test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<John has also been a list member for a few months :^) Downside of his is <you have to *OWN* a copy of the OS to use it legally. You can't use the <Hobbyist Emulator license. That only applies to Bob Supniks emulator. You can use it to run some of the unix binaries available fromthe PUPS archive. Though for $100 you can get a source license too. Allison

26 years, 1 month

Need help with big DEC haul in Oakland

by af-list＠wfi-inc.com

Here's the deal; I've been offered some PDP stuff in Oakland (details in forwarded message below) and am trying to negotiate pickup. I'd originally contacted the company searching for documentation on an obsolete product, and got much, much more... I'm in LA and the trip would be exceedingly difficult to arrange for myself. Anyone in the Bay Area who is interested in anything he's got and can give me a hand let me know; if worse comes to worse, I'll fly up and ship it back. Cheers, Aaron ---------------Original Forwarded Message Below--------------------- Hi, We have a fair amount of info on that board - I will see what I can dig up and let you know. Do you or your group have any interest in more LSI-11 related documents, boards (CPUs, serial boards, disk controllers, etc) ST506 drives (36-200 MB) etc? Also, a bunch of DEC blocks and PCBs (I think we still have those) for building backplanes. We have quite a bit of this stuff lying around and I haven't been abe to bring myself to throw it all away. New, of course, it was worth a lot, but now it isn't worth anything except to the knowledgeable. It would be a regular treasure trove. It's too bad - I have already gotten rid of the BA11 boxes and things like that, but there are lots of boards, drives, misc h/w, s/w, etc. Also, a really nice HP plotter, a Pacific Page plotter, and a few goodies like that. A bunch of 300w power supplies that are good for building machines up. Any - lots of surplus stuff that would be appreciated by a group that needs such things. If you want it, and would give it a good home (whatever that means), I would be delighted to give it to you. Maybe somebody could drive a pickup up here sometime and we can load it up. If you don't, but know someone who is a real DEC '11 freak, please pass this mail on. I hate the idea of giving it to the garbage man, but I need the space for other things. At 09:20 PM 3/3/00 -0800, you wrote: >Hi, > >I spoke with someone several months ago about possibly obtaining any >information I possibly could on one of your obsolete products, the VRG-Q11 >q-bus display card for the PDP-11. The card has a 10-pin berg header on >the top edge, to which was attached a single bnc-type connector. > >I'd be really interested in being able to do *something* with this card, >and any information you could find on it at all would be very much >appreciated, even if it was just a clue as to an appropriate display to >use with it. > >Representing the San Gabriel Valley Classic Computer Enthusiasts group, I >must say the the particular machine that this card is in is one of our >most interesting pieces, and one of our biggest mysteries. It is a Plessey >clone that is made up of entirely (cpu excluded) non-DEC modules. Imagine >the fun we've had trying to dig up printsets for these cards! > >Either way, whether there's info available on it on some dusty shelf or >not, I'd really appreciate hearing from you. > >Regards, > >Aaron Finney > > >{=------------------------------------+------------------------------=} >| Aaron Finney | Voice: 626-857-5599 x314 | >| Manager, Information Systems | Fax: 626-857-0455 | >| Western Field Investigations, Inc | Email: A_Finney(a)wfi-inc.com | >{=------------------------------------+------------------------------=} > > > Victor Gold Peritek Corp 5550 Redwood Road Oakland, CA 94619 (510) 531-6500 FAX (510) 530-8563 email: victor(a)peritek.com

26 years, 1 month

wanted; DECwriter

by mrbill＠mrbill.net

Anybody know where I can pick up a DECwriter? (central Texas area preferred...) -- +---------------+-------------------+ | Bill Bradford | mrbill(a)mrbill.net | +-------BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-------+-----------------------------------+ | Version: 3.12 | | GCS d- s:++ a- C++++ US++++ P+ L- E--- W+++ N++ o K+++ w--- O- M-- V- | | PS PE+ Y+ PGP t+ 5 X- R-- tv+++ b++++ DI++++ D++ G++ e++ h r++ y+ | +-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----------------------------------------------+

26 years, 1 month

FS: NEC PC-8201A 'Personal Application' kit

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

This one made me chuckle when I rescued it. It's a "Personal Application Kit" for the NEC PC-8201A handheld computer. It consists of a single data cassette (yes, a cassette -- looks just like an audio cassette, too) that's still in unbroken shrink-wrap and a user's manual. It's vintage 1983, based on the copyright, and contains the following apps. Memory Calculator Text Formatter Investment Portfolio Linear Forecaster Loan Evaluation Schedule Keeper Character Definer Bank Backup Bank Transfer Bank Accessor (these latter three seem to have something to do with internal memory). Terminal Mode Selector Bar Code Reader Music Programs Tank Game Snake Game First person to offer me $8.20 ($5.00 + Priority Mail shipping) takes it. First-come, first-served, based on E-mail time/date stamp. Thanks much! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 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..."

