30 May
2008
30 May
'08
1:25 p.m.
This is not relevant to this particular rescue, but
I know nothing
about these systems and am curious. What type of OS and app software
do machines like this run?
990's are 16 bit computers heavily influenced by the architecture of the pdp-11.
The main difference is the working registers were kept in memory, allowing very
fast context switches, at the expense of register access performance. Later machines
cached the register sets.
There was a small single-user floppy disk based os (for the 990/4 based on the TMS9900),
but the main OS was DX-10, which was replaced by DNOS on the 990/12 series.
Their primary use was in small buisiness, they had COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, and things
like rje, data base and forms management packages, and networking.
It seems they were widely used in inventory and parts management systems. The history
of the 990 says the system was originally developed as part of a hotel management system.
dave pitt's site (as well as bitsavers)
are good sources of information
http://www.cozx.com/~dpitts/ti990.html
30 May
30 May
4:39 p.m.
New subject: Tandy (Radio Shack) 6000 rescue
I picked up the first of two loads of Tandy model 6000 stuff today. The documentation
alone filled up more than half of my Suburban.
There are service notes with some schematics along with docs
on Fortran, Cobol, Xenix, etc. Around 10 disk units, some the
Bernoulli type. Next week I'll pick up the two machines, terminals, printers and
floppy drives.
Anyone out there with one of these machines?
Al, do you want all of the documentation and software?
I plan on keeping very little of this stuff, I just did not want
to see it get scrapped. There are some 8" floppy drives
I'll keep, along with about 20 Data General 10 MB cartridges.
If anyone is looking for something, let me know.
Bob
31 May
31 May
2:34 a.m.
New subject: Tandy (Radio Shack) 6000 rescue
I still miss my tandy 6000 I had several years ago... very nice box as long
as you had spare HDD's for the external storage unit.
1 Jun
1 Jun
9:35 p.m.
New subject: Tandy (Radio Shack) 6000 rescue
Thanks to Jay for getting be back on the list.
Please please please preserve the software and documentation and make
them available to the world, if at all possible. If Al doesn't want
it, I'll take some of it at least. Various Xenix versions and the
Xenix C development kit are (or at least were) available online, but I
haven't seen Fortran and Cobol. I think I've got multiplan here, but
until I get my machine working again, it'll stay on disk. Save dumps
of the drives in case there's something interesting on them. It's a
shame that the old FTP sites that contained software for this beast
appear to be entirely gone. These were one the most common Unix
machines in existence. Now you'd think they never existed.
My 6000HD is currently not functioning, and I haven't had time to
attempt repairs. If you are planning to get rid of one or more of the
6000s I might be interested. Where are they located? Check to see if
any have the Arcnet card. If so, rejoice.
If you are planning to keep them, digital photos or scans of each of
the cards, showing wire "debugging" jumpers in place would be
valuable. I have been told that the printed schematics of the 68000
card do not match the jumpered version, and I suspect that a dangling
wire is the cause of my problems. Its destination is not entirely
apparent, since the solder blob came off with the wire. Apparently
the joint was never good. Who puts jumpers on the component side of a
board anyway?
Eric
On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 1:39 PM, Bob Rosenbloom <bobalan at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
I picked up the first of two loads of Tandy model 6000
stuff today. The documentation alone filled up more than half of my Suburban.
There are service notes with some schematics along with docs
on Fortran, Cobol, Xenix, etc. Around 10 disk units, some the
Bernoulli type. Next week I'll pick up the two machines, terminals, printers and
floppy drives.
Anyone out there with one of these machines?
Al, do you want all of the documentation and software?
I plan on keeping very little of this stuff, I just did not want
to see it get scrapped. There are some 8" floppy drives
I'll keep, along with about 20 Data General 10 MB cartridges.
If anyone is looking for something, let me know.
Bob
2 Jun
2 Jun
12:11 a.m.
New subject: Tandy (Radio Shack) 6000 rescue - photos
Eric J Korpela wrote:
Thanks to Jay for getting be back on the list.
Please please please preserve the software and documentation and make
them available to the world, if at all possible. If Al doesn't want
it, I'll take some of it at least. Various Xenix versions and the
Xenix C development kit are (or at least were) available online, but I
haven't seen Fortran and Cobol. I think I've got multiplan here, but
until I get my machine working again, it'll stay on disk. Save dumps
of the drives in case there's something interesting on them. It's a
shame that the old FTP sites that contained software for this beast
appear to be entirely gone. These were one the most common Unix
machines in existence. Now you'd think they never existed.
