/time and user/password prompts. After taking advice, I am going to attempt to archive the entire disk at block level before attempting to change things to give me access at file level. The PERQ-2 is a machine that I hoped to use for copying floppy discs, if nothing more. I appear to have damaged the disc, possibly (probably?) by doing a 'Bye Off' instead of just a 'Bye' or 'Bye Wait'. If this is what is wrong, then I have only myself to blame! Whatever, it now only boot up to Diagnostic 157 (Disc Failure) when supplied with its boot disc. Until recently, the machine booted up correctly when supplied with its Boot Floppy; though it has always stopped at Diagnostic 014 (Could not Boot from Either Disc) when attempting to boot from the hard disc alone. This is a PERQ-2 T2 (feature no. = F2361/06, build control serial no. = T2 1619) with landscape monitor and tablet. If there is a friendly PERQ owner out there somewhere with the appropriate boot floppy or engineering tools could you help, please? If so, please reply to this posting or get in contact at the address below. I have a stock of 8-inch floppies, donated by CCS members, which I can post out to anyone able to make me the necessary copies. Brian M. Russell. bmrussell at iclway.co.uk

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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Format of '.tap' files on bitsavers ...

by john_sambrook＠yahoo.com

Hi Eric, Thank you for your help. I've had a look at your utilities link and I'm going to give them a try. Best, John Sambrook --- Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com> wrote: > John Sambrook wrote: > > Anyone know the format of ".tap" files found on > > www.bitsavers.org/bits/... ? > > It's John Wilson's tape image file format. > > A data record consists of a four byte record length, the data, > then another copy of the record length. The record length is stored > in little-endian byte order. > > A tape mark is fourbytes of zeros. > > There are no extra padding bytes to force any alignment. > > Bob Subnik's SIMH tape image file format is similar except that it > uses 16-bit alignment. SIMH comes with utilities to convert the > formats. > > There are also some simple tape image utilities at: > http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/software/tapeutils/ > > Eric > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Mac memory needed

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I'm looking for at least 4 pieces (and up to 8) of 16mb, 70ns, non-parity FPM 30-pin SIMMs for a Mac IIci. The Apple part is APL30P16, but any matched set of four or eight will do. Please contact off-list. Thanks. Rich Rich Cini Collector of classic computers Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ /************************************************************/

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Seeking Motorola S38FC012PIO2 ($$$ Bounty! $$$)

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

--- "Dwight K. Elvey" <dwight.elvey at amd.com> wrote: > Also, have you removed the chip and put some > contact > enhancer on it?? ( You know, some silicon grease ) > Dwight I imagine that some DeOxit or similar would be good, but silicon grease? I thought that was for *thermal* conductivity only. --Bill

21 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

MicroVAX II - TK50 problem

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Mar 11 2005, 23:39, Witchy wrote: > > > No. It's only the RQDX1 that has the "must be last on the bus" > > problem, and only then if what's below it uses DMA and interrupts. > > RQDX2 and RQDX3 have no such limitation. You won't find an RQDX1 in a > > MicroVAX II because it is not compatible with the MicroVAX II > > processor. > > I know of the incompatibility but I'm surprised at the RQDX3 not having > the limitation - every single microPDP and qbus uVAX I used, installed or > watched Failed Circus maintain had to have the disk controller last on the > bus; the only exception to this was if you had the RQDXE extender for > external drives. Even the machines I've got here now are built like that. The RQDX2 and RQDX3 definitely don't have the limitation. It's in the manuals, and also in Micronotes. I've seen lots of PDP-11s where the RQDX is not the last device, and my MicroVAX-II came with its RQDX3 further up, as well. If you have an RQC25 (then you have my commiserations) it usually goes below the RQDX, as does a KDA50 or a DRV11, according to Micronote 041. And of course if you have two RQDX2/3 controllers, one after the other, both work. That's not true of an RQDX1 (you can only have one). In general, the main reason for the order of things on the QBus has to do with interrupt priority and latency. For example, a DL serial interface can't deal with being too far down the bus, so it usually goes right after the memory; similar rules apply to a DEQNA. However, a DHV11 or a DHQ11 is a bit better, so it can go further down. Tape controllers are often less tolerant than disks, especially if they're supposed to be operated in streaming mode, so they usually go higher up. As I mentioned, even DEC's notes show a config with an RQDX3 further up. However, one of the FS memos says "This device may have to be placed as the last device in the CPU box because of cabling requirements." Also, there is a performance issue with the RQDX2 in systems using lots of block-mode DMA, because while the RQDX2 is doing a block transfer, it holds the bus for longer than is desirable and blocks BDMR while doing so (it does pass it the rest of the time, and an RQDX3 doesn't block BDMR at all). So it should be below things that have problems with latency, like Ethernet or DECnet controllers. However, an RQC25 is even worse in that respect, and it does block transfers in pairs! What's recommended by Field Circus, what's "supported" by DEC, and what works, are three different things! -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Atari 1040ST

