19 Jan
2008
19 Jan
'08
3:07 p.m.
Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box, with the monitor, books,
etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any
opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run
____," etc?)
It's cheap, but it will have to be shipped, which may not be cheap.
--
j
19 Jan
19 Jan
3:37 p.m.
Jason T wrote:
Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box, with
the monitor, books,
etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any
opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run
____," etc?)
It's cheap, but it will have to be shipped, which may not be cheap.
In a nutshell, it's IBM's first RISC machine. Except it is much slower
than what most people associate with RISC machines.
I'd get one in a heartbeat .. I used to use these beasts at work.
4:18 p.m.
Jason T wrote:
Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box, with
the monitor, books,
etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any
opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run
____," etc?)
It's cheap, but it will have to be shipped, which may not be cheap.
A lot of the stuff that was available from IBM has been posted in
archives that can be found with some searching. Just be prepared to
support a machine with a 1.2MB high density floppy habit, and a 60 or
150mb quarter inch tape habit. I have all my machines, software and
drives "archived" and can't help much but they are nice machines.
Only thing to watch for is whether it has 40mb or 110mb drives (or even
20mb). They used the seagates st whatevers, which might be a bit scarce
these days.
I heard rumors that one could get ide controllers to work in them, but a
fire put a halt to my playing as I lost all but 2 of the boxes, and spares.
AIX 2.1 and AOS are the two OS's to look for.
Jim
6:09 p.m.
Yeah. I'd pick one up if you're interested. the ROMP chip was not much
of a speed demon, but it is granddaddy to the RS6k and all that
followed after. And also remember that these things used funky ESDI
drives, I think mostly Maxstor, I think they topped out at 320MB.
Several quirks too about that ESDI, not everything could be made to
work. I remember Ungermann-Bass thick ethernet cards and of course
Token Ring were options. The megapixel console monitor had real slow
graphics but it could use a Hercules card. The terminal cards had odd
AMP connectors on 'em I think. Ideally you get one with the slightly
faster cpu card that had added the moto fpu. Nifty toy to play with.
AOS is a relatively pure 4.3 port but that might be harder to come by.
Good luck!
On Jan 19, 2008, at 7:18 PM, jim s wrote:
Jason T wrote:
Jeff Brendle Office: 313 EESB/(814)865-3257/fax 865-3191
Desktop Support Spv. Home: 146 Haverford Circle
Penn State - Coll. of E&MS State College, PA / (814)238-8811
Mailto:bli at psu.edu AOL/MSN/Yahoo! IM - JSBrendle
Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box,
with the monitor,
books,
etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any
opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run
____," etc?)
It's cheap, but it will have to be shipped, which may not be cheap.
A lot of the stuff that was available from IBM has been posted in
archives that can be found with some searching. Just be prepared to
support a machine with a 1.2MB high density floppy habit, and a 60
or 150mb quarter inch tape habit. I have all my machines, software
and drives "archived" and can't help much but they are nice machines.
Only thing to watch for is whether it has 40mb or 110mb drives (or
even 20mb). They used the seagates st whatevers, which might be a
bit scarce these days.
I heard rumors that one could get ide controllers to work in them,
but a fire put a halt to my playing as I lost all but 2 of the
boxes, and spares.
AIX 2.1 and AOS are the two OS's to look for.
Jim 
20 Jan
20 Jan
8:37 a.m.
On Sat, 19 Jan 2008, Jeff Brendle wrote:
Yeah. I'd pick one up if you're interested.
the ROMP chip was not much of a
speed demon, but it is granddaddy to the RS6k and all that followed after.
If you can find the "Advanced Enhanced" CPU board, it runs at a whopping
12Mhz. and has 16MB of DRAM installed (no need for the extra memory
cards).
And also remember that these things used funky ESDI
drives, I think mostly
Maxstor, I think they topped out at 320MB. Several quirks too about that
ESDI, not everything could be made to work.
Per my prior post, it's possible to get older IDE drives working. Never
could figure out how to boot from them, though. Always used a floppy to
get to the BSD startup and kicked off the system from hard disk at that
point.
I remember Ungermann-Bass thick
ethernet cards and of course Token Ring were options. The megapixel console
monitor had real slow graphics but it could use a Hercules card.
Ah. I didn't realize that! I have a monochrome RT board with one of the
old RT "high def" mono displays. Also, one of the wierd 3-board color
adapters (forget what it's called).
AOS is a relatively pure 4.3 port but that might be
harder to come by. Good
luck!
Available if you poke around on the web. There's a also a partially
completed BSD 4.4 port around if you look really hard. It almost works
<g>.
n.b. All of the available C compilers have "quirks" that make development
work a real challenge!
For real rarity, there was an "RT on a card" that plugged into a few of
the later Microchannel boxen (Mod 80/85 I think) and let you dual boot DOS
and AOS. Never was able to get ahold of this bugger.
Steve
--
2:13 p.m.
On Jan 20, 2008, at 11:37 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
I have the very machine that the 4.4BSD port was done on, and the
development directories are still intact. It runs nicely. I really
should take images of those filesystems before the disks finally die.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
AOS is a
relatively pure 4.3 port but that might be harder to come
by. Good luck!
