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

OT-ish - converting hex output to binary on a Unix platform

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 30, 12:51, Jules Richardson wrote: > > I have a few files in hex format (actually ROM dumps) and want to > convert them to binary. Sort of the reverse of the hexdump utility. I'm > not aware of a standard (and probably on-topic!) Unix util to do this, > but maybe someone knows if there is one, or a handy way of doing this > using some of the standard text-processing utils that Unix has... mload will do this for Intel HEX files and patches, but it sounds like your files aren't quite the same as Intel HEX. However, the source code can be modified. http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/IntelHEX/ contains the tar file, but the important bits are also at http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/mload.c http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/mload.1 It's an implementation I did years ago of a common CP/M program called, not surprisingly, mload. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by toresbe＠ifi.uio.no

I actually could swear I'd read somewhere that the MIT whirlwind had a clock, it was a mechanical contraption or something. I'll stop by the informatics library which has a book on the Whirlwind. (I'm picking up the Teletype to take it home and work on it here!:) -tsb

21 years, 8 months

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OT-ish - converting hex output to binary on a Unix platform

by paulrsm＠buckeye-express.com

I use MS-DOS, not Unix, and I always solve the problem of converting a hex dump to a binary file using two standard tools: a text editor and an assembler. > (files are in the format of 16 pairs > of uppercase hex digits per line, > with a trailing space after every > pair - even the last one on a line) So a sample line might be "00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F " Adjust the following steps for your assembler. Delete trailing spaces, convert every space to ",$", and add " DB $" to the beginning of every line: " DB $00,$01,$02,$03,$04,$05,$06,$07,$08,$09,$0A,$0B,$0C,$0D,$0E,$0F" Add any required directives (ORG, END, etc.) and assemble. -- Paul Monroe, Michigan USA

21 years, 8 months

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OT-ish - converting hex output to binary on a Unix platform

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi If I was doing this on a Intel ISIS II system, I'd use an editor called X1.11. Although, there are languages like Perl that specifically handle text input streams, most any language can handle this conversion. I believe I have written this very same function in at least 3 different languages at one time or another. I know I've done it in BASIC, 8080 assembly and Forth. The concept is always the same. 1. Get a line 2. parse the line into words( hex digit pairs ) 3. Translate the hex into binary 4. write that to an output file. One just repeats this until done. Of course, one may optimize things by buffering input and output in sizes that are similar to the storage media. Translation can be any of a number of methods. Even a translation table although I think I've always done it by doing calculations on the ascii value( some languages get in the way by requiring casting between data types ). Dwight >From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> > > >Silly question, but maybe someone here's found a nice way of doing this >using standard Unix tools... > >I have a few files in hex format (actually ROM dumps) and want to >convert them to binary. Sort of the reverse of the hexdump utility. I'm >not aware of a standard (and probably on-topic!) Unix util to do this, >but maybe someone knows if there is one, or a handy way of doing this >using some of the standard text-processing utils that Unix has... > >(files are in the format of 16 pairs of uppercase hex digits per line, >with a trailing space after every pair - even the last one on a line) > >I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that I need to remember some C >again - and I've only just finished emptying my brain of it after the >last time I needed to code in it a couple of months ago :-) > >cheers > >Jules > >

21 years, 8 months

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REAL TIME CLOCK

by jbmcb＠hotmail.com

I'm not sure what the exact criteria are, but I'm almost positive the SAGE system would have a real time clock. Tracking inbound bogeys is pretty time-dependant :) http://www.eskimo.com/~wow-ray/sage28.html _________________________________________________________________ Discover the best of the best at MSN Luxury Living. http://lexus.msn.com/

21 years, 8 months

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HP analyzer probes

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Hi all, My HP 1651B logic analyzer arrived this morning, sans probes. The seller says he "thought they were in the pouch on top, where the bootdisk is" and that he "didn't have any left in stock anyway". Rather typically, all that was in there was a single 40-pin woven cable (HP part number 01650-61607) and the bootdisk. Murphy's Law at work. So... Does anyone have spares of any of the following Hewlett-Packard or Agilent parts in their collection that they'd be willing to part with? 01650-61607 Woven cable, IDC40 to IDC40 (I need 1x of these) 01650-61608 Probe, IDC40 to flying-lead (I need 2x of these) NOTE: the probe module should also include grabber probes. There doesn't seem to be anything even remotely close to this on Ebay at the moment, well, at least there's nothing that's available to the UK. Plenty of probe kits available USA-only though... Thanks. -- Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB, philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice, http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI ... Memory is a thing we forget with.

21 years, 8 months

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Old EPROM questions again, EPROM Programmer

by Lee.Davison＠merlincommunications.com

>>I have a couple of "ultraviolet" LEDs with me, but I doubt they are the >>right frequency to erase EPROMs. > If they're the high power UV LEDs then they should work. A friend of > mine uses those to erase his EPROMs and the erase time is about the same > as for a UV light. There are not yet available UV LEDs that radiate at short enough wavelength to erase EPROMs in a reasonable time. Most EPROMs will start to erase at <400nm but take hours of exposure, to erase an EPROM in 20 mins or so needs 12mW/cm^2 of 257nm light on the die face. The longer wavelengths just warm the chip up a bit. This is why UV tubes for photo resist and similar won't erase EPROMs either, they output nearer 400nm which is where state of the art UV LEDs are at. Lee. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________

21 years, 8 months

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REAL TIME CLOCK

by LAAG＠PACBELL.NET

THE COMPUTER AUTOMATION COMPUTERS HAD A HARDWARE INTERRUPT FOR A REAL TIME CLOCK AND THEN THE SOFTWARE WOULD UPDATE THE INFO AT THE SELECTED INTERVAL... THESE CAME OUT IN 1970 OR SO...

