On 3/24/2006 at 12:57 PM Richard wrote: http://freepatentsonline.com/5113500.pdf

Chuck Guzis wrote: Somewhat like the IBM IS/390, no? Peace... Sridhar

Dave Dunfield wrote: Is it an EISA machine? If yes, it's configuration has probably changed and it doesn't know what to do. I have a Unisys setup program that may be what you need. Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

Hi all, I have a friend that used to work on/with the Unisys stuff. I have most of a machine in my basement, but never fired it up. He also has a complete machine, and hasn't fired it up recently, but believes it will run. I forwarded Dave's original email to him and he replied below. If any of you need further help, let me know and I'll pass the questions on to him and he might answer directly. His big thing is that he already gets a ton of email (good,bad and ugly) and is cautious about getting more, or joining the group. Very interesting about what he says about booting from the floppy. He used to support a bunch of these machines, so I am pretty sure he knows his stuff, but to not boot a floppy is unique. Cheers, Joe Heck Unisys info: A7 came in a few varieties.... A7-311 first release basically a 486 souped up with several mainframe boards in it. the host operating system was OS/2 2.1 The mainframe processor (aka SCAMP) is the "do not press" chip. the a7-411 was similar to the 311 but in a rack mount 6u chassis then came the A7-811 which went up to a P-90 but still ran os/2 etc... the memory boards (daughter boards) on the processor card are (i think) 500K Words each, yes i said words... the A series uses a 48 bit user word with a 4 bit tag (52 bit words) the a7-811 processor had a second card strapped to the proccessor that would allow a max of about 3-4 Mg Words. The long net card is really the mainframe network interface, 10B2 or AUI, in the right os it will support tcp/ip There should also be a long scsi card, i believe a 1744 or there abouts.. this would be the primary mainframe bus. the config error is usually due to: a) a bad cmos battery b) re-arranged cards c) missing cards. you need the SCU for the machine to fix the cmos to get rid of the error... Unisys was very picky and nothing else would work you should be able to boot from either the CD-rom or the QIC tape. you usually cannot boot from the floppy. The same server cabinet also came with SYSVr4 Unix, be sure you DO NOT use the SCU for the unix box as the tags for the mainframe cards are wrong. once you boot into os/2 (if it's there) you'll get into the a-series maintenance mode support and the into the a-series. be sure that you DO NOT use a ps/2 style mouse as that interrupt is needed for the mainframe. once booted, the mainframe will try to boot from it's own boot drive. the a series boot scsi disks are NOT 512 byte sectors, they are 180 byte sectors and will not look right to any pc software. there is special firmware on the drive to enable the correct size sectors, etc. also, if you have 4mm or 8mm drives for it, they have custom firmware. once booted, you should be able to get to an ODT screen, enter ??MARC if that is taken, about 3-4 minutes later you should see a login screen.!!!! if so, we can talk from there. MCP is the master control program and runs the a series line. I have an A7-811 here and i think it still runs.

Hi Joe, Please thank him for the wealth of info - if you could pass on my questions below, I'd appreciate it. I'd like to see this thing running, and I think it's "almost there", but it would appear that I still need some things... If he is willing, I would very much appreicate corresponding with him directly - please forward my email address to him and ask him to contact me. As far as I can tell, there is no card like this, and it does not appear to be missing - I am wondering if this system is "a bit different". Here is a more details description of what I have: - There is a "map" printed on the side cover which shows the locations of various items on the mainboard. It makes no mention of a SCSI card. There is SCSI connectors, termination and other evidence of a strong SCSI presence on the mainboard itself. - The mainboard has 8 EISA slots. The network card is plugged into the bottom slot (#1 on map). The suspected A-Series card (with the "do not press" chip) is plugged into the third slot from the top (#6 on map). - The above are the only EISA cards - there are no missing end plates or other evidence that a card has been removed. - There is a daughter card attached to the suspected A-Series card which contains memory SIMs. - Above the EISA slots, toward the front of the machine, is the 486 CPU daughter card (Marked CPU module on the map). Behind that (toward rear of machine) is a connecter marked "CPU 64-bit connector" which is unconnected. - Just above these two items (64-bit connector and 486) are two slots marked "Memory module" which are both filled with what is obviously memory cards. I received no disks, documentation or other material with the machine. I have obtained a ZIP archive of a number of config programs related to this machine - Is there any way to identify the correct one of a particular configuration/type of machine. I can send a directory listing of the files that I have if that would help. It "appears to try" to boot from floppy - if sucks on the disk for a few seconds before it "dies" (no further activity - need power-cycle to get back to activity). Will it boot a "normal" CD? Ie: If I make a bootable CD with DOS on it (done by a floppy disk image) - should this boot? Thanks for all the info - I haven't gotten it to go far enough to worry too much about "what happens after booting" yet, but this is good to know - hopefully I will need this info shortly! Regards, Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

