SGI Origin 2000 Detailed Pics
Here is detailed pics of the SGI origin 2000. Its in my shop tonight hoping we can identify whats here. Image heavy https://imgur.com/a/mdlCW Also these 19 racks came with it and it looks like some old cluster stuff in them https://imgur.com/a/feoEq
Re: Reading a PDP-11 RL02: Anyone Around the U.S. West Coast?
On Fri, Feb 9, 2018 at 3:24 PM, Paul Hardy wrote: > Greetings, > > I have an old PDP-11 RL02... > Thank you for the kind responses to my request for help reading an RL02. I am planning to meet someone who is within a day's drive of where I live. I feel safer hand-delivering the disk pack than mailing it. If that does not materialize, I will contact someone else who responded to this inquiry of mine. All the best, Paul Hardy
Re: SGI Origin 2000 Detailed Pics
On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 01:10:27AM +, PhreakShow Telephone Company via cctalk wrote: > Here is detailed pics of the SGI origin 2000. Its in my shop tonight > > hoping we can identify whats here. Some of it at least, not everything is possible to see from looking at the hardware. > > Image heavy > https://imgur.com/a/mdlCW Ok, I might get things wrong because it's hard to see which box is which. But you have two CPU modules (called LEGO). The first has four CPU boards, one IO6G, two XTOWN, one SCSI and one ATM board (not sure how that is used, some sort of network interconnect). The second has three CPU boards, one IO6 and a SCSI board. It is not possible to tell what the CPU boards are unless you remove them, and even then It might be tricky to idenitfy. It is probably easier to power up each module by itself and look at the output of the "hinv" command in ARCS (the boot firmware). Each module has two Rack Router Boards (the connectors on the front). Which means you can hook up the two cpu modules into one system. The Graphics module (called KEGO, I think) looks like it has two graphics pipes, one to the left with a GE and RM board but missing a DG. And one to the right of the KTOWN board which has one GE, two RM and a DG. In the rack is also an MMSC which is used to control multiple modules of one system. It looks like you have enough cables to get it going :) > > Also these 19 racks came with it and it looks like some old cluster stuff > in them > > https://imgur.com/a/feoEq Not sure what most of it is, except that the DEC POWER CONTROL 861C is very much out of place :D Also the APC PDU's looks like they are monitored, which is nice. /P
Re: AlphaServers
I know of 3 desk side DS's, one was fully operational before going into storage, all ran when I got them. boxes of new Tru64 still shrink wrapped, and a binder full of keys for > 20 Alpha's -pete On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 9:25 PM, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > Place your wagers... > > > How many more years do you think it'll take before decent, practical-sized > Alphas, like the DS15, and to some degree, the DS10, will be obtainable at > hobbyist-friendly prices? > > > I have an ES47 I got for a price I could stomach, but it's sans rail kit, > drinks power like it's going out of style, and can anchor a 40-ft yacht. > > > Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? > >
R: AlphaServers
Lucky snatch, especially the Tru64 boxes (envy) -Messaggio originale- Da: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] Per conto di Pete Lancashire via cctalk Inviato: martedì 13 marzo 2018 08:54 A: Benjamin Huntsman; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Oggetto: Re: AlphaServers I know of 3 desk side DS's, one was fully operational before going into storage, all ran when I got them. boxes of new Tru64 still shrink wrapped, and a binder full of keys for > 20 Alpha's -pete On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 9:25 PM, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > Place your wagers... > > > How many more years do you think it'll take before decent, > practical-sized Alphas, like the DS15, and to some degree, the DS10, > will be obtainable at hobbyist-friendly prices? > > > I have an ES47 I got for a price I could stomach, but it's sans rail > kit, drinks power like it's going out of style, and can anchor a 40-ft yacht. > > > Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? > >
Re: AlphaServers
> > How many more years do you think it'll take before decent, practical-sized > Alphas, like the DS15, and to some degree, the DS10, will be obtainable at > hobbyist-friendly prices? > A former colleague of mine has a DS10L. I don't like these very much. It makes the wrong kind of noise, a loud high pitched squeal and can only take one PCI card. This one was probably got for nothing because the services it was running were shut down. Marketplace prices probably reflect whether people are still using them for useful work and will probably remain high if there continues to be demand for them. > > I have an ES47 I got for a price I could stomach, but it's sans rail kit, > drinks power like it's going out of style, and can anchor a 40-ft yacht. > That's more like it. A nice big animal of a machine you can use to heat the room. A few years ago, I had lots of fun looking after a few racks of ES40s running VMS. They ran great but the memory had to be exactly right to avoid wierd failures under heavy load. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to snag any of them when they went out of service. > > Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? > I've got a few: An Alphaserver 2100 (old and slow but makes the right kind of noise) A PWS 500a(u?) (faster but doesn't look the part, needs more memory) An Alphaserver 800 with rails but not currently in a rack. 3 x Alphaserver 1000A (lots of problems, none working now) 2 x DEC 3000 / 600 and 1 x DEC 3000 / 300 (none currently working either) Regards, Peter Coghlan.
