Interesting mini-doc on Gilbert Hyatt
Here is an interesting mini-documentary on the fight Gilbert Hyatt (patent holder for the concept of the microcomputer) had with the Franchise Tax Board of State of California: https://youtu.be/rfyPZdSBwBQ Sellam
FOR SALE: Macintosh Performa 450
I have a nice, working Macintosh Performa 450 for sale, details here: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?60274-Apple-Macintosh-Performa-450-w-keyboard-amp-mouse Thanks! Sellam
New Items Up for Sale from Sellam's Collection
Here is the latest batch of items up for sale. Full running list with updates are here: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?58709-New-Items-For-Sale-Check-the-List-and-Make-an-Offer-or-Request&p=482757#post482757 New items for October 26, 2017: Boards: 3Com Corp IE Controller (1982) ASST 0345-03 REV J - very early(?) IBM PC ethernet controller; BNC and AUI connectors; good condition, maybe probably still works [ http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/3Com/3C500_Mar83.pdf] 3Com Etherlink II ASSY 2227-00 REV 08 - 8-bit PC ethernet controller; BNC and AUI connectors; excellent condition HP 82335 8-bit HP-IB ISA board - excellent condition - $35 Future Domain TMC-850MER "Apple Signal Port" 8-bit ISA SCSI board - has socket for BIOS EPROM; comes with 50-pin ribbon and Y-splitter power cables; like new; [http://www.vcfed.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-9546.html] - $30 Unpopulated (New Old Stock) Motorola MC68000 Educational Computer board - like new condition - $20 shipped anywhere in USA Sirius Systems Tech peripheral mainboard - for Victor 9000/ACT Sirius 1 computers; excellent physical condition, unknown functional condition - $13 shipped anywhere in USA Peripherals Panasonic Interface Adaptor RP-K100 - parallel port interface for Panasonic word processor(?) - $5 Kroy Digital Cassette Drive Cat. No. 1674400 "290 Keyboard" - digital microcassette data drive; 34-pin dual row connector; includes digital microcassette tape - $15 APCON ACI-2016 SCSI Booster - 68-pin SCSI booster, w/power supply - $10 Advanced Electronic Applications PK-64 PAKRATT-64 - packet radio modem for Commodore 64; excellent condition - $60 Remex 5.25" drive - inside external enclosure with power supply and 34-pin connector; excellent condition inside and out - $15 HP 82950A Modem - includes severely water damaged but mostly readable users manual - $45 HP 00085-15001 Mass Storage ROM - HP-85 mass storage ROM, allows HP 85A to connect to disc drives - $25 shipped anywhere in USA Avatex 1200HC 300/1200 external modem - $5 Atari SC1224 (Version 2) color monitor - powers up, has raster, do not have cable to test - $70 Atari SH305 MegaFile 30 - contains Seagate ST-238R hard drive; powers up, drive spins up, sounds healthy; case was slightly hacked by a less than skilled hand to add status LEDs to the front as well as a slot for a 3.5" removable drive (not present; includes custom internal 34-pin slot connector to external DIN connector cable) - $50 Atari 1064 - 48K parallel port memory module for Atari XL series - $20 Atari SX212 Modem - for IBM PC and compatibles; in original box with manual, power supply, and data cable BMUGNET adaptors for Macintosh - made by Bay Area Mac User Group; pre-Farallon PhoneNet adaptors; works similar to Apple LocalTalk - 2/$10 Sun Type 4 optical mouse - $5 Commodore 1531 Datasette - $15 Plus Development Corp. Impulse dual external hard drive unit - same maker as Plus Hardcard; includes (2) Conner CP-340 40MB RLL drives, powers up and drives spin up with healthy sound; unable to test further; requires DB-19 cable and PC interface board to be fully useful - $20 DSP 225 Tempest InkJet Printer - HP ThinkJet Model 2225A (HP-IB interface) fitted inside an all black TEMPEST resistant enclosure, fine working condition - $75 Computers and Such Tektronix 4050 - complete working system in excellent condition with manuals and software on QIC Apricot F1 - CPU only; powers up, blurts out some strange "beep" and seeks a boot disk; (2) internal 3" drivesl unable to test further Motorola Envoy - (3) units with (1) charge station and extra battery Commodore 16 - untested - $30 Osborne 1 - original tan case; fairly low serial number (A01284); powers up, screen is good, tries to boot from disk drive; very good cosmetic condition with some scuffs, leather handle is broken - $160 HP 7475A Plotter - full complement of pens are mostly dried out but it performs the demo function admirably; excellent condition - $85 Lynx 460 floppy disk drive exerciser w/User's Manual and Xerox Supplement - $25 Atari Mega ST4 - powers up, seems to boot from the floppy drive, no monitor cable so unable to test further; includes Practical Solutions Tweety Board (adds true stereo) - $250 Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 - works great; very good condition with minor yellowing and a couple scratches; includes form fitting faux leather case in excellent condition - $40 Miscellaneous Dolch Logic Instruments 9604 uP Trace Unit - logic analyzer module for National Semiconductor NSC-800 microprocessor - $15 Tandy data cable - 34-pin slotted connector to Centronics male connector, approx. 10' - $5 As always, please send inquiries to me directly via e-mail at for best results. Thanks! Sellam
