Long shot: Connection Machine board needed.
The chances are slim, but someone may know someone... feel free to contact me off-list. I have a CM-200A; the smallest 'classic' CM machine. I've started a project, with some ex-TMC people (notably the designer of the beautiful chassis the CM machines came in, Tamiko Thiel) to get my machine operational next year, for the 30th anniversary of the launch of the CM. Unfortunately we've hit a complete show-stopper right off the bat. My machine has a complete set of compute node and I/O boards, but is missing the crucial 'NX' board; the board in the CM that interfaces to the front-end. See: http://www.corestore.org/cm2a.htm I need to locate one, or we're dead in the water. I *know* there are people out there who keep a very low profile and have CM hardware squirreled away in their basements. Another possibility, perhaps the best, is to *borrow* an NX board from a non-functional machine in a museum collection, something that will never be more than a static exhibit. Anyone in a position to help or advise, please get in touch. I'm reaching out to former TMC staff and customers by various other routes, but someone here may know something. Thanks Mike http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'
TU-58
Hello All Well I managed to find some suitable rubber tubing and glued it in place of the nasty black mess. So I put everything back and turned on. Lo and Behold LED on the board flashed once and stayed on. I had been told (Tony D I think) thats what its supposed to do. Anybody know whats the quickest way to test a TU-58? Rod
Re: Long shot: Connection Machine board needed.
On 12/04/2015 02:48 AM, Mike Ross wrote: Unfortunately we've hit a complete show-stopper right off the bat. My machine has a complete set of compute node and I/O boards, but is missing the crucial 'NX' board; the board in the CM that interfaces to the front-end. Ugh :( What's the nature of the link between the CM and the front-end system? I mean, is there some special card that the front-end also needs, or is it just Ethernet, serial etc.? J.
Re: TU-58
On December 4, 2015 5:41:52 AM CST, Rod Smallwood wrote: >Hello All >Well I managed to find some suitable rubber tubing and >glued it in place of the nasty black mess. >So I put everything back and turned on. Lo and Behold LED on the board >flashed once and stayed on. > >I had been told (Tony D I think) thats what its supposed to do. > >Anybody know whats the quickest way to test a TU-58? Put a cartridge in and if the belt in the cartridge breaks, it's working ;-) Chris -- Chris Elmquist
Re: TU-58
On Fri, Dec 04, 2015 at 08:01:05AM -0600, Chris Elmquist wrote: > > > On December 4, 2015 5:41:52 AM CST, Rod Smallwood > wrote: > >Hello All > >Well I managed to find some suitable rubber tubing and > >glued it in place of the nasty black mess. > >So I put everything back and turned on. Lo and Behold LED on the board > >flashed once and stayed on. > > > >I had been told (Tony D I think) thats what its supposed to do. > > > >Anybody know whats the quickest way to test a TU-58? > > Put a cartridge in and if the belt in the cartridge breaks, it's working ;-) > :-) I seem to recall that the "roller" in the cartridge also turns to goo, might want to check that out also. /P
Re: TU-58
On 12/4/15 6:40 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote: I seem to recall that the "roller" in the cartridge also turns to goo, might want to check that out also. Nope, it's hard plastic. They have been known to have crescents worn into them if the tape jams and it can't spin against the pinch roller though.
Re: Help w/ HP 88780 Tape Drive (corrected email).
On 12/3/15 10:45 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote: I haven't done much with my Kennedy drive yet other than ordering a replacement power switch for it. Keep an eye on the tach roller, the rubber degrades. They are nice drives, but they spin fast and are not gentle on tapes. When they work, they do pretty well on 800bpi media. There were a couple of different revs of SCSI board, later ones have bigger buffers that stream better. They also have the advantage over the 88780 that I was able to find complete service manuals for them with schematics. If people really get stuck for parts, I still have a few 88780s buried in storage that I gave up on because I was promised a set of drawings that came indirectly through some mysterious guy in Seattle, but I never got them.