Available if you poke around on the web. There's a also a
partially completed BSD 4.4 port around if you look really hard.
It almost works <g>.
21 Jan
21 Jan
5:33 a.m.
yeah. I remember compiling being a lot more "fun" on those...
And the RT 6152 w/ the crossbow "rt on a MCA card" thing I think
worked with a PS/2 Mod 60 shell. boot began from BIOS on the 286 mobo
and then switched over to complete on the RT card. CompSci here used
to have a pile of them way back in the day. I remember some talk of
using dual crossbows to get a dual CPU fire-breathing monster. well,
you know, at least not slow as molasses
On Jan 20, 2008, at 11:37 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
n.b. All of the available C compilers have "quirks" that make
development work a real challenge!
For real rarity, there was an "RT on a card" that plugged into a
few of the later Microchannel boxen (Mod 80/85 I think) and let you
dual boot DOS and AOS. Never was able to get ahold of this bugger.
22 Jan
22 Jan
9:23 a.m.
Jeff Brendle wrote:
And also remember that these things used funky ESDI
drives, I
think mostly Maxstor, I think they topped out at 320MB.
Yep, ours certainly has three ESDI Maxtors in it - I don't recall if they're
320MB or 360MB now.
It's got a SCSI (external) tape unit with it too which is via some flavour of
Adaptec controller (presumably the 1540B that Steve mentions).
The megapixel console monitor had real slow graphics
but it
could use a Hercules card. The terminal cards had odd AMP connectors on
'em I think. Ideally you get one with the slightly faster cpu card that
had added the moto fpu.
We were lucky (thanks, Pete!) in that ours was a full CAD system with the
faster CPU board setup and the 5085 graphics processor cabinet / 5081 display,
plus it came with a boat-load of manuals and disks. Definitely a very weird
and wonderful system :-)
8 Mar
8 Mar
12:03 p.m.
Well I finally got the IBM - mine is a 6151/115. Not sure what the
last digits signify. Original hard drive? I didn't think it's like
IBM to put the hard drive size on the faceplate like that.
Keyboard connector - definitely odd. Fortunately the 'board itself is
a regular Model M, which made replacing the keys damaged in shipping
easy. Unfortunately the cable is not modular on the keyboard end, so
I'll have to make sure to keep it out of range of the cats :)
The mouse looks like a strange connector, too. Unfortunately I got no
mouse with the system :(
Don't know how much RAM I've got. How can I tell? The system doesn't
turn the display on until AIX is booting, so if there's a POST screen
I can't see it.
As everyone noted, it is *heavy*! I'm used to heavy workstations from
the mid-80s (Sun 3, SGI and the like) but this one tops the list, at
least in my collection.
There is what looks like the standard IBM 37-pin external floppy
connector on one of the cards. Is that what it is? Or maybe for a
tape drive? If it's the latter I may even have a drive for it...
All in all an interesting historical footnote machine. I booted it
and played Hunt the Wumpus on it last night, so I'm happy with it. :)
It also had a Stallion 16-port RS-232 card in it, with breakout box,
which I removed so as not to damage the cabling going to the box.
Cool as it is, it's unlikely I will ever use more than one external
serial device on this box, if any. Can anyone make use of this kit?
I'd be happy to trade it for just about anything - help getting a copy
of the O/S for this machine would be ideal. I believe these are all
ISA slots, so perhaps it will work on a PC also? Here's a pic of the
box:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiclassiccomp/2318580337/
--
jht
7:36 p.m.
Jason T wrote:
Well I finally got the IBM - mine is a 6151/115. Not
sure what the
last digits signify. Original hard drive? I didn't think it's like
IBM to put the hard drive size on the faceplate like that.
IBM's standard way of marking machines is Type-Model. XXXX-XXX
The -XXX will tell you about its original configuration. CPU, memory,
disk, everything.
For example, an IBM 2007-AD1 (the machine I'm typing this on), is a
ThinkPad T60p with a/b/g wireless, 2GB RAM, 100GB 7200RPM SATA disk,
bluetooth, no fingerprint reader and ATI Mobility FireGL V5200 graphics.
Knowing just the type and model is enough to tell me all I need to
look *all* of that up.
Usually, the first digit of the model is a major revision, and the last
two refer to a specific configuration.
I have my doubts as to whether a drive as large as 115MB would have been
a common default factory configuration on that machine.
Keyboard connector - definitely odd. Fortunately the
'board itself is
a regular Model M, which made replacing the keys damaged in shipping
easy. Unfortunately the cable is not modular on the keyboard end, so
I'll have to make sure to keep it out of range of the cats :)
The mouse looks like a strange connector, too. Unfortunately I got no
mouse with the system :(
I wouldn't worry about it, if you don't have a Megapixel card and
monitor. If you do, then it would be worth it to get a mouse.
Don't know how much RAM I've got. How can I
tell? The system doesn't
turn the display on until AIX is booting, so if there's a POST screen
I can't see it.
There's nothing there to see. IBM workstation posts didn't display
anything on the screen until *very* recently.