Re: Digression - Ah Yes!! The PDP-10
On 10/25/17 5:18 PM, Rob Jarratt via cctech wrote: -Original Message- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Robert Adamson via cctalk Sent: 25 October 2017 20:56 To: cct...@classiccmp.org Subject: Digression - Ah Yes!! The PDP-10 Beginning of the 70's I was using a pdp-10 at TSL (Time Sharing Limited, UK) over a phone line writing logic simulation software in Fortran. Remember it fondly, especially the number of times I needed to redial in and try to reconnect to my session. Still smell the teletype. Cost about £10 for the 20 seconds cpu-time or so just to compile the program!!! I used to use the DECSYSTEM-20 from a Teletype (until they got replaced by VDUs). That is why I really wanted a nice Model 33 ASR, which I now have. I sometimes connect it up to SIMH running TOPS-20 to relive the happiest part of my school days. Roll on a few years and I was actually at the console of a 10 at Smiths doing IC layout graphics interactively on their Lady Jane suite. What a great single-user machine! (and I still remember my username and password from TSL, typed it so often it burned in). My experience with DEC PDP-10 is 1970-71, the BOCES LIRCs system. A PDP01 and PDP-8I (the timeshare system from the year before). It was a timeshare system spanning two counties with over 300 highschool users. Actual loads ran from about 150 to as high as 300 where all the terminal lines and concentrater lines were in use. Most were 100baud though at the site there were 8 lines at as high as 4800. Spent my time as user and part time system monitor at the site. My favorite terminal then was a Hazeltine H1000 class TTY. The processor was the first version a KA10 with 64kwords of core initially and later 128K with an added 128K swapping drum. OS was TOPS 10. Really liked the machine and it was pretty to look at with the programmers console. Favorite core location to watch was 150Q. Allison
Re: New Items Up for Sale from Sellam's Collection
Advanced Electronic Applications PK-64 PAKRATT-64 - packet radio modem for Commodore 64; excellent condition - $60 Is this complete? (cables, manual, etc) Thanks! g. -- Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007 http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind. http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home. Some people collect things for a hobby. Geeks collect hobbies. ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes. http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!
Re: Acorn, Apple, IBM old computers up for auction (via Proxibid)
On 25 October 2017 at 03:31, Mark Linimon via cctalk wrote: > There are a few lots that may be of interest to people on this list. > > Disclaimer: I have no connection to any of this. I just browse proxibid.com > once in a while. > > The overall link: > > > https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/Michael-F-Dilliard-Auction-amp-Realty-Company-LLC/5700/AuctionsByCompany.asp?ahid=5700&tl=0#13///endingsoonest//all/5700/0/1/ > > The particular lots: > > ACORN computer programs > https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/ACORN-computer-programs/38893071/LotDetail.asp?lid=38893071&origin=1 > Vintage computer lot (Apple) > https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/Vintage-computer-lot-APPLE-external-disk-drive-user-manuals-more/38893094/LotDetail.asp?lid=38893094&origin=1 > APPLE Graphics Tablet + Acorn > https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/Vintage-APPLE-Graphics-Tablet-British-BBC-Microcomputer-System/38893095/LotDetail.asp?lid=38893095&origin=1 > Vintage APPLE IIe > https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/Vintage-APPLE-IIe-computer-keyboard-monitor-external-drive/38893096/LotDetail.asp?lid=38893096&origin=1 > IBM PC Jr computer lot > https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/IBM-PC-Jr-computer-lot/38893111/LotDetail.asp?lid=38893111&origin=1 > > (editor's note for the last item: "ew.") > > mcl Reposted on FB -- with credit but no email. Hope that's OK. -- Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053
SDS 940 BASIC (was Re: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile?)