21 years, 8 months

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More HP microcode & loader rom detective work

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org> > >I had written.... >> Microcode roms I can't identify: >> 1816-0996 >> 1816-0997 >> 1816-0998 >> 1816-0999 >> 1816-1000 >> 1816-1001 > >OMG OMG!!! Are these the E series 2000/Access IOP firmware????? >YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????? > >--- >[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] > > Hi Jay OK, take a deep breath. Explain what IOP firmware is? Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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IBM PS/2 systems going...

by vcf＠siconic.com

Going... Anyone interested? Their pardon runs out tomorrow... PS/2 Model 50 PS/2 Model 50Z PS/2 Model 35 SX -- 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

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8" floppy project

by Lee.Davison＠merlincommunications.com

> So what happens if you try to do disk access while displaying > animations? The animations get displayed, the disk gets accessed. There's enough performance available to handle four disks and the display simultaneously. Lee. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>> This is basically a "digital clock" chip with BCD outputs (intended to >> drive BCD to 7-segment decoders) on an S-100 board. The fact that it >> is a chip intended for a clock display gives rise to certain odd >> characteristics: > >The chip used in the HP 98035 (RTC module for the 9825) is even worse. >It's got 7 segment outputs... Egad! - that is definately "worse". >> - To set the time, the software has to "hold down" Fast and Slow time >> set buttons, and watch the time value scroll by until the desired >> setting is reached - just the way a human would set a digital clock >> from that era. > >YEs, that's done in the 98035 too. In fact it's just like a digital watch >with one button to select hours/minutes, and a second press for secondes, >and one button for setting (or something like that). Quite fun to watch >the signals when it's 'writing' the time to the battery-backed clock chip. This was the older fast/slow set style - the kind that used to drive me craze in clocks - you hold down "fast" and the digits count like crazy (minites and hours), you switch to "slow" when you get close. It was really annoying if you overshot, because you had to "go round" again. When I first started writing the software to set the clock, I assumed that the computer would be plenty fast to simply watch the time in "fast" mode and stop "right on the button" - I quickly found out that the display refresh in the clock chip didn't keep up with the "fast" counter, and sometimes (rather often) it would "miss" a digit, going for example directly from '1' to '3' --- So I had to implement detection when it got "close" and switching to "slow". Regards, -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 8 months

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a classiccmp electronics project?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org> > >Tony wrote... >> I would doubt it. Those old fusible-link PROMs were actually quite fast >> with access times of <50ns in many cases. And the designs depended on it. >Surely that's easy to get around. Upon power up - or when a reset button is >pushed, the device reads the image from EEprom and places it into SRAM, >which is what is actually accessed. Isn't SRAM fast enough? > >Jay West > > Hi Jay Yes, those CMOS RAM's used for cache that were in the narrow packages were quite fast enough. As I stated in a previous post. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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a classiccmp electronics project?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Jay Al and another fellow at Monday pizza talked about this. One could setup using one of the high speed CMOS cache chips, pic ( or processor of your liking ) and an EPROM. One can hold the reset signal until you'd transfered the image to the CMOS ( it would have space for just about every combination ). One could even use a flash instead of an EPROM and then add a serial port to download. Most of the fused ROM's used in the original were in the 50 to 60 ns range. Most 8Kx8 cache RAM's are in the 20 to 30 ns range. It sure sounds like a project that can be done. Dwight >From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org> > >Ok, I don't know if this is possible, but it would be handy so I'll throw >the idea out and see if the more electrically inclined have any ideas. > >My specific issue is the HP2100A, 2100S, and 21MX M/E/F systems. However, I >suspect this problem is present in other machines... DEC, DG, etc. > >The loader roms and microcode roms (two different chips) for each system are >pretty much impossible to find. I'd like to make copies of them both for >myself to use in other systems I currently have, and also to have a set of >spares around. In addition, I'd like to make copies for other classiccmp'ers >who may have systems that want/need a particular firmware or loader rom >option. Finally, there are some roms that people have posted images for >online that I'd like to burn myself because I don't have those particular >roms. > >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? Would this be something terribly >difficult to build? A cute twist on this.... extending the idea further.... >Put a bunch of NVram or an EEprom on the little carrier card. In the NVram >could be stored multiple ROM images. Then via a switch on the card (when the >system is powered off of course), you could select if the chip was a mag >tape loader rom, or a paper tape loader rom, etc. For the microcode roms you >could switch between FFP and IOP for example. When you wanted to change the >set of rom images in the DIP package, you just hook it up to a serial port >and download to change the available sets on it. > >The WCS card for HP boxes comes close to this, but there's no battery >backup, and you can't program it easily with a PC. WCS cards probably aren't >terribly easy to find anyways. > >Is this a pipedream? It would allow DEC'ies to have more loader roms they >dont currently have by exchanging images via the net, etc. Not just an HP >thing - but I realize it would have to be a different design electrically to >work on the other machines. I'm thinking of a universal rom with different >electrical interfaces on the carriers perhaps? > >Everyone talks about preserving ROM/PROM contents. But if the blank roms are >unobtainium, we need to take the next step. > >Any thoughts? > >Jay West > >--- >[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] > >

