Re: Rack-mount or tabletop version of DEC RX50 floppy drive?

[Bob Smith via cctalk]

I don't recall for certain, what floppy models were done as externals
for the DecMate I or II, but I think there were both RX01 and RX50
boxes as described. I don't recall hard drives til the VT278 desktop
box.
bb
On Tue, Oct 2, 2018 at 8:32 PM Ethan Dicks via cctalk
 wrote:
>
> On Tue, Oct 2, 2018 at 6:50 PM Eric Smith via cctalk
>  wrote:
> > Did DEC offer a rack-mount or tabletop box version of the RX50 floppy
> > drive, as they did with e.g. the TU58 and TK50 tape drives?
>
> Yes.
>
> > I'm wondering
> > how they expected the RX50 drive to be packaged when used with a Unibus
> > PDP-11 via the RUX50 controller.
>
> We had an external RX50 on our 11/750 at work (so we could cut
> floppies for our MicroVAX customers right from our main machine).  The
> box was the typical external DEC 5.25" drive box of the day, also used
> for TK50 and RD5x drives - it could take a black sled, like the kind
> used with the BA23, and had a PSU inside next to the drive.  In the
> back was a transition board that was different depending on the drive
> type, but typically had between 1 and 3 DD50-P connectors.  We had a
> 10' DD50P cable that went from the back of the drive box to an I/O
> bulkhead plate on the 11/750, then an internal flat cable to the RUX50
> controller.
>
> I don't know the part number for the box, but with the cover off, they
> looked like this:
>
> https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/0816/09/dec-vax-pdp-rd-tk-drive-shelf_1_2c22716c08caa3df496022a1cd806fce.jpg
>
> (This one has the internal I/O board and cables for an RD5x drive.)
>
> I happen to have at least 3 of these boxes, all have dead PSUs.
> Nothing magical in them - 110/220 VAC inputs, and a single 4-pin Molex
> drive connector with +12V and +5V outputs at a enough amps to drive a
> TK50 or RD51.
>
> We usually positioned the RX50 on top of the 11/750 next to the
> console terminal so we could log in, fire off some DCL scripts and
> make some floppies.   The cable would have let it sit on a nearby
> table or in the next rack over, but not any further than that.
>
> -ethan

Re: Ethernet names...

[Noel Chiappa via cctalk]

> From: Eric Smith

> 3 Mbps was sometimes referred to as experimental Ethernet, but AFAIK
> the only official name was "Ethernet".
> The best way to refer to it is probably "3 Mbps Ethernet".

I was trying to remember what we called it at MIT (which had one), but my
memory was hazy, so I want back and looked at the sources for the packet
switch I wrote (which supported the first Ethernet, before the 10Mbit version
even came out), and I found (slightly to my suprise) that it was "3Mbit
Experimental Ethernet", or just plain "Exerimental Ethernet". (Of course, that
was just MIT - other sites may have had different terminology.) No doubt we
renamed it once the 10Mbit version showed up - I can probably search for early
versions of the code to confirm this, if anyone cares. Anyway, I'd vote for
the latter, short name.

> From: Bill Degnan

> See where wizards stay up lote by Katie Halner and matthew lyon.

Interesting! It looks (from the Notes) like this was gleaned from an interview
with Metcalfe, and she was _very_ careful (I helped her with the technical
details - you can find me in the Acks), so I'd tend to believe it.

My _guess_ is that was his early, 'in his head' name for the thing, and when
they set out to actually build it, it was re-named 'Ethernet' (as Al's memo
search seems to indicate).

Noel

RE: PDP-11 in russia?

[Jay West via cctalk]

We may have found someone at least on the right continent ;)

For those interested, he sent a pic (but haven't looked at it closely to see if 
the -11 is even in there):

http://www.ezwind.net/IMG_0223.JPG

J

-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Rod G8DGR via 
cctalk
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2018 12:27 PM
To: Holm Tiffe ; General Discussion: On-Topic and 
Off-Topic Posts 
Subject: RE: PDP-11 in russia?

