18 Aug
1997
18 Aug
'97
2:34 p.m.
Does anyone else find this hilariously funny?
----------
From: Tim Shoppa
Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Sent: Monday, August 18, 1997 5:29 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: What's an M7165?
What's an M7165?
One half of a KDA50. The other half is a M7164.
Tim.
18 Aug
18 Aug
2:39 p.m.
On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, Kai Kaltenbach wrote:
Does anyone else find this hilariously funny?
Well, it's not in my DEC book.
I was just going through stuff.
Oh, and I have RSTS-E and the 11/44 diags on 9-track tape. Which I have
no drive for. Anyone wanna take a shot at putting these on DECtape IIs?
:)
7:34 p.m.
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19 Aug
19 Aug
5:58 a.m.
On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, Tim Shoppa wrote:
A 2400' reel of 1600 bpi 9-track is about 40 Megabytes. That's
equivalent to 160 DECTape II carts. I think you'd be better off finding
yourself a 9-track drive! Everyone should have one - I now have
sixteen such drives (800/1600, 1600, or 1600/6250, or 7-track)
in my house.
I just got one. More later.
7:03 a.m.
New subject: 9-track tape drive: What is this?
I have absolutely no idea. It's plenty large, though...
There's two boxes. One is the drive, the other is ???
The other is lighter than the drive.
I'll drag it in here first.
The front panel on the box says:
HP 1000 A900
HEWLETT PACKARD.
It appears to fit into a DEC rack...
The back panel looks like this:
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| ==== ==== ==== ==== === * === ==== ==== ==== ==== |
| ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== |
| === ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== === |
| === ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== === |
| === ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== === |
| === ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== === |
| |
| |
| +-----+ +----+ |
| | ST1 | | ST2| +----+ +------+ |
| | | | | |ST3 | | ST4 | |
| +-----+ +----+ +----+ * +------+ |
| +-------------------------------------------------+ |
| +--------------------OPEN SPOT--------------------+ |
| SW1 PG1 DG1 SW2 PG2 |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
Explanation:
* means screw
==== means cooling vent. There are cards in a backplane behind these.
Removing the screws allows access to the cards.
ST1: Sticker one. says "Hewlett Packard"
ST2: Sticker two. FCC rules stuff.
ST3: Sticker three. Warranty sticker.
ST4: Guess. says "Hewlett-packard. Product 2139A. Options O14. serial
#.
SW1: Switch. backup ena/dis
PG1: Plug 1. 12-pin square plug.
DG1: Diagram of the plug.
EXT BAT + | MLT | +5M | -5
EXT BAT - | O1 | PON | +12
CMN | O2 | PFN | -12
SW2: on/off line
PG2: Power Plug.
That's all the back. Now for the drive!
God, this is heavy!
Too big to ascii, I'll have to describe it.
It says "hp 7970E"
Buttons a re LOAD, REWIND, ONLINE, RESET, 0, 1, 2, 3, OFF
Connector is a small printer-plug looking thing (Like the plug on your
printer, but smaller.
I do have a scratch tape, how does one get the tape into these?
Any info is appreciated.
7:58 a.m.
New subject: 9-track tape drive: What is this?
A guess only :
I have absolutely no idea. It's plenty large, though...
There's two boxes. One is the drive, the other is ???
The other is lighter than the drive.
I'll drag it in here first.
The front panel on the box says:
HP 1000 A900
I suspect this is an HP1000-series processor. Exactly what it is depends
on what cards are in it.
HEWLETT PACKARD.
It appears to fit into a DEC rack...
Standard 19" rack, I guess. A lot of stuff (computers, peripherals,
test gear,etc) fits that standard rack. There are also (much rarer) wider
racks for things that just can't fit into 19" - like big monitors.
It says "hp 7970E"
I think that's a standard HP 9-track tape drive.
Buttons a re LOAD, REWIND, ONLINE, RESET, 0, 1, 2, 3, OFF
Connector is a small printer-plug looking thing (Like the plug on your
printer, but smaller.
If it's a 24 pin connector (12 pins on each side) then it's almost
certainly HPIB/GPIB/IEEE-488 (all basically the same interface). HP used
this _hardware standard_ on a lot of their peripherals including disk
drives, tape drives, printers, test gear, etc. The same interface is
available for many other machines from HP calculators (!) to large minis.
A PC interface card is certainly made (by a number of companies, not just
HP), but won't be cheap.
I do have a scratch tape, how does one get the tape into these?
Well, I've not used that particular drive, but if it's a manual loader,
you open the front door, put the tape on the empty hub, thread it up
(there's normally a diagram inside), close the door and press 'Load'
If it's an autoloader (like the DEC TS-05) then you open the flap (you may
need power-on to do this), put the tape in the slot, close the flap and
press the load button.
Any info is appreciated.
-tony
8:27 a.m.
New subject: 9-track tape drive: What is this?
I suspect this is an HP1000-series processor. Exactly
what it is depends
on what cards are in it.
There are still a bunch of these still in service, complete with switch
registers and blinkey lights! I do not know who runs them, however.
The newer models dumped the lights and switch register, much like PDP-11s.
Standard 19" rack, I guess. A lot of stuff
(computers, peripherals,
test gear,etc) fits that standard rack. There are also (much rarer) wider
racks for things that just can't fit into 19" - like big monitors.
Actually, 23" is quite common for telco equipment. Western Electric had a
bunch of standards, all dating from the 1920's, thank goodness that only
two survived.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
18 Aug
18 Aug
7:29 p.m.
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19 Aug
19 Aug
5:57 a.m.
On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, Tim Shoppa wrote:
That's what happens when I answer a question as
briefly as
possible :-). I had about 10 seconds to run out of my office
and catch a bus home when I sent that off!
Now the long explanation: A KDA50 is a Q-bus version of the UDA50.
Oooh! Good thing! I was about to drop that in a Unibus!
That means maybe the 11/23 can start RSTS-E?
8:42 p.m.
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 16:34:06 -0700
Reply-to: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
From: Kai Kaltenbach <kaikal(a)MICROSOFT.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: RE: What's an M7165?
Does anyone else find this hilariously funny?
Yes , I giggled thru the rest of the ng posts, many of which are
unintelligable to me. I keep hoping that enlightenment will
miraculously happen. I have been monitoring this ng for a while
and picking up snippets of info. It occurred to me that the
PDP8/e/f/m maintenance manual (vol 1 } that I had acquired and
kept since my course on dig. electronics in 83 because it had a
beautiful description of the fetch sequence in processors might be
of value in this group. If it's quite available "nevermind"
ciao larry
----------
From: Tim Shoppa
Reply To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
Sent: Monday, August 18, 1997 5:29 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: What's an M7165?
What's an M7165?
One half of a KDA50. The other half is a M7164.
Tim.
9834
days inactive
9836
days old
10 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
ard＠odin.phy.bris.ac.uk -
dseagrav＠bsdserver.tek-star.net -
kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com -
lwalker＠mail.interlog.com -
shoppa＠alph02.triumf.ca -
stuart＠colossus.mathcs.rhodes.edu -
william＠ans.net