On 10/25/17 11:55 AM, Rich Alderson via cctalk wrote: > Noel, do have a reference for "some commercial time-sharing system in the > Boston area"? From Paul Allen's autobiography, the Harvard system was > followed > immediately by their move to Albuquerque, where they leased time on the local > school board's PDP-10, and that's what my friends who worked for Micro-soft > back then have told me, as well. Harvard had an SDS 940, which shipped with a version of Berkeley's timesharing system. Tymshare's version of that system was significantly improved, and included "Super BASIC". SDS's OS was replaced with Tymshare's at Harvard because the original was so bad, and so they were exposed to that version of BASIC. PA told me that was the influence for M-S's BASIC extensions.
Re: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile?
> From: Kip Koon > I was initially thinking of a strictly software only solution Whatever you eventually do in the way of hardware, it might be a good idea to start with this. You can get familiar with whatever OS you decide to go with, and get used to its tools, get to know the instruction set of that machine, etc, etc. So then, if you do do a hardware project, it won't be such a big gulp, and you'll have the knowledge base covering all the above already there to draw on. > which still presents a problem for me and that is which PDP do I teach > myself and set up. Probably the way to answer that is, if you're going to build hardware at some point, a combination of 'what's out there that I can get to talk to', and 'how complicated a beast are we talking about'. For the first, there's a lot of QBUS stuff around, some UNIBUS, and basically zilch on the PDP-10 or PDP-15 front. For the second, most -11's (both QBUS and UNIBUS) are relatively simple and straightforward. Any kind of PDP-10 is pretty complex (depending on if you emulate the original busses, or not). > 3rd, and this is a big factor in the choice of DEC PDP computer to pick > for simulation or emulation and that is the small cash flow and itty > bitty storage space I have available to me. Noted. > The choice so far it seems is the PDP-11/70. If all you're doing is simulation (software), the -11/70 would be fine. It's no more work to set up than one of the other timesharing-capable models; it's only slightly more complicated than say, an -11/45, _from the programmer's point of view_ (there's a UNIBUS map as well as the usual memory mapping hardware), but if you're running an existing OS, that should not affect you. > Remember I still have no idea ... what boards and peripherals > a PDP-11/70 consists of. Hardware-wise, the -11/70 could be a complex project - it depends on exactly how much you try and emulate, a full emulation could be a very complex undertaking indeed. The thing is that while the /70 looks to the programmer a lot like one of the simpler models, the hardware is quite a lot more complicated: there is a cache, a separate memory bus, high-speed I/I controllers with their own special bus to the devices (MASSBUS), etc. It's basically an -11/45 with a bunch of extra stuff glued onto the sides of it to boost the performance; the board count went from 10 (w/o floating point, which adds an extra 4) to a minimum of of 16 (w/o FP), plus 4 for each high-speed I/O controller (up to 4). Now, if all you're doing is emulating the system, _without_ providing any of the busses, no problem; all that complexity is hidden inside the simulator. But once you start emulating real busses (i.e. to be able to plug in real hardware) - whole different kettle of fish. Noel
QEMM
The old extended/expanded memory manager for DOS. Anyone remember? I'm playing with bootable USB keys with PC DOS 7 (and DR-DOS 7 to follow). I have it working and booting now, but I'd like to disable QEMM's memory check on startup. I'm sure there was a switch, but I can't remember it. Even with just -- "just" -- 4GB of RAM it takes quite a while. If anyone knows of a place where there's a summary of QEMM's command-line switches, that'd be great. I have found some manuals but nothing helpful. I'm using QEMM 9, the last version, for Win9x. Any suggestions? -- Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053
Re: QEMM
The old extended/expanded memory manager for DOS. Anyone remember? I remember it! It was useful. Here is the manual: https://www.jumpjet.info/Application-Software/DOS/QEMM/Manual.pdf -- : Ethan O'Toole
Re: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile?
