9 Oct
2009
9 Oct
'09
2:14 p.m.
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 2:01 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
On Fri, 9 Oct 2009, Ethan Dicks wrote:
What? Do you have a Qbus COMBOARD? ;-)
I think one list member ever has piped up that they found a COMBOARD
in a rescued system - we sold a few thousand Unibus "COMBOARD I"
(HASP/3780) boards over 12 years or so, a much smaller number of
Unibus "COMBOARD II" (SNA), and an even smaller number of Qbus
COMBOARDs (HASP/3780/SNA), and by comparison, a microscopic number of
VAXBI COMBOARDs (HASP/3780).
If anyone still cared about setting up sync links between VAXen and
IBMs, I'd have more motivation to work on these sorts of projects, but
since I never have gotten the DWBUA working on my 8200 after it moved
to my house, I don't really have a ready-to-use environment for
testing our old Unibus products (of which I still have a couple tubs).
Qbus is easy, as is VAXBI.
It was a great product for the 1980s, but I don't really hear any buzz
about sync serial comms anymore.
-ethan
On that box in particular, I should really get
around to imaging the
drive - it has hardware diagnostics already set-up to test Qbus
COMBOARDs (the diagnostics themselves are backed up 3 ways, but not in
a working environment).
Well... ?Get to work! ?:-) 
3:19 p.m.
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 2:23 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
On Fri, 9 Oct 2009, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Not that I know of, but the sooner it's archived the more likely it is to be
possible.
What I need to image is the manufacturing test environment, not the
software we distributed to customers. Our distro environment is one
of the things that's backed up 3 ways (along with our development
environment, etc).
If you _have_ a Software Results Corporation Model 652, 752 or 1252,
I'd love to hear about it. I don't have any pictures right now, but
it's a full-sized Qbus card with a great honking MC68000 (could be
ceramic, could be plastic), a Z8530 DUART, a 512KB patch of 41256s,
and a wad of PALs, and the company name, address and support number
(1.800.SRC.DATA) in the silkscreen layer. There were only a few
hundred ever made. I don't know if _I_ even have a working one right
now (we sold them until they sold out, and there weren't many on the
bench to repair).
Well...
?Get to work! ?:-)
What? ?Do you have a Qbus COMBOARD? ?;-) 
3:34 p.m.
If you _have_ a Software Results Corporation Model
652, 752 or 1252,
I'd love to hear about it. ?I don't have any pictures right now, but
it's a full-sized Qbus card with a great honking MC68000 (could be
ceramic, could be plastic), a Z8530 DUART, a 512KB patch of 41256s,
and a wad of PALs, and the company name, address and support number
(1.800.SRC.DATA) in the silkscreen layer. ?There were only a few
hundred ever made. ?I don't know if _I_ even have a working one right
now (we sold them until they sold out, and there weren't many on the
bench to repair).
I have an SRC card. It says Copyright 81 82 REV 3.0 s/n 917 CBD X31. Available.
--
Will
4:04 p.m.
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 3:34 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
That's a "COMBOARD-I" - it has a 68000, a 32K field of 2114 SRAMs, a
6821 for the printer interface, and a COM5025 USART to talk to IBM or
other bisync gear via HASP or 3780. The design was based on SRC's
older HASPBOX product, 100% DEC hardware with 100% SRC software.
There's DEC host software for it for RSX-11, RSTS, VMS, 4BSD, System
V, and Ultrix. When it was new, it sold for $2500 as a hardware
spare, or over $10000 with a software license. The pricing model was
based on the exact model number (kept in the ROMs along with an
electronic serial number - I burned many, many ROMs over the years)...
the 631 was the least expensive, the 1231 the most. I was never in
sales, but ISTR a 1231 card with a software license might have been as
much as $25000. It certainly was no cheaper than $12500.
I myself have a couple of tubs of those in various states - it's a
nice board for what it does, but I say that as one of the last people
who remembers how to repair them and develop for them (and as the
legal owner of the IP). I wouldn't want to see it discarded, but it's
the Qbus model that I'm really searching for.