As everyone noted, it is *heavy*! I'm used to
heavy workstations from
the mid-80s (Sun 3, SGI and the like) but this one tops the list, at
least in my collection.
Welcome to the world of IBM, with plastics heavier than steel.
There is what looks like the standard IBM 37-pin
external floppy
connector on one of the cards. Is that what it is? Or maybe for a
tape drive? If it's the latter I may even have a drive for it...
I can't help you there. I doubt any third-party tape drive would be
compatible, though,
All in all an interesting historical footnote machine.
I booted it
and played Hunt the Wumpus on it last night, so I'm happy with it. :)
I don't know if I'd call it a footnote, since it led directly to RS/6000.
It also had a Stallion 16-port RS-232 card in it, with
breakout box,
which I removed so as not to damage the cabling going to the box.
Cool as it is, it's unlikely I will ever use more than one external
serial device on this box, if any. Can anyone make use of this kit?
I'd be happy to trade it for just about anything - help getting a copy
of the O/S for this machine would be ideal. I believe these are all
ISA slots, so perhaps it will work on a PC also? Here's a pic of the
box:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiclassiccomp/2318580337/
I'd be interested in that card, cable and box. Email me. We might be
able to come to an arrangement.
Peace... Sridhar
9 Mar
9 Mar
1:11 a.m.
On Mar 8, 2008, at 12:03 PM, Jason T wrote:
Well I finally got the IBM - mine is a 6151/115. Not
sure what the
last digits signify. Original hard drive? I didn't think it's like
IBM to put the hard drive size on the faceplate like that.
/115 refers to the processor variant.
You need this doc:
http://www.typewritten.org/Articles/Catalog/card-sa23-2609-0.html
And probably this one as you mention it's running AIX:
http://www.typewritten.org/Articles/Catalog/card-sc23-0816-0.html
Specifically, chapter 1 and appendix C. The VRM Programming Guide
doesn't seem to mention it, but I believe it's ctrl+alt+ins which gets
you into the VRM itself, to format disks, define minidisks, etc. If
nothing else this key combination is in the RT FAQ.
ok
bear
9:58 a.m.
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 4:11 AM, r.stricklin <bear at typewritten.org> wrote:
You need this doc:
http://www.typewritten.org/Articles/Catalog/card-sa23-2609-0.html
And probably this one as you mention it's running AIX:
http://www.typewritten.org/Articles/Catalog/card-sc23-0816-0.html
I was supposed to get manuals (though probably not the latter one
above) with the RT, but none have arrived. These will be a major
help. Thanks!
1:40 a.m.
Jason T wrote:
Well I finally got the IBM - mine is a 6151/115. Not
sure what the
last digits signify. Original hard drive? I didn't think it's like
IBM to put the hard drive size on the faceplate like that.
Well done! I have the floor standing one, the 6150.
As someone said, 115 is a model number. It tells you a lot, if you can
look it up, but I don't have much 6150 documentation, so I don't think I
can.
Keyboard connector - definitely odd. Fortunately the
'board itself is
a regular Model M, which made replacing the keys damaged in shipping
easy. Unfortunately the cable is not modular on the keyboard end, so
I'll have to make sure to keep it out of range of the cats :)
The mouse looks like a strange connector, too. Unfortunately I got no
mouse with the system :(
I seem to recall that the 6150 had ribon-header style connectors for
practically everything, in a little metal shell, and the whole thing in
a rubber moulding that keyed with the appropriate hole in the back panel.
The mouse port seems to be serial at RS232 levels. I have the IBM part
number for the mouse (somewhere). I phoned IBM to see if I could order
one, and they said it was discontinued, and the replacement (I suspect a
PS/2 mouse with an adaptor) would be 150 pounds. They woudln't tell me
the part number of the replacement, or of the adaptor, so I gave up at
that point.
Interesting that you got a standard keyboard. Mine has the standard
layout, but slightly different key profile and different colours.
Don't know how much RAM I've got. How can I
tell? The system doesn't
turn the display on until AIX is booting, so if there's a POST screen
I can't see it.
Isn't there a 7 segment LED on the front for POST display? Don't think
it tells you the RAM, though. Best way to assess RAM is count the
chips, I'd think :-)
As everyone noted, it is *heavy*! I'm used to
heavy workstations from
the mid-80s (Sun 3, SGI and the like) but this one tops the list, at
least in my collection.
There is what looks like the standard IBM 37-pin external floppy
connector on one of the cards. Is that what it is? Or maybe for a
tape drive? If it's the latter I may even have a drive for it...
I would think floppy. Floppy drives and stuff were very PC-ish on the 6150.
All in all an interesting historical footnote machine.
I booted it
and played Hunt the Wumpus on it last night, so I'm happy with it. :)
I think all I ever managed to do with mine, apart from replace blown
diodes in the power supply, was run XINIT and do a screen dump to my
Proprinter XL. Amazingly, the Proprinter is one of the printers
supported with PIOBE. (PIOBE = Printer I/O Backend. IBM's solution to
having a common printer interface.)
Philip.
