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

by rachael＠rachael.dyndns.org

Hello Today I found a infovox 500 speech syntizer card, its a small 8bit isa card, dominated by a massiv 68hc000 dil, two 27c2001 eproms, two 62256 32kb sram, and a 88c681 Uart along with a db25 rs232 serial port. Does anyone knows such a card ? My initial thought when I brought it was to remove the parts as everything is socket, but now I`m not sure, might be fun to use or even usefull to someone. Regards Jacob Dahl Pind -- CBM, Amiga,Vintage hardware collector Email: rachael(a)rachael.dyndns.org url: http://rachael.dyndns.org

21 years, 8 months

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VAXStation 4000/90 Hard drive options

by m.wickens＠rhodium-consulting.com

Hi all, A quick question for the VAXen experts out there. Help would very much be appreciated. I'd like to know what the maximum drive size is that I can attach to my VAX. I've never been given a definitive answer, but many people appear to have had success with drives larger than those 'officially' declared supported. I will be running OpenVMS. In particular, I'm wondering whether a Seagate ST39173N which is a 9.1GB 50 pin device will work. There are also several 4.3/4.5GB 50 pin models available, as well as a huge number of 68 and 80 pin devices that could be connected via adapters. I bought a Fujitsu 9.1GB 80 pin SCA drive and attempted to connect this to the VAX via an 80 - 50 pin converted but the drive was not recognised properly by either the boot rom or OpenVMS. Thanks for the help, Mark. -- Mark Wickens Rhodium Consulting Ltd

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "William Donzelli" <aw288(a)osfn.org> > >> OK, I do have one that is going to be an unusual one >> that is significant in its insignificance. > >This is not what I mean by significant. I am looking for machines that did >something historically important. Or even maybe not so historically >important. Provenance - it is important. > >So far the silence has been a bad sign... > Hi Sure, I know what you mean. It is just hard to pick such items out from the flow. Things like the Altair 8800 or an original IBM PC come to mind. But where does one draw the line for things like laptops. It isn't just a matter of being first, it is a matter of actually starting a particular trend. Some of these items may actually be rare while others may be common as dirt. TRS-80's surely had a significant effect. The various BBC computers in the UK had influence there as well. I'm sure there are a number of others to mention. The hard part is to pick one point in the flow of things and state that this was truly a turning point and not just some advertising hype. Influencing things and actually causing wide spread use are different as well. Of the rarer machines that I have, I'd have to say that only my Poly88 started a trend. It was the first of the "reset only" front panels where there was no longer all the lights and switches, for what was then called PC's. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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TI 980

by aek＠spies.com

> With the severe lack of docs, I haven't even powered it on yet. have you looked at www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ti/980 ? The 960 was the process control computer. 980's are fairly conventional 16 bit minicomputers.

21 years, 8 months

1
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Teac floppy replacement

by rcini＠optonline.net

Hello, all: I'm trying to get my "new" Micromint SB180 to work with the floppy drives that came with it. I've been given two sets of disks, both of which were made on a known-working system but which produce read errors on mine. The drives pass the internal disgnostics that are in the SB180 ROM, but I want to eliminate the drive from the problem by swapping another in. It appears to use standard 5.25" 1/2-height PC drives except that the "old" drive has a head-load solenoid while the new one doesn't. The model number of the "old" drive is FD55F-03-U and the model number of the "new" drive is FD55BV-36-U. There are differences in the jumper designations between the models so I can't readily map the settings. Can anyone help with this? 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, 8 months

4
3
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Foam pads for keytronics keyboards ?

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

Does anybody have a current source for the foam pads that are used in capacitive Keytronics keyboards ?

21 years, 8 months

3
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HP 2100 manuals on ebay

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I didn't bid on this (was preparing to snipe), but finally talked to the other bidder and was sure the documentation would be preserved on bitsavers. Turns out some other third person won the auction who I don't recognize their ebay userid. I sure hope it was a classiccmp'er and we'll all benefit >from the archival of the documents. If not... it's probably lost. Big shame, looked like some great stuff. Jay West --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