There were plenty of real PDP-11’s that found their way to Russia.
Often through front companies in say Vienna.

Rod Smallwood 
Digital Equipment Corporation 1975 – 1985


Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Holm Tiffe via cctalk
Sent: 02 October 2018 18:01
To: Jay West; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: PDP-11 in russia?

Jay West via cctalk wrote:

> Someone has contacted me about a pdp-11 that controls a "measuring machine
> dea epsilon".
> 
>  
> 
> It appears that they want to replace the pdp-11 with a "ibm" (I'm guessing a
> pc), and then they would give the pdp-11 as a gift.
> 
>  
> 
> That is all the info I have. Are there any listmembers in Russia who would
> be able to take on a project?
> 
>  
> 
> J


This for sure isn't a PDP11, it would be an "ELEKTRONIKA 60" I think.
This is something like an 11/23 but with metric Connectors, PCBs are a
little bit bigger as PDP11's.

I do own such a beast, that's a picture from the CPU:

https://www.tiffe.de/Robotron/PDP-VAX/E60/E60-01.jpg

Other pictures are in the same directory (directory index is allowed).

..it's running RT11 from a 8" RX Floppy clone...

Regards,

Holm
-- 
  Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, 
 Freiberger Straße 42, 09600 Oberschöna, USt-Id: DE253710583
i...@tsht.de Fax +49 3731 74200 Tel +49 3731 74222 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

Re: Rack-mount or tabletop version of DEC RX50 floppy drive?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

>Did DEC offer a rack-mount or tabletop box version of the RX50 floppy
>drive, as they did with e.g. the TU58 and TK50 tape drives? I'm wondering
>how they expected the RX50 drive to be packaged when used with a Unibus
>PDP-11 via the RUX50 controller.

We had desktop RX50 and TK50 units for Micro 11/23 and 73s connected to an
RQDXE running off an RQDX3 controller. I still have a complete set that
work gave me when they retired them in the late 90s.

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk


On Wed, 3 Oct 2018 at 00:50, Eric Smith via cctalk 
wrote:

> Did DEC offer a rack-mount or tabletop box version of the RX50 floppy
> drive, as they did with e.g. the TU58 and TK50 tape drives? I'm wondering
> how they expected the RX50 drive to be packaged when used with a Unibus
> PDP-11 via the RUX50 controller.
>

Re: Rack-mount or tabletop version of DEC RX50 floppy drive?

[Eric Smith via cctalk]

Thanks to Josh, Ethan, Bob, and Adrian for confirming that there were rack
and table-top RX50 drives. It would be nice to get one since I have an
RUX50, but having never seen one before, I won't hold my breath.

It would also be nice to find the RUX50 manual and print set.

Re: PDP-11 in russia?

[Jeffrey H. Johnson via cctalk]

I'd recommend contacting one the guys at 
https://pdp-11.org.ru/support.pl?lang=en

Since Russia is twice the size of the USA, do we know where the machine is 
located? 

--
Jeffrey H. Johnson
j...@trnsz.com
https://ban.ai/multics

> On Oct 2, 2018, at 8:37 AM, Jay West via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> Someone has contacted me about a pdp-11 that controls a "measuring machine
> dea epsilon".
> 
> 
> 
> It appears that they want to replace the pdp-11 with a "ibm" (I'm guessing a
> pc), and then they would give the pdp-11 as a gift.
> 
> 
> 
> That is all the info I have. Are there any listmembers in Russia who would
> be able to take on a project?
> 
> 
> 
> J
> 

Looking for HP 1000 A990 backplane jumper board and memory frontplane

[Glen Slick via cctalk]

I have an HP 1000 A900 20-slot box with a working 4 card CPU set
(sequencer, data path, cache control, memory controller). I also have
a 12990-60102 A990 CPU card that would replace the 4 A900 CPU cards
and install in place of the A900 memory controller card.