by leeedavison＠yahoo.co.uk

Free to a good home, or even a bad one. Atari 1040ST, mouse, monitor and possibly some manuals and software. Possibly another similar Atari for parts. Untested - I was given it and it's sat in it's box ever since. This is in the UK. Email me directly if you're interested. This goes to the tip in a week if no one wants it. Lee. . Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

Name that cap...

by wh.sudbrink＠verizon.net

Hi all, I'd like to get a 5 1/4 inch floppy working on my Ohio Scientific C1P-MF. Since I only have one OSI 5 1/4 inch drive available, on my C4P-MF, I want to get another working. OSI relied on the drive unit to provide data separation, relatively easy to find on 8 inchers but seems to be pretty tough to find on a 5 1/4. There is an old article describing how to build a suitable data separator circuit available on a couple of sites on the web. Seems pretty simple, just uses two chips a couple of resistors and a cap. The problem is, I can't read the cap value. The best image I can find is here: http://www.technology.niagarac.on.ca/people/mcsele/images/SA400Disk1.jpg You want to look at "Figure #3". I've used several different image processing programs, but I can't get the scribble next to the cap legible. I've looked at the data sheet for the chip, but I don't know enough for an obvious value to jump out at me. Part of the accompanying text says: "The RC time constant is adjusted to give an output pulse width on pin#1 of the 74LS121 of 5.5 ls." I assume "ls" is an oddball abbreviation for microsecond? Alternatively, does anybody have an MPI B51 or B52 with data separator available for trade, or another design for a data separator? Thanks, Bill

21 years, 1 month

4
4
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OT Troubleshooting: Old computers with modern parts

by leeedavison＠yahoo.co.uk

> The lack of a punch has kept me from doing a PDP/8 in a > CPLD as well as not knowing of where to get ferromagnetic? > ram. I want real non-voiltile memory. Go to http://www.ramtron.com they do the ferromagnetic RAM. A year ago they were offering free samples and may still be doing so. FRAM is very similar to core in that a read is destructive and you have to do a write after read but this is all done transparently by the device. Lee. . Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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selling off my entire lot

by James＠jdfogg.com

> To all, I have taken a position with a new company and will > be closing down my warehouse. Any one interested in my entire > inventory or at least the board inventory (4000 + DEC and > VAX) please let me know. I am in Melbourne, FL and all are > welcome to come visit, or call me at 321-768-0006. THANK YOU > ALL for your past support. Do you have any kind of a list? Do you have any complete systems you are parting with? I'm particularly interested in Data General systems.

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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Format of ".tap" files on bitsavers ...

by john_sambrook＠yahoo.com

Anyone know the format of ".tap" files found on www.bitsavers.org/bits/... ? I'm assuming these files somehow encode block lengths and file marks. I'll try to noodle it out, but would appreciate any tips as well. Best, John Sambrook __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/

