[cctalk] Re: Talking PDP11

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

You might try looking for Data Translation products. I know some of the later 
ad and da modules were made by them for DEC

On July 11, 2023 12:28:43 p.m. EDT, Douglas Taylor via cctalk 
 wrote:
>The DACs on the AAV11-C board are not marked in any revealing way.  I think 
>they are Burr Brown DAC80, 24 pin, but I'm not sure.  I wasn't sure if they 
>were working and was looking for a replacement.
>
>Looking at the spec sheets DAC's seem to come in Voltage or Current versions.  
>Life got more complicated.
>
>This started out as a simple exercise into verifying the AAV11-C operation 
>using PDP11GUI to program up a basic program to run all the codes thru the 
>DAC.  It worked, got a ramp out.  Now, I'm starting to look at the KWV11-C and 
>how to use that to send values to the DAC at a controllable rate.
>
>Doug
>
>--
>
>On 7/11/2023 11:41 AM, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
>> I originally used R-2R DACs but I was lucky enough to be able to buy a 
>> couple of DAC08 chips at Radio Shack and built a circuit using 74LS244 
>> latching buffers so that I could drive both channels of a single 8-bit 
>> parallel port and 2 extra control lines (Select and Strobe).
>> 
>> On 7/11/2023 6:43 AM, ste...@malikoff.com steven--- via cctalk wrote:
 On 07/10/2023 11:31 PM AEST Mike Katz via cctalk  
 wrote:
 Way back in the 80's I was able to do stereo 4 part harmony on a 2 MHZ
 6809 using two 8-bit D/A converters.
>>> Much the same here. I recounted this on VCFed a few months ago about 
>>> building a simple 2-chip 8-bit ladder DAC with one-transistor amplifier for 
>>> my Applied Technology DG680 S100 machine back in the early 80s from this 
>>> absolutely excellent BYTE article on how to do polyphonic synthesis on a 
>>> microcomputer (KIM-1):
>>> 
>>> https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1977-09/page/n63/mode/2up
>>> 
>>> A schoolfriend who had an Apple ][ and had not done any Z80 machine code 
>>> before asked for me to hand him my Zaks book, upon which he wrote out one 
>>> attempt in Z80, crossed it out and wrote a second version. Which worked 
>>> perfectly. For the music piece I got it to play four-voice polyphony after 
>>> painstakingly encoding Bach's Praeludium in C Major from my mothers' 
>>> collection of piano music scores.
>>> 
>>> A few years ago I had thoughts about porting the 6502 code to the PDP-11 
>>> and use the same sort of ladder DAC. Not sure if the slimline 11/05 would 
>>> be fast enough for anything too high frequency, but if it was, the slimline 
>>> 05's power supply could then temporarily come out and be perhaps be powered 
>>> off some beefy batteries in that space, along with a small 1970s transistor 
>>> amp and 1970s headphones topped off with a leather shoulder strap to lug it 
>>> around like a giant Walkman.
>> 
>

[cctalk] Re: Talking PDP11

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I wouldn't want to violate my NDA!

On July 11, 2023 12:42:57 p.m. EDT, Douglas Taylor via cctalk 
 wrote:
>Funny you mention that, I've got a Data Translation DT2766 and it is identical 
>to the AAV11-C.  I mean identical!  In the day DT must have sold them based on 
>2 selling points: (1) Cheaper than DEC and (2) Exact drop in replacement for 
>the DEC AAV11-C.
>
>Doug
>
>On 7/11/2023 12:33 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
>> You might try looking for Data Translation products. I know some of the 
>> later ad and da modules were made by them for DEC
>> 
>> On July 11, 2023 12:28:43 p.m. EDT, Douglas Taylor via cctalk 
>>  wrote:
>>> The DACs on the AAV11-C board are not marked in any revealing way.  I think 
>>> they are Burr Brown DAC80, 24 pin, but I'm not sure.  I wasn't sure if they 
>>> were working and was looking for a replacement.
>>> 
>>> Looking at the spec sheets DAC's seem to come in Voltage or Current 
>>> versions.  Life got more complicated.
>>> 
>>> This started out as a simple exercise into verifying the AAV11-C operation 
>>> using PDP11GUI to program up a basic program to run all the codes thru the 
>>> DAC.  It worked, got a ramp out.  Now, I'm starting to look at the KWV11-C 
>>> and how to use that to send values to the DAC at a controllable rate.
>>> 
>>> Doug
>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> On 7/11/2023 11:41 AM, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
>>>> I originally used R-2R DACs but I was lucky enough to be able to buy a 
>>>> couple of DAC08 chips at Radio Shack and built a circuit using 74LS244 
>>>> latching buffers so that I could drive both channels of a single 8-bit 
>>>> parallel port and 2 extra control lines (Select and Strobe).
>>>> 
>>>> On 7/11/2023 6:43 AM, ste...@malikoff.com steven--- via cctalk wrote:
>>>>>> On 07/10/2023 11:31 PM AEST Mike Katz via cctalk  
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Way back in the 80's I was able to do stereo 4 part harmony on a 2 MHZ
>>>>>> 6809 using two 8-bit D/A converters.
>>>>> Much the same here. I recounted this on VCFed a few months ago about 
>>>>> building a simple 2-chip 8-bit ladder DAC with one-transistor amplifier 
>>>>> for my Applied Technology DG680 S100 machine back in the early 80s from 
>>>>> this absolutely excellent BYTE article on how to do polyphonic synthesis 
>>>>> on a microcomputer (KIM-1):
>>>>> 
>>>>> https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1977-09/page/n63/mode/2up
>>>>> 
>>>>> A schoolfriend who had an Apple ][ and had not done any Z80 machine code 
>>>>> before asked for me to hand him my Zaks book, upon which he wrote out one 
>>>>> attempt in Z80, crossed it out and wrote a second version. Which worked 
>>>>> perfectly. For the music piece I got it to play four-voice polyphony 
>>>>> after painstakingly encoding Bach's Praeludium in C Major from my 
>>>>> mothers' collection of piano music scores.
>>>>> 
>>>>> A few years ago I had thoughts about porting the 6502 code to the PDP-11 
>>>>> and use the same sort of ladder DAC. Not sure if the slimline 11/05 would 
>>>>> be fast enough for anything too high frequency, but if it was, the 
>>>>> slimline 05's power supply could then temporarily come out and be perhaps 
>>>>> be powered off some beefy batteries in that space, along with a small 
>>>>> 1970s transistor amp and 1970s headphones topped off with a leather 
>>>>> shoulder strap to lug it around like a giant Walkman.
>
>

[cctalk] Re: Connecting MFM emulator as both 1st and 2nd drive in Microvax 2000?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

>From memory, when I looked into doing this I found that the RQDX3 BA23 
>distribution panel maps DS2 from the contriller to all DS pins on  the B cable 
>of one drive and DS3 to all DS lines on the other. I never did test the theory 
>though. I did not get a special adapter from decromancer.
Hope it helps
Nigel


