I saw a DECWriter II today near the trash. It was a typewriter-style thing
bolted to a table. I didn't stay around long, because there was a security
camera watching (what are they for above the trash anyway, for god's sake?). I
couldn't have dragged it away, or put it anywhere, anyway. So, what did I
miss?
classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Subj: Re: Wtd: ESDI 3.5" hd + hd ?'s
Tony Duell wrote:
!> MFM (early 80's?)
!> RLL (late 80's?)
!> SCSI (late 70's?)
!> ESDI (?)
!> IDE
!>
!> any others? Thanks...
!
!I can't help with dates, but there are a lot of others :
!
!SASI (forerunner of SCSI)
!SMD
!HPIB :-) (Seriously, HP did make large-ish hard disks with an HPIB interface)
!Massbus (?)
!
!And the custom ones :
!Shugart SA4000 (one 50 wire cable)
!Shugart SA1000 (50 wire control cable, that could be shared with 8" floppy
!drives, and a 20/26 wire data cable)
!DEC : R80 (almost SMD, but different enough to give you headaches!),
!RK05, RL01, RK06, etc... Doubtless other manufactures had similar custom
!interfaves
!Diablo 30 (almost the same as RK05, but not quite)
!Micropolis 1200 (either the raw 50 wire interface, or the formatted one.
!There was a standard Micropolis controller for the latter)
Well - now that the discussion has turned to disk drives and such I would like
to ask in general (not necessarily to Tony in particular): where might I be
able to find either an ESDI or a SCSI controller for the Q22 bus in a
MicroVAX II? Shop names and addresses in the Bay area would be especially
helpful but I am perfectly happy to look elsewhere (even DEC). Alas, the
recently mentioned organization with a web page at http://www.dda.org/dda.html
apparently does not list any hardware (not even if you "subscribe"(?)).
Thanks to the efforts of a member of this list I am now the extremely happy
owner of a uVAX II with three RD53 bootable drives (Ultrix 1.2, 2.1, &&
VMS 5.4 - the latter (c) 1990 and not strictly classic software :=}). At any
rate, I would like to up the disk capacity of the machine by a fair amount and
install a decent C compiler (Under VMS I am currently limited to DCL and MACRO
as the only programming languages - oddly I have both FORTRAN and PASCAL verbs
in my DCLTABLES but no such images under SYS$SYSROOT.)
A big thanks to this list for information already provided as well as that
anticipated.
Peter Prymmer
I have a Heathkit H-8 computer in working order with documentation,
software, terminal (H-19), disk drives that I no longer use. I'd like
to find someone who can make good use of this equipment.
It would be helpful if you can handle shipping costs but everything is
negotiable.
If you are interested, please send email or call 408-881-3489.
--Bill Hall
Anybody got manuals or hints for the S-BUG and DELABS monitor ROMs?
I scored a SwTPC 69/A today that has both of these, but I only
sorta remember S-BUG from way-back-when, and have never even heard
of DELABS.
To jiggle your memories, here are some of the S-BUG commands that
I remember/figured-out today:
^A - set accumulator A
^B - " " B
etc. for other registers
G - go to address in PC
R - show registers
S - show stack
D - boot from disk (?)
E - examine memory
P - punch (motorola S19 format memory dump)
As for the DELABS ROM, it seems to be involved with the EPROM burner.
I suspect it can read & write EPROMs, and maybe up/download binaries
over one of the serial ports. But I've only figured out a few of its
commands:
D - memory hex dump
F - fill memory
I suppose I'll end up disassembling them both eventually, but hints
could make the job much easier, and maybe unnecessary.
Thanks!
Bill.
] You guys know that I agree with your sentiment 100%. That said, I'd
] rather see the systems melted down for scrap (assuming it's a reasonably
] efficient and environmentally safe process) than to see them go into a
] landfill. I can't imagine how many beautiful systems are rusting away
] under 3 million tons of garbage someplace. I don't want to see them
] scrapped either, mind you, but given the choice....
Imagine this, fifty years from now, a web of nanotech bots climbing
through and mapping a landfill, finding antique treasures, maybe getting
enough chemical data to reconstruct the things before decay set in...