21 years, 1 month

4
3
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Re installing XP on Sony

by jim.isbell＠gmail.com

I have a Sony Vio laptop and it has one partition on it, one 4 gig and 1 gig of unassigned space. (was assigned as drive "D" but I unassigned it thinking I could add it to "C"...of course, I couldnt) Windows XP is installed on the 4 gig partition and the remaining 1 gig is un assigned. BUT...no mater what I do when it boots it has Sony Vio logos and if I look at the directorys I find a bunch of crap that was left over from the days when it was running a Sony derivitave of Win ME. Lots of ISP advertisements desquised as optional ways to connect to the internet. (I use a Sprint cell phone and Sprint software to connect to the internet and dont need ANY ISP or phone line methods of connection and would love to get some more space by deleting them. I cannot delete the directorys because they are protected. If I could just erase the unused directorys I would be happy but also just cleaning the whole thing off and installing XP would be fine to since there is nothing on that drive that I need. I cannot delete IE and that takes up a bunch of room. I use Netscape and IE is an abomination I need to be rid of. I want to clean that damned thing completely off and reinstall XP. The version of XP that I have is the Home edition UPGRADE. I dont know what I need to put on there first to get the upgrade to work but I have ME Upgrade and WIn 98 and WIn 3.1. Usually just starting from 3.1 and upgrading step by step works but I cant get this damned Sony crap off the HD and it takes up over 2 gb of HD space. Any help would be appreciated, even if it is to tell me that Sony fixed it so their crap must stay, at least then I would quit trying to recover the lost space. -- Jim Isbell "If you are not living on the edge, well then, you are just taking up too much space." W5JAI UltraVan #257 CAL - 27 #221

21 years, 1 month

25
70
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Seeking Motorola S38FC012PIO2 ($$$ Bounty! $$$)

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf at siconic.com> > >All but the big Motorola chip are soldered in. > Hi Sellam I know you are not going to put a lot of effort into it but the obvious thing would be to swap the part with the known good unit. This will tell you if it is the chip or something else. Also, have you removed the chip and put some contact enhancer on it?? ( You know, some silicon grease ) Dwight

21 years, 1 month

2
1
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Catweasel opinions, sources of info etc.

by dlormand＠aztecfreenet.org

>If I format a floppy in my ST and save files to it, I can read it in my PC >without too many problems - however, files copied to the floppy from the PC >would quite often not read right in the ST. I don't know if it was >timing/interleave issues, or if there were bytes in the FAT which the ST >considered optional that the PC required (or vice versa)... The general advice is to format in the peecee. That's what I've always done, and never had any troubles.

21 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

FS: DEC boards

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Here's a list of some DEC cards that I picked up today. If anyone is interested make an offer via direct E-mail. As noted all of them have the proper cable, connector and mounting plate. A8000 ADV11-C Q 16-channel 12-bit Analogue-to-Digital Converter with cable, connector and mounting panel. A6006 AAV11-C Q 4-channel, 12-bit Digital-to-Analogue Converter with cable, connector and mounting panel. M9404 and M9405YB with connecting cables. M3104 DHV11-A Q 8-line Asynchronous Multiplexor, with DMA with 2 cables, 8 connectors and 2 mounting panels. M8634 IEQ11-A Q DMA version of IEEE(GPIB) interface with 2 cables, 2 GPIB connectors and mounting panel. M4002 KWV11-C Q Programmable Real-Time Clock. M7555 RQDX3 Q MFM Winchester and floppy disk controller (RX50/RX33/RD50-54/RD31/RD32/RD33). M9047 Q Grant continuity (also M9047-SA, -SF) M7606-EF KA630-AA Q As far as I can find out this is a MicroVAX II CPU w/1-Mbyte, floating point, time of year clock, boot/diagnostic ROM, Q22 with cables and control panel. M7609-AP MS630-CA Q As far as I can find out these are 8-Mbyte parity 36-bit RAM for KA630 (MicroVAX II) (2 cards and interconnecting cable). Joe

21 years, 1 month

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Seeking PC UserJun/Jul 95 ($$$)

by vcf＠siconic.com

Has anyone got PC User magazine from June or July of 1995? Looking to buy. Please contact me directly if you've got them. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