4:24 p.m.
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 4:40 AM, Philip Belben <philip at axeside.co.uk> wrote
number for the mouse (somewhere). I phoned IBM to
see if I could order
one, and they said it was discontinued, and the replacement (I suspect a
PS/2 mouse with an adaptor) would be 150 pounds. They woudln't tell me
the part number of the replacement, or of the adaptor, so I gave up at
that point.
Ha! Well, please forward on that mouse part# if you find it. Who
knows, one could turn up. I like how the keyboard and mouse ports
are keyed with huge, shaped cowls, like a child's toy. No way to mix
them up
Isn't there a 7 segment LED on the front for POST
display? Don't think
it tells you the RAM, though. Best way to assess RAM is count the
chips, I'd think :-)
There is. I just found a nice page of FAQs on the RT, so I suspect
I'll be deciphering them soon.
I would think floppy. Floppy drives and stuff were
very PC-ish on the 6150.
I'm not at home now, but I was able to check my inventory of my
storage unit and the tape drives I have are model 6157. I had always
thought they were for either a PC or a System/34 type machine, but the
RT FAQ shows one attached to a 6150:
http://www.damage.fi/slas/rt/rtpics.html
Hooray! Assuming the controller is indeed for tape, a drive I got for
free I don't know how many years ago (and tried a few times to sell)
now has a master. What will I do with it? Who knows, but at least it
has a reason to live (assuming it hasn't committed gooey-roller
suicide yet.)
3:28 a.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 14:03 -0600, Jason T wrote:
All in all an interesting historical footnote machine.
I booted it
and played Hunt the Wumpus on it last night, so I'm happy with it. :)
From the Linux Audio Developer list...
http://bethewumpus.sourceforge.net
Gordon
3:41 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
Is that game for Mac/linux? The only reason I say that is because once downloaded you have
to "make" it, which is something we don't do on windows (to my knowledge,
anyway).
If anyone is interested I have the BASIC code listings for (hunting the) Wumpus 1 & 2
in the book BASIC Computer Games Vol. 2: TRS-80 Edition, from 1980.
Regards,
Andrew B
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk
Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote: On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 14:03 -0600,
Jason T wrote:
All in all an interesting historical footnote machine.
I booted it
and played Hunt the Wumpus on it last night, so I'm happy with it. :)
From the Linux Audio Developer list...
http://bethewumpus.sourceforge.net
Gordon
3:54 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 5:41 PM, Andrew Burton <aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Is that game for Mac/linux? The only reason I say that is because once downloaded you
have to "make" it, which is something we don't do on windows (to my
knowledge, anyway).
Looks like Linux only. The author's page says it was inspired by a
similar Windows game "In the Pit:"
http://www.studiohunty.com/itp/
I'd like to give it a try once I find an XBox360 controller.
7:09 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
On 09/03/2008, Jason T <silent700 at gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 5:41 PM, Andrew Burton
<aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
You can play it online here :
http://www.ifiction.org/games/play.php?game=249&mode=html
Don't know how close it is to the original though.
Dan
Is that game for Mac/linux? The only reason I say that is because once downloaded you
have to "make" it, which is something we don't do on windows (to my
knowledge, anyway).
Looks like Linux only. The author's page says it was inspired by a
similar Windows game "In the Pit:"
http://www.studiohunty.com/itp/
I'd like to give it a try once I find an XBox360 controller.
10 Mar
10 Mar
12:17 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
On Sun, 2008-03-09 at 22:41 +0000, Andrew Burton wrote:
Is that game for Mac/linux? The only reason I say that
is because once downloaded you have to "make" it, which is something we
don't do on windows (to my knowledge, anyway).
Being as it came from the Linux Audio Developer list, I'd say it was for
Linux. You could probably get it to work on a Mac. I don't know
anything about Windows, having never programmed for it and only used it
once or twice.
Gordon
1:58 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Being as it came from the Linux Audio Developer list,
I'd say it was for
Linux. You could probably get it to work on a Mac. I don't know
anything about Windows, having never programmed for it and only used it
once or twice.
Umm ... This is the classic computer list ... Wumpus should run under almost
any Basic ... the real way to play it. :)
Gordon
2:51 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 14:58 -0600, woodelf wrote:
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Did you read the article? The clue is in the title - "Be The Wumpus",
not "Hunt The Wumpus"...
Gordon
Being as it came from the Linux Audio Developer
list, I'd say it was for
Linux. You could probably get it to work on a Mac. I don't know
anything about Windows, having never programmed for it and only used it
once or twice.
Umm ... This is the classic computer list ... Wumpus should run under almost
any Basic ... the real way to play it. :)
3:10 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Did you read the article? The clue is in the title -
"Be The Wumpus",
not "Hunt The Wumpus"...
I read the subject line. Since I don't have linux at the moment I will
stick my discussions to the classics ....
Gordon
PS:
Now back to typing in Classic Basic Games ... :)
3:52 p.m.
New subject: Hunt The Wumpus, eh?
Is that game for Mac/linux? The only reason I say that is because once
downloaded you have to "make" it, which is something we don't do on
windows (to my knowledge, anyway).
