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Semi-Irregular PDP-10 archives plea for contributions

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

[The article below is a reply I wrote to a post in the Usenet group alt.sys.pdp10. I do feel that it may reach some additional audience here.] sjm wrote: > > <rant type="sarcastic"> > Your only hope is that one of the four-hundred-and-eighty ongoing > projects to write a PDP-10 emulator will eventually produce > something that compiles. At least a third of these projects are also > completely imaginary, so don't get your hopes up. Those that aren't > will be ready for (limited) public review under strict NDA within > eight years if current agressive development schedules are met. A good number of the emulator (simulator?) authors are a bit afraid that releasing their current source code would require that they support it. I'm of the other opinion - if they release their current source code (I don't care if it's GPL or not GPL, I do *not* want to get into that religious war!) then others will support it. What's really encouraging is that several of the authors of the DECUS freeware in the archives have wandered across the collection and told me that they appreciate seeing software that they used or wrote themselves, sometimes 30 or more years ago. > TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 software is available online thanks to Tim Shoppa > and some anonymous donors. You're welcome :-). It's nice to see that at least I - and both the anonymous and not-so-anonymous donors mentioned at the archive home page, http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/ - come off as the good guys. We're really trying. I've seen some emulator progress mentioned here as a result of the sources being available and browsable, and that's a Good Thing. So far several hundred people have visited the archive site and downloaded or browsed through the software available, and that's a Good Thing too. > Plenty more would be, but the community > has largely, and very wisely, decided that it would be far better if > the existing software were allowed to mildew unsaved in basements. > This will preserve its purity so it is not touched by infidels. It really breaks my heart and pains me that so much software is out there just rotting away. Some of the current holders of the tapes don't understand that the tapes *are* still readable (sure, not everyone has 9-track and 7-track drives anymore, and not everyone has the ability to read and decode TOPS-10 BACKUP or TOPS-20 DUMPER tapes, but I do!), others don't understand that there is a wide interest in the software. There are some other organizations - such as computer museums - that probably don't understand the value of the tapes or disks they currently have in their collection. Many of these museums have members/volunteers that read this newsgroup, and I hope that those readers pay attemtion to my plea below. Thus I'll repeat my plea: If anyone has any PDP-10 software covered by the DEC 36-bit hobbyist license, please get it to me. I'll pay shipping both ways, and I'm an expert at archiving old data. Your tapes will be properly cared for, carefully read, and returned. If you want, you'll be thanked on the archive page for the stuff you provide, or if you prefer you can remain anonymous. Just don't let the software rot away! The best reference I can give is what I've done so far. Just look at http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/ and you'll find hundreds of megabytes of PDP-10 software, preserved in both *exact* tape or disk image form and as browsable, human-readable files. Both commercial software covered by the DEC 36-bit hobbyist license and the DECUS 10- and 20- freeware collections are available there. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

25 years, 11 months

OT: Test

by jhfine＠idirect.com

Testing - Please Ignore!

25 years, 11 months

(no subject)

by Innfogra＠aol.com

My Equipment recycler got in a couple of pieces of equipment that He thought the group might be interested in. 1) IBM 3370 Head of string in good condition with an ADIC? custom controller. 2)"Ultimate" Pick machine from about 1980. I think this is a PDP 11 based machine. This is an a rack with a large Hard Drive and 1/2" tape. Both are operational. Both would need freight shipment. We are experienced in shipping large units. If anyone is interested please contact me off list at whoagiii(a)aol.com. Paxton

25 years, 11 months

VAXstation 4000VLC

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

I'm starting to hate SCSI :^) Possible problems: 2GB HD VAX Hobbyist V2 CD-ROM SCSI Cable Definite problem: The way the switches were set on the CD-ROM. The only thing I can think of is that somehow those switches got scrambled, not only was there the 512/2048-byte block problem I was fighting last night, but there were apparently termination problems. Anyway I've not got OpenVMS V7.1 loaded on a 1GB HD that came out of a Super Computer and am configuring it. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

25 years, 11 months

VAX/VLC firmware upgrade?