On August 12, 2023 6:35:35 p.m. EDT, Peter Coghlan via cctalk 
 wrote:
>>
>> I have a Gesswein MFM emulator from decromancer.ca; who offer an adaptor
>> that yields a 2nd MFM data connector.
>> I'll use mine in a Microvax 2000.  Does anyone know how to hook it up as
>> two  MFM drives in a Microvax 2000?
>> 
>> The vendor sold a 1in high adaptor box, BA40A, with DD50 connectors to a
>> second cabinet (same as CPU box) for a second drive.
>> DEC configured both primary and secondary drives identically (drive 3, IIRC).
>> The Microvax 2000 Technical Manual gives the pinout from the mother board
>> to the MFM/floppy daughterboard, but I can't find the pinout from that
>> daughterboard to the cables anywhere.
>>
>> I've been looking for a BA40A, for some years now,  to trace the pin layout
>> for a 2nd drive.   Does anyone know it? 
>> Has anyone successfully configured a single MFM emulator  as two MFM drives
>> in a Microvax 2000?  Or to an RQDX3?
>>
>
>I've had two real MFM drives running with one of my VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000
>machines but it is a long time since I've looked at this stuff so I'm not
>certain of the details.
>
>I didn't use any adapter box or cables with DD connectors.  I only had the
>original DEC ribbon cable that connects from the VAX motherboard to one MFM
>drive and one RX33 floppy drive.  I used this as a guide to make up a new
>longer cable with an extra 34 pin edge connector in parallel with the first
>MFM drive control connector.  I ran this cable out through the hole in the
>bottom of the case where the cable to the adapter box was intended to run
>so that the added connector could be placed on an external MFM drive.
>I also connected a straight through 20 pin IDC to edge connector ribbon cable
>salvaged from a PC from the vacant 20 pin IDC connector on the VAX motherboard
>to the data connector on the second MFM drive, running it out through the
>same hole in the VAX case.
>
>IIRC I had to jumper the second MFM drive as drive 4.  Presumably I should
>have made a twist in the cable to allow the second MFM drive to be configured
>as drive 3, the same as the first drive.
>
>I think the first MFM drive showed up as DUA0, the second one as DUA1 and the
>floppy as DUA2.
>
>I recall an incident when I tried to connect one particular second MFM drive
>externally and the VAX refused to power up.  It seemed the overcurrent trip
>was operating in the power supply and the extra drive appeared to be the
>cause of this.  I'm a bit hazy on exactly what I did to try to get around
>this issue, I suspect I tried powering up the VAX with the drive disconnected
>and connecting it after power up.  Anyway, the upshot was that one or two of
>the conductors in the 20 pin data cable got extremely hot and the insulation
>on them started to smoke before I quickly switched off.  I'm not sure but I
>think the reason was that the particular drive placed an unfused +5V on some
>pins on the data connector and the corresponding pins were grounded at the
>VAX end.  Or it could be the other way around...  Luckily there was no damage
>to anything other than the cable.
>
>Regards,
>Peter Coghlan.

[cctalk] Re: WWVB

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I have two watches that sync to WWVB and they always agree with CHU on HF and a 
ham rig that syncs to GNSS. So I think it is bang on or there is a government 
conspiracy to make us late for work  🤔


On January 14, 2024 2:49:19 p.m. EST, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk 
 wrote:
>
>This is kind computer related but maybe more ham radio related
>but I figure if anywhere, here is the place to find an answer.
>
>I have a SkyScan ATOMIC CLOCK.
>It is supposed to get its time from WWVB.
>The antenna icon that is supposed to mean it is receiving
>WWVB is on.
>
>Your probably wondering why I keep saying "supposed to".
>The clock is always wrong.  Slow by about 2 minutes.
>
>Is there a known problem with WWVB?
>
>bill

[cctalk] Re: Drum memory on pdp11's? Wikipedia thinks so....

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

And on the humble Univac 418 we had the FH330.  I have a picture of them 
somewhere

On April 15, 2024 1:47:01 p.m. EDT, Van Snyder via cctalk 
 wrote:
>On Mon, 2024-04-15 at 09:25 -0400, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
>> Are drums usually word addressable?  That doesn't seem necessary, not unless 
>> you use them as main memory.
>
>Univac FH432, FH880, and FH1782 were word-addressable "flying head"
>drums, usually used for swap, on 1100-series and maybe 1219 as well.
>
>

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 58, Issue 6

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Anybody have any docs on the DEC LSI 11/93 (KDJ11-E)?

I have a suspect one and am looking for schematics, configuration data 
etc. I am trying to run it in a BA23 backplane and seemingly geting bus 
hangs as is there is something that it is looking for that is not there!


cheers,

Nigel


On 06/07/2019 13:00, cctalk-requ...@classiccmp.org wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. Re: gunkies.org is down or?... (Noel Chiappa)
2. Re: gunkies.org is down or?... (ben)
3. Email delivery protocols / methods. (Grant Taylor)
4. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Dennis Boone)
5. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Diane Bruce)
6. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Diane Bruce)
7. Question about Apple /// (Adam Thornton)
8. Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (Evan Koblentz)
9. Re: Question about Apple /// (Jecel Assumpcao Jr.)
   10. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Dennis Boone)
   11. RE: Email delivery protocols / methods.
   (newsgro...@micromuseum.co.uk)
   12. RE: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Dave Wade)
   13. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Bill Gunshannon)
   14. Re: Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (John Herron)
   15. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Peter Coghlan)
   16. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Peter Corlett)
   17. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Jason T)
   18. Re: Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (ED SHARPE)
   19. Re: Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (ED SHARPE)
   20. Re: Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (Evan Koblentz)
   21. Re: Question about Apple /// (Jim Manley)
   22. Re: Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (Evan Koblentz)
   23. Re: Question about Apple /// (ED SHARPE)
   24. Re: Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (Evan Koblentz)
   25. Re: Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West (Guy Dunphy)
   26. Re: Question about Apple /// (Bill Degnan)
   27. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (Noel Chiappa)
   28. Re: Wtd: advice upcoming visit to Bletchley Park / comp
   museum (Mattis Lind)
   29. Re: Question about Apple /// (ED SHARPE)
   30. Re: Wtd: advice upcoming visit to Bletchley Park / comp
   museum (Peter Corlett)
   31. Wtd: advice upcoming visit to Bletchley Park / comp museum
   (Bill Degnan)
   32. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (David Bridgham)
   33. Re: Email delivery protocols / methods. (David Bridgham)
   34. QSIC, was: Re: Email delivery protocols / methods.
   (emanuel stiebler)


--

Message: 1
Date: Fri,  5 Jul 2019 13:33:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu (Noel Chiappa)
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Cc: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Re: gunkies.org is down or?...
Message-ID: <20190705173338.c9acb18c...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu>

 > From: Tomasz Rola

 > Is it really down?

I suppose this is actually good news, in a way - someone must have been
trying to use it, to notice that it was down! :-)

So let me take this opportunity to appeal once again for people to contribute
content; I've added a lot of PDP-11 stuff, and Lars and I sporadically add
PDP-10 stuff (not that very many actually have a hardware -10 :-), but
_everything else_ could use more content. So if you have a particular focus -
please consider contributing your knowledge in that area!

Noel


--

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2019 11:46:30 -0600
From: ben 
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: gunkies.org is down or?...
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

On 7/5/2019 11:33 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:

  > From: Tomasz Rola

  > Is it really down?

I suppose this is actually good news, in a way - someone must have been
trying to use it, to notice that it was down! :-)

So let me take this opportunity to appeal once again for people to contribute
content; I've added a lot of PDP-11 stuff, and Lars and I sporadically add
PDP-10 stuff (not that very many actually have a hardware -10 :-), but
_everything else_ could use more content. So if you have a particular focus -
please consider contributing your knowledge in that area!

Noel

It looks up from here. Wow all those banks of EVIL computers behind that
man in the photo. Ben.



--

Message: 3
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2019 15:05:32 -0600
From: Grant Taylor 
To: cctalk 
Subject: Email delivery protocols / methods.
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/pla

Re: KDJ11-E issue/info

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Thanks for the reply, Noel,


On 07/07/2019 10:31, Noel Chiappa wrote:

 > From: Nigel Johnson
 > Anybody have any docs on the DEC LSI 11/93 (KDJ11-E)?

Info on the -E is thin on the ground. The User's Manual (EK-KDJ1E-UG-001)
is available online, though, which is a start - it gives info on how to
configure it, etc.

Yes, I have that manual. Thanks.

 > I am trying to run it in a BA23 backplane and seemingly geting bus
 > hangs as is there is something that it is looking for that is not
 > there!

QBUS 11's are pretty resistant to hangs, unless you have an interrupted
grant chain. A simple missing device should give a NXM fault.