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>Hmm. Interesting. That's early 1980s, if not late 1970s, correct? I have installed in my Altair, a Compu/Time CT-102 real-time-clock board which was purchased in 1979. This board supports a battery backup option. This is basically a "digital clock" chip with BCD outputs (intended to drive BCD to 7-segment decoders) on an S-100 board. The fact that it is a chip intended for a clock display gives rise to certain odd characteristics: - Certain leading digits read 'F' instead of '0' for a zero value - this is because 'F' == Blank on the 7-segment decoder. - To set the time, the software has to "hold down" Fast and Slow time set buttons, and watch the time value scroll by until the desired setting is reached - just the way a human would set a digital clock from that era. Photos of this card and scans if it's documentation are available in the Altair section on my site. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

HP-75C had one built in. -W > Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 20:39:25 -0700 > From: Marvin Johnston <marvin(a)rain.org> > > Assuming that you are not talking about S-100 clock/calendar > cards, the > Lobo Drives Max-80 had a built in clock. > > Vintage Computer Festival wrote: > > > > Does anyone know what was the first computer to have a > built-in real-time > > clock? > > > > -- > > > > Sellam Ismail > Vintage Computer Festival

21 years, 8 months

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Old EPROM questions again, EPROM Programmer

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

>> Parts might be a bit hard to find now - uses a 6809 CPU, 6821 PIA, a 6551 >> UART, a few 6264 SRAM's, a handful of latches and 3-4 relays to move the >And thereing lies the problem. Presumably you need to program an EPROM >with the firmware for this 6809. Which is somewhat hard without a >programmer :-)... For some perhaps - at the time, myself, and almost everyone I knew worked for companies with programmers, so it was not a problem. You could also get EPROM programmed at the local shop for a small fee. I also had a bytesaver in my Altair, so I could have bootstrapped up from a 2708 if I'd had to. I didn't program the actual firmware right away - I made a EPROM (at work) with my 6809 monitor program in it, which allowed me to download code into the RAM (normally all used as a data buffer), where I tested and debugged the actual firmware - When I was happy that everything was working correctly, I use the RAM download to program a real EPROM (almost self-booting). If I were doing the same project today, and had absolutely no access to any means of programming the initial EPROM, I would first post in the local groups to see if anyone near me has a programmer, failing that, I would perhaps try this list or other more widespread resources - I'm sure that someone somewhere would be willing to program my monitor (or even a very simple loader would suffice) into that first EPROM for me. All you need is the ability to get code into the device, and you can run from there. I guess what I am saying, is that if you are not prepared to be a little creative, you are probably not well suited to designing/building your own test equipment. >I built my first EPROM programmer about 18 years ago. Programs >2716-27128, using the 'slow' algorithm. It doesn't even handle 12.5V >parts (I should add that feature!). 3 hand-wired boards of mostly TTL, >with a 40 pin AY-3-1015 UART in the middle. Oh yes, it's an EPROM >emulator as well, for the same types of EPROMs. On my original programmer (the homebuilt one), the programming voltage was selected by a physical switch - which selected 12.5, 21 or 25v from "taps" on a couple of stacked regulators - not the most elegant solution, but it worked (and continues to work). I supported the 'fast' algotithm on all by the 2732 (which would have required me to flip one of the relays during program/read turnaround). Ah the "good ol days"... Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by dundas＠caltech.edu

> On Thu, 29 Jul 2004, Andy Holt wrote: > > > If you mean a clock that maintains time when power is off or gets the time > > by radio then we are probably into the micro era. > > Yes. > > But I can't imagine there was not a real-time clock (i.e. as described > above) as at least an option for an earlier computer system. Certainly during the era of PDP-11s, DEC had a number of possible solutions, though our lab never used them. Instead we used the Digital Pathways TCU series. For example, see the manual for a Unibus board: <http://dundas-mac.caltech.edu/~dundas/retro/tcu-150.pdf> We used these in several 11/55s: <http://dundas-mac.caltech.edu/~dundas/retro/tcu-trans.pdf> There were also Qbus versions: <http://dundas-mac.caltech.edu/~dundas/retro/tcu-50.pdf> and <http://dundas-mac.caltech.edu/~dundas/retro/tcu-50qd.pdf> See this for more information: <http://dundas-mac.caltech.edu/~dundas/retro/tcu-lit.pdf> Granted this was probably well after the IBM 650 (I'm not familiar with that machine). Hope this helps. John

21 years, 8 months

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Old EPROM questions again, EPROM Programmer

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "ben franchuk" <bfranchuk(a)jetnet.ab.ca> > >Ethan Dicks wrote: > >>>Just pop down the block to your friendly neighbourhood tanning salon.... >> The closest one would probably be Christchurch, NZ... I'll be there in >> mid-November. > >What about a big electric arc? >Just don't weld it to the bench. :) > >> -ethan > Hi Ethan Ben's idea is great. You just need an arc. There must be an arc welder around the place for maintenance. Even an arc >from a low voltage, high current power supply would work well. The best electrodes would of course be carbon but even an iron welding rod arc produces abundent UV across the entire spectrum. Make sure to have something to block the UV from you. Eye and skin damage can happen with even a small arc. What kinds of parts do you have access to? A number of 7414's, 7400's and 74374's ( or similar families ) would handle the logic part of connecting to a PC's parallel port. All you'd need is a couple transistors to switch the VPP on and a diode or two to supply bypass. As I recall, these PROMs only need logic level switching for the actual programming. You don't need any counters the printer port can be divided up to supply all the needed expansion ports using the 374's. Of course, If you had several parallel ports from a number of I/O boards, collected from several PC's, you could avoid a lot of circuitry. Just run the wires to the chip. Stretch your imagination, I'm sure you'll find that there are many ways to skin a cat. Dwight Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Stupid NetBSD/SIMH question