What I don't have is the 12990-60020 jumper board that would install
in the A900 backplane instead of the A900 sequencer, data path, and
cache control cards, nor a 12230-60001, 12230-60002, 12230-60003, or
12230-60004 memory frontplane to connect the A990 CPU to one or more
memory array cards.

I'm not very hopeful, but is there any chance anyone on the list
happens to have a spare HP 1000 A990 12990-60020 jumper board, and/or
a 12230-60001, 12230-60002, 12230-60003, or 12230-60004 memory
frontplane that they would be willing to part with? Not expecting
these for free.

These might be parts that 360 Technologies had before they recently
closed up shop, although if they did they probably expected business
critical prices for them.

(For reference, the HP Museum site has a copy of the HP 1000 A990
Upgrade (HP 12990C) Installation and Service Manual, 12990-90011).

Re: Rack-mount or tabletop version of DEC RX50 floppy drive?

[Adrian Graham via cctalk]

> On 3 Oct 2018, at 18:30, Eric Smith via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> Thanks to Josh, Ethan, Bob, and Adrian for confirming that there were rack
> and table-top RX50 drives. It would be nice to get one since I have an
> RUX50, but having never seen one before, I won't hold my breath.
> 
> It would also be nice to find the RUX50 manual and print set.


Here’s a pic of my RX50 and TK50. I’ve not tried to power them up for years.

http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/DesktopRX50TK50.jpg 
 

-- 
adrian/witchy
Owner of Binary Dinosaurs, the UK's biggest home computer collection?
t: @binarydinosaursf: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs
w: www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

Re: Looking for HP 1000 A990 backplane jumper board and memory frontplane

[Robert via cctalk]

I remember you mentioning wanting one of those when I got my 1000 A900
kit, Glen.

I don't have a spare but I'd be willing to take some photos and
measurements of mine, if that might help somebody to make one.

-- 
Robert
On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 2:31 PM Glen Slick via cctalk
 wrote:
>
> I have an HP 1000 A900 20-slot box with a working 4 card CPU set
> (sequencer, data path, cache control, memory controller). I also have
> a 12990-60102 A990 CPU card that would replace the 4 A900 CPU cards
> and install in place of the A900 memory controller card.
>
> What I don't have is the 12990-60020 jumper board that would install
> in the A900 backplane instead of the A900 sequencer, data path, and
> cache control cards, nor a 12230-60001, 12230-60002, 12230-60003, or
> 12230-60004 memory frontplane to connect the A990 CPU to one or more
> memory array cards.
>
> I'm not very hopeful, but is there any chance anyone on the list
> happens to have a spare HP 1000 A990 12990-60020 jumper board, and/or
> a 12230-60001, 12230-60002, 12230-60003, or 12230-60004 memory
> frontplane that they would be willing to part with? Not expecting
> these for free.
>
> These might be parts that 360 Technologies had before they recently
> closed up shop, although if they did they probably expected business
> critical prices for them.
>
> (For reference, the HP Museum site has a copy of the HP 1000 A990
> Upgrade (HP 12990C) Installation and Service Manual, 12990-90011).

Re: Rack-mount or tabletop version of DEC RX50 floppy drive?

[Ethan Dicks via cctalk]

On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 12:32 PM Eric Smith via cctalk
 wrote:
> Thanks to Josh, Ethan, Bob, and Adrian for confirming that there were rack
> and table-top RX50 drives. It would be nice to get one since I have an
> RUX50, but having never seen one before, I won't hold my breath.
>
> It would also be nice to find the RUX50 manual and print set.

I have an RUX50 manual on the stack to be scanned.

-ethan

Re: Rack-mount or tabletop version of DEC RX50 floppy drive?

[Ethan Dicks via cctalk]

On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 2:38 PM Adrian Graham via cctalk
 wrote:
> Here’s a pic of my RX50 and TK50. I’ve not tried to power them up for years.
> http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/DesktopRX50TK50.jpg 
> 

That looks entirely familiar.

-ethan

Bluebox AVR boards available

[David Griffith via cctalk]

I've finished my work on designing and debugging a PCB to go with my 
AVR-based bluebox program.  Read about it and 
buy one at https://661.org/proj/bluebox/.


