Well, it isn't impressive yet, but there isn't much point to keeping
it hidden either. So, here's the URL for my beginnings of a web page
for SwTPC - Soutwest Technical Products Corp:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/swtpc
Hope you like it.
Bill.
At 10:12 AM 1/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Tektronix made a number of interesting UN*X workstations (their flavor
[...snip-o-rama...]
>The following is some info about these that I collected from someone
>who worked at Tektronix during the time:
[...snipitty-doo-dah...]
>The Magnolia was a proof-of-concept design, built in small quantities for
[...snipola...]
>Here's a quick run-down (somewhat chronological):
[...schnippy...]
This is the kind of info that I really believe should be archived on the web
for all eternity.
I don't own a tektronix ws now, so although interesting, it's not something
I really want to clutter up my email folders with.
However, I might just get one next week. In which case, I'd really want
this info. But, I wouldn't want to bother Bill for it again (and again and
again...).
If it were on a web page somewhere, a search in Alta Vista (or whichever
search engine one used) would turn it up.
So, I would like to *really* encourage people who have this sort of info to
put it on the web.
Of course, it's all fine and dandy for me to say that (especially when I
have yet to get *my* collection online!) when I know you all have more
important things to do and more important stuff to fill your webspace with.
So, I'll offer to host and html-ize any stuff like this anyone wants to send
me. Just dump it (any kind of: history, folklore, specs, special commands,
secret codes, easter eggs, power supply voltages, etc.) in an e-mail and
send it to me at <roger(a)sinasohn.com> and I'll get it on-line. (It won't
necessarily be beautiful, but it will be useable.)
Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
For the sake of those reader not too thrilled about the current Linux and
x86 threads (zzzzz...), I offer the following update...
I received a bit mopre information about the units, and either they are
all pieces of a single Burroughs machine, or several individual machines.
What is not clear is what model they are.
I hope to get more information soon. The current owners have the things
half buried in surplus junk (probably good stuff, too!), so I may need to
prod them along.
Does anyone on this list have any sort of data on Burroughs machines? I
would like to get some sort of summary on the different models before
taking any possible plunges into the "real big iron" world.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
I just picked up a RCA Ascii keyboard. Does anyone have the pinout
for it's connector?
---------------------------------------------
I got this email today ( I think it's classic computer related), but
I can't read Spanish. Can anyone help this person?
<With the current battle between RISC and CISC, MIPS now really is
<"Meaningless Information Provided by Salesman". Technically, by the
<current philosophy, an 8080 is a CISC processor. Go figure.
Actually it's a partial indicator of execution speed and only a partial
indicator of an systems capability.
8080 is CISC, instructions are complex(some are) and are expected to
take many clock cycles. RISC by definition is at most two clock cycles
to execute a given instruction. Generally RISC machines can perform
several arithmetic/logical operations in one instruction making them look
CISCier. They are also generally weak in addressing data as there are
few addresing modes and rely on lots of registers for pointers. The
problem with RISC is that compilers have to work hard to use the full
capability of the cpu. VAX is CISC to the max with an extremely rich
instruction set and addressing modes. FYI the VAX inherits most of the
base instuctions from the PDP-11 which is the also very CISC.
Now all this is nice when instructions are executed one at a time like
the 8080 or 6502 did. This became meaningless with later VAXen that
were more piplined so that current instruction execution overlapped the
next. The 8088 also does this albeit weakly. With the RISC machines also
doing super pipining the number of clock cycles became less meaningful
and the "MIPS" did as well. Adding things like caches complicates this
more as a cache flush or processor lock can really tie things up for long
periods of time affecting performance.
VAX VUPs are a more subjective standard as they are a measure of the
system rather than the bare cpu SPECint92 is similar in that respect as
doing real work generally makes the system a slave to outside influences
like the disk system data rates and memory system size. A good example
of this is that 6mhz Z80 can execute instructions at or about 1mips but
IO to the average floppy is slow enough to make that cpu wait about 1-2
seconds for 16k of data. The disk systems for machines like Vaxen are
designed to supply data at 20-1000 times that data rate. So if you
sorting data (say a data files that is 16mb in size) the disk systems are
also a big factor no matter what the system as the data and program will
not for in local memory. Even with huge memories in the 100s of megabytes
it's not always efficient(or possible with multitasking) to copy from disk
to ram and sort then copy it back.
Just a peak under the hood.
Allison
> I haven't seen a mag card reader of any 'stripe' in many years.
Several HP calculators used 'em for awhile. The HP-41C had a motorized
reader, while the -75 and (later) the 71B of fond memory used hand-pulled
strips. I bought my 71 in '87, iirc.
Hey -- I just realized -- it's a classic! Makes me feel OLD.
At 04:47 PM 1/8/98 -0800, you wrote:
>I got this email today ( I think it's classic computer related), but
>I can't read Spanish. Can anyone help this person?
I can't read spanish, but I can pass on this URL:
<http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/>
which lets you enter either a bunch of text or a URL and it will translate
it for you. Pretty neat, although far from perfect. Can at least get you
an idea of what that german/spanish/french classic computer page is talking
about.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
At 01:51 PM 1/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
>> I got an e-mail from InnFoGraphics Warehouse Liquidation, of a sale
>
>I plan on going down from Seattle on Saturday morning. Anybody else going?
I can't make it (a bit far from San Francisco), but I'd be happy provide you
with a shopping list. 8^)
(Actually, it's pretty simple: any portable computers smaller
large-laptop-size or smaller, $10 or less. 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
At 01:28 PM 1/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I think the inner city schools would have a better use for these machines,
>or maybe special afterschool programs, or even donating them to under
>priveledged kids locally.
a lot of local programs certainly have *need* for them, but they would
probably see more *use* overseas. The problem with older (and certainly
very viable and useful) equipment in this country is getting it into
operation, maintaining it, and putting it to work with software other than
what one buys at CompUSA.
I'd be happy to discuss this further (I am somewhat involved in this sort of
thing myself) but I think it best kept to private e-mail (or the various
newsgroups/mailing lists about the subject.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
I'm starting to wonder about how common the C-64c is. I have yet to see
one, I picked up the manuals when a favorite bookstore had a set a few
months back. Then last weekend I was at the bookstore and they had like 3
or 4 sets of manual. But like I said I've never seen an actual computer!
Functionally are they any different from a standard 64?
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. |
| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |
