7 Jun
2006
7 Jun
'06
7:50 a.m.
Fellow Classic Computer Enthusiasts,
I was rewatching "30 Years in the Tardis" last night and came across an item
on the tape I had forgotten about. It's been years since I watched it, and
the last time was long before I started tinkering with classic computer
emulators. Anyway, while rewatching it I was thrilled to come across a
commercial with the Doctor and Romana advertising a Prime computer. I found
some info on the net on the Prime computer line, such as:
http://www.malch.com/prime/
on the net but no mention of an emulator. I also found some manuals on
BitSavers.org. Having been a Doctor Who fan for years, and with Tom Baker
being my favorite Doctor, I'd love to have the opportunity to experience a
computer system he endorsed.
Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX
7 Jun
7 Jun
8:10 a.m.
Kevin Monceaux wrote:
Fellow Classic Computer Enthusiasts,
I was rewatching "30 Years in the Tardis" last night and came across an item
on the tape I had forgotten about. It's been years since I watched it, and
the last time was long before I started tinkering with classic computer
emulators. Anyway, while rewatching it I was thrilled to come across a
commercial with the Doctor and Romana advertising a Prime computer. I found
some info on the net on the Prime computer line, such as:
http://www.malch.com/prime/
on the net but no mention of an emulator. I also found some manuals on
BitSavers.org. Having been a Doctor Who fan for years, and with Tom Baker
being my favorite Doctor, I'd love to have the opportunity to experience a
computer system he endorsed.
Why not just pick up a Prime? They're out there. Some of them are even
not all that big.
Peace... Sridhar
8:35 a.m.
We have a couple of large ones here in the MARCH/InfoAge collection. I
don't have any information handy about the model numbers or the condition.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sridhar Ayengar [mailto:ploopster at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:10 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Is there a Prime Computer Emulator?
Kevin Monceaux wrote:
Fellow Classic Computer Enthusiasts,
I was rewatching "30 Years in the Tardis" last night and came across
an item on the tape I had forgotten about. It's been years since I
watched it, and the last time was long before I started tinkering with
classic computer emulators. Anyway, while rewatching it I was
thrilled to come across a commercial with the Doctor and Romana
advertising a Prime computer. I found some info on the net on the Prime
computer
line, such as:
http://www.malch.com/prime/
on the net but no mention of an emulator. I also found some manuals
on BitSavers.org. Having been a Doctor Who fan for years, and with
Tom Baker being my favorite Doctor, I'd love to have the opportunity
to experience a computer system he endorsed.
Why not just pick up a Prime? They're out there. Some of them are even not
all that big.
Peace... Sridhar
8:50 a.m.
Yep, I forgot. Will ping you off-list about that.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sridhar Ayengar [mailto:ploopster at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:39 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Is there a Prime Computer Emulator?
Evan Koblentz wrote:
We have a couple of large ones here in the
MARCH/InfoAge collection. I
don't have any information handy about the model numbers or the condition.
I believe you met Ian at VCFE. He works with Primes for a living.
Peace... Sridhar
8:11 a.m.
I was rewatching "30 Years in the Tardis"
last night and came across
an item on the tape I had forgotten about. It's been years since I
watched it, and the last time was long before I started tinkering
with classic computer emulators. Anyway, while rewatching it I
was thrilled to come across a commercial with the Doctor and Romana
advertising a Prime computer. I found some info on the net on the
Prime computer line, such as:
http://www.malch.com/prime/
on the net but no mention of an emulator. I also found some manuals
on BitSavers.org. Having been a Doctor Who fan for years, and with
Tom Baker being my favorite Doctor, I'd love to have the opportunity
to experience a computer system he endorsed.
Aha, another interested person.
There's an unreleased emulator which is complete enough to run PRIMOS
Rev. 21 and most of the utilities; last I knew it had not yet developed
I-mode instruction support. Documentation is slowly accreting on
bitsavers; I have a few things I need to finish up and make available.
PRIMOS tapes seem to be a bit scarce. I have some tapes of utilities
and such that I collected over the years I worked on Prime systems.
I've talked to a few list.folk who have machines in their garages
awaiting enough parts and software to try to revive them. Mine is
a 2550. I've talked to a fellow who has a mostly running 2450.
A machine in the UK recently sold on eBay, and one vendor has a pile
of (overpriced, mislabeled) boards and parts constituting most of a
machine except for cabinet, backplane and disk drives in his store.
I'd be interested in seeing that commercial if you can put it online
somewhere.
De
8:36 a.m.
On Wed, Jun 07, 2006 at 11:11:17AM -0400, Dennis Boone wrote:
There's an unreleased emulator which is complete
enough to run PRIMOS
Rev. 21 and most of the utilities; last I knew it had not yet developed
I-mode instruction support.
Any idea where I might find more information about it, such as when it might
be released?
I'd be interested in seeing that commercial if you
can put it online
somewhere.
Since what I have is on "More than 30 Years in the Tardis" from the BBC I
suspect it's copyrighted. It would appear that what I have is an
abbreviated version. I found some info on the commercials at:
http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv26/primecomputers.html
It appears that there were actually four commercials staring the Doctor and
Romana. I would love to see them all myself.
Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX
8:37 a.m.
Dennis Boone wrote:
Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com>, who has been a member of this list in
the past, works for one of the few support shops that still supports
Prime and PRIMOS *today*.
He collects classic hardware and runs one or two fully functional Primes
in his house. You might want to email him.
Peace... Sridhar
I was
rewatching "30 Years in the Tardis" last night and came across
an item on the tape I had forgotten about. It's been years since I
watched it, and the last time was long before I started tinkering
with classic computer emulators. Anyway, while rewatching it I
was thrilled to come across a commercial with the Doctor and Romana
advertising a Prime computer. I found some info on the net on the
Prime computer line, such as:
http://www.malch.com/prime/
on the net but no mention of an emulator. I also found some manuals
on BitSavers.org. Having been a Doctor Who fan for years, and with
Tom Baker being my favorite Doctor, I'd love to have the opportunity
to experience a computer system he endorsed.
Aha, another interested person.
There's an unreleased emulator which is complete enough to run PRIMOS
Rev. 21 and most of the utilities; last I knew it had not yet developed
I-mode instruction support. Documentation is slowly accreting on
bitsavers; I have a few things I need to finish up and make available.
PRIMOS tapes seem to be a bit scarce. I have some tapes of utilities
and such that I collected over the years I worked on Prime systems.
I've talked to a few list.folk who have machines in their garages
awaiting enough parts and software to try to revive them. Mine is
a 2550. I've talked to a fellow who has a mostly running 2450.
A machine in the UK recently sold on eBay, and one vendor has a pile
of (overpriced, mislabeled) boards and parts constituting most of a
machine except for cabinet, backplane and disk drives in his store.
I'd be interested in seeing that commercial if you can put it online
somewhere. 
8 Jun
8 Jun
6:54 p.m.
Ian Primus <ian_primus at yahoo.com>, who has
been a
member of this list in
the past, works for one of the few support shops
that still supports
Prime and PRIMOS *today*.
*delurk*
Hehe - you ratted me out... I'm here, I've just been
quiet. Yes, believe it or not, there are still places
running Primes, and I've had to do a couple of repairs
recently - although these things don't break too
often. They're very reliable and do what they're
supposed to do very well. The largest repair job I've
had to do recently was a 2755 at a hospital that had
problems with it's disks after a problem of flickering
power. That computer has been running since it was
new, sometime in the early 80's, and is still being
used for archival purposes, to look up old records
Then there's a 2950 running at a school system, doing
a lot of database work, that is in active use. That
one has been running there since it was new too. The
people in the office love it, and since they haven't
seen any modern system that they can use half as well
as the Prime for what they need to do, the Prime
stays. The only problem it's had recently was a worn
out microcode floppy drive. We have a lot of other
customers, but we haven't had to do any hardware
repairs in the longest time.
Great machines, Primes.
Ian Primus
ian_primus at yahoo.com
7 Jun
7 Jun
1:40 p.m.
Dennis Boone wrote (after Kevin Monceaux):
> with classic computer emulators. Anyway, while
rewatching it I
> was thrilled to come across a commercial with the Doctor and Romana
> advertising a Prime computer.
I'd be interested in seeing that commercial if you
can put it online
somewhere.
You might find it about 2/3 of the way down this page:
<http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/cult/drwhocommercials-new.html>
-Frank McConnell
2 Dec
2 Dec
1:49 p.m.
On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 13:40 -0700, Frank McConnell wrote:
Dennis Boone wrote (after Kevin Monceaux):
Catching up on list mail... This now 404s. Is there anyone who saved the
vids?
-Tore
> with classic computer emulators. Anyway,
while rewatching it I
> was thrilled to come across a commercial with the Doctor and Romana
> advertising a Prime computer.
I'd be interested in seeing that commercial
if you can put it online
somewhere.
You might find it about 2/3 of the way down this page:
<http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/cult/drwhocommercials-new.html>
3:18 p.m.
In article <1165096166.30774.160.camel at localhost.localdomain>,
Tore Sinding Bekkedal <toresbe at ifi.uio.no> writes:
<http://www.archive.org> had the text in the wayback machine, but not
the images :-(.
"Prime Computers
Australia, 1979-80
A series of computer hardware commercials made for Australian TV,
featuring husband and wife celebrity team Tom Baker and Lalla
Ward. Funny - even if you don't speak seven languages and up to
five protocols..."