-ethan
If you _have_
a Software Results Corporation Model 652, 752 or 1252,
I'd love to hear about it...
I have an SRC card. It says Copyright 81 82 REV 3.0 s/n 917 CBD X31. Available. 
3:42 p.m.
On 9 Oct 2009 at 14:14, Ethan Dicks wrote:
I think one list member ever has piped up that they
found a COMBOARD
in a rescued system - we sold a few thousand Unibus "COMBOARD I"
(HASP/3780) boards over 12 years or so, a much smaller number of
Unibus "COMBOARD II" (SNA), and an even smaller number of Qbus
COMBOARDs (HASP/3780/SNA), and by comparison, a microscopic number of
That brings back a bunch of ugly memories. Back around 1983, we had
an 11/750 on lease running BSD and a leased 9600 bps line (Bell 208
modem). The dealer who supplied the system did so with the assurance
that he could provide bisync/HASP support on BSD. I don't recall
what the board was in the 750, but I seem to remember it was
something like a DU-11 (it's been far too long). The vendor brought
in everyone he could hire to fix it and eventually gave up. At $5K
per month for a leased line sitting idle, we were none too happy.
I think we eventually ended up using an IBM PC-XT with a sync adapter
to do the job.
--Chuck
4:38 p.m.
On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 9 Oct 2009 at 14:14, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Maybe a DUP-11? IIRC, that's one of DECs comm adapters with a
COM5025. It's just a serial chip with a bus interface - no smarts at
all. All of the protocol implementation would be thrust on your box.
In our experience, there were certain protocol implementation details
that different vendors completed to varying degrees of success.
I think one list member ever has piped up that
they found a COMBOARD
in a rescued system...
That brings back a bunch of ugly memories. ?Back around 1983, we had
an 11/750 on lease running BSD and a leased 9600 bps line (Bell 208
modem). ?The dealer who supplied the system did so with the assurance
that he could provide bisync/HASP support on BSD. ?I don't recall
what the board was in the 750, but I seem to remember it was
something like a DU-11 (it's been far too long). ?The vendor brought
in everyone he could hire to fix it and eventually gave up. ?At $5K
per month for a leased line sitting idle, we were none too happy.
COMBOARDs were available for 4.0BSD and 4.1BSD (it's where I cut my
teeth on UNIX), but since we delivered a hardware-software solution,
we couldn't come close to approaching the price of a
DEC-card-and-software solution. OTOH, our stuff _did_ work and did
work efficiently, so we did occasionally get a sale to someone who
tried stuffing a DUP-11 or DUV11 into their box and was unhappy about
a host-driven solution, but with the higher up-front cost,
I think we eventually ended up using an IBM PC-XT with
a sync adapter
to do the job.
Some people went that route in the 1980s, but our customer base, at
least, wanted to move largish files and wanted a certain amount of
robustness that a desktop machine didn't offer, and were willing to
pay more than the cost of a dedicated PC to do it.
-ethan
5:11 p.m.
On 9 Oct 2009 at 16:38, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Maybe a DUP-11? IIRC, that's one of DECs comm
adapters with a
COM5025. It's just a serial chip with a bus interface - no smarts at
all. All of the protocol implementation would be thrust on your box.
In our experience, there were certain protocol implementation details
that different vendors completed to varying degrees of success.
Could be--as I said, it's an unpleasant memory lost in the mists.
Our customer stood by the HASP implementation on his end; even though
it wasn't an IBM box, he could talk to IBM boxes without problems.
The package we tried to use on BSD on the 750 was from some
university (not UC). With 2500 miles between the hosts, it was
darned difficult figuring out what was going on.
Fedex did a pretty good business with us sending a reel 1/2" tape
every few days to the customer. In retrospect, the bandwidth was
probably a fair fraction of what a leased line could have done
anyway.
--Chuck
5351
days inactive
5351
days old
7 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
cclist＠sydex.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com