by rcini＠optonline.net

Hello, all: I'm playing wround with the SIMH VAX emulator and I'm running NetBSD 1.6.2. I'm not too strong on Unix/variants so this might be a stupid question. I want to play around with some of the included games but I can't get them to run. I'm logged in as root (by default, the disk image has only one user) and there's a games directory under /usr/games. Here are two typical entries: -r-xr-sr-x 1 root games 17072 Feb 11 2004 tetris -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 49856 Feb 11 2004 trek Can anyone tell from this why I get a "Command not found" error when I try to run any of these? I'm sure it's something prettu simple but my Unix ignorance shows. Thanks. Rich Rich Cini

21 years, 8 months

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Don Senzig 4/13/1951 - 7/27/2004

by aek＠spies.com

Just about anyone involved in home computing in SE Wisconsin knew Don. He and I were close friends for almost thirty years and wanted to let others who may be out of the area know about this. Senzig, Donald John Jr MILWAUKEE - Age 53, passed away at his home in Milwaukee on Tuesday July 27, 2004. Born April 13, 1951 in Milwaukee ,WI. Son of Donald and Adoree (Larson) Senzig of Caledonia, WI. Son-in Law of Ralph and Catherine Dean Donald found the job he loved at Medpacs ,Waukesha. He had worked in the Milwaukee Road enginehouse, Plastic Parts of Union Grove, Siemens Nuclear, Sector Engineering, Compuware, private consulting and Milwaukee Area Television Access (MATA). In these diverse jobs Don consistently demonstrated his natural ability and immense capacity to troubleshoot and repair anything that moved, whirred or lit up. At a young age Don learned to repair TV's and electronics working with his father Donald Senzig Sr. He repaired TV's as a hobby. In 1968 while a student at Case High School he programmed a timeshare computer, and participated in many theatrical productions. In 1975 Don built his first computer from an Altair 8800 kit. How much fun it was to play "kill the bit". Around this time, at the start of the personal computer revolution Don arranged the first computer/gaming exhibition at a local Science Fiction Convention. A genius at electronics and computers Don was always ready to help people learn and to learn from them. One of his favorite collaborators was Dorothy. Don helped authors, and Democratic candidates learn how to use computers. With incredible patience Don could help them achieve goals that they did not believe possible. In 1975 Don helped found the Wisconsin Computing Society that still meets, helping members explore computer technology.

21 years, 8 months

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Datasheet

by aw288＠osfn.org

Recenylt someone mention the SED and DED datasheets - early engineering office humour. Just today I found in my stash a poor photocopy of the National LM0901A... Polish Operational Amplifier. Pretty funny, very stupid, and I must say, it really looks like a National Semi datasheet. Anyone else hear of the this device? I bet National really wishes they had never done this... William Donzelli aw288(a)osfn.org

21 years, 8 months

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More HP microcode & loader rom detective work

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

I'm finally digging into my 21MX E-series machines in earnest. In trying to inventory and document what all I may have, I've found a few things that stump me and my "docs on hand". Perhaps folks here can shed some light on these. Mostly I'm looking for "confirm or deny" on some points. Loader roms I can't positively identify: 11B5790X012 This is in a system that has microcode roms 18A0580X012,18A0580X022,18A0580X032 I'm guessing something third party, or perhaps a later rev of DS/1000 or loader extensions? I'm clueless on these. 1816-0420 No clue 12531LDR This is a hand written tag. Perhaps for loading from the teletype builtin paper tape reader? 1816-0769 No clue Microcode roms I can't identify: 1816-0996 1816-0997 1816-0998 1816-0999 1816-1000 1816-1001 93585-80006 93585-80007 93585-80008 18A0580X012 18A0580X022 18A0580X032 And lastly, I'm confused about FFP. I am guessing that FFP required FP, which is supposed to be standard on E series. But a few lines in various docs make me think that perhaps older rev E series didn't have FP built in. Some docs mention that when ordering FFP, you can specify option -100 to get some additional roms, necessary for E series machines with a serial number less than 21XX (co-incidence on the rev number). I'm guessing that the additional roms are FP? The roms in question are: 13306-80013 13306-80014 13306-80015 13306-80016 13306-80017 13306-80018 Can anyone confirm or deny this? Thanks! Jay West --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by mbg＠theworld.com

>Does anyone know what was the first computer to have a built-in real-time >clock? Somewhat associated -- when I was doing some work with DSSI disks at DEC, I found that the actual disk units (HDA and electronics) maintained date and time and kept track of power cycle and other events. I was never able to confirm whether the disk drives were Y2K compliant. Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL,ST| email: mbg at world.std.com | | Member of Technical Staff | megan at savaje.com | | SavaJe Technologies, Inc. | (s/ at /@/) | | 100 Apollo Drive | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Chelmsford, MA 01824 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (978) 256 6521 (DEC '77-'98) | required." - mbg KB1FCA | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

21 years, 8 months

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First computer with real-time clock?