21 years, 8 months

2
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rarest computers

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "William Donzelli" <aw288(a)osfn.org> ---snip--- > >You will see that most machines - nearly all - did pretty unimportant jobs >in their lifes. I look at mine - one was used for managing parts for GM in >Canada. Another did payroll at a steel and bridge company. Another was >used in a high school. A few I simply do not know. Anyway, not very >exciting. What I am looking for are instances of machines with a exciting >history. > OK, now I see what you are getting at. History of these machines is really hard to get. For the most part, it is even harder to prove. The most interesting one from that standpoint was the Olivetti M20. I got it from the xwife of a fellow that worked for Olivetti here in Sunnyvale, developing applications. When he gave it to her, all she wanted it for was the word processor. I have a Kim that was purchased by a fellow that was in the early days but never actually did anything with it. Sales slip included. Most anything else I've gotten lacks history. I wish I'd gotten more with items but it is tough enough to just round up documents and programs for these machines. The only machine that I know the complete history is my second computer ( a H89 ). I built it and learned from it. I've designed and built some of my own I/O boards for it. I have nothing with any Earth shaking history( that I know of ). I know such machines are out there. They just never come my way. I'm just not in the right place at the right time. I keep looking, though. I guess the biggest problem is that few individual machines were actually involved in history making events. Many may have been involved in bits and pieces. The only famous machine I can think of is the IMSAI that was used in "War Games". It is not all that important a history event but it is the only one I know about. There are reproduction items but no other originals that I'd consider related to historic evens or times. You are really asking for the rarest of items. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers

by cb＠mythtech.net

>> Apple IIc Plus - Only made for a year or so. Again, not ultra-rare, but not >> often seen around. > >Is this the one that has a small form factor? It is a small form factor Apple II series. Looks kind of like a small briefcase or a laptop without a screen. The difference between the IIc+ and the regular IIc is the IIc+ has an integrated power supply and a 3.5" floppy drive. (The regular IIc has a 5.25" drive and requires an external power brick). -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 8 months

3
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RA71 all alone?

by brad＠heeltoe.com

Hi, [dec pdp-11 question] anyone know if I can use a RA71 drive all by it's lonesome with an UDA50? I have some RA90's which are working fine but I found a naked RA71 recently and was wondering if I can use it. (probably not without some sort of controller board, but I thought I'd ask) It has a obvious molex power connector and three .1" headers. Two of the headers look like they want to accept the 8 pin plug from my UDA 50 :-) probably wishful thinking. (I've been running the RA90's straight from the UDA50 with the 'red cable'; this has been working fine and doesn't violate the 'odd # of cables' rule) -brad

21 years, 8 months

2
1
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PDP-11 Freeware CDs for RSX-11 and RT-11 (Originally Produced by Tim Shoppa)

by jhfinexgs2＠compsys.to

Hi John, I attempted to send the following e-mail, but it keeps getting rejected at your e-mail address. So I am also sending it to the classiccmp address in case anyone is able to forward it to you. If anyone at classiccmp knows what the problem is, then please help! If John sends me his new (or old) e-mail address or can verify the snail mail address, that would be what I need!!!!!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine ============================================ Hi John, At this point, after many delays - most of which are my fault - I am about to mail the CDs. They are actually ready to be taken to the Post Office to be mailed. I want to check on your address first, so please respond! John W. McCance aaaaa (deleted in case it is private) aaaaa aaaaa Thank you for being so patient!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine -- If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the 'at' with the four digits of the current year.

21 years, 8 months

1
0
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PDP-11 Freeware CDs for RSX-11 and RT-11 (Originally Produced by Tim Shoppa)

by jhfinexgs2＠compsys.to

Hi John, I attempted to send the following e-mail, but it keeps getting rejected at your e-mail address. So I am also sending it to the classiccmp address in case anyone is able to forward it to you. If anyone at classiccmp knows what the problem is, then please help! If John sends me his new (or old) e-mail address or can verify the snail mail address, that would be what I need!!!!!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine ============================================ Hi John, At this point, after many delays - most of which are my fault - I am about to mail the CDs. They are actually ready to be taken to the Post Office to be mailed. I want to check on your address first, so please respond! John W. McCance aaaaa (deleted in case it is private) aaaaa aaaaa Thank you for being so patient!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine -- If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the 'at' with the four digits of the current year.

21 years, 8 months

1
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RA71 all alone?