26 years, 1 month

Mott in New Jersey?

by Anthony.Eros＠compaq.com

No, but I'm right next door in Delaware, so I'd sure like to meet him! -- Tony > ---------- > From: Mike Ford[SMTP:mikeford@socal.rr.com] > Reply To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Sent: Friday, March 03, 2000 5:11 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Mott in New Jersey? > > In a conversation at a surplus joint yesterday someone told me about a guy > in New Jersey called "Mott" that is a big dealer in PDP11 type stuff. > Anybody know more? (just curious really) > >

26 years, 1 month

Early Mac Clones

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Mark Gregory <mgregory(a)vantageresearch.com> wrote: > One notable emulator/clone they missed was the Amax by ReadySoft for the > Amiga. It was a slim grey box that contained sockets for the Mac 512K ROMs And available later as an internal board with the same ROM sockets, a pair of 34-pin connectors and external mini-DIN connectors. The 34-pin connectors were there to place the A-Max-II+ board between the floppy drive and the motherboard, allowing the Amiga's internal floppy to read/write 800K Mac disks. The mini-DIN connectors were for LocalTalk. I still use my A-3000 bought in 1990 to run M$ Word under A-Max and then print via LocalTalk to my HP LJ/4ML. It works great as a turbo B&W Mac. > I believe it was fairly successful - it went through at least 4 hardware > versions that I'm aware of, ending with the Amax IV. I only have the "A-Max II+". The IV had an upgraded PAL (security bit blown, unfortunately; I checked) and new software. > I was an early purchaser, and I always enjoyed showing off my Amiga with > DeluxePaint II open in one window, WordPerfect for DOS in another window (I > had an XT bridgeboard), and the Mac desktop in a third window. > The best of all worlds, almost. I had one way back, too. I used to use Mac System 3.5 with it. There's another Amiga-based Mac implementation: Shapeshifter. It is software only. I sent the author a Zilog data book so he could support the A-MaxII+ card (Z8530, just like the Mac and old Suns, a *great* serial chip if you knew about its register access time limitations). My favorite demonstration with Shapeshifter was to fire off System 7 on the Mac side, connect up to a nearby Mac server and mount a share, switch back to the Amiga side, open up AMosaic and browse the web while copying files on the Mac. For an added touch, since there is no Netscape browser for AmigaDOS, shut down the TCP/IP stack on the Amiga side, then launch Netscape for the Mac. Those who saw the demo were usually stunned. This was all on a 25Mhz 68030 w/18Mb RAM (16Mb "FAST", 2Mb "CHIP" (kinda like video RAM but more versatile)) Most recently, I took a CD of several hundred Apple QuickTake 150 pictures that I shot over several months in Antarctica. My extensive research showed that there was no way with UNIX or Windows to convert these files to any other format. They are "Quicktime Compressed PICTs". The PBM utilities can parse them, but they get to the meat of the picture and declare that there is an unknown tag and skip the picture data. Anyway, I needed a Mac running the QuickTake 150 extensions to interpret these 1200 pictures. My fastest real Mac was a Mac SE/30. Running Picture Convert, it was 20-30 seconds to load an image and save it as a compressed TIFF; fortunately, there's a batch mode. Some of the pictures had developed bit rot, 10 in all. I couldn't just fire it off and go to bed; I had to supervise the batch. I loaded the stuff all up on to a 4Gb SCSI disk, hung it off my A4000 (25Mhz 68040) and ran ShapeShifter. It was now more like 5 seconds per picture, thus, my fastest Mac was really an Amiga. Last month when I picked up the MacIIci for $5, I passed on a Quadra 605 for $25 because it had no Ethernet and was only a 25Mhz 68040. I figured I already had that much and there was no reason to clutter up with one more box. I think, eventually, when the University surpluses something faster, I'll upgrade, but for now, the Amiga reigns supreme amongst my Mac collection. For me, it wasn't just being able to run Mac programs that was great; it was running them in a networked environment that was really awesome. -ethan ===== Infinet has been sold. The domain goes away on 15 March. See http://www.infinet.com/ for details. Please update your address lists to reflect my new address: erd(a)iname.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com