IIRC, the original 'Hunt the Wumpus' game as a standard Unix program.
If anyone is interested I have the BASIC code listings for (hunting
the) Wumpus 1 & 2 in the book BASIC Computer Games Vol. 2: TRS-80
Edition, from 1980.
I have a version for the HP41 calculator (!) if anyone is crazy enough to
want it.
-tony
4:41 p.m.
New subject: What do you need for Hunt The Wumpus?
On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 22:52 +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
Obviously it doesn't take much. What's the smallest (in physical size
or in relative power) that Hunt The Wumpus has been ported to?
I think the HP41 is well in there...
Gordon
Is that game for Mac/linux? The only reason I say that is because once
downloaded you have to "make" it, which is something we don't do on
windows (to my knowledge, anyway).
IIRC, the original 'Hunt the Wumpus' game as a standard Unix program.
If anyone is interested I have the BASIC code listings for (hunting
the) Wumpus 1 & 2 in the book BASIC Computer Games Vol. 2: TRS-80
Edition, from 1980.
I have a version for the HP41 calculator (!) if anyone is crazy enough to
want it. 
5:16 p.m.
New subject: What do you need for Hunt The Wumpus?
On 10/03/2008 23:41, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
On Mon, 2008-03-10 at 22:52 +0000, Tony Duell wrote:
Obviously it doesn't take much. What's the smallest (in physical size
or in relative power) that Hunt The Wumpus has been ported to?
I think the HP41 is well in there...
I think so too. It probably beats the PDP-8 assembly-language version
which a colleague created a year or two back to demo my PDP-8.
By the way, the original wasn't written for Unix, though IIRC a ported
version did appear in the games directory in one or two BSD releases.
The original was written in BASIC in 1972-73, and the late Greg Yob (the
author) wrote a piece about which is in the BASIC Computer Games books.
My BASIC Games page has a machine-readable version at
http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/basicgames/
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Is that game for Mac/linux? The only reason I say that is because once
downloaded you have to "make" it, which is something we don't do on
windows (to my knowledge, anyway).
IIRC, the original 'Hunt the Wumpus'
game as a standard Unix program.
If anyone is interested I have the BASIC code
listings for (hunting
the) Wumpus 1 & 2 in the book BASIC Computer Games Vol. 2: TRS-80
Edition, from 1980.
I have a version for the HP41 calculator (!) if anyone is
crazy enough to
want it.
9 Mar
9 Mar
10:10 a.m.
On Mar 8, 2008, at 3:03 PM, Jason T wrote:
I'd be happy to trade it for just about anything -
help getting a copy
of the O/S for this machine would be ideal.
What RT OS are you looking for? They ran BSD, AOS, and I think a
flavor of AIX. I'm pretty sure I have at least the first two.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
10:20 a.m.
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
What RT OS are you looking for? They ran BSD, AOS,
and I think a
flavor of AIX. I'm pretty sure I have at least the first two.
Anything it ran natively/supported by IBM. It's got AIX 2.x on there
now, and I'd like to be able to do a fresh install of it someday. I
know zero about AOS, but I'm sure that would be interesting as well.
Was BSD a hobbyist project for the RT, or was that native also?
2:43 p.m.
Jason T wrote:
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Dave McGuire
<mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
Both AOS and 4.4BSD are BSD of some kind. AOS was IBM's own flavor of BSD.
Peace... Sridhar
What RT OS are you looking for? They ran BSD,
AOS, and I think a
flavor of AIX. I'm pretty sure I have at least the first two.
Anything it ran natively/supported by IBM. It's got AIX 2.x on there
now, and I'd like to be able to do a fresh install of it someday. I
know zero about AOS, but I'm sure that would be interesting as well.
Was BSD a hobbyist project for the RT, or was that native also?
5:50 p.m.
On Sun, 9 Mar 2008, Jason T wrote:
On Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 12:10 PM, Dave McGuire
<mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
AOS _was_ BSD 4.3. There is also a mostly-complete port of BSD 4.4
floating about, but it was a skunkworks project and not underwritten by
IBM.
--
What RT OS are you looking for? They ran BSD,
AOS, and I think a
flavor of AIX. I'm pretty sure I have at least the first two.
Anything it ran natively/supported by IBM. It's got AIX 2.x on there
now, and I'd like to be able to do a fresh install of it someday. I
know zero about AOS, but I'm sure that would be interesting as well.
Was BSD a hobbyist project for the RT, or was that native also? 
11 Mar
11 Mar
8:38 a.m.
On 09/03/2008, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
On Mar 8, 2008, at 3:03 PM, Jason T wrote:
Also Pick, I believe, altho' the only machine I ever saw had just AIX.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com ? MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com
Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk ? Skype: liamproven ? ICQ: 73187508
I'd be happy to trade it for just about
anything - help getting a copy
of the O/S for this machine would be ideal.
What RT OS are you looking for? They ran BSD, AOS, and I think a
flavor of AIX. I'm pretty sure I have at least the first two. 
10:05 a.m.