Re: Long shot: Connection Machine board needed.
I have a CM-200A; the smallest 'classic' CM machine. I've started a project, with some ex-TMC people (notably the designer of the beautiful chassis the CM machines came in, Tamiko Thiel) to get my machine operational next year, for the 30th anniversary of the launch of the CM. Kudos! You're the first private collector I've heard that owns a CM! A SGI fanboy friend I think almost scored a CM-2 once but it didn't happen. One CM5 I saw in real life was small and not impressive looking, was a bit let down. Then when I saw the 2nd CM-5 cabinet in real life it was so huge that I realized had I ever found one it wouldn't fit in any normal garage or room. -- Ethan O'Toole
Re: TU-58
Yes thats right nothing soft inside the case. On 04/12/2015 15:28, Al Kossow wrote: On 12/4/15 6:40 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote: I seem to recall that the "roller" in the cartridge also turns to goo, might want to check that out also. Nope, it's hard plastic. They have been known to have crescents worn into them if the tape jams and it can't spin against the pinch roller though.
Re: Long shot: Connection Machine board needed.
> Unfortunately we've hit a complete show-stopper right off the bat. My > machine has a complete set of compute node and I/O boards, but is > missing the crucial 'NX' board; the board in the CM that interfaces to > the front-end. You may be in real trouble. Ernie at CMS told me once that the cards for talking to a CM (either the CM or the Sun/Symbolics side) were always far less common than the processor boards. When I was at CMS long ago, there were none to be had - just rows and rows of CMs going to the glue factory. -- Will
RE: Help w/ HP 88780 Tape Drive (corrected email).
> If people really get stuck for parts, I still have a few 88780s buried > in storage that I gave up on because I was promised a set of drawings > that came indirectly through some mysterious guy in Seattle, but I > never got them. Al, If you have donor machines I am interested in some parts - specially the read/write/format board. I will send you an email off list. -Ali
RE: Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor]
From: Eric Smith
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2015 9:57 PM
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 12:29 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
> [about KL10/KA10/PDP-6 tri-processor
>> Wow, that's impressive. How was it done? Was it done with DEC or was it
>> a local "hack"?
> Prior to the 1091 and 20xx, all PDP-10 processors used essentially the same
> memory bus, and the memory boxes were multiported. The necessary hardware
> configuration might not have been quite as simple as just cabling the three
> dissimilar processors to the memory boxes, but it probably wasn't too
> terribly complicated.
> Getting standard DEC software to run on such a configuration would have
> required quite a bit of work. DEC supported asymmetric multiprocessing on
> the KA10 (DECsystem-1055) and KI10 (DECsystem-1077), and possibly on the
> KL10 (DECsystem-1088). Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) wasn't available in
> TOPS-10 until some time after the KL10 was available, and for SMP only
> multi-KL10 systems were supported. I think SAIL ran the WAITS operating
> system, rather than a DEC OS, though WAITS probably started out as a fork
> of an early DEC PDP-10 "Monitor". ("Monitor" was the name of the OS before
> it became TOPS-10.)
> My understanding is that the SAIL tri-processor configuration was
> asymmetric multiprocessing. (Not just asymmetric in that the CPUs were
> different, but also in how I/O devices were configured on them, and which
> CPU the operating system mostly ran on.) However, I wasn't there and only
> heard about the system second-hand at best.
SAIL did indeed run WAITS, which officially forked from the PDP-10 monitor at
4S72 (Level 4 Monitor, Summer 1972 release), but which began diverging when it
was still the PDP-6 Monitor.[1] It supports asymmetric multiprocessing, based
initially on the 1055 code[2], though diverging immediately because of the
differences between a KA-10 and a Model 166 processor (PDP-6 CPU).
Things get more complicated with the introduction of the KL-10 processor.