Yes, I have checked the grant chain. No problems there.  I started out 
with just the processor anyway.  It seems that the firmware is trying to 
access something from the system it came from, which isn't there.  I 
have tried all boot device settings, as well as direct into dialogue 
mode, and it always clears the screen and homes cursor, but never gets 
past that point.  The run light comes out whenever it gets to the 
dialogue mode whether I go throug hthe diagnostics or not.  It passes 
all the diagnostics.


I am connecting a terminal (Tried all types that Pathworks Powerterm 525 
will emulate, as well as putty,minicom, and kermit) via a made-up cable, 
looping all te other ports.  I am suspicious that the console cab kit 
(which I don't have) needs +5 and +12 so I am wondering if the firmware 
is waiting for some kind of handshake.  I wonder if anybody else out 
there can advise.




I"d try getting the whole system working with another CPU, and then plug in
the -E; reduce the number of unknown variables. Although with memory and
console line on-board on the -E, it shouldn't need too much else for at least
basic functioning.


It would be a great idea if I had one. Somehow I went on a mad frenzy to 
clear out extra stock from my storage area years ago and got rid of the 
last one, thinking that there was one still inside the backplane!


cheers,

NIgel





Noel


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: WordPerfect 5.1+ for VMS

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I have never like the Wordperfect people. They killed my friend's 
business. He had  vaxes that he rented time on, also charged a huge 
amount of money per seat week for WPS training.


The boys from Utah released Wordperrect for the VAX and put him out of 
business!


(OK the PCs helped too , but the training was his last source of income)

cheers,m

Nigel



On 18/07/2019 14:38, Mark J. Blair via cctalk wrote:



On Jul 17, 2019, at 10:43 PM, Dave Wade via cctalk  
wrote:
I think even if you have the key it fails today. There was a thread recently on 
comp.os.vms

Saying it expires after  days and theirs had just expired...

Oh, now that's just obnoxious. Requiring a license refresh every 27 years? It's 
ransomware, I say!


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: dBase IV for VAX/VMS (was WordPerfect 5.1+ for VMS)

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I never could figure out why would anybody need dbase IV when RMS was 
built into the VAX file system?


I once did a media conversion from Vax to PC where the programmers said 
the uVax II was as slow as molasses, then I found that they had the data 
stored as a flat ASCII file !




On 20/07/2019 16:15, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote:



-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Antonio Carlini
via cctalk
Sent: 20 July 2019 18:20
To: Bill Gunshannon via cctalk 
Subject: Re: dBase IV for VAX/VMS (was WordPerfect 5.1+ for VMS)

On 20/07/2019 00:15, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:

On 7/19/19 4:04 PM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

On Jul 18, 2019, at 8:58 PM, Eric Dittman via cctalk

 wrote:

On 7/18/2019 12:26 AM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

On a related note, was there ever a copy of dBase III or dBase IV for

VAX/VMS?  I know there was a version of Lotus 1-2-3.

I don't know about the earlier versions but I have a copy of dBase
IV for VAX/VMS that's still in the shrink-wrap.
--
Eric Dittman

Interesting, so my vague memory was correct.  That means they had

WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and dBase IV available.  Was there All-IN-1
integration?  I think both WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 offered that.

There seems to be almost no info online on it.


I just looked and none of the three were included in the VAX Software
Source Book.


Lotus 1-2-3 had AL-IN-1 integration (at least that's what the announcement
of it's retirement suggests. It sounds like Lotus developed and sold it and
Digital just advertised it. The retirement happened in 1995.

Back in 1991, all three were available on the VAXstation 4000 VLC:


"VAXstation 4000 VLC

The VAXstation 4000 VLC workstation is the first workstation in the industry
to break the $3,500 price barrier.  Offering 6.2 SPECmarks (6 VUPs) of
processing power, this system is twice as powerful as the previous entry-
level VAXstation 3100 Model 30 system. This low price and DEC SoftPC V3.0
software (Digital's PC emulator) or native applications, such as Lotus 1-2-3,
dBASE IV, or WordPerfect, make the VAXstation 4000 VLC system a desirable
alternative to PCs in the VMS environment. For more information regarding
DEC SoftPC software, see the related article in this issue of Digital's Customer
Update."


I don't see a price anywhere so I can't tell how "low" it really was :-)


Antonio

Well given what you say above I would guess $3,499!

Does any one know if its possible to buy traded 123 , WP, DBASE or SoftPC for 
the VLC?
It would be real fun to see how slow they were on the VLC although it does seem 
to run the software I have installed very smoothly

Dave




--
Antonio Carlini
anto...@acarlini.com


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: dBase IV for VAX/VMS (was WordPerfect 5.1+ for VMS)

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Wordperfect is still available for the PC at least:

https://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/office-suite/?_ga=2.94896540.164217.1563661496-220557285.1563661496&_gac=1.10602368.1563661496.EAIaIQobChMIrcuv_MTE4wIVRL7ACh0YpQXAEAAYAiAAEgLrn_D_BwE

cheers,

Nigel


On 20/07/2019 18:23, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

On Jul 20, 2019, at 10:20 AM, Antonio Carlini via cctalk 
 wrote:

Lotus 1-2-3 had AL-IN-1 integration (at least that's what the announcement of 
it's retirement suggests. It sounds like Lotus developed and sold it and 
Digital just advertised it. The retirement happened in 1995.

It definitely had ALL-IN-1 integration.  The rest of that sounds right, I think 
it was released around 1990.  Does anyone remember when IBM bought Lotus?  That 
likely had something to do with the retirement, I know that by ’95 IBM had 
owned them for a while.  It also had Rdb integration.


Back in 1991, all three were available on the VAXstation 4000 VLC:


"VAXstation 4000 VLC

The VAXstation 4000 VLC workstation is the first workstation in the industry
to break the $3,500 price barrier.  Offering 6.2 SPECmarks (6 VUPs) of
processing power, this system is twice as powerful as the previous entry-
level VAXstation 3100 Model 30 system. This low price and DEC SoftPC V3.0
software (Digital's PC emulator) or native applications, such as Lotus
1-2-3, dBASE IV, or WordPerfect, make the VAXstation 4000 VLC system a
desirable alternative to PCs in the VMS environment. For more information
regarding DEC SoftPC software, see the related article in this issue of
Digital's Customer Update."


I don't see a price anywhere so I can't tell how "low" it really was :-)

That would explain why the VLC I have, had both Wordperfect and Lotus 1-2-3.  
Both reminded me of the DOS versions.  Unfortunately I have no idea on what the 
original prices were.  It would definitely be interesting to know.  I need to 
get organized.  I’m honestly not sure where a lot of the DEC documentation I 
still have is.

SoftPC sounds like it would be interesting to play with.

I’m not sure when WordPerfect ceased to be available.  I’m pretty sure you 
could still buy 7.1 in 2000, as I considered finding out what it would cost at 
that time.

Here is some info on pricing of Lotus 1-2-3…

https://www.cbronline.com/news/lotus_launches_vms_1_2_3_/

"Prices for 1-2-3 for VAX/VMS range from $800 for single-user VAXstation 3100 
systems to $67,473 for VAX 9000 systems; 1-2-3 for All-In-1 prices range from $1,197 
to $94,462 on the same machines.”

Also pricing info for WordPerfect v4.2:
https://www.cbronline.com/news/wordperfect_to_give_wordperfect_42_its_european_debut/

"Wordperfect 4.2 for DEC VAX/VMS its European debut: the pack – UKP850 on a 
VAXstation to UKP23,570 for the VAX 8978"

It looks like dBase IV must have been released for VAX/VMS between July of 1990 
and 1991, since it looks like Borland acquired them in July of ’91, and 
announced continued support for VAX/VMS.

For those that don’t remember that time period, Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect for 
DOS both cost several hundred dollars.