Re: AlphaServers
An interesting discussion, especially considering the stuff usually spoken in comp.os.vms regardiong the viability of X86 boxes. I have had 3 Alphas. Two of the office refrigerator sized boxes and one of the PC Tower sized boxes. All three have died. In the meantime I have X86 based boxes that are much older and continue to serve me well. While I thought the Alpha was an excellent architectural design the market has made it somewhat irrelevant. Of course, when t comes to VMS I still run a VAX. :-) bill
Re: AlphaServers
Several people have now mentioned they have dead Alphas. What is generally failing about them? Kyle
Re: AlphaServers
In my cases all three just one day became inoperative. I have heard of power supply failures, but none of mine had that. The first two had redundant PSU's and the third had a standard PC type PSU and the disks and CD's worked even after the motherboard became dead enough to not even do the POST. bill On 03/13/2018 08:44 AM, Kyle Owen via cctalk wrote: > Several people have now mentioned they have dead Alphas. What is generally > failing about them? > > Kyle
Re: AlphaServers
> > Several people have now mentioned they have dead Alphas. What is generally > failing about them? > The B-Cache on the CPU card on every Alphaserver 1000A I have laid eyes on has failed at some point. It can be disabled with a jumper but this makes the machine a lot slower for some tasks. I have also had problems with intermittent shutdowns for no reason on these machines, probably due to failures in the thermal protection logic. Also possibly problems with the connector the CPU card sits in and just plain failure to do anything. The 115/230V power supply in my DEC 3000 / 300 decided to go permanently into 115V mode despite the power here being 230V which resulted in a bang. Removing the shorted triac and replacing the exploded VDR and fuse fixed that for a while but now the machine has some other problem that I can't recall. The monitor that was with it has some sort of EHT problem. My two DEC 3000 / 600 machines go through their power up tests, flashing the diagnostic LEDs nicely but don't boot or produce a console prompt afterwards. One of them went into this state when I was trying to reboot it remotely while it was in service. It really needed a reset or power cycle at the time but I couldn't do that remotely so I tried various not very likely to succeed console commands. I may have somehow damaged the firmware doing that or a fault may have arose coincidentally but I never got a console prompt since on it. The other one behaves the same as it but it started happening when noone was looking at it. Regards, Peter Coghlan.
Re: AlphaServers
> On Mar 13, 2018, at 7:44 AM, Kyle Owen via cctalk > wrote: > > Several people have now mentioned they have dead Alphas. What is generally > failing about them? > > Kyle When my 1000 started failing, the manual lead me to believe it was b-cache, but the jumper map wound up to be wrong, it was actually failed RAM. Even knowing that, I’m not sure I want to invest hundreds in new RAM for a machine whose b-cache is known to be a ticking time bomb. (1000s and 1000As have notoriously unreliable b-cache)
Re: AlphaServers
On 13 March 2018 at 05:25, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk wrote: > > Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? I never got my hands on one, although there was a time when I coveted one. (Now as I am -- well, not homeless, but I don't have a house any more, or indeed an apartment of my own -- I am confining my collection to portable/pocketable and battery-powered devices.) I believe list-member Stéphane has at least one, but I don't know if he's got it running... -- Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
"The Quest for a Universal Translator for Old, Obsolete Computer Files"
The Quest for a Universal Translator for Old, Obsolete Computer Files To save bygone software, files, and more, researchers are working to emulate decades-old technology in the cloud. by Jessica Leigh Hester March 08, 2018 https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-open-old-computer-files >From the sound of this, it strikes me that several of the people/organizations that the author spoke to don't know much about running older software that _will_ work on modern hardware... -- Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
Re: AlphaServers
So, B-Cache is a common failure; any idea what specifically is failing about it? I've got a 1000A, but its been years since I've tried booting it. It was successfully booting when I last tried it, however. I think I've got Tru64 installation media somewhere around here, too... Kyle
Re: AlphaServers