Prior to this, SAIL used non-DEC disks and their own file system, similar but
not identical to the DEC Level D[3]; with the introduction of the Massbus,
they moved to RP06 and RP07 but kept the SAIL file system. However, they did
not adopt the Tops-10 drivers for the Massbus; instead, they modified the
TOPS-20 drivers (as of release 5.1) to interoperate with a Tops-10 style
system call regimen. At the same time, they made the KL-10 the master in the
three-processor system.
Because they started with the PDP-6 and continued development until ~1990
(including porting to the Foonly F2 at CCRMA and the KL-10 at Livermore),
there was no such thing as a WAITS install tape (or suite). That made getting
WAITS running on a system at the museum a long and winding road, an adventure
in dissertation level research, and that in turn is why I know so much about
the internals and history of the operating system.
Rich
[1] "Tops-10" was simply a renaming of an operating system which began on the
PDP-6 in 1964 and continued in an uninterrupted line of development up
through the final release, Tops-10 v7.04 (1988), and maintenance (v7.05,
1993).
[2] The PDP-10 monitor, when introduced, came in 5 variants, of which 2 seem
to have been vaporware (to use an anachronistic term). These went from a
single-user monitor (10/10) up to a timeshared swapping monitor with disks
(10/50). This was the version to which AMP ("10/55" " was introduced, and
really the only version supported beyond initial release.
[3] For example, project-programmer numbers are SIXBIT rather than numeric,
even when they look numeric. In a DEC file system, the Master File
Directory is [1,1] and in the system that is represented by the octal
value 0101; in the WAITS file system, the MFD is [1,1] with an
internal representation of 2121.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer
Living Computer Museum
2245 1st Avenue S
Seattle, WA 98134
mailto:ri...@livingcomputermuseum.org
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/
Re: Fabritek MP-12 Loader
Alright, a lot has happened since 24 hours ago! In summary: 1. 6012 advances the tape one byte but doesn't change the accumulator. 2. 6015 reads the tape buffer and skips when ready. (Josh: you're correct; the manual wasn't lying!) 3. 6052 and 6053 read the buttons and switch on the front panel of the paper tape reader box. 6052 grabs the left four buttons in bits 8 through 11, and 6053 grabs the other five buttons and the switch in bits 4 through 11, with bits 2 and 3 permanently set for whatever reason. 4. With the knowledge of 1. and 2., I was able to get the format for loading arbitrary sequential data into core. I'll explain the format below. 5. By taking DEC's BIN loader and stripping out all unnecessary things (field switching, low speed reader support, etc.), I was able to make a BIN loader for the Fabritek. It works! The RIM format the Fabritek loader expects is something like this: 000 /leader 000 153 /5363 = JMP 7763, stored at 7755. Allows loader to continue running after first deposit 063 1AB /ABCD = Starting address of program to load, minus one, stored at 7756 0CD 1WX /WXYZ = First word of program, stored at starting address specified above 0YZ 1BL /BLAH = more program data 0AH 1BL 0AH 000 /trailer 000 It's important that the starting address specified is one less than the actual starting address, and the starting address can't be zero, as the loader uses ISZ 7756 to increment the address prior to the first store; will result in zero, causing it to skip, causing it to terminate prematurely. The loader keeps running until it overwrites the JMP 7763 instruction with a halt or something like that. I figure since this was really meant to load a more intelligent loader, like the BIN loader, it should overwrite that instruction with a JMP to the halt prior to the start address of the BIN loader, so that you can just hit the run switch after getting your BIN format tape loaded. So that's what I've done. If you're not loading the BIN loader, but rather something else in lower memory, it'd be a good habit to stop the reader during the trailer, since any other characters (like 377, after the tape has left the reader) will be loaded into core and muddle things up after your program. Might not be a problem for a few words, but eventually, it'll probably do something weird when it starts overwriting 7755...it'd probably take a while though. Best I can tell, there is no way for it to detect the absence of tape in the reader, so it'll happily go on reading 377. Here's the BIN loader with the raw octal dump of the Fabritek RIM format needed for loading it: http://pastebin.com/WiJDU1Bi Doesn't look like these units had the real-time clock option installed. Bummer! I was hoping to get a nice accurate tick for my alarm clock. Guess I'll have to look at adding that myself. Think that's all for now. Kyle
Re: Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor]
Rich wrote: > [1] "Tops-10" was simply a renaming of an operating system which began on the > PDP-6 in 1964 and continued in an uninterrupted line of development up > through the final release, Tops-10 v7.04 (1988), and maintenance (v7.05, > 1993). Are you sure about the captialization "Tops"? I thought TOPS-10 ran on the DECsystem-10, while TOPS-20 ran on the DECSYSTEM-20. > in the WAITS file system, the MFD is [1,1] with an > internal representation of 2121. Well, I'll be!