I would definitely want to be on that list. The machine I have should be able to run some interesting demos rather than just booting Up and shutting Down. John A.

On 3/28/2006 at 1:43 PM joe heck wrote: You mean like endless PDP-11 and VAX threads? (Just kidding, folks!) --Chuck

I would actively encourage such traffic here (provided the machine is at least 10 years old -- I know nothing about them). Several times I've read discussions on this list of machines that I've never heard of and have been prompted to either find out more or even to track down one of said machines (a case in point being those Panasonic HHCs, I only started looking for those after I'd read about there here). -tony

In article <009701c652d5$7e6f4190$6700a8c0 at HPLAPTOP>, "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> writes: You mean we can't talk about Windows 95? Its vintage, baby. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

In article <01a001c652da$c2f62fe0$6700a8c0 at HPLAPTOP>, "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> writes: Its 10 years old. I thought that was the requirement for "on topic", or are we going to get snooty about *which* 10 year old things we can talk about? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

On Tue, Mar 28, 2006 at 08:55:16PM -0700, woodelf wrote: Well, you can generally run MS/PCDOS on new machines. There's also FreeDOS (which is a free clone), and things like BOCHS and dosemu for running DOS under some of the more useful modern multitasking OSes. Pat -- Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/ The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org

Patrick Finnegan wrote: And, last I checked IBM still sells PC-DOS if you need something supported. I run MS-DOS 6.22 on a Pentium-133 Compaq and occasionally on a 1200MHz Athlon, depending on whether I'm reading/writing floppy or tape. Since I own several "legitimate" copies of v6.22, and it supports all the programs I need very well, I haven't really looked at the free alternatives. Doc

Chuck Guzis wrote: I should probably do that on the Athlon, if only because networking and graphics are marginally simpler in Win9x (and while there's no current AV software for DOS, there are plenty of the old DOS virii floating around). As I'm too lazy to go look it up, what was the msdos.sys incantation to boot into CLI? And Hey, Jay! Wouldn't this be an example of "acceptable use" re Win9x discussion? IANAP, so I don't care. :) Doc

On 3/29/2006 at 9:54 PM Jay West wrote: Oh, c'mon. When you're out for results (i.e. does this device really work the way I think it does?) can you really beat DOS? I can't think of a device driver I haven't written first in DOS just to see if I understood the way things worked. Cheers, Chuck

Tar and feathers!!!! -- --------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com -- Do not use for personal hygiene. -- Actual label, toilet brush -------------

Fred wrote... *scurrying off to quickly insert a cruel and unusual punishment clause in the list charter* Jay

I was joking. I apologize for my lack of good taste. I have been dealing with college administrators too much lately. (they are discontinuing computer science, and are re-assigning me to be a librarian) -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

On 3/29/2006 at 9:13 PM Doc Shipley wrote: Easy, just edit the system text file MSDOS.SYS to say BootGUI=0. You'll see what I mean. Cheers, Chuck

On Tue, Mar 28, 2006 at 08:35:20PM -0700, Richard wrote: Yes. 10-years is a quasi-guideline. Things must be non-pedestrian -- interesting, you might say. If you want to talk about Windows 95, there's a lot better places to be discussing it than here. Why do we have to argue about this over and over? It seems like some people can't understand the difference between a 'guideline' or 'general idea' and fixed rule that cannot be broken (assuming there really is such a thing). If this decends into a WinTel PC discussion list, any interest I have in this list will die a quick death. IBM PCs, PC/XTs, PCjrs, PC/ATs, etc (perhaps PS/2's as well) are generally excepted as they were at least somewhat novel machines at the time of their inception. A Packard Bell 486 running Windows 95 (for example) isn't. Pat -- Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/ The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org