On Mar 13, 2018, at 12:26 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: > On 13 March 2018 at 05:25, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk > wrote: >> >> Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? > > I never got my hands on one, although there was a time when I coveted one. > > (Now as I am -- well, not homeless, but I don't have a house any more, > or indeed an apartment of my own -- I am confining my collection to > portable/pocketable and battery-powered devices.) > > I believe list-member Stéphane has at least one, but I don't know if > he's got it running... > > -- > Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven > Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com > Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven • Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven > UK: +44 7939-087884 • ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 I have an AS 2100 4/275 in sight of me in my office - waiting for me to get a round tuit on installing OpenVMS - and another pizza-box station (300?) in the same condition. (Also a VaxStation VLC and a Rainbow, so Some Day (TM) I want to have a whole little DEC network with 4 different types of CPU talking together…)
Re: AlphaServers
If anyone is in or near Portland Oregon and interested, they are available. There are also at least 2 x 14 drive SCSI arrays, cables, etc. At one time I was offered a 5 rack fully redundant Alpha setup based on 3 40's or 45's Two servers were running with one is hot standby, the 3rd was a cold standby. The two racks in the middle of around 100 SCSI disks and the hardware to support having 2 active SCSI masters. The only time I have seen Tru64 do its magic. -pete On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 10:33 AM, Kyle Owen via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > So, B-Cache is a common failure; any idea what specifically is failing > about it? > > I've got a 1000A, but its been years since I've tried booting it. It was > successfully booting when I last tried it, however. I think I've got Tru64 > installation media somewhere around here, too... > > Kyle > >
Re: AlphaServers
> > When my 1000 started failing, the manual lead me to believe it was b-cache, > but the jumper map wound up to be wrong, > There are a number of variants and the manuals are extremely unclear. > > it was actually failed RAM. > I forgot. I had that too. The firmware is supposed to specify which bank and SIMM is faulty. Another reason to not love these machines: If SIMM 0 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 0. If SIMM 1 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 1. If SIMM 2 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 3. If SIMM 3 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 3. > > Even knowing that, I’m not sure I want to > invest hundreds in new RAM for a machine whose b-cache is known to be a > ticking time bomb. (1000s and 1000As have notoriously unreliable b-cache) > I might be willing to swap my AS1000A RAM (some of which may be faulty and I probably can't test it unless I can resurrect one of my machines briefly) for memory for a PWS 500, Alphaserver 2100 or an Alphaserver 800. Regards, Peter Coghlan.
RE: AlphaServers
I seem to remember issues with Alpha's even when new. I was asked to help out somewhere running VMS on Alpha and we had a couple of failures on the CPUs over the few months I was there... .. contrast this with working on IBM xServers and we had over 100 servers and only ever had failures on really old boxes, and then usually RAM or PSU. In fact given this distaste folks have for NT derived OSs on Intel servers, its worthy of note that even with around 120 boxes I wasn't leaping up and down every 5 mins minutes to fix them. Every 5 months perhaps one of the older ones would go crank but usually it was a 6 or seven year old box that was well past its best before date... Dave > -Original Message- > From: cctalk On Behalf Of Peter Coghlan > via cctalk > Sent: 13 March 2018 18:33 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > > Subject: Re: AlphaServers > > > > > When my 1000 started failing, the manual lead me to believe it was > > b-cache, but the jumper map wound up to be wrong, > > > > There are a number of variants and the manuals are extremely unclear. > > > > > it was actually failed RAM. > > > > I forgot. I had that too. The firmware is supposed to specify which bank and > SIMM is faulty. Another reason to not love these machines: > > If SIMM 0 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 0. > If SIMM 1 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 1. > If SIMM 2 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 3. > If SIMM 3 has failed, the firmware reports a failure in SIMM 3. > > > > > Even knowing that, I’m not sure I want to invest hundreds in new RAM > > for a machine whose b-cache is known to be a ticking time bomb. (1000s > > and 1000As have notoriously unreliable b-cache) > > > > I might be willing to swap my AS1000A RAM (some of which may be faulty > and I probably can't test it unless I can resurrect one of my machines > briefly) > for memory for a PWS 500, Alphaserver 2100 or an Alphaserver 800. > > Regards, > Peter Coghlan.
Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 42, Issue 13
On Tue, 13 Mar 2018 cctalk-requ...@classiccmp.org wrote: > Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2018 04:25:26 + > From: Benjamin Huntsman > Subject: AlphaServers > Message-ID: > > > > Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? I'll pile on with my $0.212 (two cents plus tax). I started with a VAXStation 4000/90A. Still have it. Absorbed that system into SIMH and upgraded to a Alphastation (server?) 255. Sold that the 255 and upgraded again to my current DS10, running OpenVMS 8.3. Typing on it now in fact, ssh'ed in from $work. Luckily, I used to work for a company that had data processing services heavily invested in OpenVMS/DEC/Compaq/HP gear. I'm sure I acquired the systems over the years for well below market rates. I could probably sell the VAX 90A for a pretty large sum of $. ... but I really don't want to ... because then I'd have the money and not the VAX. :) If the power bill was free I would upgrade again but I have enough 24/7 equipment running in the home office. :) ... and I'm always hunting for more! (an iSeries, perhaps a Multiprise 3000, etc ... ) Fred
Re: AlphaServers
> On Mar 13, 2018, at 5:44 AM, Kyle Owen via cctalk > wrote: > > Several people have now mentioned they have dead Alphas. What is generally > failing about them? > > Kyle My DEC AlphaStation PWS 433au lost a PCI slot, after I used it for a few years. I ran it like that for several years until I upgraded to an XP1000. My Compaq XP1000/667 lost it’s powersupply after I’d had it for about a year. I replaced it with the power supply from my XP1000/500. A real concern is the AlphaStation 200/233’s I have. I’ve not powered either up in about a decade, and I’d really like to put one back into use. Most issues I’ve heard around Alpha’s seem to be this model, or server class systems. Then again, there were a ton of “Onsale.com Alpha’s” in the hands of hobbyists. I bought three that way, one was for a friend. These are great little boxes, and you can take them way beyond the advertised RAM limit, up to 768MB, IIRC. Of course that assumes you’re lucky enough to get ahold of large enough SIMM’s. On the VAX side, the power supply is out on my VAXstation 4000/vlc. I also have a VAXstation 4000/60 with issues, and a /90 with issues. The only VAX I’m currently running is a /60. I have several other VAXen though, mostly Q-Bus systems. The fact is, these are all very old systems (both the VAX and Alpha), and not really designed to be repairable). Really on the VAX side, emulation makes sense. For $75, I picked up a HP i5 system that’s dedicated to running SIMH 24x7, and I also have SIMH running on my HP i7 ESXI system, and on a RPi2. The i7 is my fastest “VAX”. If running commercially, emulation makes sense for the Alpha. For the Hobbyist, not so much. The only good way to get Alpha emulation for a Hobbyist right now is if you’re running Windows. I’m not running Windows, and the hobbyist emulator config is rather small for my needs. As an FYI, I’ve been working on updating my DEC Emulation webpages, and have the VAX and Alpha pages fairly up to date. http://www.avanthar.com/healyzh/decemulation/vax.html http://www.avanthar.com/healyzh/decemulation/Alpha.html Zane
Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 42, Issue 13
On 03/13/2018 02:52 PM, Fred via cctalk wrote: I'm always hunting for more! (an iSeries, perhaps a Multiprise 3000, etc ... If power / cooling / noise wasn't an issue, I'd also be interested in an Multiprise 3000. But, I'm happily married and I would like to keep it that way. -- Grant. . . . unix || die
Re: AlphaServers
On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 12:25 AM, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk wrote: > Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? I did a bit of work on Alphas from 1997-2003 but at home I have... DEC 4000 AXP - works fine, haven't powered it on in a while. I have to unplug my VAX 8300 to plug the DEC 4000 in - I only have the one 30A receptacle in the basement. It has multiple disks in it - Ultrix and OSF/1 boot drives, IIRC. DEC Multia Alpha workstation - got it from a friend and haven't played with it yet. Has Red Hat 5.3 on it. Came with boxed OS. DEC PC-form-factor motherboard. I can't remember the model number, but this fits in a standard PC tower case. Made to run WinNT or UNIX. -ethan
Re: AlphaServers
On Tue, 13 Mar 2018, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote: Really on the VAX side, emulation makes sense. For $75, I picked up a HP i5 system that’s dedicated to running SIMH 24x7, and I also have SIMH running on my HP i7 ESXI system, and on a RPi2. The i7 is my fastest “VAX”. Zane, what's the host OS that you're using for SIMH? tnx. 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: AlphaServers
On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 4:36 PM, Ethan Dicks via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 12:25 AM, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk > wrote: > > Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? > > I am working through some new to me VAX/Alphas/QBUS parts from the other weekend. http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=715 I also have some new-to-me smaller VAX and an Alpha 3000 or two. Some of these need new homes. I was thinking of hosting a VAX/Alpha workshop at or near my house in the Newark, Delaware, USA area next month. I have plenty of machines and parts for anyone interested who'd like to participate. More details coming. I have VMS and DECUNIX machines running here at my house, and few with FQDS's personally I think they're worth preserving. I have written about them here in the past (when I needed help). I am relatively new to the VMS world but gaining experience. I have a smattering of actual work experience in VMS back when these were current and from college. Bill
Re: XT/370 microcode
>> I am not at liberty to post the document. > >This? ... >Also: ... >If so, it might be this: ... There's a difference between "I am not at liberty..." and "what anyone can google...".