by mbg＠theworld.com

>>I'm thinking farther back. Was there any mini or mainframe that had a >>real-time clock built in or as an add-on option? >It's come up in some litigation. The actual issue at hand is that >someone was able to overturn a patent by claiming the IBM 650 had a >real-time clock built in. They "proved" this by submitting as evidence a >printout that had the date printed on it(!) I've checked the IBM 650 >Manual of Operation and it makes no mention whatsoever of a real-time >clock. I pretty much figured it wouldn't but I of course had to do due >diligence. >But it made me wonder: what was the first computer to have a built-in >real-time clock? The 11/93,94 has built-in date/time. But that was end of 80s, early 90s. Prior to that, the Pro series had the TOY (time of year) clock built in. That was in the mid-80s. Prior to that, at least with Unibus PDP-11s, CSS (Computer Special Systems, DEC Nashua) came up with the KW11-C, a clock/calendar board which, from the drawings I have, was supposed to eventually be able to get its date/time from the WWVB signal. Otherwise it could be programmed with current date/time as well as date/time for a future event which would cause an interrupt. I have a programming manual for it somewhere (in my proverbial deep storage). This was early 80s. I seem to remember a KWV11-C, for qbus -11s, but I don't know what its features were. -- 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

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Sanyo MBC 550

by dehogg＠ksu.edu

Just ran across the thread looking for info on the Sanyo MBC 550/555. I have a complete system that started out as the original 550 (had one 360 drive). I upgraded it to the 555 by adding the second drive, then upgraded to the double sided 800k drives. Installed more memory by piggy backing the memory chips and modifiying the power supply current limit sensor, added the PC video display card to make it more compatible with IBM type programs. Total of 512k memory. It came with MSDos 2.11 for Sanyo, Wordstar, Calcstar, DataStar, Pcwrite. It will run lotus 123 vs1.1. I have upgraded the Wordstar to the Pro version. I also have a multitude of "freeware" software that will run on it. I also subscribed to the Magazine that supported the unit and I have all of the copies that were issued relating to the 555. I used the monochrome monitor at first but shifted to using a Panasonic color monitor that had a pc input and ntsc input so I could use an external tuner and listen to tv while doing computer stuff and switch to the video if something sounded interesting. I also have the schematic diagram for the system. I used a Star Micronics dot matrix printer at the time. Fun time and learning experience. Donald E. Hogg Associate Director/Engineering Educational Communications Center Kansas State University 128 Bob Dole Hall Manhattan, Kansas 66506-6902 Voice==785.532.3141 Fax==785.532.7355 Email: dehogg(a)k-state.edu

21 years, 8 months

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Good news on my RK05 drives

by wacarder＠usit.net

I just wanted to give everyone an update on my RK05 adventures. Yesterday I received an RK11-D controller card set and backplane. I decided to be adventurous and install it in my 11/34. I surprised myself by getting it right the first time. I installed the 4-slot backplane with the cards and plugged it into the BA11-k's power plugs that were available under the bottom. Then I moved the terminator card from the last slot on my existing backplane to the last slot on the RK11 backplane. I then connected the two backplanes together with an M9202 unibus connector. I booted up fine, no unibus config errors. So far so good. Then today I decided to cable everything up to my two RK05J drives and see if I would be lucky enough to have a working drive (or two). I cleaned out the drives, making sure to remove any small particles of dust/foam/etc. I connected a unibus cable from the RK11 to the first RK05 (drive 0). I then connected another cable from drive 0 to drive 1 (the second Rk05 drive). I powered everything on to make sure that the drives still behaved correctly when I pressed the RUN button. They did. I then put an untested, but clean looking RK05 pack in drive 0 and attempted to access the drive with a little Basic-Plus program I wrote in my 11/34 RSTS/E system. Drive 0 seems to have problems reading, but does spin up and light the ON-CYL and READY lights. I need to watch the head when I attempt to do a READ and see if it's doing anything. Experts, does this sound like an alignment problem or something else? Drive 1 works perfectly and can read the pack just fine. I modified my program to read blocks in various positions on the pack (1st block, 100th block, 700th block, 1500th block, 2000th block, etc). It had no problems. Now I need to troubleshoot that first drive to try to determine why it is having problems reading. It spins up fine, but gets errors reading. I have not investigated any further. Thanks to Tony, Al, Ethan, Paul, Henk and others here who gave me advice and encouragement on this little adventure. It was pretty exciting to hook up some 30 year old drives to my 27 year old computer and get one of them to work! I guess St. Chad was there too! Ashley

21 years, 8 months

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8" floppy project

by dave＠mitton.com

On 7/28/2004 12:00 PM -0500, cctech-request(a)classiccmp.org wrote: >Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 22:46:49 -0500 >From: Doc Shipley <doc(a)mdrconsult.com> >Subject: Re: 8" floppy project >.. > And I need to be able to accurately copy a bootable RX02 diskette to >a formatted blank. > > I'd *like* to be able to take a disk image of a floppy as a file, and >to write that back out to floppy, but that's gravy. I wrote a set of FORTRAN programs that did that running on RSX-11. I was archiving CP/M diskettes onto RL02s when I worked in TWO. I could read the disks to a file and write multiple copies of CP-MUG distribution diskettes for the New England Computer Society. I don't remember if I ported it to VMS. You needed to have PHYSIO priviledge, and mount the drive FOREIGN, since FCS/RMS kept trying to interpret the floppy as a DEC file system media. I don't remember if I used QIOs or some other FORTRAN file construct. The programs weren't that hard to write, they did require a bit of work to unmap the sector interleaving. They were CP/M standard specific. I even wrote a program that would print a DIR from the image file. I'm sure the programs been lost to time. The CP/M diskettes however, I still have a large box of in the basement. Dave.