Zane




 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

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Re: UNIVAC IBM AND APOLLO - -History --Background

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

800 bpi, bloody luxury.

I was an FE on a Univac 418 installation, the Uniservo VI C drives that 
we used had three choices, 200, 556, and 800.   We had to extract 
billing data daily to send to head office, I think they had an IBM 360 
that read them, and we had to check alignment every month against an IBM 
standard tape.  We frequently used visi-mag to check it visually in the 
maintenance room over coffee.


Fun days!

cheers,

Nigel Johnson


On 21/07/2019 19:10, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

On 7/21/19 11:41 AM, ED SHARPE via cctalk wrote:

Great 
info!https://www.zdnet.com/article/to-the-moon-ibm-and-univac-appollo-11s-integrators/?ftag=TREc64629f&bhid=46856739

Since I'm just winding up (I hope!) archiving a batch of tapes from JPL
from the 60s and 70s, I might toss in a word or two.

The bulk of tapes that I see from between 1968-81 are 7-track 800 bpi
odd-parity, often with the notation "Univac 1108" or "Univac 1100".
After about mid 1981, the tapes tend to be 9 track 1600 PE ones, even if
from Univac 1100 36-bit gear.  Text is all Fieldata.

The Lunar orbiter (1966-67) selenodesy tapes that I processed originated
on IBM 7094 gear, so probably 729-IV drives.

There are exceptions.  The tape from the Galilean moon radar experiments
conducted from Arecibo (ca. 1975-76) is a short-record (ca. 128
characters) 200 bpi 7 track even-parity tape in IBM BCD (think 1401).
Labels on some unprocessed tapes hint at data from other Jovian satellites.

There are also several card-image tapes (even parity) that I haven't
examined.

There are others--I've only described the tapes that tickled my fancy
and got my attention.  Doubtless there are some real gems buried in the
unexamined tapes.  Sadly, most of the tape labels limit themselves to
the owner/programmer, tape number and date, so you get what you get.

Please don't ask for the data--that belongs to JPL and I'm not at
liberty to release that, nor the physical tapes.

What's surprising is how well these crusty old beggars read.  JPL used
the cr*p out of their tapes, with some tapes having the first 600'
removed (tapes wear from BOT, so re-certifying involved discarding a
sufficient amount of tape from the front of the reel and applying a new
BOT marker.

Keeps me off the streets, it does.

FWIW,
Chuck


 


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Nigel Johnson
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VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: eBay: PDP-8/A KL8A serial line card

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Well, I sold a DL11 once for $900 CDN. But that was back when they were 
still used commercially!


It's a bit much to expect peopl eto pay that now

On 07/08/2019 13:45, Paul Anderson via cctalk wrote:

$325??

On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 10:30 AM Noel Chiappa via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


This item:

   https://www.ebay.com/itm/133136230586

is poorly titled, so people's searches might not find it; the M8319 is a
KL8A
4 channel EIA RS232 or 20mA current loop serial hex I/O card for the
PDP-8/A.

 Noel

 


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Nigel Johnson
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VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Pertec Interface Cable Length

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

It's funny how licensing bodies do not recognise computer engineers. I 
am a member if the IEEE, but since I first wrote to the local body in 
1974 they have never recognised computer engineering as a discipline.  
After twenty years of chip-level troubleshooting on DEC machines I spent 
twenty twenty-five years teaching college before retiring to my 
soon-to-be-restored collection of old kit.


I ran into the then President of the provincial licensing association at 
an alumni event a few years ago and he laughed, saying they are still 
working on it!


Meanwhile, computers run everything...

cheers,

Nigel Johnson


On 11/08/2019 11:34, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:

On 08/10/2019 01:29 PM, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote:



-Original Message-
From: cctech  On Behalf Of Mark J. Blair
What term is used there for an engineer
who works in fields of general electronics?


An electronics engineer...
This war was settled in 1963 when the American Institute of Electrical 
Engineers merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers, realizing 
their battle was just silly and counterproductive.


It was time, as serious electronics was moving into telecommunications 
and computers, numerically controlled machine tools, aviation, and 
more.  If they had a separate institute for each area of 
specialization, it would just dilute the  resources. Every one of them 
used Ohms law and its derivatives.


Jon


 


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Nigel Johnson
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VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

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Re: DEC VT20 boot device

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I worked on a lot of Xerox 820s, apparently that did the same job!

On 11/08/2019 19:45, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote:

On Sun, Aug 11, 2019 at 1:18 AM Bob Smith via cctalk 
wrote:


The VT20 design team was, iirc, John Kirk for the video, and me for
the Unibus interface in the first version. The one with the slick
one shown here,
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/terminal/vt20/vt20_2.jpg


That looks pretty nice, since externally it just looks like a VT05 with
extra buttons.

The vt20/b (photos in same directory), on the other hand, is one of the
ugliest terminals I've ever seen.


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Pertec Interface Cable Length

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Another consideration with the TC02 is the small buffer. I don't know 
what tape speed your drive runs at, but we lost a lot of sales to Dilog 
because of buffer overflow on some of the faster CDC dirves.  When we 
came out with the TC03, it had a larger buffer to handle this.


cheers,

Nigel Johnson


On 12/08/2019 11:13, Jon Elson via cctech wrote:

On 08/11/2019 08:00 PM, Douglas Taylor via cctech wrote:



This is where the electrical engineer could help.  How do you 
determine how long a cable the 74LS240 can drive?


Well, there are several considerations.  First, it takes some current 
to charge up the cable capacitance.  More current charges the 
capacitance faster, but also creates faster edges which cause more 
crosstalk.  Then, the data rate needs to be considered.  Mag tape data 
rates are not that high.  So, for 1600 BPI at 45 IPS, the data rate is 
72 K bytes/second, or about 14 us per byte.


Twisted-pair cable should have a little less capacitance, and it is 
supposed to reduce crosstalk, so should work better.


The most serious problem is when many data lines switch at the same 
time, it may contaminate the clock pulses and cause bytes to be 
dropped or added.


With the low data rates involved, proper delays to allow ringing to 
settle on the data lines and prevent short crosstalk pulses from 
affecting the clocks should make the system very tolerant of cable 
issues.  But, maybe some engineers didn't really optimize their logic 
for these problems.


Jon


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: XXDP on PDP-11/03

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

That sounds like it is trapping due to an LTC interrupt. Turn off the LTC

cheers,

Nigel

On 13/08/2019 21:05, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
Recently, I assembled one of the RX02 emulator boards developed by 
AK6DN.  I am using it presently in a BA11-M box with PDP-11/2 cpu 
(really basic 16 bit system).  I put the disk images from github on 
the SD card (RT11 V5.07 and XXDP not sure what version).


The box has a BDV11 bootstrap / terminator board and I use this to 
boot the RX02 emulator.  Works fine when I boot RT11, however I can't 
boot XXDP - it halts at 000104.


Do I need to use a different version of XXDP to run on the PDP-11/03?

Doug

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Pinout for current loop interface

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

You haven't lived until you have played with live long-line teletype 
current loop circuits. In my first job as an FE on a Univac that was a 
store and forward message switcher, we had racks of mercury relays 
feeding the teletype lines, which ran at 130VDC to give the current 
needed to get to the next hop! Working in that rack could result in some 
very sudden surpsies!


cheers,

Nigel



On 17/08/2019 14:50, Charles via cctalk wrote:
In my prior life as an EE, I had to do it many times (early 80's)... I 
may be nostalgic, but not THAT nostalgic :)



-Original Message- From: Chris Hanson
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2019 1:37 PM
To: Charles ; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Pinout for current loop interface

On Aug 17, 2019, at 9:14 AM, Charles via cctalk 
 wrote:


I just hate having to make a custom cable for every terminal and 
computer I

own or work with ;)


Ah, but isn’t doing what so many before you have had to part of the 
charm? :)


 -- Chris

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Test message

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I have to say I am receiving you 5 by 9 in Toronto :-)

(OK I will go away now and get my tin hat )

cheers,

NIgel


On 13/09/2019 19:01, ben via cctalk wrote:

On 9/13/2019 3:00 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:



On 9/13/19 1:44 PM, Senile Old Man via cctalk wrote:


Uninstall and reinstall the OS.