I gave my RT 6150/115 (with monitor keyboard mous and two external IBM
disc's) last year to Henry Keultjes hbkeultjes-at-earthlink.net (-at- =
@)who claimed to be one of the developers of Pick.
He wanted to reinstall Pick on the RT to play with it, he also got my
diagnostic discs.
I do have somewhere a lot of images regarding the RT and AIX so if you want
them let me know.
-Rik
----- Original Message -----
From: "Liam Proven" <lproven at gmail.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: IBM RT 6150?
On 09/03/2008, Dave McGuire <mcguire at
neurotica.com> wrote:
On Mar 8, 2008, at 3:03 PM, Jason T wrote:
Also Pick, I believe, altho' the only machine I ever saw had just AIX.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat: liamproven at aol.com ? MSN/Messenger: lproven at hotmail.com
Yahoo: liamproven at yahoo.co.uk ? Skype: liamproven ? ICQ: 73187508
I'd be happy to trade it for just about
anything - help getting a copy
of the O/S for this machine would be ideal.
What RT OS are you looking for? They ran BSD, AOS, and I think a
flavor of AIX. I'm pretty sure I have at least the first two.
10:12 a.m.
Rik wrote:
I gave my RT 6150/115 (with monitor keyboard mous and
two external IBM
disc's) last year to Henry Keultjes hbkeultjes-at-earthlink.net (-at- =
@)who claimed to be one of the developers of Pick.
He wanted to reinstall Pick on the RT to play with it, he also got my
diagnostic discs.
I do have somewhere a lot of images regarding the RT and AIX so if you
want them let me know.
Incidentally, if anyone ever decides to rid themselves of an RT, I'm in
the market.
Peace... Sridhar
3:49 p.m.
On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Rik <dr.emiel at xs4all.nl> wrote:
I gave my RT 6150/115 (with monitor keyboard mous and
two external IBM
disc's) last year to Henry Keultjes hbkeultjes-at-earthlink.net (-at- =
@)who claimed to be one of the developers of Pick.
He wanted to reinstall Pick on the RT to play with it, he also got my
diagnostic discs.
I do have somewhere a lot of images regarding the RT and AIX so if you want
them let me know.
I definitely would - I have no s/w on floppy for this box. I'm not
sure, but I'm guessing I could write them with a PC's 1.2mb 5.25"
drive?
9:30 p.m.
Jason T wrote:
On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Rik <dr.emiel at
xs4all.nl> wrote:
The images can be written on standard 5 1/4" drives. Only thing to
recall is the format flag in sector 0 if you overwrite it with something
that fools the AT bios. But you can format up a diskette, and dd an
image onto it w/o any problem from another unix type system. Only
problem arises when writing from dos.
Jim
I gave my RT 6150/115 (with monitor keyboard mous
and two external IBM
disc's) last year to Henry Keultjes hbkeultjes-at-earthlink.net (-at- =
@)who claimed to be one of the developers of Pick.
He wanted to reinstall Pick on the RT to play with it, he also got my
diagnostic discs.
I do have somewhere a lot of images regarding the RT and AIX so if you want
them let me know.
I definitely would - I have no s/w on floppy for this box. I'm not
sure, but I'm guessing I could write them with a PC's 1.2mb 5.25"
drive?
12 Mar
12 Mar
2:21 a.m.
Yes, with the usual sowfware .. rawrite or something like that contact me
off-list about it.
-Rik
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason T" <silent700 at gmail.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:49 PM
Subject: Re: IBM RT 6150?
On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Rik <dr.emiel at
xs4all.nl> wrote:
I gave my RT 6150/115 (with monitor keyboard mous
and two external IBM
disc's) last year to Henry Keultjes hbkeultjes-at-earthlink.net (-at- =
@)who claimed to be one of the developers of Pick.
He wanted to reinstall Pick on the RT to play with it, he also got my
diagnostic discs.
I do have somewhere a lot of images regarding the RT and AIX so if you
want
them let me know.
I definitely would - I have no s/w on floppy for this box. I'm not
sure, but I'm guessing I could write them with a PC's 1.2mb 5.25"
drive?
20 Jan
20 Jan
7:47 a.m.
On Sat, 19 Jan 2008, jim s wrote:
Jason T wrote:
> Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box, with the monitor, books,
> etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any
> opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run
> ____," etc?)
>
A lot of the stuff that was available from IBM has
been posted in archives
that can be found with some searching. Just be prepared to support a machine
with a 1.2MB high density floppy habit, and a 60 or 150mb quarter inch tape
habit. I have all my machines, software and drives "archived" and can't
help
much but they are nice machines.
Only thing to watch for is whether it has 40mb or 110mb drives (or even
20mb). They used the seagates st whatevers, which might be a bit scarce
these days.
I heard rumors that one could get ide controllers to work in them, but a fire
put a halt to my playing as I lost all but 2 of the boxes, and spares.
Not a rumor! I have a 1GB Seagate IDE drive in mine. The older and
clunkier the bus adapter, the better. Also, there's a SCSI driver
floating around that supports the Adaptec 1540B and lets you use a SCSI
tape drive of any convenient size.