21 years, 1 month

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MicroVAX II - TK50 problem

by willisjo＠zianet.com

The saga continues... Got the system running finally, but now I can't get the TK50 tape drive to work. Have checked the cabling, reseated everything, and even tried a different TQK50 controller. Have tried the following from VMS 5.1: $ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:SYSGEN SYSGEN> SET NOAUTOCONFIG 0 SYSGEN> AUTOCONFIGURE ALL/SELECT=(PT) (at this point the system hangs... same if I omit the /SELECT, and the only way I can get out of it is to halt the system from the console.) Here's what the system is showing: Welcome to VAX/VMS version V5.1 Last interactive login on Thursday, 10-MAR-2005 10:27 $ SHOW DEV Device Device Error Volume Free Trans Mnt Name Status Count Label Blocks Count Cnt DUA0: Mounted 0 VMSRL5 184419 94 1 Device Device Error Name Status Count OPA0: Online 0 TXA0: Online 8 TXA1: Online 0 TXA2: Online 0 TXA3: Online 0 TXA4: Online 0 TXA5: Online 0 TXA6: Online 0 TXA7: Online 0 Device Device Error Name Status Count PUA0: Online 1 Thanks in advance! John P. Willis

21 years, 1 month

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selling off my entire lot

by trestivo＠tarinc.com

To all, I have taken a position with a new company and will be closing down my warehouse. Any one interested in my entire inventory or at least the board inventory (4000 + DEC and VAX) please let me know. I am in Melbourne, FL and all are welcome to come visit, or call me at 321-768-0006. THANK YOU ALL for your past support. Regards, Thom

21 years, 1 month

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DX-10 bits ...

by john_sambrook＠yahoo.com

Al, I'm genuinely grateful for your help. This is exactly what I was looking for. Best, John Sambrook --- Al Kossow <aek at spies.com> wrote: > try > http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/TI/990/ > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/

21 years, 1 month

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ot? Simulate something....

by ron.hudson＠sbcglobal.net

Hey all! I am beginning to write a simulator for a "microcomputer", it will feature a curses (terminal) front panel. it will be a 12 bit machine. You will be able to issue commands to the simulator without stopping the program (for mounting virtual paper tapes, printing to files etc) Shown on the front panel will be a switch register, an Accumulator and the program counter (all 12 bit) a "running" light and a Overflow light. Insert = sw -> pc home = sim command Pgup = examine ([pc] -> sw delete = (deposit) sw ->[pc] end = halt pgdn = run Obviously a 12 bit computer suggests a PDP-8, but the function keys are going to be the "bit flip" front panel keys and they are grouped in three sets of four. I am not against a PDP-8 but it's instruction set is better expressed in octal right? Were there any other 12 bit computers? preferably with Hex friendly instruction sets? Operational choices - should examine increment PC?, should deposit? I am open to other meanings of the operation keys... they are arranged as above on my thinkpad. The program will be written in C.

21 years, 1 month

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I Found a Mouse!

by zmerch＠30below.com

OK, I kept digging, and I finally came across my AtariST/Amiga switchable mouse - so I might have an Amiga soon. (I still didn't find my ratzenfrackenfrippenfrumble eprom burner w/builtin eraser - so I'm considering buying a separate eraser just to have a spare.) With all this talk of "Operating Systems you're not supposed to run on your computer" lately, this just begs the question: I *thought* there were versions of OS-9 that existed for the AtariST and/or the Amiga - as in OS-9/68K. Anybody know anything about a possible Amiga version? I'd be kind of interested in running that, just because I'm not supposed to... ;-) Laterz, "Merch" -- Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers _??_ zmerch at 30below.com (?||?) If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead _)(_ disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.

21 years, 1 month

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Floppy drive pin 2 question?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Randy McLaughlin <cctalk at randy482.com> wrote: > I am 99.99% sure it changes the RPM, I have some TEAC 1.2's laying around > I'll plug one in and ground pin 2 to check it. > > For the TEAC it is enabled via an option jumper, default is to ignore it. Changing the RPM is an option on SOME drives, and for PeeCees to work it must be OFF. It is very useful for Classic Computers, though. The high density select signal (pin 2) may or may not switch RPM, but it always switches the write current. Writing on HD media with DD write current will produce no effect (the field is too weak to affect the media), while writing on DD media with HD write current will magnetise the media so strongly that it'll be impossible to rewrite and unusable until you bulk-erase it. So pin 2 MUST always select the correct write current for the media type. 3.5" drives use the media type hole instead to select the correct write current. Those who punch or cover that hole to magically "change" the media type get what they deserve. MS