21 years, 8 months

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Expressions of Interest for Old Microbee Computer Equipment

by gibbinsrobert＠hotmail.com

Hi all: My name is Robert Gibbins and I live in Melbourne, Australia. For sometime, my wife has been at me to clear out all the old Microbee computer equipment, software and documentation in our garage. I collected it all in the early 90s and have not used for many years. It is now with some real nostalgic reluctance that I try to find an appropriate home or homes for it all. Microbee was our first home computer and finding a new home has got to be better than throwing it all in the rubbish bin; is it? I am writing to you because you have displayed some interest as I trawled the Internet in old Microbee Computers and I am interested in receiving expressions of interest for it. But what I finally do get rid of will be dependent on the responses and of course any final offers I receive. By-the-way, any postage and handling charges will be your responsibility. Whilst cleaning out the Microbees I cataloged most of what I found. I may have missed listing some small items such as spare parts and individual cables etc. If you are interested please read the attachment with this email which is saved in Microsoft Word format. Some photos are included. By-the-way, OpenOffice.org was used to write the attachment. So, if you are at all interested please contact me by email at gibbinsrobert(a)hotmail.com. If you know someone else that could also be interested in old Microbee equipment please feel free to forward this email to them. Thank you Robert _________________________________________________________________ SEEK: Now with over 50,000 dream jobs! Click here: http://ninemsn.seek.com.au?hotmail

21 years, 8 months

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The results of your email commands

by cctech-bounces＠classiccmp.org

The results of your email command are provided below. Attached is your original message. - Results: Ignoring non-text/plain MIME parts - Done.

21 years, 8 months

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Old EPROM questions again, EPROM Programmer

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk ---snip--- > >I built my first EPROM programmer about 18 years ago. Programs >2716-27128, using the 'slow' algorithm. It doesn't even handle 12.5V >parts (I should add that feature!). 3 hand-wired boards of mostly TTL, >with a 40 pin AY-3-1015 UART in the middle. Oh yes, it's an EPROM >emulator as well, for the same types of EPROMs. > Hi My first programmer was also built to do 2716's. I put it on a prototype board in my H89. It only needed a few parts. The H89 was my second computer, my first was a Poly88. I made an adapter socket with two switches to expand the programmer to do 2732's and 2764's. I even added a jumper select for VPP levels. My favorite programmer is the 4004 developement system I have. It only does 1702A's but with a little modification of firmware can handle 1702's as well. How many out there actually have 1702's ( not the same as 1702A's )? For general purposes, the Needham works fine. I have a schematic for this that someone else drew up but I have no way to read. It is in some schmatic program format. I'd love to get it into a pdf to print out. I'm told that the main issue with the PB-10 is that they have filled the entire table for PROM types. Of course, with the schematic, one should be able to write their own code for other devices if the voltages needed are supported. One could also strip out many of the smart algorithms and just use the generic one. This would free up a lot of the space in the tables. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Insect Conductivity - language?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Don Maslin" <donm(a)cts.com> > > > ---snip--- >You are sure that they were ants and not termites? > > - don Hi Does anyone have the definitive answer as to which has the lowest DC and AC resistance? An ant or a termite? Also, how does that resistance vary over time of use? I want to see graphs and statistics. Different species might also be an additional variable. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Old EPROM questions again, EPROM Programmer

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

> Does anyone have some schematics and software (would be great) for a > little homebrewed Eprom Programmer which works with a standard PC > parallel-port or ISA slot? I have a hardware/software design for a simple EPROM programmer on my site ... unfortunately, it was designed years ago when I was still fairly new at hardware design and it shows ... Works well however and I still use one of them from time to time (quicker and easier than my 29B). It's completely stand-alone with a 8-digit LED display and a keypad. It can upload/download Intel or Motorola HEX format data via a serial port, and also has a "remote" mode for total computer control. It only does 2716, 2732, 2764, 27128 and 27256 family devices (all I needed at the time), although you could design adapters and modify the code to support other devices if you wanted (I did one for 8051's at one point). Parts might be a bit hard to find now - uses a 6809 CPU, 6821 PIA, a 6551 UART, a few 6264 SRAM's, a handful of latches and 3-4 relays to move the power/programming voltage around (ok - I didn't know a better way at the time). You could redesign it using a modern single-chip MCU and better power control and reduce the parts count considerably. You could make a much simpler device if you want to make it rely on a PeeCee and it's parallel port - I did a "quickie" 29040 flash programmer a few years back which was literally nothing more than 3 8-bit latches and a decoder chip (and some software on the PC side). Regards, -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 8 months

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Intel D82284 datasheet..

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Anyone happen to have a copy of the Intel D82284 IC (18 pin DIL) datasheet? I think it's some form of clock generator IC; I have an 80286 board which uses one that I'm trying to fix and just want to verify that the system's clocking OK. cheers, Jules

21 years, 8 months

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Now easier for people to get HP2000/Access up (was:

by MGemeny＠pgcps.org

Michel Adam wrote: >It could very well be that '2000G' was just an HP internal project designation >for the next version, before someone decided to change the name (marketing ?) Yep, I agree, that?s how I remember it happening, and in fact we have evidence of this in our possession. The Access Internals documentation 22687-90020 on page 4-39 has a snip of source code for the power fail routines and the very first comment references TSB/G. As for a company (as I recall from Canada) supporting a version called TSB-G, I think this was also the case. I want to say that their version also supported accounts that started with an at sign (ie @000-@999). After the 2000 line was ended the source was made available to existing customers and VARs for the price of $500, as I recall. Not many took advantage of the opportunity, but HP would allow a VAR to put systems together and sell them with the TSB software. I may even have a notice here in an HP users group publication about this. Access and I assume System were the only versions that required IOP micro-code. And the descriptions of the micro-coded instructions are in the above-mentioned document along with the rational for this enhancement. Now a big ?HIP HIP HORAYYYYY? so glad that last version of the micro-code has been found! That is fantastic news! And by the way, the next version of SIMH should run Access without tweaking, at least under windows. ZIPs are still available for people wanting to play with a pre-release package. (Yes Jay, still waiting for you to put up an Access system on classicmp, it runs under SIMH.) FWIW Mike Gemeny