Nice to see this list continues to circle the bowl.


Bare metal machines don't need a OS. Just liner notes
on the drum in felt pen. Bad sector. Core dump from last month.
Boot from here on tuesdays.Reads backwards to emulate tape.
Oil here. WD40 there. Grease Now.






 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: phone systems, old and less-old

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Alleluia! A kindred soul!  I have spent the latter half of my life 
trying to tell people that the Centronics Data Computer Co of Hudson NJ 
NEVER used a 50-pin connector!  The Amp 57-10360 would have been a 
57-10500 if they had :-)


cheers,

Nigel


On 18/09/2019 21:27, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

On Wed, 18 Sep 2019, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
Oh, my Gosh!  the first 3 pics are of a KTU phone system.  If you are 
OLD enough, remember the phones with 5 line select buttons and a red 
hold button below the rotary dial?  That is what that unit supports, 
the 565 phone.


Please don't let anybody call the 25 pair 50-pin miniature ribbon 
connector (RJ21),  "Centronics"!


 


--
Nigel Johnson
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VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: DIBOL manual

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

If anybody still has a COS-3xx DIBOL system, I have two keys for the 
back doors :-) DF8 and DF32


cheers,

Nigel Johnson


On 13/10/2019 16:29, Jason T via cctalk wrote:

On Sun, Oct 13, 2019 at 1:47 PM Chuck Guzis via cctalk
 wrote:

There's a DIBOL self-instruction book on bitsavers:

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/dibol/DEC-08-WDRA-D_DIBOL_Programming_A_Self-Instruction_Manual_Sep1970.pdf

A few years ago I scanned a bunch of application manuals from a
company called MCBA.  Most of the apps are written in (or for) DEC
DIBOL:

http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/index.php?dir=%2Fcomputing%2FMCBA

Somewhere I've got piles of 9-tracks tapes that most likely contain
the software.  Maybe they'll be recovered some time before my
infirmity.

j


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Restoring dull BOT markers?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I have a very old roll of this that I used to put on to 9 track mag tape 
in the DEC world:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/SCOTCH-65-7-32-X-100-NOS-ALUMINUM-FOIL-SPLICING-SENSING-TAPE-4-OPEN-REEL-DECKS-/192282792454

It is not the adhesive that fails, it is the metallised tape itself - I 
just tried peeling some off and it just fell apart :-)


cheers,

Nigel

On 14/10/2019 15:46, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

On 10/14/19 12:26 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:


On 10/14/19 9:32 AM, Daniel Seagraves via cctalk wrote:

What’s the best way to restore a dull BOT marker

replace it

there were rolls of brady BOT tape on ebay but I don't see them now

There are still people selling sensing foil tape for audio applications.
  That might work well.  Search for "sensing foil tape" on eBay.

--Chuck


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Yahoo Groups going away

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Yes, other groups i belong to that moved have previously said that 
groups.io has a method of pulling groups over. Pull rather than push 
seems to be the way to go. Best to attack it from the groups.io end 
after setting up the new group there.



On 17/10/2019 21:12, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

On Oct 17, 2019, at 3:32 PM, Cameron Kaiser via cctalk  
wrote:


So if you subscribe to any Yahoo groups, or value any of that content, be
sure to archive it before your friendly telco sends ALL of it to the bit
bucket.

Yeah, it sucks. The Tomy Tutor users group has been there for years, and I
guess we'll jump over to groups.io. I managed to archive everything last
night.

The 3D photography group I’m on just moved to groups.io this afternoon.  When I 
went and looked just now, it looks like all the files moved as well.  Other 
groups I’m on had already moved.

Zane


 


--
Nigel Johnson
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VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


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If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Anyone familiar with these vintage touchscreens?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Judging by the year, it was probably a teletext terminal. There were 
various field trials of such systems around that era.  We had one in 
Toronto's Eaton Centre - it was based on NAPLPS, and used a PDP11/23.  
There was a lot of Canadian Government money put into research to 
promote he Canadian vector-based protocol, claimed to be more efficient 
than the European alpha-mosaic ones.  Ours ran at 1200/150(?) baud.


Research was done at a Bell Canada site on Carlingview Avenue in Ottawa 
under some sort of sub-contract.   They used Able DMAXes on an 11/70 
which had a pot to adjust the 150 baud clock.  They actually flew me up 
from Toronto, with a scope, to adjust that pot, since everybody there 
was hands-off this external stuff.


It may have had a future if HTTP and the internet were not just around 
the corner:-)


One of the big players in Canada was Infomart, where I installed a bunch 
of kit on PDP11s, just around the corner from where I now live in Toronto.


cheers,

Nigel


On 19/10/2019 14:02, Jonathan Katz via cctalk wrote:

Hi!

I saw this crop up on twitter and now I’m curious. Anyone familiar with
these? Any idea what the backend was?

https://twitter.com/newsfedora/status/1154813199054712833?s=21



--
Nigel Johnson
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VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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   Nigel Johnson 

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Re: Anyone familiar with these vintage touchscreens?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Are you sure it wasn't the massive over-funding by government that 
killed it?


On 19/10/2019 14:35, ben via cctalk wrote:

On 10/19/2019 12:23 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
Judging by the year, it was probably a teletext terminal. There were 
various field trials of such systems around that era.  We had one in 
Toronto's Eaton Centre - it was based on NAPLPS, and used a PDP11/23. 
There was a lot of Canadian Government money put into research to 
promote he Canadian vector-based protocol, claimed to be more 
efficient than the European alpha-mosaic ones.  Ours ran at 
1200/150(?) baud.


Research was done at a Bell Canada site on Carlingview Avenue in 
Ottawa under some sort of sub-contract.   They used Able DMAXes on an 
11/70 which had a pot to adjust the 150 baud clock.  They actually 
flew me up from Toronto, with a scope, to adjust that pot, since 
everybody there was hands-off this external stuff.


It may have had a future if HTTP and the internet were not just 
around the corner:-)


Well I think Hook up up to your TV and slower than  hell cheap decoders
killed the NAPLPS rather than the internet is comming.
Ben.

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: plated wire memory

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I remember an IBM engineer talking about this at our ham radio club. The 
wire was coiled inside a drum and pulses were sent down the wire.  The 
'read head' was  a magnetic pickup at the other end of the coil - and 
access time was however long it took the pulse to arrive at the other 
end.  Therefore storage capacity was inversely proportional to data 
quantity, however at that time I was working with 660kB Univac FH330 
drums for swapping and the 2-ton Fastrand for 164kB of long-term 
storage, so it has to be taken in context!


Although the read was actually non-destructive, the pulse had to be 
regenerated to go around agaiun.


Is that maybe what you are thinking of?

cheers,

Nigel


On 20/10/2019 10:35, dwight via cctalk wrote:

I was just listening to a video on the Voyager space craft. It used an 
interesting type of memory, called magnetic wire memory. There is only a little 
bit of information of it on the web. It is clever in that has a non-destructive 
read. I just wondered if any one else was familiar with this type of memory.
Dwight


 


--
Nigel Johnson
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VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


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If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Anyone familiar with these vintage touchscreens?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

It was called teletext despite the implications, at least here in 
Canada.  People just couldn't get their tongue around NAPLPS!


It looks just like the teletext systems I worked on, maybe ours was 
better than yours?


cheers,

Nigel


On 20/10/2019 06:43, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote:

On Sat, Oct 19, 2019 at 02:23:46PM -0400, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:

Judging by the year, it was probably a teletext terminal. [...]