Re: TU-58 (TU-10)
On Wed, Dec 02, 2015 at 12:31:42PM -0600, Paul Anderson wrote: > > Any one have ideas for a TU10 or other tape drive capstans? > I went with http://www.terrysrubberrollers.com/. Since the TU10 just wraps the tape around the capstan it needs to be pretty high friction. The material used was a little marginal so after it aged some I had had to put some rubber renew on to increase the friction. I did use various tubing for card reader repair and found the standard stuff wall thickness isn't uniform around the circumference. The TU10 covering is also very thin. I would think you would have to grind it down to get it uniform and proper thickness. My TU10 repair. http://www.pdp8online.com/tu10/tu10-repair.shtml
RE: TU-58
> > Hi Tony > Thats interesting I had thought about a model makers lathe. > I have a pillar drill and the usual set of tools. I am darn glad I asked for a lathe instead of a car (and driving lessons) when my late father offered to buy me the latter. I still can't drive, but I don't miss that at all... > I did start out as a mechanical engineer and my > top subjects at school were metalwork and technical drawing. Unfortuantely I went to the sort of school that inflicted Latin and (ancient) Greek on its students. Metalwork was certainly a no-no, even physics was frowned upon... But amazingly I managed to get 'electronics' classed as a sport, so while others chased spheres and prolate spheroids, I hand-wired a Z80-based computer, made a simple CRT from scratch and taught myself how to use a lathe > It looks like a visit to Machine Mart may be coming up. Hmmm.. the tools they sell have various perjorative names that I will not repeat publically The general balanced view is that they can be used for good work, but you need to sort them out first, which may mean access to another lathe and/or metalwork skills (sounds like you have the latter). Personally I would consider a second-hand Myford 7 (if you have the space) or Unimat (one of the old metal ones, of course) if you don't. -tony
Re: Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor]
On 2015-12-04 21:52, Phil Budne wrote: Rich wrote: [1] "Tops-10" was simply a renaming of an operating system which began on the PDP-6 in 1964 and continued in an uninterrupted line of development up through the final release, Tops-10 v7.04 (1988), and maintenance (v7.05, 1993). Are you sure about the captialization "Tops"? I thought TOPS-10 ran on the DECsystem-10, while TOPS-20 ran on the DECSYSTEM-20. Rich is correct. It's "Tops-10", but "TOPS-20". Water under the bridge... I can't remember the correct capitalization of DECsystem, though. Maybe that too differed? Johnny -- Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
Re: TU-58
Hi My late uncle had a Myford in a shed at my Grandmothers house in Norfolk. By the time I was tall enough to use it he had moved it to his house down the road TU58 's is ready to test. I tried it in a spare serial port on a VS 3100. Result nothing. I suspect the port is 423 and the tu58 232. Regards Rod On 04/12/15 20:11, tony duell wrote: Hi Tony Thats interesting I had thought about a model makers lathe. I have a pillar drill and the usual set of tools. I am darn glad I asked for a lathe instead of a car (and driving lessons) when my late father offered to buy me the latter. I still can't drive, but I don't miss that at all... I did start out as a mechanical engineer and my top subjects at school were metalwork and technical drawing. Unfortuantely I went to the sort of school that inflicted Latin and (ancient) Greek on its students. Metalwork was certainly a no-no, even physics was frowned upon... But amazingly I managed to get 'electronics' classed as a sport, so while others chased spheres and prolate spheroids, I hand-wired a Z80-based computer, made a simple CRT from scratch and taught myself how to use a lathe It looks like a visit to Machine Mart may be coming up. Hmmm.. the tools they sell have various perjorative names that I will not repeat publically The general balanced view is that they can be used for good work, but you need to sort them out first, which may mean access to another lathe and/or metalwork skills (sounds like you have the latter). Personally I would consider a second-hand Myford 7 (if you have the space) or Unimat (one of the old metal ones, of course) if you don't. -tony