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Brad Parker <brad(a)heeltoe.com> wrote: > anyone know if I can use a RA71 drive all by it's lonesome with an UDA50? > > I have some RA90's which are working fine but I found a naked RA71 > recently and was wondering if I can use it. (probably not without some > sort of controller board, but I thought I'd ask) RA71 is an SDI drive just like RA90 and every other RAxx drive. They all connect directly to an SDI controller (UDA50, KDA50, KDB50, KDM70, HSC, etc). You just need the right SDI cables. I have never seen a UDA50 (all my life so far has been Q-bus MicroVAXen, so all my RA drives are on KDA50s), so I don't know what cable it will need. > It has a obvious molex power connector and three .1" headers. Two of > the headers look like they want to accept the 8 pin plug from my UDA 50 > :-) Those are SDI connectors for port A and port B. The larger header is for the OCP (operator control panel). Having an OCP is nice, but one can live without it (I have none myself). Without an OCP the drive gets its unit number from 3 switches on the side. This limits the unit number to 0-7, while the MSCP spec allows much higher unit numbers. I believe you can get the full MSCP spec range of unit numbers with the OCP. MS

21 years, 8 months

3
2
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PDP-11 Freeware CDs for RSX-11 and RT-11 (Originally Produced by Tim Shoppa)

by jhfinexgs2＠compsys.to

Hi John, I attempted to send the following e-mail, but it keeps getting rejected at your e-mail address. So I am also sending it to the classiccmp address in case anyone is able to forward it to you. If anyone at classiccmp knows what the problem is, then please help! If John sends me his new (or old) e-mail address or can verify the snail mail address, that would be what I need!!!!!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine ============================================ Hi John, At this point, after many delays - most of which are my fault - I am about to mail the CDs. They are actually ready to be taken to the Post Office to be mailed. I want to check on your address first, so please respond! John W. McCance aaaaa (deleted in case it is private) aaaaa aaaaa Thank you for being so patient!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine -- If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the 'at' with the four digits of the current year.

21 years, 8 months

1
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Electronics Barn closing

by sloboyko＠yahoo.com

Ron Hudson Stated: >Another problem with most modern stuff is that it is >surface mount tiny "you can't work on it without >special tools" not meant for repair, only for >replacement. This is not really a problem with surface mount. I thought this would be impossible too - then I built, as my first SMT project, a Nixie tube watch - with "over 45" eyeballs that never worked perfectly. http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/nixwatch.htm I invested in only: 1. A GOOD temperature controlled iron ($50) from eBay 2. Good (but not great) tweezers ($5.00) 3. $5.00 set of eye loupes 4. $110.00 - a hot air rework station from eBay (I didn't really need this) 5. Some flux "markers" and some really thin solder >from Digi-Key - around $20 Nice things about surface mount are that the parts are really cheap, you can get a lot more stuff on a board (board cost), and the parts can be fairly easily recycled (especially with the rework station). The real problem as I see it is the proliferation of parts. The Digi-Key catalog is like, 10 times the size it was in the 70/80's. Parts come and go very quickly now. And with ASICs, you are at the mercy of the manufacturer. I am concerned that all the TTL in the surplus market now is all that there is-I can't beleive that anyone is making any more. Wire-wrap sockets and quality punched boards are getting very expensive. ===== -Steve Loboyko Incredible wisdom actually found in a commerical fortune cookie: "When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day." Website: http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers

by cb＠mythtech.net

>> Magnevox Odyssey 1 - Not really a computer (It was analog!), but farily >> uncommon, and predecessor to the really-a-computer Odyssey 2. I have one of these, but I'm missing most of the overlays. Also the rifle for some of the games is long since trashed. Some day I'll dig the thing out and see if the system itself still works. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

21 years, 8 months

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Electronics Barn closing

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Cameron Kaiser" <spectre(a)floodgap.com> > >> > He got red in the face when I asked him how he's teaching kids any >> > base OS principles such as state-saving and interrupting. Meaning, >> > kids don't go there, pretty much. The next major version of a >> > known OS will probably be without interrupts, as none of the >> > programmers will have any knowledge about them anymore ;-) > >> OH, like DOS again! > >DOS is an operating system? ;) > Windows is not. It is an application interface. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "SHAUN RIPLEY" <vax3900(a)yahoo.com> > ---snip--- >In my eyes X86 is not bad at all. Every divert from >X86 Intel made was a failure. I432, I860, I960, >Itanium, all failed. Maybe 8051 is an exception. Also Hi I'd not say that either the 432 or 8051 were spawned >from the X86. Also, even though Intel doesn't deal with it anymore, the 186's are still quite popular for embedded. Most CISC processors of today run with a RISC core. CISC has the advantage of more efficient use of bulk memory bandwidth while RISC can be more easily handled for things like pipelining and multiple execution engines. Dwight >CISC won the battle with RISC finally. It might be >better for DEC to develop faster VAX than to develop >Alpha. > >vax, 3900 > >> >> William Donzelli >> aw288(a)osfn.org >> >> >> > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around >http://mail.yahoo.com >

21 years, 8 months

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HP 2100 manuals on ebay

by aek＠spies.com

I didn't bid on this (was preparing to snipe), but finally talked to the other bidder and was sure the documentation would be preserved on bitsavers. -- Copies of those documents have been scanned, and are in the queue to be pdf'ed I probably should put up a list of what has been done to see if people would volunteer to postprocess the scans. On a good day, I can finish about 1000 pages while on average I have been scanning about 4x that per day. I just checked the /scan directory and it's around 80gb, with only about 25gb postprocessed.