On 10/24/17 7:40 PM, Kip Koon via cctalk wrote: > The choice so far it seems is the PDP-11/70. Remember I still have no idea > beyond some searching on the internet what boards and peripherals a > PDP-11/70 consists of. For that matter, I don't know what boards and > peripherals are in the PDP-8/e or PDP-8/I either. bitsavers.org/pdf/dec has details for most of the DEC processors and software
RE: SDS 940 BASIC (was Re: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile?)
From: Al Kossow Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2017 9:04 AM > On 10/25/17 11:55 AM, Rich Alderson via cctalk wrote: >> Noel, do have a reference for "some commercial time-sharing system in the >> Boston area"? From Paul Allen's autobiography, the Harvard system was >> followed immediately by their move to Albuquerque, where they leased time on >> the local school board's PDP-10, and that's what my friends who worked for >> Micro-soft back then have told me, as well. > Harvard had an SDS 940, which shipped with a version of Berkeley's > timesharing system. Tymshare's version of that system was significantly > improved, and included "Super BASIC". SDS's OS was replaced with Tymshare's > at Harvard because the original was so bad, and so they were exposed to that > version of BASIC. PA told me that was the influence for M-S's BASIC > extensions. Harvard also had a KA-10, which is what PGA's 8008 -> 8080 simulator ran on, using the User UUO capabilities of the architecture and operating system: Microprocessor 8-bit byte in the address field, and a user-defined operation in the opcode field to do the interpretation/call the interpreter. (The simulator was originally written for the Traf-O-Data device, which was 8008 based.) I put the code on our Tops-10 system while he was writing the book, and the version of BASIC we run on the Altair 8800 in the Exhibit Hall was compiled on that system; it is not a Microsoft product. I know about the influence of SuperBASIC; I did not know about the Harvard 940. Thanks for the note! Rich Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computers: Museum + Labs 2245 1st Avenue S Seattle, WA 98134 mailto:ri...@livingcomputers.org http://www.LivingComputers.org/
Re: QEMM
On 26 October 2017 at 21:29, wrote: > > I remember it! It was useful. > > Here is the manual: > https://www.jumpjet.info/Application-Software/DOS/QEMM/Manual.pdf Oh, excellent! Thank you! -- Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Talk/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn/AIM/Yahoo: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR/WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal: +420 702 829 053
Re: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile?
> On Oct 24, 2017, at 10:40 PM, Kip Koon via cctalk > wrote: > > ... > 2nd, a hardware emulator running a simulator written in 6809 assembly > language for the PDP-8/e running on a 6809 Core & I/O board system seems > like a good choice for me as I understand the 6809 microprocessor, ... I would call that a software emulator; the fact that it runs on some microprocessor eval board doesn't make a difference. Running SIMH on a Beaglebone would be analogous (though easier). When you said "hardware emulator" I figured you meant an FPGA implementation of a VHDL or Verilog model of the machine. There are a bunch of those for a variety of DEC computers. One I have looked at is this one: http://pdp2011.sytse.net/wordpress/ which incidentally is also configurable to implement a choice of PDP11 model. paul
RE: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile?
Hi Paul, Thank you for the info. I tend to get emulation and simulation a bit confused. Just so I understand simulation correctly, hardware emulation is when the functionality of the hardware is actually implemented in hardware somehow like VHDL in an FGPA and hardware simulation is when a program implements the functionality of the hardware in a software program no matter what hardware the hardware simulator is running on. I think I got this now. Correct? Thanks a bunch for setting me straight. Kip Koon computer...@sc.rr.com http://www.cocopedia.com/wiki/index.php/User:Computerdoc -Original Message- From: Paul Koning [mailto:paulkon...@comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2017 4:29 PM To: Kip Koon; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Which Dec Emulation is the MOST useful and Versatile? > On Oct 24, 2017, at 10:40 PM, Kip Koon via cctalk wrote: > > ... > 2nd, a hardware emulator running a simulator written in 6809 assembly > language for the PDP-8/e running on a 6809 Core & I/O board system > seems like a good choice for me as I understand the 6809 microprocessor, ... I would call that a software emulator; the fact that it runs on some microprocessor eval board doesn't make a difference. Running SIMH on a Beaglebone would be analogous (though easier). When you said "hardware emulator" I figured you meant an FPGA implementation of a VHDL or Verilog model of the machine. There are a bunch of those for a variety of DEC computers. One I have looked at is this one: http://pdp2011.sytse.net/wordpress/ which incidentally is also configurable to implement a choice of PDP11 model. paul