21 years, 1 month

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Floppy drive pin 2 question?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> > >On Thu, 2005-03-10 at 17:18 -0800, Steven Canning wrote: >> Jules, >> >> I proposed doing exactly that (i.e. passing "raw" floppy data through a >> parallel port) last year along with some simple math that showed it could be >> done. > >Yep, I hadn't forgotten :-) (I made sure I kept all the relevant >messages too) > >Wasn't the problem that the parallel port just doesn't have the raw >speed for it to work for all disks though? At which point buffering >becomes necessary, which was also the point that everyone went quiet on >the subject :-) > >With the cable you mention, how are you supposed to get the created disk >image back onto a disk again? (Personally I need to be able to restore >data from an image back to a floppy) > >I need to do some reading up on what the floppy drive's write gate >signal does. If spitting data from an image down the 'write' signal wire >at the same speed as it was read is good enough (and 'write gate' is >actually a 'R/-W' signal) then maybe it isn't too complex. However if >write gate is actually dependant on the data stream too (needing it to >be understood) then it could be rather tricky. Hi There are two write signals. One is write data and the other is the write gate. The write gate is like a write enable. It also turns on the erase signal the cleans the edges of the track that is being erased and over written. The drive has nothing to set the timing of the signals coming to it. You can not just directly use the recorded data without realigning the clock edges. This includes the possibility of write compensation as well. There are rules about when you use the compensation. It helps to understand a little about digital recording. The write signal just makes a bunch of static +- signal levels on the disk. When played back, the head only sees the transitions and not the levels. This means that the effective edge of the transition is what is important. When the signals are on the surface of the disk, they are a bunch of magnetic fields. They interact in such a way that there is an averaging or frequency loss if too many transitions are close together. Compensation helps to avoid this. It is best to put some compensation in both the receive an transmit ends. It is simpler is to just use it in the transmit ( or write ) circuit. This is what is done for writing higher density floppies. If you record all the info played back, you need to realign the timing and possibly add compensation. It is not an impossible task but does require some knowledge of the particular technology used for that floppy format. You also don't need to know what the data is, just what the rules are for placing levels on the disk. It is even conceivable that one can do a better job than the original controller did. One can do some test signals on that particular media and determine just how much compensation works best on each track! Like the 6 million dollar man, "we can rebuild you better than before". Dwight > >Note that personally I *don't* need to understand the image on the host >machine (at this stage) - all I care about is backing up floppies to >modern hard disk and being able to recreate them again. Understanding >via software decoding might be nice one day, but in the shorter term my >concern's with all the thousands of disks we have at the museum with >data on that are likely decaying... > >cheers > >Jules > > >

21 years, 1 month

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Kermit for the PDP8 (in assembler)

by tomj＠wps.com

In case you need one, here it is. Found it at random looking for the RATFOR source to the DG Kermit. http://cdn.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/kermit/extra/k08mit.pal

21 years, 1 month

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Floppy drive pin 2 question?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Randy McLaughlin <cctalk at randy482.com> wrote: > Pin 2 on a 34 pin floppy connector is a little used pin. It was used to > change the RPM on some 5.25" 1.2mb drives. > > It changed the RPM from 360 RPM (pin 2 high) to 300 RPM (pin 2 low). This > was supposed to make it easier to read/write DD disks in a HD drive. > > Only early AT controllers needed it, later controllers kept this pin high > and used an odd transfer rate. Hmm, my understanding is that pin 2 is LOW when the odd 300 kbit/s transfer rate is used, and all HD drives use this pin to switch the write current to produce the 300 Oersted field necessary for DD media or the 600 Oersted field necessary for HD media. MS

21 years, 1 month

2
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DX-10 bits ...

