12 Aug
1999
12 Aug
'99
11:10 a.m.
Hmm, lucky day I guess... I got a 11/780 and a 11/785 field maintenance
print set (2 different printsets) from the EE department. I'm rather
surprised that I didnt notice these several years ago.
Also, I saw what I swear must be a quad height pdp8 board. He wasnt
sure what it was, so he wouldnt let me have it yet. He thought it
might be a PDP11 board (did they make quad height PDP11 systems?).
Heres what the board says:
Excelan
Exos 204 s/n 001993
It has a 16 pin male ribbon cable connector on the top of the board,
and strange 2-part female connector in the middle of the board, sort
of like a 10 pin and a 36 pin ribbon female connectors joined together
so that there is a slight gap between them.
some intel chips on the board are dated 1982, the board itself is dated 1984.
Anyone know what this board is?
-Lawrence LeMay
12 Aug
12 Aug
11:42 a.m.
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noon
At 08:10 PM 8/12/99 +0000, Lawerence wrote:
Also, I saw what I swear must be a quad height pdp8
board. He wasnt
sure what it was, so he wouldnt let me have it yet. He thought it
might be a PDP11 board (did they make quad height PDP11 systems?).
Heres what the board says:
Excelan
Exos 204 s/n 001993
DEC used the same basic connector on its first three busses (OMNI, UNI, and
Q). and they evolved from the connector they used on the Flip chip chards.
PDP-8 boards are :
1 "high" - Straignt 8, 8/I, 8/L, 8/S
4 "high" - 8/E/F/M
6 "high" - 8/a
PDP-11 boards come in two flavors Unibus and Q-bus the are either 2 high,
four high, or six high. Generally only Unibus and PDP-8/a boards are 6
high. (I don't think they ever made a Q22/CD/EF backplane.)
1:55 p.m.
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2:52 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 12, 1999 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: field maintenance print sets
Does it looks like the exos203 on http://vaxarchive.org/hw/vfg/nquad.html
?
cheers,
emanuel
Also, I saw
what I swear must be a quad height pdp8 board. He wasnt
sure what it was, so he wouldnt let me have it yet. He thought it
might be a PDP11 board (did they make quad height PDP11 systems?).
> Heres what the board says:
>
> Excelan
> Exos 204 s/n 001993
> 
2:52 p.m.
On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, emanuel stiebler wrote:
> > Also, I saw what I swear must be a quad
height pdp8 board. He wasnt
> > sure what it was, so he wouldnt let me have it yet. He thought it
> > might be a PDP11 board (did they make quad height PDP11 systems?).
>
> > Heres what the board says:
> >
> > Excelan
> > Exos 204 s/n 001993
> >
The easy way to tell a quad pdp11 board from a quad pdp8 board is to look at
the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic "flip chip"
style
handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal ejector handles, pdp8
boards have the plastic handles.
-Dave McGuire
5:15 p.m.
> > Heres
what the board says:
> >
> > Excelan
> > Exos 204 s/n 001993
> >
The easy way to tell a quad pdp11 board from a quad pdp8 board is to look at
the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic "flip chip"
style
handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal ejector handles, pdp8
boards have the plastic handles.
-Dave McGuire 
5:20 p.m.
Hi Dave:
The easy way to tell a quad pdp11 board from a quad
pdp8 board is to look at
the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic "flip chip"
style
handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal ejector handles, pdp8
boards have the plastic handles.
This isn't the case. There are several quad height Unibus/pdp-11 cards
that have plastic handles! Check the field guide or ask on the list!
Kevin
--
Kevin McQuiggin VE7ZD
mcquiggi(a)sfu.ca
5:19 p.m.
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5:31 p.m.
Hi Dave:
Actually I didnt mention it, but the board I mentioned had one metal
ejector handle, and one plastic flip chip style handle (white).
-Lawrence LeMay
The easy way to tell a quad pdp11 board from a
quad pdp8 board is to look at
the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic "flip chip"
style
handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal ejector handles, pdp8
boards have the plastic handles.
This isn't the case. There are several quad height Unibus/pdp-11 cards
that have plastic handles! Check the field guide or ask on the list!
Kevin
6:25 p.m.
On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, Kevin McQuiggin wrote:
I retract my previous statement above. I've been hacking qbus pdp11 systems
a lot lately and completely forgot about the great many quad-width unibus
boards with plastic handles. I do apologize for being an idiot. I really do
know my way around DEC hardware, even if it wasn't readily apparent from this
obvious blunder. :-) Thanks for noticing this and correcting me.