It's not Teletext, unless that word means something different on the other side
of the Pond. Teletext was basically a text system (the hint's in the name) with
graphics (and indeed colour) being a weird hack that gave it a particular
appearance, especially in typical implementations which used the SAA5050
character generator chip.

The palette and colour fringing suggest Apple II to me.

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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Re: Anyone familiar with these vintage touchscreens?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

You are probably right about the 6809, the stuff I worked on was all in 
the development stages for the project, and at the server end.  I did 
field engineering for Transduction, and we supplied equipment to Norpak, 
although I can't for the life of me remember what!  I remember going to 
visit their headquarters in Pakenham and was surprised to find it was a 
set of farm outbuildings!  That was the NORton family of PAKenham, 
whence they got the name.


The development system from Carling Drive in Ottawa was transferred to 
Bell's Simcoe Street office in Toronto when they went live, and I got a 
service call there to work on the DMAX/16s again, as somebody ad removed 
the remote diagnostics panel from the PDP11/70  and forgot to replace 
the NPG jumper on the backplane, causing bus hangs.


cheers,

Nigel (for people who knew me back then, I was called 'Bill' Johnson!)



On 20/10/2019 15:09, Brent Hilpert via cctalk wrote:

On 2019-Oct-20, at 9:14 AM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:

On 20/10/2019 06:43, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote:
On Sat, Oct 19, 2019 at 02:23:46PM -0400, Nigel Johnson via cctalk 
wrote:

Judging by the year, it was probably a teletext terminal. [...]
It's not Teletext, unless that word means something different on the 
other side
of the Pond. Teletext was basically a text system (the hint's in the 
name) with
graphics (and indeed colour) being a weird hack that gave it a 
particular

appearance, especially in typical implementations which used the SAA5050
character generator chip.

The palette and colour fringing suggest Apple II to me.
It was called teletext despite the implications, at least here in 
Canada. People just couldn't get their tongue around NAPLPS!


It looks just like the teletext systems I worked on, maybe ours was 
better than yours?


For elucidation, here's an example of a Canadian Telidon terminal with 
display examples:

http://madrona.ca/e/telidon/index.html

(The processor is indeed a 6809, as Diane was mentioning.)

Graphics was very much a part of the Telidon/NAPLPS protocol.
(Note: Colour capabilities may differ between terminals, the protocol 
was such as to permit a range of compatible implementations.)


While the store directory terminal of the OP 'could' have been a 
Telidon/NAPLPS terminal, I'd be placing my bets more on the Apple-II 
(or similar) as others mentioned. Strikes me more as a standalone 
unit. I think using a videotex/teletext/Telidon/NAPLPS terminal would 
have been awkward and the economics poor, there'd either have to be a 
rented comm line to a remote server, an additional local server, or 
storage hacked onto the terminal.


The touch-screen is another issue, while it could have been supported 
in a proprietary manner I'm not aware of explicit support for 
touch-screens in the protocol.


I believe the NAPLPS designation (designation as an industry standard) 
came rather late in the game, an attempt to gain some recognition for 
a dying project. As "Telidon", it had begun years earlier.




--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 

Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print 
this message

Re: Anyone familiar with these vintage touchscreens?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

You are absolutely right about the economics! The only one I ever saw in 
operation was in the Eaton Centre in Toronto, just around the corner 
from the Bell Simcoe office where I worked on the server!


cheers,

Nigel



On 20/10/2019 15:20, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:

As an FYI, the YouTube comments description of the system is:
"Published on Oct 19, 2019
10/9/1985: Farm Fresh grocery stores unveil new cutting-edge technology: store 
kiosks that help shoppers map out where to find items in their stores. The kiosks 
appear to be running Apple II software."


Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 20, 2019, at 12:10, Brent Hilpert via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

On 2019-Oct-20, at 9:14 AM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
On 20/10/2019 06:43, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote:
On Sat, Oct 19, 2019 at 02:23:46PM -0400, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
Judging by the year, it was probably a teletext terminal. [...]
It's not Teletext, unless that word means something different on the other side
of the Pond. Teletext was basically a text system (the hint's in the name) with
graphics (and indeed colour) being a weird hack that gave it a particular
appearance, especially in typical implementations which used the SAA5050
character generator chip.

The palette and colour fringing suggest Apple II to me.

It was called teletext despite the implications, at least here in Canada.  
People just couldn't get their tongue around NAPLPS!

It looks just like the teletext systems I worked on, maybe ours was better than 
yours?


For elucidation, here's an example of a Canadian Telidon terminal with display 
examples:
http://madrona.ca/e/telidon/index.html

(The processor is indeed a 6809, as Diane was mentioning.)

Graphics was very much a part of the Telidon/NAPLPS protocol.
(Note: Colour capabilities may differ between terminals, the protocol was such 
as to permit a range of compatible implementations.)

While the store directory terminal of the OP 'could' have been a Telidon/NAPLPS 
terminal, I'd be placing my bets more on the Apple-II (or similar) as others 
mentioned. Strikes me more as a standalone unit. I think using a 
videotex/teletext/Telidon/NAPLPS terminal would have been awkward and the 
economics poor, there'd either have to be a rented comm line to a remote 
server, an additional local server, or storage hacked onto the terminal.

The touch-screen is another issue, while it could have been supported in a 
proprietary manner I'm not aware of explicit support for touch-screens in the 
protocol.

I believe the NAPLPS designation (designation as an industry standard) came rather late 
in the game, an attempt to gain some recognition for a dying project. As 
"Telidon", it had begun years earlier.

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Philips mini computers

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Are we talking about ISA-bus computers here?  If so the colour graphics 
card was a Persyst Bob card, and the bi-sync adapter, if equipped, was 
also made by Persyst.  I know because I signed them to the contract to 
buy those two items. I know about their high standards of Quality 
Control because they rejected about 1/3 of my initial shipments!


In 1985, every computer that included a CRT made by Philips was made at 
their factory in Ste. Laurent, QC, or so their engineers told me.


cheers,

Nigel (then known as Bill) Johnson


On 26/10/2019 13:53, nico de jong via cctalk wrote:


On 2019-10-26 19:44, Tony Duell via cctalk wrote:

On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 6:36 PM nico de jong via cctalk
 wrote:

Hi all,

Back in the 70's and 80's Philips had a quite popular series of mini
computers called P800, which also branched out to the PTS series and
possibly other.

Could I be lucky to find other list members interested in these
products? I know of a few, but there surely must be others. I'm trying
to collect what is left of the documentation.
My first minicomputer (which I still have and can see from where I am 
sitting)
was a Philips P850. I now also own a P851 and a P854 (both with 
floppy drives)

and lots of spares.

As for documentation I have the CPU (only) technical manual for the 
P850,
the 2 volumes of schematics for the P851 and the preliminary manual 
(alas

without the microcode source) for the P854. Some other schematics for
things like the P854's PSU, the 4 channel serial port, floppy disk 
system, etc.


User manuals for at least the P850 and P851. And some software-related
manuals, manuals on related machines, etc but I would have to check 
exactly

what I have there.

-tony'


Hi Tony

The manuals you mention, don't ring a bell.

We have now more-or-less rejuvenated a PTS6813 aka P857, although 
without the discs.


Furthermore, we have the parts to build a P852 from spare parts.

In order to test things, I've developped a simulator and assembler for 
the P857, although without floating point and I/O processor, as I have 
no documentation for that, so maybe I can harvest something from the 
documents you have. Are the mailable, or do you need to scan them first?


Thanks

Nico

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: 8 inch floppies

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

In all my years of electronics troubleshooting, I have never spent hours 
under a microscope :-)  OK, it was easier using the RTL of the Univac 
418, but even today the parts are big enough to see!