21 years, 8 months

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Intellec 4

by JMeyer101＠aol.com

I recently acquired a few older computers. One of the units is a working MCS Intellec 4. Unfortunately, I have no knowledge of how to program this computer or what accessories can be used with it. Can anyone help me out? Thanks, Jeff

21 years, 8 months

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Jeff Russ

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

Is Jeff Russ on the list? Jay West --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]

21 years, 8 months

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VCF Security

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> > >When I leave my vendor stall, I remove some of the valuable items, >and move some of the others to the back of the table. > >Last time, when I got back, somebody had replaced a couple of items >from my dollar bin with dollar bills. > >-- >Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com > Hi The last time I left, by accident, a box with a 2708 ByteSafer and some cassette tape at the event. Sellam was able to track me down and return them :) I don't think that extremely valuable items should be left unattended( like an Apple 1 ). Also small easily hand carried items are not a good idea to leave in plain sight. It is not that I don't generally trust those that come to such events it is just that in any large group of people, there are always those with psychological problems the are related to snatching things. Often these people are otherwise respectable. I doubt we've yet see anyone come to one of these events with the intention of stealing things. The first rule of people is that most are strange. Each has different motivations. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Article on data rot on CD's

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Pete Turnbull" <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> > >On Jul 28, 12:11, Joe R. wrote: > >> The problem is that AFIK no one has found ANY CD disks that are >> reliable. Several people that have been interviewed in national >> publications explictly pointed out that they bought top quality disks >but >> they were still unreliable. In fact, it didn't appear that there was >much >> difference between the cheap ones and the expensive ones. > >The other day I came across a table from a report showing the relative >longevity of data on various media (DLT, CD-R, etc) at a variety of >temperatures and humidities. I'll try and find it again and post some >of the results. Some of you might be shocked. For example, a CD-R >with an expected lifetime of something like 25 years (if I'm not >misremembering the highest figure) under ideal conditions has a >lifetime of only several *months* at higher temperatures (upper 20s C, >that would be 80s F) and humidity. DLTs fared much much better. > >I have some CDs that were bought about 8 years ago because they were >supposedly good quality, and burned in a highly-rated burner. Out of >the first batch of ten, 4 are now unreadable or give multiple errors. Hi This would put the per unit failure higher than even floppies. I have floppies that are in the 25 year range and still read correctly ( not used regularly for archiving ). The only large issue I've seen on floppies is those higher quality ones with the liners. The adhesive used to attach the liners tended to bleed through the liners and get on the disk. I do keep things stored in areas that rarely see more than 75F or more than 75% humidity. Dwight > >-- >Pete Peter Turnbull > Network Manager > University of York >

21 years, 8 months

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Insect Conductivity - language?

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Kevin Handy" <kth(a)srv.net> > >Dwight K. Elvey wrote: > >> Hi >> >> Does anyone have the definitive answer as to which has >>the lowest DC and AC resistance? An ant or a termite? >>Also, how does that resistance vary over time of use? >>I want to see graphs and statistics. Different species >>might also be an additional variable. >>Dwight >> >> >Data Sheets! We need the data sheets! Anyone have the correct data >sheets? With that information you could plug your critter into a curve >tracer and determine what it is. > >Maybe the application notes would help. > > Hi You realise that insects only have 6 pins with at most two test leads. True bugs can have most any number of pins, so long as it is an even number. I believe that some like to use them in the bulk sense but just some notes on the proper way to connect the pins can be useful. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Article on data rot on CD's

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I saw this today on USA today website. I've been scanning 50 year old slides to CD's and I still have my older PDP-11 data backed up as paper listings and now on CD's. The NIST also has a paper on data longevity and storage suggestions for CD's and DVD's. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-26-longevity_x.htm Mike.

21 years, 8 months

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8" floppy project

by trash3＠splab.cas.neu.edu

I've stuck my RX02/RXV21 into my microvax and used it. However, I prefer the DSD880 subsystems, as they have formatting built into the front panel and firmware. I also prefer to run RT-11 to do all the fooling around, not VMS/Unix/RSX/RSTS,etc. If I recall, the DSD box or the SMS/Qualogy boxes used the standard 850/851 drives. I haven't powered up the DSD 440 floppy subsystem I have, but I'll bet that does both/all three densities. I have some OLD 8 inch IBM drives in external boxes. Never opened them. If you want to try one in the project, let me know, you can have one. No idea of the model or if they are single density. I'll pop one open if you want. Joe Heck

21 years, 8 months

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Suspicious off-list e-mail requests? Hardly... (was Re: Shure AMS8000 mixer.)