by aek＠spies.com

try http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/TI/990/

21 years, 1 month

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Quasijarus Media: can anyone here write TK50s?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Mark Wickens <m.wickens at rhodium-consulting.com> wrote: > How many tapes does the software occupy, 1 > and what format do they need to be written in? Physical tape record level images are on my FTP site, just write them to the tape. Treat it as a foreign tape whose format you don't know or need to know. (The "don't need to know" part refers to those merely *writing* tapes. If you do want to know the format, you are more than welcome to, and it's described in the documentation, specifically in "Installing and Operating 4.3BSD-Quasijarus UNIX on the VAX".) MS

21 years, 1 month

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Quasijarus Media: can anyone here write TK50s?

by willisjo＠zianet.com

Any takers? I will pre-pay for shipping and media if anyone on the list can help me out with writing it with 4.3BSD Quasijarus0c. Thanks in advance, John Willis ---------- From: msokolov at ivan.Harhan.ORG (Michael Sokolov) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 05 09:12:14 GMT To: willisjo at zianet.com Subject: Re: Quasijarus Media John Willis <willisjo at zianet.com> wrote: > We had previously discussed my interest in getting some install media for > Quasijarus. I finally have my MicroVAX II running with a working TK50 drive. > Are you still offering the media kits for a fee? I would be if I had my TK50 writing setup working... It isn't at the moment :-( I really want to start providing real tapes like UC Berkeley did, but I'm so swamped that I cannot tell when, if ever, will I get myself set up to be able to do it. Until then you should ask on ClassicCmp if anyone can write you a tape from the images on my FTP site. I'm sure there are plenty of people there with the necessary setup who'll do it for you. When you post your request to the list, feel free to mention that you've asked me and that I lack the necessary hardware setup at the moment. MS

21 years, 1 month

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Name that cap...

by melamy＠earthlink.net

if you are targeting 5.5us, then it is a 220pf cap. The formula for the pulse width for a 121 is 0.7 * R * C, where 220pf is 220 X 10-12 and R is 25000 then the time comes out to 5.5us. I think the "l" was just a mistype. -----Original Message----- From: Bill Sudbrink <wh.sudbrink at verizon.net> Sent: Mar 11, 2005 7:14 AM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Name that cap... to jump out at me. Part of the accompanying text says: "The RC time constant is adjusted to give an output pulse width on pin#1 of the 74LS121 of 5.5 ls." I assume "ls" is an oddball abbreviation for microsecond?

21 years, 1 month

1
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USB Universal Floppy Disk controller

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Actually, I know someone with the capabilities of doing this, but I don't know if he has the time. Let me ping him and see what he thinks. -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Jules Richardson Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 8:26 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: USB Universal Floppy Disk controller On Thu, 2005-03-10 at 19:49 -0500, Barry Watzman wrote: > What we need so badly is a USB universal floppy disk controller. Personally I'd rather have parallel or serial or SCSI interfaces, but each to their own :-) But yep, agreed. I certainly need *something* that can archive / restore classic formats to/from modern(-ish!) media. > Can't anyone design one? It's way over my head Over mine too really. I'd be able to build one given a schematic, but probably couldn't design something from scratch. Actually, I'd much prefer a schematic anyway for peace of mind as well as curiousity value. Given the know-how on the list I'm suprised there hasn't been a collective effort in the past to build something. Maybe the majority of us either: 1) only specialise in one machine and so do backups in whatever way's easiest for our own hardware, 2) are lucky enough to be blessed with online archives of software so backups aren't needed 3) aren't taking any backups at all! :-) cheers Jules

21 years, 1 month

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Name that cap...

by leeedavison＠yahoo.co.uk

>is adjusted to give an output pulse width on pin#1 of the 74LS121 > of 5.5 ls." I assume "ls" is an oddball abbreviation for microsecond? The l comes from the misinterpretation of the 'micro' symbol, a long tailed u. Anyhow 5.5us is correct and going from the resistor values and T=CR for the 74121 gives a value of 275pF. 270pF will do but with the range of adjustment in the circuit anything from 100pF to 500pF should work. Lee. . Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

21 years, 1 month

1
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To be a kid again... Edusystem 50?

