24 Apr
2006
24 Apr
'06
4:13 p.m.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8800968650
Hopefully someone nearby can save this. As someone has pointed
out, this machine really needs to be saved. It is a pretty large
system, and may have the sources for Salford University's FTN77
compiler on the backup tapes.
24 Apr
24 Apr
4:38 p.m.
In article <C072A99C.2271%aek at bitsavers.org>,
Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> writes:
If ever there was a machine that screamed "Tony Duel", this is it :-).
Tony, you won't need to anguish about board swapping with this one,
considering the rarity :).
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
7:09 p.m.
If ever there was a machine that screamed "Tony Duel", this is it :-).
Tony, you won't need to anguish about board swapping with this one,
considering the rarity :).
Tony, I have a little bit of documentation if you buy his argument. :-)
De
25 Apr
25 Apr
10:48 a.m.
In article <C072A99C.2271%aek at bitsavers.org>,
Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> writes:
If ever there was a machine that screamed "Tony Duel", this is it :-).
There are just 2 major problems...
1) I have no space (certainly not for 3 racks). Darn it, I still can't
open the front door properly here because I've not found a space for the
HP9817 system I bought a few weeks back.
2) It's in Manchester, I'm in Lodnon. And I have no transport. It's not
the sort of thing you can take on a train...
There's also the minor problem of 'too many machines, not enough time'
here ;-)
Tony, you won't need to anguish about board swapping with this one,
considering the rarity :).
You think I ever worry about that? Darn it, I'll spend time fixing a
board, even if I know I have a good spare and know where it is...
-tony
24 Apr
24 Apr
6:45 p.m.
Man, I'd just LOVE to have that animal. I installed countless 2550's at
every Anhueser-Busch brewery, and spent quite a few years developing QA
software for AB on them. What memories. I've been wanting a 2550 for a long
time.
But alas..... no way can I stomach shipping for those 3 units from the UK :|
Jay
7:54 p.m.
The 750 was introduced january 1979, I think it was required rev 15 or
later (might have been 16) of Primos. The 2xxx series started to
introduce loadable firmware (5.25" floppy) etc. and required the later
releases, like in the 20s. My memory of this is fuzzy, I left Prime
in 1983ish.
On 4/24/06, Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org> wrote:
How much do
you figure it would cost?
Easily a couple grand I would think, from there to STL
MO
Also, I wouldn't think the OS tapes for the 2550 would work on the 750 which
is a much older system. But, I really don't know!
Jay West
8:49 p.m.
Robert wrote....
The 750 was introduced january 1979, I think it was
required rev 15 or
later (might have been 16) of Primos. The 2xxx series started to
introduce loadable firmware (5.25" floppy) etc. and required the later
releases, like in the 20s. My memory of this is fuzzy, I left Prime
in 1983ish.
I'm quite sure that the 2550's I installed were running rel 19. Wonder of
the 2550 has a PT200 terminal to go with :) What was the console command to
boot from cartridge tape... BOOT 14114 or something like that?
Jay
9:23 p.m.
I'm quite sure that the 2550's I installed
were running rel 19. Wonder
of the 2550 has a PT200 terminal to go with :) What was the console
command to boot from cartridge tape... BOOT 14114 or something
like that?
Or a PST100, its predecessor. That stands for Pretty Sh*tty Terminal,
by the way. Hope no Primates are here who will be offended.
Boot 14114 was a disk boot, something like first partition, first
drive, first controller. Boot parameters ending in 5 were tape boots,
so 15, 505, etc.
De
8:46 p.m.
Also, I wouldn't think the OS tapes for the 2550
would work on the
750 which is a much older system. But, I really don't know!
There were not, during the period I worked on Primes, variants for
different hardware. Once Primos started supporting a new type of
hardware, it rarely stopped -- backwards compatibility was one of
the albatrossen which sank the company, IMHO. Even the hardware had
the disease. How many architectures do you know of which had working
support for 7 or 8 completely different addressing models, complete
with the predictable effects on the assembler language? The machines
I worked on in the mid-late 80s still had 16S mode support, which if I
understand correctly, was essentially the architecture Prime inherited
from the old H316/516 machines used in the early
Internet IMPs.