This project implements a bluebox in C on AVR microcontrollers.  This 
project is roughly a reimplementation of Don Froulas's PIC-based bluebox, 
which was written in PIC assembly.  The resulting compiled program is 
intended to be loaded into one of the following circuit boards. 
Currently the code implements a bluebox, silver box (DTMF dialer with 4th 
column), redbox, greenbox, and 2600hz pulse dialer. There are 12 memory 
locations of 41 keystrokes each.



--
David Griffith
d...@661.org

A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

Ethernet names...

[Mark Kahrs via cctalk]

I was there and it was always called "The Ethernet".  When the 10 Mb
standard came into being, it was then referred to as "The Experimental
Ethernet".  If you want to be *really* pedantic, you could refer to it as
the "2.94 MHz Ethernet" --- but that would be silly.

If you'd like to see how Aloha inspired Metcalfe, read this:

http://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/6/6.7-EthernetRobertMetcalfeXeroxPARC71-75.html

Re: Ethernet names...

[Gregory Beat via cctalk]

Grant -
Occasional vague references to “I”, when Ethernet II was used (as I remember).
I assumed the reference was for initial 3 Mbps work at PARC.

Gateway Communications started in Irvine, CA (1981?) offering G/Net (~double 
the 3 Mbps), I remember installing their demonstration system (1982 or 1983?)
By 1983, 3Com ThinNet (10-Base-2) released for IBM PCs.  University of Iowa 
graduate college installed one of their first LANs with an Altos sever (8086, 
10 MHz).

greg
==
From: Grant Taylor 
Subject: Ethernet names...

Does anybody know names / terms that correspond to the original 3 Mbps 
Ethernet?
I.e. 10 Mbps Ethernet is also knows as Ethernet II (2) and D.I.X. (for 
Digital, Intel, and Xerox).
Was the first 3 Mbps Ethernet simply called "Ethernet" with an implicit 
"I" (1)?  Was there a name to differentiate it from D.I.X.?

Grant. . . .
unix || die

Sent from iPad Air

RE: Ethernet names...

[Rich Alderson via cctalk]

From: Noel Chiappa
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2018 5:49 AM

>> From: Eric Smith

>> 3 Mbps was sometimes referred to as experimental Ethernet, but AFAIK
>> the only official name was "Ethernet".
>> The best way to refer to it is probably "3 Mbps Ethernet".

That's what almost we call it here at the museum.  We have a Xerox PDP-11 3Mbit
Ethernet interface board in the front end of a DEC 1095 running WAITS, and a
3Mbit<->10Mbit bridge device that allows the Altos to talk to WAITS.

> I was trying to remember what we called it at MIT (which had one), but my
> memory was hazy, so I want back and looked at the sources for the packet
> switch I wrote (which supported the first Ethernet, before the 10Mbit version
> even came out), and I found (slightly to my suprise) that it was "3Mbit
> Experimental Ethernet", or just plain "Exerimental Ethernet". (Of course, that
> was just MIT - other sites may have had different terminology.) No doubt we
> renamed it once the 10Mbit version showed up - I can probably search for early
> versions of the code to confirm this, if anyone cares. Anyway, I'd vote for
> the latter, short name.

At Stanford, we tended to call it the "PUP Ethernet" after 10Mbit came in.

>> From: Bill Degnan

>> See where wizards stay up lote by Katie Halner and matthew lyon.

> Interesting! It looks (from the Notes) like this was gleaned from an interview
> with Metcalfe, and she was _very_ careful (I helped her with the technical
> details - you can find me in the Acks), so I'd tend to believe it.

> My _guess_ is that was his early, 'in his head' name for the thing, and when
> they set out to actually build it, it was re-named 'Ethernet' (as Al's memo
> search seems to indicate).

Of course, the very first baseband cable network at PARC was 1 megabit/second;
It may be that that is what got an Aloha name.  But that's *my* guess.

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/