On 26/10/2019 17:42, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

Hidden behind a NYTimes paywall, . . .
news yesterday that the 8 inch drive nuclear weapions system has now 
been updated.


On Sat, 26 Oct 2019, John Foust via cctalk wrote:

And what media or method did they upgrade to?  Top secret?
Here's a different version of the story:
https://www.c4isrnet.com/air/2019/10/17/the-us-nuclear-forces-dr-strangelove-era-messaging-system-finally-got-rid-of-its-floppy-disks/ 



Thanks for the URL
Amusing that requiring repair technicians having ability to "solder 
metal" was one of the major problems.



The USUAL progression from 8" floppies was to 35 track (later 40 
track) single sided (later double) FM single density (later MFM) 48tpi 
(later 96tpi) 5.25".
But, an easier conversion would be straight to "1.2M", which would 
need few hardware changes other than a custom cable.
(In fact, the first Mitsubishi 1.2M drive that I got had a 50 pin 
connector; later 4854s had a 34 pin connector)


But, why not cards or paper tape?

Or, if they want to expand speed and capacity, ST506, or even ST412.

They could go to thumb drives, such as Stuxnet

Or, was the main goal to give it a publicly accessible IP address?
("War Games" is playing on MPLEX right now)


Besides convenient recreational Facebook access for staff technicians, 
why is web browsing implemented on MRI control computers or on WOPR?



BTW, the superceded drives and media will remain "classified" until 
they crumble, and our surplus channels will not get a sudden major 
influx of available media.


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Introduction and need help bringing some pdp11's back

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

On 29/10/2019 20:37, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:

The M9058 can plug in to any general slot in Qbus for power and does not

past interrupt or DMA grant.  Bottom/end of the bus is fine.


Interesting, I didn't realize the RQDX series boards didn't use 
interrupts or DMA. Does the CPU just poll them endlessly?


RQDX1 and 2 did not pass them but used them. (Maybe not NPG)  I believe 
the RQDX3 did, however.


Nigel



Nigel Johnson

MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: VAX & PDP-11 Stuff To Clean Out

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Are you sure you won't ship the Maxtor ESDI drves?  I have a microvax 2 
here just crying out for them. Unfortunately CA is a five day drive away 
for me!


Nigel ve3id


On 06/11/2019 13:16, David Coolbear via cctech wrote:

I have the following 5-1/4" Drives that I would like to get rid of. These
have all been working at one time or another, but I have no idea what
condition they are in now.


Maxtor EXT 4330
Seagate ST4766N
Hitachi DK516-12
Maxtor XT-8760E
Maxtor XT-4170E

I also have the following QBUS cards to part with.

Module Number Part# Description Form
QBUS Extender D
M7504 DEQNA Ethernet D
M8043 DLV11 4xSLU D
M8043 DLV11 4xSLU D
M7941 DRV11 16 Bit Parallel D
M8186 KDF11 11/23 CPU D
M8186 KDF11 11/23 CPU D
M8189 KDJ11 11/73 CPU D
M8192-YB KDJ11 11/73 CPU D
M8192-YB KDJ11 11/73 CPU D
M8047 MXV11 ROM/RAM D
M7555 RQDX3 D
M8029 RXV21 RX02 Controller D
M7646 TQK50 Tape Controller D
M8044-DB Memory 16K 32K? D
M8044-DE Memory 16K 32K? D
DATARAM 63010 Q
Camington CMX1651 Memory Q
M7606-AF KA630 CPU Q
M7620-AA KA650 CPU Q
M7620-BA KA650 CPU Q
M7164 KDA50 SDI Controller Q
M7165 KDA50 SDI Controller Q
M5976-AA KZQSA SCSI Controller Q
M5976-AA KZQSA SCSI Controller Q
M8067 Memory Q
M7168 VCB02 Bit Map Q
M7169 VCB02 Controller Q
M7608-BP MS630BB 4-Meg Memory Q
M7608-BP MS630BB 4-Meg Memory Q
M7957 4xSLU Q
SCD-RQD11/EC ESDI Controller Q


All of these are FTAGH, but I wouldn't turn down a trade either. I'd be
interested in drive sleds for my BA123 or a spare power supply, also for
the BA123 or I'm always interested in M68K/M6809 stuff. I would prefer
local pickup near Livermore, CA. I don't believe that the drives are
shippable.

Please contact me directly at 



--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 

Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print 
this message

Re: VAX & PDP-11 Stuff To Clean Out

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Are you sure you won't ship the Maxtor ESDI drves?  I have a microvax 2 
here just crying out for them. Unfortunately CA is a five day drive away 
for me!


Nigel ve3id


On 06/11/2019 13:16, David Coolbear via cctech wrote:

I have the following 5-1/4" Drives that I would like to get rid of. These
have all been working at one time or another, but I have no idea what
condition they are in now.


Maxtor EXT 4330
Seagate ST4766N
Hitachi DK516-12
Maxtor XT-8760E
Maxtor XT-4170E

I also have the following QBUS cards to part with.

Module Number Part# Description Form
QBUS Extender D
M7504 DEQNA Ethernet D
M8043 DLV11 4xSLU D
M8043 DLV11 4xSLU D
M7941 DRV11 16 Bit Parallel D
M8186 KDF11 11/23 CPU D
M8186 KDF11 11/23 CPU D
M8189 KDJ11 11/73 CPU D
M8192-YB KDJ11 11/73 CPU D
M8192-YB KDJ11 11/73 CPU D
M8047 MXV11 ROM/RAM D
M7555 RQDX3 D
M8029 RXV21 RX02 Controller D
M7646 TQK50 Tape Controller D
M8044-DB Memory 16K 32K? D
M8044-DE Memory 16K 32K? D
DATARAM 63010 Q
Camington CMX1651 Memory Q
M7606-AF KA630 CPU Q
M7620-AA KA650 CPU Q
M7620-BA KA650 CPU Q
M7164 KDA50 SDI Controller Q
M7165 KDA50 SDI Controller Q
M5976-AA KZQSA SCSI Controller Q
M5976-AA KZQSA SCSI Controller Q
M8067 Memory Q
M7168 VCB02 Bit Map Q
M7169 VCB02 Controller Q
M7608-BP MS630BB 4-Meg Memory Q
M7608-BP MS630BB 4-Meg Memory Q
M7957 4xSLU Q
SCD-RQD11/EC ESDI Controller Q


All of these are FTAGH, but I wouldn't turn down a trade either. I'd be
interested in drive sleds for my BA123 or a spare power supply, also for
the BA123 or I'm always interested in M68K/M6809 stuff. I would prefer
local pickup near Livermore, CA. I don't believe that the drives are
shippable.

Please contact me directly at 


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Classic equipment available & my bad year.

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Your story is an inspiration to us all!  With all the modern medical 
technology and the human spirit,  there is never a reason to give up hope!


Best wishes for a full recovery,

Nigel Johnson

On 08/11/2019 17:27, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:

Dave wow what a story.  I am glad you are recovering my well wishes to you
from me and my family.

Bill Degnan

On Fri, Nov 8, 2019, 5:20 PM Dave Dunfield via cctalk 
wrote:


Hello Everyone.

I have had a major health incident which means that I have been
unresponsive
for several months. As I need to move in closer to town, I will be
disposing
of what remains of my collection (Things like: Altairs, Imsa, PET 2001,
Apple II, TRS-80s, lots of S100 carts etc.)

I have posted some preliminary information at:

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/sale.txt

This will be updated on a regular basis.