There are older machines which were NOT 50-series hardware, which ran
some older ancestral version than the Primos IV which ran on the -50s.
But Primos IV for 50 series should run on virtually anything from a
250 on up.
Those tapes should work just fine on a 750, if they're readable at all.
De
9:41 p.m.
If I recall DOS was the single user OS they picked up from the
government (MIT & NASA?). The multi-user version of it was Primos III
for the Prime 300, and then Primos IV was the breakthru with big
virtual memory space and a lot of other advanced (for then) and
Multics derived features.
On 4/24/06, Dennis Boone <drb at msu.edu> wrote:
Also, I
wouldn't think the OS tapes for the 2550 would work on the
750 which is a much older system. But, I really don't know!
There were not, during the period I worked on Primes, variants for
different hardware. Once Primos started supporting a new type of
hardware, it rarely stopped -- backwards compatibility was one of
the albatrossen which sank the company, IMHO. Even the hardware had
the disease. How many architectures do you know of which had working
support for 7 or 8 completely different addressing models, complete
with the predictable effects on the assembler language? The machines
I worked on in the mid-late 80s still had 16S mode support, which if I
understand correctly, was essentially the architecture Prime inherited
from the old H316/516 machines used in the early Internet IMPs.
There are older machines which were NOT 50-series hardware, which ran
some older ancestral version than the Primos IV which ran on the -50s.
But Primos IV for 50 series should run on virtually anything from a
250 on up.
Those tapes should work just fine on a 750, if they're readable at all.
De
25 Apr
25 Apr
6:13 a.m.
If I recall DOS was the single user OS they picked up
from the
government (MIT & NASA?). The multi-user version of it was Primos
III for the Prime 300, and then Primos IV was the breakthru with
big virtual memory space and a lot of other advanced (for then)
and Multics derived features.
The story is supposedly that DOS, later called Primos II, was written
over a Memorial Day weekend in 1968 by Bill Poduska because they
were tired of rewinding the FORTRAN compiler paper tapes. He figured
they'd never finish developing a timesharing OS if they had to keep
doing that.
The FORTRAN compiler was inherited from a contractor who wrote it
for NASA. A lot of software was written on government contract,
or inherited from same, so the software ended up being public domain.
De
24 Apr
24 Apr
6:59 p.m.
Al Kossow wrote:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8800968650
Hopefully someone nearby can save this. As someone has pointed
out, this machine really needs to be saved. It is a pretty large
system, and may have the sources for Salford University's FTN77
compiler on the backup tapes.
Shame we're not nearby :-( Have forwarded to our group just in case, though.
If anyone happens to be heading south from that area with a van anyway in the
near future, shout :-)
(We've got a PR1ME 750, but currently no OS media - I suspect those backup
tapes may well boot on our system)
cheers
Jules
7:08 p.m.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8800968650
Hopefully someone nearby can save this. As someone has pointed
out, this machine really needs to be saved. It is a pretty large
system, and may have the sources for Salford University's FTN77
compiler on the backup tapes.
Please, someone save this machine, even if you pull the internal parts
and ditch the cabinets. The software really needs to be saved before
it's all lost forever.
Whoever grabs it, let's talk about the software.
De
7:22 p.m.
In article <200604250208.k3P28ZGK029229 at yagi.h-net.msu.edu>,
Dennis Boone <drb at msu.edu> writes:
Please, someone save this machine, even if you pull
the internal parts
and ditch the cabinets. The software really needs to be saved before
it's all lost forever.
Should we collectively fund a rescue with donations? ;-)
Tony, where are you?!? :)
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
25 Apr
25 Apr
6:07 a.m.
On 25/04/06, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8800968650
Hopefully someone nearby can save this. As someone has pointed
out, this machine really needs to be saved. It is a pretty large
system, and may have the sources for Salford University's FTN77
compiler on the backup tapes.
I will try and get this. I can get to manchester quite easily. I just
hope the price doesn't go crazy.
Dan
6817
days inactive
6818
days old
16 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
drb＠msu.edu -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
legalize＠xmission.com -
rollerton＠gmail.com -
williams.dan＠gmail.com