My 6000HD is currently not functioning, and I haven't had time to
attempt repairs. If you are planning to get rid of one or more of the
6000s I might be interested. Where are they located? Check to see if
any have the Arcnet card. If so, rejoice.
If you are planning to keep them, digital photos or scans of each of
the cards, showing wire "debugging" jumpers in place would be
valuable. I have been told that the printed schematics of the 68000
card do not match the jumpered version, and I suspect that a dangling
wire is the cause of my problems. Its destination is not entirely
apparent, since the solder blob came off with the wire. Apparently
the joint was never good. Who puts jumpers on the component side of a
board anyway?
Eric
I have a photo of the manuals here:
http://www.dvq.com/tandy/maunals.JPG
More photos, close-ups of manuals and some hardware here:
http://www.dvq.com/tandy/
There is Fortran, Pascal, Cobol, Basic, work processing, and many types
of business software. Some
are just the manuals, some have the disk in the binders. There's a box
of binders full of 8" floppies,
and a box of Bernoulli cartridges. Also, there's some stuff for the
Models 2, 12, and 16 thrown in the lot.
Al is not interested in the stuff so I need to find a home, hopefully
someone in the Silicon Valley area
(it's located at my house in Santa Cruz, CA). Shipping this stuff won't
be easy. I can take things to
a shipping store though.
I have not yet picked up the two machines and the big line printer.
Should have it all by next Wed.
I have no plans on keeping any of it. The lot included 25, 10 meg Data
General cartridges, some Nova 3
documentation, and two National Semi 4004 boards. That's the stuff I was
interested in. I can't store the stuff
forever, it's not in a good place, so the faster I dispose of it the better.
Bob
1:37 a.m.
New subject: Tandy (Radio Shack) 6000 rescue - photos
Well, I'm local enough I think that I'd be willing to pick up the
lesser of a) the amount that can fit in my car and b) the amount I can
bring home and remain married. That might be enough to make your life
easier. Let's talk off list and make arrangements....
On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 9:11 PM, Bob Rosenbloom <bobalan at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Eric J Korpela wrote:
Thanks to Jay for getting be back on the list.
Please please please preserve the software and documentation and make
them available to the world, if at all possible. If Al doesn't want
it, I'll take some of it at least. Various Xenix versions and the
Xenix C development kit are (or at least were) available online, but I
haven't seen Fortran and Cobol. I think I've got multiplan here, but
until I get my machine working again, it'll stay on disk. Save dumps
of the drives in case there's something interesting on them. It's a
shame that the old FTP sites that contained software for this beast
appear to be entirely gone. These were one the most common Unix
machines in existence. Now you'd think they never existed.
My 6000HD is currently not functioning, and I haven't had time to
attempt repairs. If you are planning to get rid of one or more of the
6000s I might be interested. Where are they located? Check to see if
any have the Arcnet card. If so, rejoice.
If you are planning to keep them, digital photos or scans of each of
the cards, showing wire "debugging" jumpers in place would be
valuable. I have been told that the printed schematics of the 68000
card do not match the jumpered version, and I suspect that a dangling
wire is the cause of my problems. Its destination is not entirely
apparent, since the solder blob came off with the wire. Apparently
the joint was never good. Who puts jumpers on the component side of a
board anyway?
Eric
I have a photo of the manuals here:
http://www.dvq.com/tandy/maunals.JPG
More photos, close-ups of manuals and some hardware here:
http://www.dvq.com/tandy/
There is Fortran, Pascal, Cobol, Basic, work processing, and many types of
business software. Some
are just the manuals, some have the disk in the binders. There's a box of
binders full of 8" floppies,
and a box of Bernoulli cartridges. Also, there's some stuff for the Models
2, 12, and 16 thrown in the lot.
Al is not interested in the stuff so I need to find a home, hopefully
someone in the Silicon Valley area
(it's located at my house in Santa Cruz, CA). Shipping this stuff won't be
easy. I can take things to
a shipping store though.
I have not yet picked up the two machines and the big line printer. Should
have it all by next Wed.
I have no plans on keeping any of it. The lot included 25, 10 meg Data
General cartridges, some Nova 3
documentation, and two National Semi 4004 boards. That's the stuff I was
interested in. I can't store the stuff
forever, it's not in a good place, so the faster I dispose of it the better.
Bob
5889
days inactive
5892
days old
5 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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aek＠bitsavers.org -
bobalan＠sbcglobal.net -
geoffr＠zipcon.net -
korpela＠ssl.berkeley.edu