-Dave McGuire
The easy way
to tell a quad pdp11 board from a quad pdp8 board is to look at
the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic "flip chip"
style
handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal ejector handles, pdp8
boards have the plastic handles.
This isn't the case. There are several quad height Unibus/pdp-11 cards
that have plastic handles! Check the field guide or ask on the list! 
11:52 p.m.
New subject: End of Summer SoCal events
Over in the PS/2 hardware newsgroup a notion is brewing to have some kind
of a meeting for people in the SoCal area. Since I am one of those stiring
it up, I thought it might make a good event for any classic computer list
people in the area to attend as well. Pardon me for being lazy but below is
exactly what I posted to the newsgroup.
I live in the city of Orange, but visit a few places down by the beach,
OCC swapmeet etc. I am fairly motivated for a local meeting too. To kick
something off I have posted this with a new subject back to the newsgroup
as well as emailed it to you.
Unless you just want to declare to the world that you too are a proud
SoCaler, don't post back to the newsgroup, send me an email instead. I'll
collect up the names and email addresses and make a SoCal PS/2 address
list and email everybody back in about a week and we can privately sort
out a good meeting time and place. Once we have time and place, we can
announce that back to the newsgroup and pick up the stragglers a week or
so before the meeting happens.
<mailto:mikeford@netwiz.net?subject=PS2Meet>
My favorite meeting format is;
Mini swapmeet with tables etc. to do some trading etc.
Some sort of techy "meeting", like a Linux install maybe
Some sort of food/drink
A couple systems setup to make floppies or CDs nonstop. ;)
Rough time frame, end of summer before school gets really going hard.
Location; anyplace in SoCal is OK with me, closer to Orange is nice, but a
good vendor with a nice parking lot is worth the drive.
Unless I get a strong objection I think the meeting should be open to any
old computer collectors/users and plan to post this message to the classic
computer list.
6:18 p.m.
On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, Dave McGuire wrote:
The easy way to tell a quad pdp11 board from a quad
pdp8 board is to
look at the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic
"flip chip" style handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal
ejector handles, pdp8 boards have the plastic handles.
Well, that starts me on the way to identifying the box of boards I picked
up today. Except are you sure the plastic handled boards only go in the
8's?
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 05/25/99]
6:31 p.m.
On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, Sellam Ismail wrote:
Nono, definitely not. Please don't miss the retraction that I just sent to
the list. I don't know where my mind was. Numerous quad-width Unibus boards
(the DL11-W comes to mind, as does the pdp11/34's KY11-LB front panel control
board) have plastic handles and no metal ejectors.
-Dave McGuire
The easy way
to tell a quad pdp11 board from a quad pdp8 board is to
look at the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic
"flip chip" style handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal
ejector handles, pdp8 boards have the plastic handles.
Well, that starts me on the way to identifying the box of boards I picked
up today. Except are you sure the plastic handled boards only go in the
8's? 
7:12 p.m.
At 08:18 PM 08/12/1999 -0700, you wrote:
On Thu, 12 Aug 1999, Dave McGuire wrote:
Ummm... no!
I've got a number of grant cards and other such PDP-11 Unibus critters with
plastic handles.
-jim
---
jimw(a)computergarage.org
The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
The easy way to tell a quad pdp11 board from a
quad pdp8 board is to
look at the top and see if it's got metal ejector handles or plastic
"flip chip" style handles. pdp11 boards have a metal spine and metal
ejector handles, pdp8 boards have the plastic handles.
Well, that starts me on the way to identifying the box of boards I picked
up today. Except are you sure the plastic handled boards only go in the
8's? 
3:30 p.m.
> Heres what the board says:
>
> Excelan
> Exos 204 s/n 001993
>
> It has a 16 pin male ribbon cable connector on the top of the board,
> and strange 2-part female connector in the middle of the board, sort
> of like a 10 pin and a 36 pin ribbon female connectors joined together
> so that there is a slight gap between them.
This is one of the early ethernet boards... I'm not sure if the 204 is
Unibus or Qbus...
Bill
9144
days inactive
9145
days old
15 comments
11 participants
participants (11)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
emu＠ecubics.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jimw＠agora.rdrop.com -
lemay＠cs.umn.edu -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
mcquiggi＠sfu.ca -
mikeford＠netwiz.net -
pechter＠pechter.dyndns.org