Re: XT/370 microcode
On Tue, 13 Mar 2018, Ken Seefried via cctalk wrote: I am not at liberty to post the document. This? ... Also: ... If so, it might be this: ... There's a difference between "I am not at liberty..." and "what anyone can google...". There do exist situations where somebody is NOT at liberty to post (NDA, etc), but the item in question is readily available. The expiration of an NDA may be long after publication or leakage. Could always do a LMGTFY.com link, . . . :-)
Re: AlphaServers
So for the most part, no hobbyists are running DS15’s? I’m sort of surprised that there’s that many still in critical production roles. Where’s all the VAR guys trying to help people migrate? Haha. Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 13, 2018, at 2:09 PM, Bill Degnan via cctalk > wrote: > > On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 4:36 PM, Ethan Dicks via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 12:25 AM, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk >> wrote: >>> Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? >> >> > I am working through some new to me VAX/Alphas/QBUS parts from the other > weekend. > http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=715 > > I also have some new-to-me smaller VAX and an Alpha 3000 or two. Some of > these need new homes. I was thinking of hosting a VAX/Alpha workshop at or > near my house in the Newark, Delaware, USA area next month. I have plenty > of machines and parts for anyone interested who'd like to participate. > More details coming. > > I have VMS and DECUNIX machines running here at my house, and few with > FQDS's personally I think they're worth preserving. I have written about > them here in the past (when I needed help). I am relatively new to the VMS > world but gaining experience. I have a smattering of actual work > experience in VMS back when these were current and from college. > > > Bill
Re: AlphaServers
On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 4:36 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote: > On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 12:25 AM, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk > wrote: >> Anyone out there do Alphas anymore? > > I did a bit of work on Alphas from 1997-2003 but at home I have... > > DEC 4000 AXP - works fine, haven't powered it on in a while. I have > to unplug my VAX 8300 to plug the DEC 4000 in - I only have the one > 30A receptacle in the basement. It has multiple disks in it - Ultrix > and OSF/1 boot drives, IIRC. > > DEC Multia Alpha workstation - got it from a friend and haven't played > with it yet. Has Red Hat 5.3 on it. Came with boxed OS. > > DEC PC-form-factor motherboard. I can't remember the model number, > but this fits in a standard PC tower case. Made to run WinNT or UNIX. AXPpci 33 board with a 21066 processor that I stuffed into an Enlight tower and fiddled with 15+ years ago. -ethan
Re: AlphaServers
> DEC PC-form-factor motherboard. I can't remember the model number, > but this fits in a standard PC tower case. Made to run WinNT or UNIX. Probably one of the 164LXes or similar. I have a 164LX here running Tru64 and OpenGenera. -- personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckai...@floodgap.com -- God may be subtle, but He isn't plain mean. -- Albert Einstein -
Re: XT/370 microcode
On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 6:40 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: > On Tue, 13 Mar 2018, Ken Seefried via cctalk wrote: I am not at liberty to post the document. >>> >>> This? >> >> ... >>> >>> Also: >> >> ... >>> >>> If so, it might be this: >> >> ... >> There's a difference between "I am not at liberty..." and "what anyone >> can google...". > > > There do exist situations where somebody is NOT at liberty to post (NDA, > etc), but the item in question is readily available. The expiration of an > NDA may be long after publication or leakage. > Could always do a LMGTFY.com link, . . . :-) Yeah, Fred...I think that's exactly what I said without being enough of an asshole to suggest LMGTFY.