21 years, 8 months

4
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Why do MRV11-D's crap out?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Ed Kelleher" <Pres(a)macro-inc.com> > >I get requests for MRV11-D's regularly, like once a week. >Had a bunch and sold them. >Still have several in the field and have never seen one fail. > >Are these things going bad? >Can't believe people are building new systems with them. >There's nothing much on them, just 2 boot ROM's and a simple QBUS interface. >The set of MXV11-B2 boot ROMs I have are 2764A's. >Do these die after awhile? >Just sitting here scratching my head. > >Ed > > Hi Ed Most EPROMs are rated for 10 years. That doesn't mean that every one will last that long. Also, many of these types of systems were all made with EPROMs from the same lot. If there was a long term issue, they'd all fail. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers. was: RE: Xerox Alto Restoration + Emulation

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "John Honniball" <coredump(a)gifford.co.uk> > >Dwight K. Elvey wrote: >> 3. Olivetti M-20 > >I want one of these! ---snip--- Hi John These were also labeled as L-1's with slightly different add-on hardware options. Some had color but mine is only black and white. I believe there was a M-30 as well with the Z-8000 but I've never seen one of these. I'm quite enjoying reading about all the unusual items that are in many collections. It seems we all have some interesting items. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Paul Koning" <pkoning(a)equallogic.com> ---snip--- > >For autonomous timekeeping independent of technology, the state of the >art was a second per year or so (that's 10^-8, roughly) around the >early 1900s. First with pendulum clocks (Shortt clock), then around >the 1940s or so crystal clocks came in that could match this. And not >too long after that there came the rubidium (10^-10) and cesium >(10^-14) clocks. Some of that would be found in military gear, I >think (Rb at least, Cs somewhat less likely). Consider GPS >satellites, which have either or both built-in. > > paul > > Hi I thought I'd mention that GPS satellites are very precise but no longer accurate. The world standards like UTC are not on the same second as used for GPS. I don't recall how far things have changed but for political and other reasons, the world time standards have been changing. GPS are still locked to being relative to particular data and time. Every one else has had a few leap seconds here and there. There is a chart someplace on the web that shows how things are. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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EPROM Erase or Program service

by vcf＠siconic.com

In light of recent conversations, I found this eBay auction interesting: EPROM : ERASE OR PROGRAM EPROM SERVICE PERFORMED http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50914&item=3830935563 -- 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, 8 months

4
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rarest computers

by Adrian＠beovax.co.uk

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Bryan Pope > Sent: 03 August 2004 16:30 > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: rarest computers > > > Magnevox Odyssey 1 - Not really a computer (It was analog!), but > > farily uncommon, and predecessor to the really-a-computer Odyssey 2. > > Wow! I didn't know this.. (that it's analog) .. very cool! :) Mine's been disassembled here: http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Magnavox/odyssey.php 'all' that circuitry can generate is 2 player objects, a ball object and optionally a net object down the middle. Top stuff! Cheers w

21 years, 8 months

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AT&T General Purpose Sychronous AT/Enhanced card

by hrs-accounting＠wi.rr.com

Do you still have this card? Connie Kreis Financial Manager High Reliability Systems 469 Decorah Road West Bend, WI 53095 p 262-268-0911 f 263-268-0967 hrs-accounting(a)wi.rr.com

21 years, 8 months

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Reforming Old Capacitors

by marvin＠rain.org

Someone just posted this handbook on the Heathkit listserver, and looks pretty good at a first glance. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HANDBOOK FOR STORAGE SHELF LIFE AND REFORMING PROCEDURES FOR ALUMINUM ELECTROLYTIC FIXED CAPACITORS It is online in PDF format at: http://www.multi-volti.com/hb1131.pdf