I'd vote for the landfill over the slag heap any day. Of course, my
basement, when I get one, will be the best option.
] Anthony Clifton - Wirehead
Bill.
Until it fills up.
At 10:42 AM 1/3/98 -0800, you wrote:
>I have an Integral, but it's ROM just has the HP-UX kernel and PAM --
>just enough to boot and run things. So I have /usr/bin (Unix
>utilities, C compiler, &c) on a 9134 for when I actually want to do
>something with it.
Are you saying that there is no internal hard drive int the IPC? Wierd.
Okay, so since I'd love to have one, let me ask this in advance: Has anyone
come up with an HP-IB (IEEE-488?) to SCSI or IDE adapter? It would be great
to tack a little 3.5" (or even 2.5") hard drive on the side. 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/
Hi, I just picked up an Altair 8800a. It has a North Star disk drive
controller in it. I think it uses a Shugart Sa400 drive. Does anyone know
if it uses a hard sectored or soft sectored disk? Where can I find a SA
400? I know they were very common in the old computers. I have access to a
lot of old computers (old Tandys, Commodores and other stranger things.)
Can anyone tell me which ones migh t have a SA 400 drive? Yes, Yes, I know
you're all going to be PO'd that I would use one of those old machines for
parts, but I've offered them to people over and over and no one is
interested unless I PAY them to take them.
Joe
Qedit
> is an incredible editor while MPEX extends the capabilities of the OS.
Yeah, but they want something like $90 for it! I found another, that's free
(even has spell check). Will send to anyone on request.
manney(a)nwohio.com
John Higginbotham <higginbo(a)netpath.net> wrote:
> They run blindingly fast,
>making them utterly worthless unless you use one of those slowdown utils,
>but most of those only run right on 486s.
Again, there must be a market for better emulation / slowdown software.
There should be a way to put the Pentium in an 8008 compatibility mode. :-)
>>Three, that ancient games don't "hurt" today's software market. Doing what?
>
>Doing what? Being available for "free" (illegally) out there for people to
>get to them. The fact that people are still playing them doesn't affect
>today's game market at all.
Yes, the sales of old software might be a very small fraction of mainstream
games, so small as to have no effect - but I don't like to play fast-and-loose
with self-created and self-serving notions of "it's not hurting anyone" when
it comes to intellectual property issues.
>But repackaging the games and shipping them would up the price to at least
>$10.00 a piece,
Maybe the net and micropayments will help. Or in this case, a web site
with do-it-yourself downloading of $10 bundles of 20 old games might
satify both the developers and the funding of the site. Shareware is
a *sure* way to gather no cash, especially with a dusty product like this.
Being afflicted with entrepreneur's disease, I've toyed with the
idea of this as a business: collecting up the distribution rights
for old software, bundling them on CD, adding emulators, and selling
for reasonable prices, etc. to recreate the old computer experience.
As they say, they're not making any more "retro." :-)
The hard parts would be finding the rightful owners, forging
acceptable contracts with each, and without giving them the impression
that millions are to be made. Or in some cases, if the companies
that owned the products are truly *gone*, to be willing to take
the risk they wouldn't sue you if you assumed you could distribute.
Apropo the other thread about today's tendency to throw out 486s...
as-is, they still run yesterday's games, word processors, educational
apps, etc. for schools, libraries, senior centers, day care centers, etc.
It's such a shame this stuff isn't being reused. A 486/33 with
8 megs and Linux makes a perfectly acceptable firewall.
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
<Apropo the other thread about today's tendency to throw out 486s...
<as-is, they still run yesterday's games, word processors, educational
<apps, etc. for schools, libraries, senior centers, day care centers, etc
<It's such a shame this stuff isn't being reused. A 486/33 with
<8 megs and Linux makes a perfectly acceptable firewall.
Sheesh,
I consider my good system with bells and whistles hot and it's a lowly
486DX2/50 with 8meg and 516mb disk! The next ones down from there is a
386dx/33(128k cache) and a 486sx/25(no cache). Scary that I consider
what I have pretty adaquate (I run Gcadd, Netscape3+, and a few other
heavies).
Allison