Steve
--
10:08 a.m.
Jason T wrote:
Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box, with
the monitor, books,
etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any
opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run
____," etc?)
It's cheap, but it will have to be shipped, which may not be cheap.
Cheap will not be the word. My RT weighs nearly 75 pounds, and
that's *without* the full-height ESDI drives.
If you can find an ISA IDE/FDC card without serial and parallel and
without PC "BIOS entensions", a Seagate IDE Medalist under 2GB will work
fine. I've got one running in mine.
My RT has got the advanced processor board, and it's about as fast as
you'd expect from a 16MHz/16MB computer running a fairly heavyweight OS,
AIX v2.2.1.
Make sure you get the keyboard, at least. It's a proprietary
interface, and I've never heard of anyone adapting a different keyboard
for it. Same for the mouse, and if you happen to get 2, I get dibs on
the spare! :)
The story I got from an IBM developer is that the PC/RT was ready for
market in 1981, but for some reason IBM did not release it till '86. By
then it was mostly outclassed by the competition and its own price, so
IBM didn't sell many of them.
10:23 a.m.
Good point about the keyboard and mouse connector ends, I forgot about
that. I recall someone saying that specific very old Adaptec SCSI
cards were possibilities too but I no longer remember the details. I'm
going to guess that driver support for AIX would be more difficult
than AOS.
On Jan 20, 2008, at 1:08 PM, Doc Shipley wrote:
Jason T wrote:
Jeff Brendle Office: 313 EESB/(814)865-3257/fax 865-3191
Desktop Support Spv. Home: 146 Haverford Circle
Penn State - Coll. of E&MS State College, PA / (814)238-8811
Mailto:bli at psu.edu AOL/MSN/Yahoo! IM - JSBrendle
Hi all - I've got a line on this old AIX box,
with the monitor,
books,
etc (not sure about O/S media but I think that can be "found.") Any
opinions on it? Any historical significance ("first machine run
____," etc?)
It's cheap, but it will have to be shipped, which may not be cheap.
Cheap will not be the word. My RT weighs nearly 75 pounds, and
that's *without* the full-height ESDI drives.
If you can find an ISA IDE/FDC card without serial and parallel and
without PC "BIOS entensions", a Seagate IDE Medalist under 2GB will
work fine. I've got one running in mine.
My RT has got the advanced processor board, and it's about as fast
as you'd expect from a 16MHz/16MB computer running a fairly
heavyweight OS, AIX v2.2.1.
Make sure you get the keyboard, at least. It's a proprietary
interface, and I've never heard of anyone adapting a different
keyboard for it. Same for the mouse, and if you happen to get 2, I
get dibs on the spare! :)
The story I got from an IBM developer is that the PC/RT was ready
for market in 1981, but for some reason IBM did not release it till
'86. By then it was mostly outclassed by the competition and its
own price, so IBM didn't sell many of them.
12:21 p.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
--- Doc Shipley <doc at mdrconsult.com> wrote:
If you can find an ISA IDE/FDC card without
serial and parallel and
without PC "BIOS entensions", a Seagate IDE Medalist
under 2GB will work
fine. I've got one running in mine.
couldn't you just disable all the unnecessary stuff,
including the bios extensions?
Make sure you get the keyboard, at least. It's
a
proprietary
interface, and I've never heard of anyone adapting a
different keyboard
for it. Same for the mouse, and if you happen to
get 2, I get dibs on
the spare! :)
of course everyone would opt for an authentic
original rodent, but how hard could it be to rig
virtually any mouse to work on, IWT, any computer?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
22 Jan
22 Jan
2:07 a.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
On Sunday 20 January 2008 20:21:00 Chris M wrote:
of course everyone would opt for an authentic
original rodent, but how hard could it be to rig
virtually any mouse to work on, IWT, any computer?
Depends on the mouse, depends on the computer. Quadrature mice are easy. At
worst the "dot pitch" of the mouse won't match the original and the pointer
will be too fast or too slow. Serial mice (not just PC serial, I mean any
mouse that communicates via some sort of serial link) would be harder. You'd
have to know what the computer was expecting, and what it might send -
perhaps there's an "are you there" handshake on initialisation.
You used to get combined PS/2 and Serial mice for PCs that came with a little
adaptor. The adaptor only worked with the mice they were intended for,
because the mouse detected the presence of the adaptor and sent serial mouse
data instead of PS/2 mouse data.
It might be possible to make a "smart enough" mouse adaptor that would suss
out what it was plugged into from handshaking signals, and interface an
ordinary mouse to it.
Gordon
9:07 a.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
--- Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
On Sunday 20 January 2008 20:21:00 Chris M wrote:
So you're saying this would indicate there's some
sort of firmware built into the mouse itself?
of course everyone would opt for an authentic
original rodent, but how hard could it be to rig
virtually any mouse to work on, IWT, any computer?
Depends on the mouse, depends on the computer.