In article <038301c652e5$681fa2d0$6700a8c0 at HPLAPTOP>, "Jay West" <jwest at classiccmp.org> writes: ... of which I'm one. I don't have any problems with guidelines or even *gasp* rules for the list. However, I do have a problem with the rules not being written down anywhere and someone getting upset that I've "broken" the unwritten law. If you want to have guidelines then they have to be posted. Saying "look in the archives" isn't really sufficient as I've seen that the subject rarely accurately reflects the content of a message and using vague search terms on an archive as large as cctalk is going to yield many useless hits. So yes, please update the FAQ/whatever to be more accurate :-). -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

In article <m1FOjib-000IxxC at p850ug1>, ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) writes: (*see hornet's nest*) (*kick it*) (*run!*) :-) -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>

Tony Duell wrote: No, I wouldn't want another Windows list - but nor would I want Windows fans to feel that they had nowhere to ask questions about *old* versions of Windows. I expect the various MS usenet groups are all about new versions and nothing more. (Although Win95 seems to work close enough to newer Windows variants that I'd debate the usefulness of asking anything here!) Jay - would an official policy work along the lines of: "Anything over ten years is on topic, but the mods reserve the right to ask that specific threads be stopped if things are getting out of hand"? That way the odd Windows question gets through OK, but can be knocked on the head after anything more than a handful of replies. (After all, I'm sure there are all plenty of on-topic threads here that people don't read because they're not of personal interest!) cheers Jules

I think we've always been snooty about which things we talk about. W95 support is available in many places so there's no need to hash it out here. If you need to know something that particularly relates to classic computing that's perhaps different, but if you just want to know what resolutions your box supports I'd suggest that asking here is the wrong thing to do. Excuse me while I stop Outlook adding capitals all Over the place :-) Antonio -- Antonio carlini arcarlini at iee.org

Alternately, we could agree to always use "[Micro-A] " in the subject line, and he could reject all non-compliant letters. John A. got bandwidth?

What vintage is the Unisys A? I would think it'd be fine for discussion here Jay ----- Original Message ----- From: "joe heck" <trash3 at splab.cas.neu.edu> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 12:43 PM Subject: Unisys A google group

Dave Dunfield wrote: For what it's worth, I suspect this is an Intel server platform that is Unisys badged. You will find this in the Pentium 2 platforms, if you look for the "Astor" for example on the intel Oem server site. that is newer than the box you show, but I suspect it is probably compatable if you need setup disks and basic support and the like and don't have it. I know the box you have photos of is an Eisa so that may be a bit of a challenge to find setup disks for, as the Eisa setups in bios was not quite there yet. Jim

The label directly under the power supply reads: UNISYS Style No: CER4344-100 Serial No: 414465227 The small label on the upper right of the back panel reads: UNISYS CORPORATION. Style : A7-311 34642801 Serial: 419517222 Regards, Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

Being there, Doing that. Right now I'm all gungho for infoAge, in Central NJ. It's nearer than either RCS/RI or the MIT swap and has lots of cool machines to work on. Make an appearance for the VCF East this May 13. John A.

WD -- I know you're already on our local list -- but for everyone else: if you live in the mid-atlantic / northeast and you're not familiar with MARCH, then check us out at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/ ... I need to update our FAQ buy basically we're a vintage-focused user group. We're hosting VCF East and we're setting up a computer museum. Lots of fun! -----Original Message----- From: William Donzelli [mailto:aw288 at osfn.org] Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 1:49 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: NY/CT collectors I think this may have been kicked around before, but would there be interest in a once-a-month beer and pizza dinner geekfest for those of us in the NY and CT area, and even northern NJ? Nothing really all that organized, mind you - we just pick a day and a place, and whoever shows up shows up. William Donzelli aw288 at osfn.org

William Donzelli wrote: I'd show. Peace... Sridhar

OK, that makes four or five of us. Anyone else? Let's pick a time and place. Ideas? William Donzelli aw288 at osfn.org

William Donzelli wrote: How about Longobardi's in Wappingers? Food's pretty good. Peace... Sridhar