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers. was: RE: Xerox Alto Restoration + Emulation

by Adrian＠beovax.co.uk

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jules Richardson > Sent: 03 August 2004 12:25 > To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: rarest computers. was: RE: Xerox Alto > Restoration + Emulation > > I found an RML advert in an old comp magazine at Bletchley of > a pair of cream 480Z's along with a *white* 380Z at the > weekend. I'm assuming it was a mock-up as I've never known of > a white 380Z before. *cough* Who found it? :) I think I'll borrow it next weekend and scan it on sat night. Can you remember which mag it was in? Cya w

21 years, 8 months

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Looking for Steve Loboyko

by JCalvert＠trinityvideo.net

I am looking for a Steve Loboyko that use to work for VSI and BellSouth in Charlotte. If this gets to you Steve, this is coming from John Calvert, please send a reply to me. THANKS!

21 years, 8 months

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Cirris 1000

by jimc＠unipower-corp.com

Joe, The link to e-bay for the Cirris Signature 1000 is no longer valid. Do you still have it? Jim Ceavers Unipower Corp. 954-905-1062

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Joseph S. Barrera III <joe(a)barrera.org> wrote: > > > Half of everything I have has something wierd about it, like the > > > MAC with an Apple-II card in it or the uVAX-II GPX that was said to > > > be Stallman's. > > > > Ew. Did you sterilize the keyboard before using it? > > Can you imagine Stallman hairs coming out of it for years afterwards? > > Best to sterilize it in a furnace. Stallman? Do you mean Richard Stallman of GNU fame? If so, what's so bad or contageous about him? While it's well known that I'm quite disapproving of GNU (which is strictly because GNU is anti-UNIX and I'm well known to be a priest of Holy UNIX), I have nothing against RMS personally and I'm quite shocked to see people make comments concerning him ("sterilize the keyboard" etc.) that one would expect to be made about, say, Dark Emperor BillG. MS

21 years, 8 months

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rarest computers. was: RE: Xerox Alto Restoration + Emulation

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi ben A good picture of it can be seen at: http://www.omahug.org/vcf40/v02.jpg ( the Wyse terminal is not original ) It was used as a processing unit for a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. This did chemical analysis. The upper part of the panel is related to the data acquisition while the lower part is the blinking lights part. Mine has 12Kx20 of core but they also had a 24Kx20 setup with an expansion chassis. The 12K core comes in 3 stacks. Most used a hard disk but mine is floppy bases. I'm always looking for more programs to run on this ;) Sellam has another one of these and there is a fellow in England that has one as well. These are the only remaining machines that I am aware of. These were in competition with the Varian machines of the time. Nicolet was one of the last manufactures to make core bases processors and made processors for use on subs because of cores resistance to radiation. The instruction set is funny as well. It used the typical conditional skip instruction of the time but the ALU was interesting because it used a 5 port input. It has hardware for doing multiply and divide because it's primary output was the result of doing FFT's on the data input. Fast multiply and divide are desirable. I have running a BASIC ( with matrix operations ), an assembler, an editor and several games. I also have a floating point package as well and some diagnostic programs. Any more specific questions? Dwight >From: "ben franchuk" <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> >Dwight K. Elvey wrote: > >> Hi >> I was just wondering. What people on this list consider their >> rarest computers in their collections. Here is my list >> >> 1. Nicolet 80 ( 20 bit mini with core. working condition. Only know >> of 2 others. I doubt there are more than 10 left >> anywhere. ) > >Hmm, I want to hear more of this mini. >Ben. > >

21 years, 8 months

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important

by rschaefe＠gcfn.org

I have received your document. The corrected document is attached. ++++ Attachment: No Virus found ++++ Norman AntiVirus - www.norman.com

21 years, 8 months

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Electronics Barn closing

by chowell2＠pacbell.net

Tony Duell writes: > >> just get into different tools then older people who didn't have a computer >> to play with when they grew up. When I was young I went out and purchased >> some ram chips to fix my dead C64 (was stupid and touched a staticy TV while >> my other hand was on the keyboard, ESD), equipment was expensive. Today if a >> pc card breaks its cheaper to chuck it and get a new/used one then it is to >> even think of looking for the parts to fix it, same with all other > > We've had this before, and I still don't believe it. If you can honstly > tell me that it's cheaper (and quicker) to replace some large PCB costing > several hundreed pounds/dollars than to find the dead I/O buffer chip > (which sould cost a few 10s of pence, and which would take me about 10 > minutes to find at most), then I have to wonder what planet you're on. How about replacing a card costing $25 to $50, vs. replacing the fried surface-mounted ASIC (one of only two or three chips on the card), which incidentally is only available to OEMs in the first place? In order to make mass-market electronics so cheap, they have had to be tailored to large-scale industrial producers, rendering them inaccessible to mere mortals. To take one extreme example, the single IC of modern calculators isn't packaged at all in the conventional sense--the chip is mounted right on the printed circuit board and encased in a blob of resin to protect it. And, of course, the logical conclusion of integrated circuit technology is to get rid of the circuit board and separate components entirely. Colin