Re: AlphaServers
> On Mar 13, 2018, at 4:22 PM, Benjamin Huntsman via cctalk > wrote: > > So for the most part, no hobbyists are running DS15’s? I’m sort of surprised > that there’s that many still in critical production roles. Where’s all the > VAR guys trying to help people migrate? Haha. A better question might be, how many DS15’s were produced compared to something like the AlphaStation 200 4/233. I’d love a DS15, but if they are far from cheap. A lot of the VAR’s are trying to get folks to migrate to Emulated Alpha’s from what I’m seeing. My guess is that anyone that was going to convert to Itanium did, and many of those are now looking towards porting to Xeon. Personally I’m skipping Itanium, but will be looking to move to Xeon at some point. I rather like the idea of running OpenVMS on an HP DL360 or DL380. Zane
800 and 1600bpi 9 track test data
There are two gzip'ed files up now of analog digitized 9 track data under http://bitsavers.org/projects/9track containing two files of 16 bit incrementing data patterns blocked 512 bytes/blk and the tach signal from a Qualstar 1260 running at 50 ips. The data can be viewed using Salea's Logic app in simulation mode if anyone has burning curiosity what a 1/2" tape block looks like. I made these as test data today for Len Shustek's 9 track readtape project https://github.com/LenShustek/readtape
Re: XT/370 microcode
ken said >>> I am not at liberty to post the document. >> >>This? > ... >>Also: > ... >>If so, it might be this: > ... > > There's a difference between "I am not at liberty..." and "what anyone > can google...". The Wayback Machine has it on archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20150608173633/http://maben.homeip.net/static/S100/IBM/5160%20588%20XT%20370/System%20370%20capability%20in%20a%20desktop%20computer.pdf Whenever I remember, I try and submit pages like this to archive.org's crawler to catalog it for posterity, it only takes a moment. Often they are already there. For instance I recently scanned and submitted an IBM Australia memo my dad had from TJ Watson congratulating IBM employees for their part in Apollo 11's safe return: https://archive.org/details/@galasphere347 Steve
Re: 800 and 1600bpi 9 track test data
On 03/13/2018 08:33 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: > There are two gzip'ed files up now of analog digitized 9 track data under > http://bitsavers.org/projects/9track containing two files of 16 bit > incrementing > data patterns blocked 512 bytes/blk and the tach signal from a Qualstar 1260 > running > at 50 ips. > > The data can be viewed using Salea's Logic app in simulation mode if anyone > has burning > curiosity what a 1/2" tape block looks like. > > I made these as test data today for Len Shustek's 9 track readtape project > https://github.com/LenShustek/readtape If anyone's curious, the 800 NRZI one expands to 2.2GB. Al, did you see this patent by Kennedy: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3947876 --Chuck
Speaking of tapes and good ideas, but...
During my browsing, I've run across mention of the Emerson "Tape Pac" 2000 series, a half-inch cartridge tape system targeted at minicomputers, and it seems, the PDP-11. Here's a mention in IEEE Computer, about the new products at the 1976 NCC: https://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/1976/06/01647391.pdf (That was about the same time as "The Milpitas Monster") I can't find of photos of the thing. Has anyone run into one of these? --Chuck
a bit off topic - looking for someone w/7 track 1/2" analog
comp for 1 - 7/8 IPS like to get all tracks digitized https://photos.app.goo.gl/IMcgjxugzKMuIvKv2 will put on open file server then sell the tape -pete
Re: a bit off topic - looking for someone w/7 track 1/2" analog
On 03/13/2018 09:39 PM, Pete Lancashire via cctalk wrote: > comp for 1 - 7/8 IPS like to get all tracks digitized > > https://photos.app.goo.gl/IMcgjxugzKMuIvKv2 > > will put on open file server then sell the tape > So, someone with an old Ampex PR-500 deck? I saw one for sale on eBay a few years ago--heh. Richard Hess in Ontario has a bunch of old instrumentation gear and specializes in audio tape restoration. He certainly could do the job for you. --Chuck