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Hello All, I've got two VLCs, I'm running them both headless. They are connected to S1 and S2 of a VT340 terminal. One of them "loses" the terminal sometimes. If try typing nothing is echoed although I can still send stuff to the serial port from a process and it displays. Sometimes I can "fix" it by breaking to the chevron and then typing 'c' (continue). This happens on both VMS and NetBSD so I don't think it is a driver problem. The other VLC doesn't have any issues like this at all. The VLC that has no issues has Firmware 1.5, the one that has issues has Firmware 1.3. I'm wondering if there is a way to flash the firmware? I've got an EPROM programmer but I don't know if there are is anything else I need to do. --Chuck

25 years, 11 months

VAXstation 4000VLC

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>> Possible problems: >> 2GB HD > >Is it possible to use bigger than 1GB as system ? Don't know ... Yes you can buld bigger than 1gb. the problem if the VLC isn't aware was that if the system crashes under VMS it would use the BOOT ROM driver for the SCSI disk. For many of the 3100 series systems this meant if you used a disk larger than 1.07gb and it crashed it would over write the area that was in the 1st 1gb. if it never crashed it would run fine as the VMS driver that is loaded was large disk aware. Later systems that were SCSI had this fixed but I don't know about this one. The easy fix is to build a system using boud volumes with the smaller being under 1gb. Also reduce the swap to 5k blocks and put page and swap files on secondary drive where they can be any size. FYI: I only have one VAX that now has a 1gb disk, this has never been a problem for me and I run a lot of stuff in rather small disks. >7.1 or 7.2.1 ? IIRC, there were some issues before 7.2 with non dec drives >during install, but I'm not sure. Not that I know of for VAX. >Just for the heck of it, (Never installed VMS on a VLC before) i tried it >few hours before. >I took a TEAC CDROM + 1 GB Fujitsu Drive. Took me around 1 hour to logon in >DECWindows, without any problems. Not surprized. Enjoy! Allison

25 years, 11 months

Free (almost) to good home...

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

By 'Almost,' I meant just for postage ($3.20 Priority Mail). I have, still with the tape in its shrink-wrap, the 'Personal Application Kit' for the NEC PC-8201A portable. Got the manual with it as well. First one with an offer to cover postage gets it! Thanks. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

25 years, 11 months

(Fwd) Re: VHS to MPG/AVI/Quicktime conversion?

by ss＠allegro.com

(possible re-post, sorry...Pegasus aborted the first time) Re: > Anybody on these lists have the ability to digitize/convert video > from VHS tape (NTSC) to a computer-readable (MPG preferred, but AVI or > Quicktime would also work) format? If you look, you'll find that video capture devices range from cheap and lo-res (< $100 and about 150 pixels across) to mid-range ($200 to $300, about 250 to 300 pixels across) to expensive ($300+, about 300 to 640 (or more?) pixels across). There appear to be 4 basic interfaces: 1) USB 2) parallel port 3) backplane (i.e., card plugs into your system) 4) FireWire I found one low cost device in the mid-range performance category, made by Belkin. It's a USB device and cost me about $89. Not counting the cable, it's about the size of a pack of gum. Inputs: SVHS and regular RCA jack. The included software uses your sound card to get the audio. It captures to MPEG format. I'm not a video expert...but the quality seems acceptable to me. Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html www.allegro.com/sieler

25 years, 11 months

IBM 3370 & Ultimate PDP availiable was (no subject)

by Innfogra＠aol.com

Sorry for the repost but I forgot the subject line. My Equipment recycler got in a couple of pieces of equipment that he thought the group might be interested in. 1) IBM 3370 Head of string in very good condition with an ADIC? custom controller. 2) "Ultimate" Pick machine from about 1980. I think this is a PDP 11 based machine. This is an a rack with a large Hard Drive and 1/2" tape. I haven't seen either but if there is any interest I will get more info. Both are operational. Both would need freight shipment. We are experienced in shipping large units. If anyone is interested please contact me off list at whoagiii(a)aol.com. Paxton

25 years, 11 months

Shugart 851 power problem

by bill＠chipware.com

Hi, I have a pair of 851s in a nice case with power supply. They are attached to a Cromemco 16FDC in an IMSAI box with a Cromemco ZPU and an Expandoram 64K board. I'm using the ROM enable on the 16FDC to drive the phantom line. There is a reason for these details... Here is the problem: #1 Power up the drives by themselves: At the drives: 5 volt line reads 4.9 -5 volt line reads -4.9 24 volt line reads 23.9 #2 Power up the IMSAI box: At the drives: 5 volt line reads 1.2 -5 volt line reads -0.9 24 volt line reads 2.6 and (needless to say) the drives don't work. The Cromemco ROM monitor gives all sorts of errors trying to access them. #3 Power off the IMSAI box: (Same as #1) #4 Power on the IMSAI box again: At the drives: 5 volt line reads 5.0 -5 volt line reads -5.0 24 volt line reads 24.0 and the drives work fine. What gives? Does this make sense to anybody out there?

25 years, 11 months

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