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Jules Richardson" <julesrichardsonuk(a)yahoo.co.uk> > >On Wed, 2004-07-28 at 03:43, ben franchuk wrote: >> Vintage Computer Festival wrote: >> > On Tue, 27 Jul 2004, Dwight K. Elvey wrote: >> penes (<-- plural form of "penis"...I >> > had to look it up. "Penises" is also acceptable but how many chances do >> > you get to use the obscure plural form of "penis"?) >> > >> Why is there a plural anyhow? As far as I know you only get *one* per >> customer. :) > >Yes, but 'penes' can be applied to any gathering of Micro$oft >employees... > > > Hi I think they are call a group of weenies. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Now easier for people to get HP2000/Access up (was: MoreHPmicrocode & loader rom detective work)

by aek＠spies.com

Timesharing Consultants (TSC) sold a version of TSB for a while. I got a couple of hibernate tapes from him, which is probably where the IOP board came from Apparently the systems were called TSC-200 and TSC-300. Mike Gemeny may know more about this.

21 years, 8 months

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Old EPROM questions again, EPROM Programmer

by RMaxwell＠atlantissi.com

Wolfgang, Philip Pemberton is right... it's not difficult, and for programming 2716, 2732 and 2532, it's even easier. The 4040 CMOS counter has exactly the right number of outputs to handle all 12 address lines on a 2?32, and the programming specifications for all those devices allow for a fixed-length programming pulse, so the programmer can receive the byte, set BUSY on the Centronics interface, time the 50ms locally, then clear BUSY to accept the next byte... print your EPROM! I know this well, because that's how I did it. I've used it with a Sol-20, OSI Superboard 2, and IBM XT clone. If you would like the schematics for my version (which assumes 2 unidirectional parallel interfaces - one each direction - very common at the time), just let me know and I will scan them (2 letter-size pages) into your preferred format and e-mail them. The BASIC program I wrote is for the Superboard, so the hardware stuff won't apply, but the program is reasonably structured... for BASIC. Best regards, Bob Maxwell > -----Original Message----- > (snip...) > There were many Eprom Programmers back when the 2532 etc. > were actual which > were designed for popular homecomputers (I own one for my > Pet too and know > of many for C=64). Many of these devices were "homebrewed > gear" or sold as > kits. But after lots of time googling around I haven't > found much stuff > about this old eproms. Okay, I have at least a bunch of > datasheets and some > schematics where ex. the 2532 were used and learned a lot > of early 1980's > hardware basics :) But I could not find some schematics > (and software) of > Eprom programmers dedicated to this chips. My (maybe dumb) > question: Does > anyone have some schematics and software (would be great) > for a little > homebrewed Eprom Programmer which works with a standard PC > parallel-port or > ISA slot? This would be a great project for rainy winter > days :) > > Best Regards, > Wolfgang

21 years, 8 months

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Books on ebay, IBM 'RPG' language

by stephane.tsacas＠gmail.com

Maybe these 2 books will be of interest : The Programmer's RPG: A Complete Reference 1970! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3522&item=5110215952 and System/360:Report Program Generator by Bernard 1970! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3522&item=5110215048 (I'am not affiliated with this seller, except that I bought a databook >from her, not yet received anyway). Stephane

21 years, 8 months

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Shure AMS8000 mixer.

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: Dan <cmonique(a)dodo.com.au> > >Chris, >I was told that you have some documents on the Shure AMS8000 mixer. >Is it possible for you to email me a copy of them? > >Kind regards > >Dan Allen > Hi Doesn't anyone find it just a little suspicious that we got two request for information for the same rare information? This seems to be the typical type of request that we see. I realize that it has been stated before that these may in fact be valid request from someone looking at the archives. I just don't believe it! I get the feeling that these are some kind of automatic ( with some intelligence ) address mining bots. Am I just paranoid or does anyone else see what I see. Dwight

21 years, 8 months

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Cirris 1000

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

Holy moley! Speaking of word usage, I sure hope there's nobody from Wales on this list. -W > Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 20:56:17 -0400 > From: "Joe R." <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com> > Subject: Re: Cirris 1000 > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20040727205617.00b46680(a)pop-server.cfl.rr.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Jim, > > Yes I still have it. The winnng bidder welshed out and > never paid for it. BTW note my address above. The address > that you sent the message to is for a mailing list. > > Joe >

21 years, 8 months

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H89 disk imaging

by melamy＠earthlink.net

besides the fact that it isn't possible to read sd disks with a controller that can only do dd.. so what does the diagnostic track read function of the 765 do (given that it is trying to read dd data)? -----Original Message----- From: Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> Sent: Jul 27, 2004 11:01 PM To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: H89 disk imaging On Tue, 27 Jul 2004, Dan Lanciani wrote: > Did you ever get this going? I'm looking at a different approach, reading > the single density disks a track at a time in double density and then doing > the data separation in software. A double density read with a PC FDC isn't going to work. In fact, the NEC 765 type FDC (as is used in ALL of the PCs) doesn't HAVE a track read; instead it has a "smart" multi-sector read. OTOH, if you use different hardware than a PC type FDC, a track read of flux transitions can work.

21 years, 8 months

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A Celebrity among us

by jpl15＠panix.com

Perusers of the American hobby publication "Nuts and Volts" are directed to the August, 2004 edition (Vol 25; No 8) upon whose cover, and within whose pages, can be found a lovely vacuum-tube preamp (off topic) by none other than our own Robert Armstrong (on topic) of 'Spare-Time Gizmos' fame - originator of the SBC 6120 PDP-8 emulator - and other similarly fabulous devices. www.sparetimegizmos.com Good Show, Bob! Keep 'em Glowing! Cheers John 'Space Charge' Lawson

21 years, 8 months

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