21 years, 8 months

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OT: ServGate documentation pack, anyone want?

by shirker＠mooli.org.uk

Hi, I have a ServGate EdgeForce documentation pack here, consisting of a CD-ROM, Quick Start Guide Version 2.5 and SGOS 2.5 Administrator's Guide (book). Free, but you pay postage. Contact me within 14 days if you want it, or it hits the trash. Regards, Ed.

21 years, 8 months

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Zilog Z8038 Z-FIO document available

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "SHAUN RIPLEY" <vax3900(a)yahoo.com> > >I copied the Z8038 part from the book "The Z8000 >microprocessor, A design handbook" by Bradly, K. >Fawcett. I remember that somebody on the list tried to >make a collection of zilog chip documents. I'd like to >mail the 20 pages to him. Please send me email if it >is you. Thanks. > > Hi Shaun Does your book describe the floating point processor ( that was never released ). I was wondering because the CP/M-8000 that I've been playing with ( accually the C compiler ) uses the floating point processors instructions and then exception traps them to execute the floating point code. The format for using these traps would be the same as was expected for the real FPU. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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RX50 Dis/assembly..

by trash3＠splab.cas.neu.edu

Did you get it back together? I have 3 RX50 drives I have not dismantled yet, so I could probably let you know layout. Joe HEck

21 years, 8 months

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wtd (uk): TI99 memory cart, ACT Sirius

by stuart＠zen.co.uk

Hi everyone, I'm on the lookout currently for a 32K memory cart for a TI99 PEB, as well as extended basic. I'm also interested in any ACT Sirius hardware anyone has currently hanging around. Many thanks for any help. Stu

21 years, 8 months

1
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Senosa Directdata 640

by swebb＠cix.co.uk

I've been asked if I can find any information on the following, can anybody help? 'We acquired a number of years ago a Senosa Limited Directdata 640 Transmission Processor with Digico Teletype from a local company but it came with no information. Could you please point me in the right direction for some information about how these items work, date of production etc.' Simon Webb Curator, Museum of Computing www.museum-of-computing.org.uk Tel: 07939 582544

21 years, 8 months

1
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First computer with real-time clock?

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

Caged human or graduate student doesn't count. Mike.

21 years, 8 months

2
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a classiccmp electronics project?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "John Honniball" <coredump(a)gifford.co.uk> > >Jay West wrote: >> Since the blank chips are nigh impossible to find anymore... is it possible >> to use something like a PIC chip on a small DIP carrier card, that could be >> plugged into an existing loader rom or microcode rom socket and function >> just like the "real thing" to the system? > >You wouldn't use a PIC chip for something like this. A PIC would be >used in a microcontroller-type application, where program-controlled >behaviour is required. To replace a ROM, we could simply use another >ROM (or PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash ROM, etc.) with a pinout adaptor. > >People are already doing this for PROMs in mobile radios. These PROMs >are in fact the same chips as one finds in a PDP-11 for booting (M9312) >and for storing the 8008 firmware in an 11/34 console card. The >PROMs in question are 82S131, 74S571 or Am27S13 types (512x8). I have >some blanks here to fix a console card, as it happens. > >Scroll down here: > > http://www.open.org/~blenderm/syntorx/legacy.html > >to the section headed "EPROM Conversion" to read about the PROM >replacements for Syntor radios. And see this page: > > http://www.open.org/~blenderm/syntorx/legacyeprom.html > >for photos of a completed adaptor. > >Do you know the chip numbers and/or specs for the ROMs you wish to >emulate? > >-- >John Honniball >coredump(a)gifford.co.uk > Hi John Most of the applications Jay is talking about require faster than 100ns someplace. Most EPROMs just are not in that range. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Electronic Barn closing

by evan947＠yahoo.com

Found a few things besides the place in Green Brook: --- http://www.clarkreiss.com/CR_Products.htm --- http://www.edlieelectronics.com/ --- http://www.adc-ast.com/ --- http://www.servosystems.com/ --- http://www.herbach.com/ --- http://www.industrialsurplus.com/ --- http://www.vulcanscrap.com/