Quadrature mice are easy. At
worst the "dot pitch" of the mouse won't match the
original and the pointer
will be too fast or too slow. Serial mice (not just
PC serial, I mean any
mouse that communicates via some sort of serial
link) would be harder. You'd
have to know what the computer was expecting, and
what it might send -
perhaps there's an "are you there" handshake on
initialisation. You used to get combined PS/2 and Serial mice for
PCs that came with a little
adaptor. The adaptor only worked with the mice they
were intended for,
because the mouse detected the presence of the
adaptor and sent serial mouse
data instead of PS/2 mouse data.
AFAIK any of the common PS/2 mice can be use as
serial, at least. Not sure if there are adapters to
convert the other way though. Or if they'd work. Can't
see why not though.
I do have at least 1 mouse, a Goldstar branded, that
has a switch to go from, IINM (actually this could be
erroneous) bus or serial. Maybe that is correct
though.
It might be possible to make a "smart
enough" mouse
adaptor that would suss
out what it was plugged into from handshaking
signals, and interface an
ordinary mouse to it.
I haven't a clue what you're talking about mate.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping
23 Jan
23 Jan
9:41 a.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
On 22/01/2008 17:07, Chris M wrote:
That's often not the case. I have several PS/2-compatible mice from
Logitech and from DEC, Compaq, and SGI machines that can't be used as
serial. Different voltages, different clocking, different protocols.
In general, only ones designed specifically for this and which were
originally supplied with an adapter will do both. A quick look at
almost any supplier's catalogue will show you lots that are PS/2 only.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
--- Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net>
wrote:
You used to
get combined PS/2 and Serial mice for
PCs that came with a little
adaptor. The adaptor only worked with the mice they
were intended for,
because the mouse detected the presence of the
adaptor and sent serial mouse
data instead of PS/2 mouse data.
AFAIK any of the common PS/2 mice can be use as
serial, at least.
11:23 a.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
--- Pete Turnbull <pete at dunnington.plus.com> wrote:
ah then I stand corrected.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
AFAIK any of
the common PS/2 mice can be use as
serial, at least.
That's often not the case. I have several
PS/2-compatible mice from
Logitech and from DEC, Compaq, and SGI machines that
can't be used as
serial. Different voltages, different clocking,
different protocols.
In general, only ones designed specifically for this
and which were
originally supplied with an adapter will do both. A
quick look at
almost any supplier's catalogue will show you lots
that are PS/2 only. 
26 Jan
26 Jan
9:25 a.m.
New subject: TI-82 "Guidebook"
one corner of cover is badly creased; book appears otherwise untouched,
complete with 'ref card, etc.
Note: no calculator, just the book.
$5 with priority mail shipping.
23 Jan
23 Jan
4:17 p.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
So you're saying this would indicate there's
some
sort of firmware built into the mouse itself?
Serial mice (not just RS232 mice, but anything with a bit-serial
interface, including PS/2) invaraibly contain a microcontroller. IIRC one
of the old PIC application notes included schematics and firmware to make
a Microsoft-compatible RS232-interfaced mouse.
If the IBM 6150 mouse is the one I think it is, it's an optical mouse
contianing a 40-pin 8051 microcontroller.
-tony
22 Jan
22 Jan
6:20 a.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
Chris M wrote:
--- Doc Shipley <doc at mdrconsult.com> wrote:
Granted I haven't tried every card out there, but in my experience,
no. Except for a couple that had 1024+ cylinder support, I don't
remember ever having an IDE card with BIOS extensions optional.
I also forgot to explain the medalist requirement; it's the only
known model drive that supports the entire command set used by the RT
firmware and AIX. There's one command (which I never remember) that no
other IDE drive was known to support.
If you can find an ISA IDE/FDC card without
serial and parallel and
without PC "BIOS entensions", a Seagate IDE Medalist
under 2GB will work
fine. I've got one running in mine.
couldn't you just disable all the unnecessary stuff,
including the bios extensions? of course everyone would opt for an authentic
original rodent, but how hard could it be to rig
virtually any mouse to work on, IWT, any computer?
I hope so, and that somebody with that kind of skills gets around to
it soonish. I, myself, like *having* the original mouse and *using*
something comfortable, like a PS/2 Marble.
Doc
11:16 a.m.
New subject: mice - was and still is Re: IBM RT 6150?
--- Doc Shipley <doc at mdrconsult.com> wrote:
PS: pull the BIOS extension IC even you have to cut it or lift a leg
to disable. And set it to stock addresses.
Gee!! If I had known, I'd be playing with IDE on a RT that I had, it
was desktop! With some issues.
Did the OS complains of no HD if I try to boot with the diskettes?
It failed (diagnostic LED display) at one point late in the boot up
process.
No longer have that RT, long ago now.
Cheers, Wizard
If you can find an ISA IDE/FDC card without
serial and parallel and
without PC "BIOS entensions", a Seagate IDE Medalist
under 2GB will work
fine. I've got one running in mine.
couldn't you just disable all the unnecessary stuff,
including the bios extensions?
6129
days inactive
6182
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46 comments
22 participants
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aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
bear＠typewritten.org -
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
brendle＠ems.psu.edu -
chrism3667＠yahoo.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
doc＠mdrconsult.com -
dr.emiel＠xs4all.nl -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
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jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu -
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