RE: Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor]
From: Johnny Billquist Sent: Friday, December 04, 2015 2:11 PM > On 2015-12-04 21:52, Phil Budne wrote: >> Rich wrote: >>> [1] "Tops-10" was simply a renaming of an operating system which began on >>> the PDP-6 in 1964 and continued in an uninterrupted line of >>> development up through the final release, Tops-10 v7.04 (1988), and >>> maintenance (v7.05, 1993). >> Are you sure about the captialization "Tops"? >> I thought TOPS-10 ran on the DECsystem-10, >> while TOPS-20 ran on the DECSYSTEM-20. > Rich is correct. It's "Tops-10", but "TOPS-20". Water under the bridge... > I can't remember the correct capitalization of DECsystem, though. Maybe > that too differed? Both DECsystem-10 and Decsystem-10 appear in DEC documents of different dates, the latter possibly appearing in non-LCG documents. Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computer Museum 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:ri...@livingcomputermuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/
DEC DD11B
What is a DD11B backplane for? -- Will
Re: DEC DD11B
On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 8:32 PM, William Donzelli wrote: > What is a DD11B backplane for? > > -- > Will > It is a DP11 Peripheral Mounting Panel 4 spc slots 2 df11 slots reference pg 4-68 through 4-71 of the Digital peripherals handbook 1973-1974. DF11 is the serial line interface. -- Bill
Announcing CBM15 V012 (new Beta release)
CBM15 V012 has been released to CSDB, and is currently available for download. http://csdb.dk/release/?id=143468 CBM15 is a telecommunications software, that facilitates direct two-way communications between a Commodore 64 computer and a Teletype Corp. M15KSR (or any other compatible machine). Note that CBM15 follows the 5/N/2 serial protocol, at a fixed line speed of 45.45 baud (22mS signalling period). As with any of these PC-to-TTY setups, an external RS-232 to Current Loop converter is required. This is an initial release, and upcoming releases will add new features and correct a bug or two. So.. am I the only one on the list(s) with a C-64 and an M15 on hand? If you have the required hardware, please give it a try - so far, I've had no feedback from any other 'real' M15 owner.. Thanks!
Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM
I used my PDP-8/e at home to test the RX8E controller and the RX01 floppies that came with the PDP-12. Both worked OK. We found a bad SP380 on a M7102 board in the DW8E the Omnibus expansion chassis. This would not let the SKIP instructions work with the RX8E, RK05, or PC8E. Once we replaced the SP380 we were able to boot OS/8 from an RX01 floppy. This may be the only PDP-12 to ever do that. -- Michael Thompson
PDP 11/15 or 11/20 frame powersupply and backplane
I'm looking for any of these, starting with most essentially the backplane. power supply next, then frame if anyone has one that is empty looking for some filling. Thanks Jim
Re: PDP 11/15 or 11/20 frame powersupply and backplane
Hi Jim, I think the box is a BA11-E and a H720 PS, if you want to keep it original. I don't think I have any spare parts right now, but I have a lot to go through yet. Paul On Sat, Dec 5, 2015 at 1:04 AM, jwsmobile wrote: > I'm looking for any of these, starting with most essentially the backplane. > > power supply next, then frame if anyone has one that is empty looking for > some filling. > > Thanks > Jim >