21 years, 8 months

4
3
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Bimodal error distribution?

by charlesmorris＠direcway.com

>Since actual error distributions on crystals are bimodal, not Gaussian, you would >normally get just about that error. This sounds interesting. Any ideas why? -Charles

21 years, 8 months

2
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Bimodal error distribution?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: charlesmorris(a)direcway.com > >>Since actual error distributions on crystals are bimodal, not Gaussian, you would >>normally get just about that error. > >This sounds interesting. Any ideas why? > >-Charles > What Why? Bimodel is quite common for tuned circuits that are lightly loaded. Still, if one goes out on the skirts of the curves, you'll be as close to Gaussian as you'd ever want to be. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

1
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Looking for help with V-marc 88a

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

I need the power supply for a V-marc 88a or the information about it so that I can get the computer tested that I have. Also missing the plastic cover for the printer area if anyone has an extra. Thanks in advance.

21 years, 8 months

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Altair Repair

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Marvin There is a front panel schematic, someplace on the net but I don't recall where. There was a CDROM set released that had it as well ( as I recall ). You should also note that any card with DRAM on it is most likely not going to work unless things are matched with the CPU card. Most early machines did different things for the refresh clocking. I know that I added a kludge to my Poly88 CPU card to get the EconoRam board to work with it, that I got from SD Sales. Other DRAM boards have different setups. Dwight >From: "Marvin Johnston" <marvin(a)rain.org> > > >"Dwight K. Elvey" wrote: > >> It sounds like the front panel isn't jamming the correct >> instructions onto the data bus ( or something on the data >> lines of the CPU is loading one of the data lines ). >> The front panel works by either jamming a JMP ( 0C3h ) instruction >> onto the CPU's bus or a NOP ( 00h ). This allows for both changing >> address and incrementing the address. The front panel can then >> override the read and write operations to the physical memory >> during the increment. > >Since this does appear to be related to the databus and getting the >correct information to the CPU, I'll start by checking to make sure the >JMP and NOP instructions are getting out on the bus. What is interesting >is that the switch settings seem to have almost no effect on anything >until I turn them all on. But the JMP and NOP buffers could well cause >some problems. Wish I could find my Jade Board quickly :). Right now, >I'm using a Bob Mullens S-100 extender card with the High, Low, Pulse >LED indicators ... may have to actually fire up the scope if I don't >find out the problem fairly soon. > >> The most common problem I've seen that causes similar effects >> is that there are several 7406 ( or similar OC buffers ) connected >> from the front panel to the data lines of the CPU. One or more >> of these devices has failed ( I suspect this is mostly do to >> some overlap timing and stressing of the parts but that is >> the way they are designed ). One other thing that I've seen >> is that the data lines going to the CPU from the front panel >> were wired upside down. This is that cable between the two. >> ( soemone put the cable together backwards ) > >This is one of the original style Altairs where the wiring between the 4 >slot motherboards and the front panel are all done with discrete wires. >Makes me wonder if the 2 MHz clock speed is too fast :). I've checked >out all the data and control lines from the front panel to the bus and >everything seems to be correct. I did notice that the Phase 2 clock >doesn't register on the Bob Mullens card, but that may be because the >pulse length is too short for the card to read (123 w/ 10 pf cap and >about 6.? K resistor.) > >Thanks! >

21 years, 8 months

1
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Xerox Alto Restoration + Emulation

by mross666＠hotmail.com

Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004 23:32:18 -0400 From: "Chandra Bajpai" <cbajpai(a)comcast.net> Subject: Xerox Alto Restoration + Emulation >Has anyone every heard of these guys.they seem to up in Canada and are >painstakingly restoring an Xerox Alto I since April 2003. <snip> That would be the Bordynuiks, Heather & John IIRC. They had a bunch of stuff on ebay a while back, bought some pdp-11/20 memory from them. Other than that my contact with them has been minimal. They own pdp8.com - they had some nice stuff, including a nice pdp-15 with drum IIRC. Think Robert Garner has that one now... The Alto restoration is one *very* impressive bit of work, they're serious hardware engineers - seem to recall they also (according to rumour) had something to do with Paul Allen and his KL... Mike http://www.corestore.org