26 years, 1 month

Stone Knives and Bear Skins

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

If anyone has a .GIF or .JPG of Spock in _The City on the Edge of Forever_ constructing a "primitive mnemonic memory device" from what he terms as "stone knives and bear skins", I'd love to have that to put on my reverse-engineering web page. None of my reverse-engineering aids yet involve a Jacob's ladder or a 3-foot-long breadboard (back when they were really wood!) filled with glowing tubes, but the idea is so appealing that I might try :-). I suspect that for many of us who grew up watching Star Trek, *nothing* is as cool as Spock or Scotty working on a circuit that's throwing sparks. -- 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

26 years, 1 month

Early Mac Clones

by owad＠applefritter.com

>One interesting thing about the Outbound, IIRC, was that not only >was it introduced before the Portable came out, but it was way >better than the Portable. So much better that Apple, who >apparently hadn't quite agreed to license the rom's, gave them a >choice: either you give us your computer, or we sue the pants off of >you and we'll get it anyway. > >The Outbound then became the PowerBook. Might as well let >someone else do your R&D for you..... That story is new to me, and rather contradicts what I've heard. The Outbounds were completely legal, and I don't believe Apple ever attempted to sue them. Outbound was still around when the Powerbooks came out, and from what I've read, its the _competition_ that drove them out of business. With Apple making cost-effective laptops, it was no longer economical to buy a clone and Mac ROMs. The Outbound Notebook uses IDE hard drives and camcorder batteries and really doesn't come across at all like the Powerbook 1xx. You can find additional pictures and information at: http://www.applefritter.com/macclones/outbound/laptop/ http://www.applefritter.com/macclones/outbound/notebook/ And information on Mac clones in general at: http://www.applefritter.com/macclones/ Tom Owad ------------------------------Applefritter------------------------------ Apple Prototypes, Clones, & Hacks - The obscure, unusual, & exceptional. ---------------------<http://www.applefritter.com/>---------------------

26 years, 1 month

How to Reverse Engineer a Non-Stated Programmable Logic Device Using Stone Knives and Bear Skins

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>This looks like it could be quite helpful in demysifying a decoder. >However, not all devices have negative-going enables and it leaves a gap >there. In a PAL it would be just as easy to use to create a decoder that >uses positive enables, e.g. as found on 6821's and the like. This isn't >common but I've run into it just in the last couple of weeks. Thanks, the next edition of "part A" will note that if the PAL output is the other polarity, you want to invert it before using it to gate the oscillator. >On most of the "old" bipolar PALs, pin 11 was used as the global output >enable, since most of the 16 and 20 input 20 and 24-pin PALs were capable of >generating tristate outputs on every macrocell. The easy way to test for >these is to use a weak pullup, driven by a single driver, together with an >equally weak pull-down resistor array. This can be the same one if your >resistor is on the order of 20K. When your device-under-test is disabled, >it should follow the signal driving the resistors. Monitoring this requires >you use no TTL in the monitoring circuit, since its inputs source current >and will drive up an output. Tri-stated outputs will be covered in an addendum at some point. I think I've been pretty plain that *my* first priority was reverse-engineering some address decoder PAL's, so I didn't have to worry about this the first time around. >One other thing that could stand to be circumvented is that the 'LS93 is a >ripple counter which, with PAL speeds as high as they are, could generate >internal glitches long enough set or clear a latch (normally implemented as >a combinatorial loop in an 'L8 or the like). True. I've noticed no such ripple glitches in my breadboarded circuits with 5 LS93's, but I'm certain you're right and that at the nanosecond level that they're there. >That might warrant the use of a synchronous counter at least in newly built >devices. For a synchronous counter I like the 'LS590 because it's an 8-bit >counter and has an extra internal register to which the count can be Good recommendation, but the LS590 isn't quite as available as the 74LS93. Ready availability of parts is vital to the "stone knives and bearskins" mindset I'm adopting here. >Also, for newly built devices, it's about as easy as anything to use a CMOS >Schmidt trigger, e.g. 74HC132 as an oscillator. You need merely put about a >1 MEG pot in feedback across the device, with inputs tied together to form >an inverter, and hang a capacitor, say, 0.01 or 0.1, or whatever else is >handy, and then tweak he pot to set the frequency. That way you don't have >to admit you have used a 555. Again in my neck of the woods 555's are more available, certainly there are lots of other ways to make clock pulses too. Many of the deglitching concerns of yours will be addressed with Part B, which discusses a simple computer interface for scanning. The computer simply waits a few hundred nanoseconds while between sending a clock pulse and looking at the PAL output. -- 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

26 years, 1 month

Update to Cipher Docs

by af-list＠wfi-inc.com

Due to a few requests, I've posted PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files along side the TIFF files for the Cipher F880 docs. Enjoy! Aaron

26 years, 1 month

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