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
You might find
it about 2/3 of the way down this page:
<http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/cult/drwhocommercials-new.html>
Catching up on list mail... This now 404s. Is there anyone who saved the
vids? 
7 Jun
7 Jun
4:12 p.m.
A machine in the UK recently sold on eBay, and one
vendor has a pile
of (overpriced, mislabeled) boards and parts constituting most of a
machine except for cabinet, backplane and disk drives in his store.
I'd be interested in seeing that commercial if you can put it online
somewhere.
De
I bought the one from ebay recently unfortunately the last time it was
powered up apparently it went bang and no longer powers up. I am
hoping it was something simple. I haven't had a chance to have a good
look yet, mainly due to space. This should be remedied sometime soon.
Dan
8:15 a.m.
I looked around for an emulator and never found one. I'd love to find one
though!
Better yet, I'd be willing to trade a few highly desireable mini's for a
decent prime box :)
Jay
8:26 a.m.
I looked around for an emulator and never found one.
I'd love to find
one though!
Better yet, I'd be willing to trade a few highly desireable mini's
for a decent prime box :)
Jay,
I've talked a bit by e-mail to the guy who did some of the work on
the F77 MAGRST clone and who has a 2450 mostly working. (Was working;
power suplly needs repair.) He provided disk images to another guy,
to whom I've also talked, who has written an emulator. The latter
guy is reluctant to release the emulator because he's afraid since
copyrighted materials were used as references during its construction,
he'd end up in legal trouble.
I've got a transcript of a session with the emulator, booting, running
fix_disk, shutting down, which the guy sent me.
There's hope; guy #1 is working on guy #2 to relax and ship the code.
Meanwhile, if I find any Primes, I'll try to nab them for you.
De
14 Jun
14 Jun
10:10 a.m.
On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 11:26 -0400, Dennis Boone wrote:
to whom I've also talked, who has written an
emulator. The latter
guy is reluctant to release the emulator because he's afraid since
copyrighted materials were used as references during its construction,
he'd end up in legal trouble.
If they were used as a reference, and not copied verbatim, he should be
OK. If they were under NDA, then that may be different ;-)
Is there anyone left to complain, these days?
Gordon.
7 Jun
7 Jun
8:27 a.m.
I'm not aware of one. Here are the Big Iron emulators that I am aware of:
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/bigironemu.html
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
8 Jun
8 Jun
8:23 a.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
I'm not aware of one. Here are the Big Iron
emulators that I am aware of:
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/bigironemu.html
What defines 'big'? Raw horsepower, or physical size, or something else?
I'm just thinking that there are probably lots of emulators of older (1950s
and 1960s) machines around - big iron in their day, but not exactly quick by
the standards of 1970's hardware.
cheers
Jules
8:57 a.m.
At 4:23 PM +0100 6/8/06, Jules Richardson wrote:
Zane H. Healy wrote:
For that webpage, pretty much anything that isn't DEC (as each family
of DEC hardware has its own page), and isn't a home computer type
system. Stuff that wouldn't normally be found in the home.
There are plenty of webpages out there dedicated to home computer or
video game emulation, but a serious lack of any dedicated to the
rest. Basically it's an off shoot of the DEC Emulation Website,
which in turn was an off shoot of the PDP-10 Emulation Webpage.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
I'm not aware of one. Here are the Big Iron
emulators that I am aware of:
http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/bigironemu.html
What defines 'big'? Raw horsepower, or physical size, or something else?
I'm just thinking that there are probably lots of emulators of older
(1950s and 1960s) machines around - big iron in their day, but not
exactly quick by the standards of 1970's hardware.
8:28 a.m.
Kevin Monceaux wrote:
I was rewatching "30 Years in the Tardis"
last night and came across an item
on the tape I had forgotten about. It's been years since I watched it, and
the last time was long before I started tinkering with classic computer
emulators. Anyway, while rewatching it I was thrilled to come across a
commercial with the Doctor and Romana advertising a Prime computer.
Aha - I've certainly seen those as full-page ads in magazines, although I've
not seen TV versions before. I *think* I scanned a couple of the magazine ads
- I'm back in England where they are as of this weekend, so drop me an email
next week if you want me to check.
I found some info on the net on the Prime computer
line
Very little around though it seems, which is odd considering how big the
company once was.
cheers
Jules
6361
days inactive
6539
days old
22 comments
14 participants
participants (14)
-
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
drb＠msu.edu -
evan＠snarc.net -
fmc＠reanimators.org -
gordon＠gjcp.net -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
ian_primus＠yahoo.com -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
Kevin＠RawFedDogs.net -
legalize＠xmission.com -
ploopster＠gmail.com -
toresbe＠ifi.uio.no -
williams.dan＠gmail.com