by dvcorbin＠optonline.net

> I was feeling nostalgic recently and would like to figure out some > way of recreating my introduction to computing in 7th grade (an > ASR-33 with acoustic coupler, timeshared to a PDP-8 at the nearest > university 60 mi. away, running Edusystem 50). The good old > days... when a large hard drive was 256Kw and functional programs > could be run in 8K of core! SAME here...except the PDP was in the building, and we were running full TSS/8 [1972] > I have a TTY basket case which is "very restorable" :) but don't > have the time or space to keep a real PDP-8 up and running. Is > there a decent program I can run on a PC? Or should I invest in an > SBC6120? A front panel with blinkenlights would be neat but not > essential to the TTY "experience". > I have an SBC6120 and a PDP-8 up an running. If you cant get (or in your case dont have room) I strongly recommend theSBC6120 over an emulator. Even though I have both, A lot of the "switch banging" I do on the SBC....hey if a paddle breaks, they are easier to repair!

21 years, 1 month

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To be a kid again... Edusystem 50?

by charlesmorris＠direcway.com

I was feeling nostalgic recently and would like to figure out some way of recreating my introduction to computing in 7th grade (an ASR-33 with acoustic coupler, timeshared to a PDP-8 at the nearest university 60 mi. away, running Edusystem 50). The good old days... when a large hard drive was 256Kw and functional programs could be run in 8K of core! I have a TTY basket case which is "very restorable" :) but don't have the time or space to keep a real PDP-8 up and running. Is there a decent program I can run on a PC? Or should I invest in an SBC6120? A front panel with blinkenlights would be neat but not essential to the TTY "experience". thanks Charles

21 years, 1 month

1
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Texas Instruments TM990/101 M (and its Mystery Chassis)

by billdeg＠degnanco.com

I have noticed a few recent posts about older TI systems including a question about locating a trainer/dev (?) system described a '76 byte magazine. This got me thinking about a TI chassis I have been unable to locate documentation. Can anyone help shed some light on the following. .? The closest thing I could find on the Internet was (an earlier model's users guide), but nothing about the card chassis that holds it. http://computer-refuge.org/bitsavers/ti/tm990-100/TM990-100M_usersGuide.pdf The card chassis: Within a Steel 4-slot Texas Instruments card chassis the size of a shoe box are four Texas Instruments cards manufactured in the US. These cards resemble a regular s-100 card but the 100 contacts are off center, to the left when viewing the component side with the 100 pin side down. Printed on the chassis is Assy No. is 0994676-0001 and Diag No. 0394677. I do not have a power supply, but I assume you'd attach to terminals on the back of the chassis somehow (?). Inside are 4 cards. Two cards are similar are RAM/EPROM cards with 32K in each (8 x 4 rows I assume = 32K ?). The RAM is a mix of TMS 4045-30NL, TMS 4045-30, and TMS 4014NL. There are no Eproms installed, but there are two rows of empty slots on the card. Each card has 8 dip switches. The third card is labeled TM990/101 M. This appears to be a processor/modem/term card with a TMS 9900JL EP7840 ceramic/gold processor, and a TMS 9901NL chip, etc. The card has two 25 pin female connectors apparently for serial i/o. The fourth card is labeled "universal prototype board TM990/512". This card may be newer than the rest and has an Intel P8253 chip (date = '80). There is extensive wiring on the back of the card, it could be for a disk drive, I don't know. The card has 2 40 pin flat connectors. I am hoping someone can point me in the direction for a TM990/101 M Users Guide or documentation about the chassis and/or individual components. I can post pictures by request. -Bill

21 years, 1 month

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Floppy drive pin 2 question?

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Just futzing around with this Manta board (SCSI floppy controller). The docs I have say that pin 2 of the floppy connector is normally an input to the controller from the drive, but that some drives expect pin 2 to be an output to the drive from the controller (e.g. for changing rotation speed on a drive capable of 300 and 360rpm) That sounds wrong to me; surely most drives either don't use pin 2 for anything, or they expect it to be an output from the controller (to cope with things like speed changes) What drives use it as a signal driven by the drive, and what for? I'm tempted to ignore the docs I have and configure it as an output from the controller - I'd just rather not blow up a drive or controller board :-) cheers Jules

21 years, 1 month

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