21 years, 8 months

3
2
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Altair Repair

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Marvin Johnston" <marvin(a)rain.org> > > >I fired up an Altair and found it didn't behave as it should (tested >with MITs and Polymorphic CPU cards.) Doing an "Examine" does not load >the switch settings into the program counter. Doing an "Examine Next" >seems to increment the program counter by 3. The preceeding was done >with and without a memory card. I tried the "Deposit" but had no way to >see what I was doing since the switch settings apparently weren't being >loaded. Finally, the "Deposit Next" increments the LEDs. One other >strangeness, when I connect the Data Display cable to the MITS card, the >"Stop" switch ceases to function although the "Start" seems to work >fine. > >I do have the schematics and will start to dig into it later this >morning. BUT, I was hoping to short circuit some of the troubleshooting >time if someone on the list has experienced something like this :). >Thanks! > Hi Marvin It sounds like the front panel isn't jamming the correct instructions onto the data bus ( or something on the data lines of the CPU is loading one of the data lines ). The front panel works by either jamming a JMP ( 0C3h ) instruction onto the CPU's bus or a NOP ( 00h ). This allows for both changing address and incrementing the address. The front panel can then override the read and write operations to the physical memory during the increment. The most common problem I've seen that causes similar effects is that there are several 7406 ( or similar OC buffers ) connected >from the front panel to the data lines of the CPU. One or more of these devices has failed ( I suspect this is mostly do to some overlap timing and stressing of the parts but that is the way they are designed ). One other thing that I've seen is that the data lines going to the CPU from the front panel were wired upside down. This is that cable between the two. ( soemone put the cable together backwards ) Dwight

21 years, 8 months

2
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Looking for old data information

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Steven I suspect that the MM78 is at least one of the parts that I'm looking for. I regret that the actual chips have no information on them other than the date code and the in-house part number. There are no generic part numbers on their labels. Dwight >From: steven <tosteve(a)yahoo.com> > > >I have a 1984 Rockwell Data Book with lots of ICs in >it - I will need a part number. > >Steve. > > >--- John Honniball <coredump(a)gifford.co.uk> wrote: > >> Dwight K. Elvey wrote: >> > Does anyone have any data books with the specs >> > and signals for Rockwell's 4 bit processors that >> > they made during the late 70's? These were in a >> > funny flat pack called spider chips. >> >> I have a book by Steve Money called "Microprocessor >> Data Book", and >> it lists three Rockwell 4-bit chips, the MM75, MM76 >> and MM78. They >> make up the PPS4/1 Series. Are they the ones you >> are interested in? >> >> -- >> John Honniball >> coredump(a)gifford.co.uk >> >> > > > > >__________________________________ >Do you Yahoo!? >Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! >http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail >

21 years, 8 months

1
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Looking for old data information

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "John Honniball" <coredump(a)gifford.co.uk> > >Dwight K. Elvey wrote: >>>From: "John Honniball" <coredump(a)gifford.co.uk> >>>I have a book by Steve Money called "Microprocessor Data Book", and >>>it lists three Rockwell 4-bit chips, the MM75, MM76 and MM78. They >>>make up the PPS4/1 Series. Are they the ones you are interested in? >... >> Hard to say. The chips I have all have inhouse numbers on them. >> It sure does sound like the right stuff though. The chips are >> all 42 pin spider chips. > >There's no detail about the packaging, but only one chip has 42 pins. >The MM78 (and MM78LA) is listed as "42-pin quad in line". That chip >has 2k of 8-bit ROM, 128x4 bit RAM and 31 I/O lines. Instructions >are 8 bits wide, but the ALU and memory are 4-bit. Maximum clock >frequency is 100kHz. > >-- >John Honniball >coredump(a)gifford.co.uk > Hi John That would most likely be part of what I'm looking for. "42-pin quad in line" sounded like how they might describe the spider chips. I suspect that this is what most of the IC's are on this unit. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

1
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First computer with real-time clock?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "William Donzelli" <aw288(a)osfn.org> > >> My favorite on the opposite end, is a random bit stream produced by >> using the pulses from a geiger counter (and associated radioactive >> material) to clock a long shift register. It's well-discussed, but I'm >> not sure anyone ever produced one. > >I *think* some military crypto gear did things link this, but I am not >sure. > >I know that AT&T once marketted a true random bitstream chip using a bunch >of unstable oscillators. > >William Donzelli >aw288(a)osfn.org > > Hi It has been shown that if you loosely couple three oscillators they will produce chaotic periods. I've also seen that when a zener diode is around 7.2V it is especially noisy. This has been used to produce many types of random noise, including white and pink noise for special purposes. Most silicon transistors will zener in this region if back biased, base to emitter. I ones made a wave sound simulator using both the zener and the oscillator principles. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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