If you are interested in what happened to me, I have posted
some details at:

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/2019.txt

Dave Dunfield

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: VAX & PDP-11 Stuff To Clean Out

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I'm starting to get heavily invested in rebuilding my microvax 2, it 
would be a shame if the cpu failed, so I'd like to put my name down for 
the KA630 pcu card if nobody local wants it.


cheers,

Nigel


On 08/11/2019 15:12, David Coolbear via cctech wrote:

Most of the items are spoken for but I still have the following:


Caminton CMX1651 Memory
M7606-AF KA630 CPU
M7620-AA KA650 CPU
M8067 Memory
M7168 VCB02 Bit Map
M7169 VCB02 Controller
M7608-BP MS630BB 4-Meg Memory
M7608-BP MS630BB 4-Meg Memory
SCD-RQD11/EC ESDI Controller
...so, mainly the VAX stuff. Priority goes to local pickup. I've had all of
these boards working at one time or another but I can't speak to their
current status.

David Coolbear
da...@thecoolbears.org


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Question about modems

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I actually have an original Hayes 300 modem. Would it be any use if I 
could set it up for a a test, or would it need another genuine Hayes one 
to talk to for what you need?


cheers,

Nigel


On 13/11/2019 02:25, Jim Brain via cctalk wrote:
I am the author of tcpser, a UNIX/Windows program that emulates a 
Hayes modem.


Some time ago, Chris Osborn (FozzTexx) forked a copy of my project to 
fix some bugs and he also added in some parity code, which looks to 
strip parity from the incoming serial connection (in the case that the 
serial port is set as 8N1 and the computer attached to it sends in 7E1 
or similar.


I am working to merge in all of his changes into the mainline 
codebase, but I am unclear on prpper Hayes behavior.  His Readme says:


https://github.com/FozzTexx/tcpser/commit/5f0e28bb837463e597a1daf9b3c07e56af887b7d 



"I also made the modem routines automatically detect parity and ignore
it in AT commands and print out modem responses in matching
parity. Parity is *not* stripped when sending data over the
connection, which is how a real modem behaves. This may or may not be
what you want. Some servers will expect an 8 bit connection and may

not work."

Did Hayes modem really do that?  I thought most later modems self 
detected parity and speed and thus would have switched both the comm 
on the serial port and the data sent to the other side in the same 
parity (if the terminal was 7E1, the modem would configure as 7E1 and 
send 7 bit data to the other side.


But, maybe real modems did as Chris notes. Anyone have guidance on 
this?  The goal of tcpser is to emulate a Hayes modem as much as 
possible, but I never really thought about mismatched parity on the 
RS232 line and how to deal with it.


Jim


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Question about modems

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Not much in the manual.  I browsed it looking for anything about data 
bits and stop bits. Nothing.


p1-2: ' Commands given to the Smartmodem must be ASCII coded at baud 
rates between 110 baud and 1200 baud. Once 'on-line', any code at any 
speed from 0 to 300 baud may be used.'


p 9-1 'Do not send any data to the Smartmodem while it is in local 
command mode unless the data is intended to be a command. Random data 
can confuse the baud rate detector and the command decoder giving 
unpredicatable results.'


That is al lI can find i nthe manual.

cheers,

Nigel


On 13/11/2019 12:39, Jim Brain via cctalk wrote:

On 11/13/2019 5:31 AM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
I actually have an original Hayes 300 modem. Would it be any use if I 
could set it up for a a test, or would it need another genuine Hayes 
one to talk to for what you need?


I looked at the SmartModem 300.  It looks like it completely detected 
the speed and parity internal to the unit.  If you have a manual or a 
link ot one to validate, I think that would suffice. If it did do 
that, then it would have reconfigured itself to match the terminal and 
thus all communication would be in the same format (8N1, 7E1, etc).



I did a quick check for an online manual, but my Google-fu is weak today.

Jim

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Question about modems

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

On 13/11/2019 13:36, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

There are other "oddball" combinations, such as 8E1 and 8O1, which sends
a 9-bit data frame.  You can see datasheets on some UARTs as well as MCU
UARTs that support the 9 bit packet.
According to the diagram of the Smartmodem there is no UART, the 1488s 
and 1489s go directly to the Z80.

Also, don't/doesn't TDD (5 level code) use 5E2 or some such.  Same for
Telex/TWX.


Not sure 5 level code (ITU #2) ever had parity, but to confuse the issue 
even further, there was a 1.5 stop bit option too, for mechanical machines!


cheers,

NIgel




--Chuck


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Question about modems

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

No. While each end might be able to communicate with the local modem in 
command mode using different parameters, when they are in connected mode 
the modems will not convert anything, just pass the exact format along. 
So if one end is expecting 7E2 and the other is sending 8N1 there will 
be a 50% chance that parity errors will be received.


cheers

Nigel


On 13/11/2019 16:16, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote:

On 11/13/19 1:31 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
But, stuff like commands to the modem didn't need much of that, and 
needed to be able to communicate in spite of wrong parameters.  It 
made sense for a modem to recognize a command, even with wrong 
parity, etc.


Okay

Now I'm thinking that there are really two phases / modes of 
communications:  1) computer to modem commands, and 2) computer to 
computer via modem connection data.


I think my previous statement applies to #2.  I can see the value in 
#1 being more liberal in what it recognizes and accepts.


But, I'd still be surprised if the following would work for #2.

[A]---(7E2)---{modem}==={modem}---(8N1)---[B]

Would A and B be able to transfer data between each other with 
different (local) settings?




 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
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Re: UniBone: Linux-to-DEC-UNIBUS-bridge, year #1

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I think you will win a lot of friends if you can make something that 
will emulate MSCP devices on the QBus - I have a micro11 and microVax 
sans disk due to only having ESDI ate ST506 controllers!


cheers es 73 to the hams amongst us de Nigel ve3id


On 15/11/2019 15:23, David Bridgham via cctalk wrote:

On 11/15/19 3:01 PM, W2HX via cctalk wrote:

LOVE the ideas, loved it when I first heard of it. But I'm a QBUS guy! Put me 
on the list when (if) you ever make one for qbus. GREAT idea!
Eugene


Along these lines, it's been a long time since we've updated the list
regarding the QSIC project.  Have been slowly working away on the
project here.  The QSIC is, at a high level, similar to the UniBone
except it's on the QBUS and it's based around an FPGA rather than a BBB.

Work that's gone on is that the Verilog code has been written to access
the DDR SDRAM we have so we can support larger RAM disks and eventually
the Able ENABLE.  Haven't tested it yet.

Also have made good progress on designing the prototype circuit board to
replace our wire-wrapped test board that's served us well so far.  Some
final checks and it'll soon be time to send off to China and learn about
having circuit boards assembled.  Speaking of that circuit board design,
I put in the option to add bus termination resistors but they require a
part that no-one seems to stock.  I had a request in to Mouser to get it
for me and they said they'd look into it but I haven't heard anything
back for a few weeks now.  This jogs my memory to chase them a little to
find out what's happened.

Anyway, the web page for the QSIC is here along with a KiCad rendering
of what the prototype board would look like and a slightly more accurate
diagram of what the internal modules are like (may still modify that
some more as I learned about the AXI interface and may use that for
getting to the bus and that'll change how the crossbar switch works).

http://pdp10.froghouse.org/qsic/html/overview.html

Dave


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
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   Nigel Johnson 


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Re: 3270 controller simulation

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I was the Canadian GM of Emulex, whose Persyst Division made a bi-sync 
card for the PC.  I was stunned when, in the era of TCP/IP 
interconnectivity, a client kept on talking about a 'sign-on' card :-) I 
just smile dand accepted his order for lots of product!



On 18/11/2019 20:22, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote:

On Mon, Nov 18, 2019 at 7:42 PM Al Kossow via cctalk
 wrote:

I find it interesting that the field of comms interoperability with IBM 
mainframes was huge up until TCP/IP
took over, and all traces of the software implementations have disappeared or 
were consolidated into a couple
like Micro Focus.

The golden years of Software Results and COMBOARDs were 1982-1986,
perhaps a little later, but not much.  By early 1989, we really didn't
have many board sales, just maintenance contracts for the existing
customer base and an occasional upgrade sale (Unibus->VAXBI or
Unibus-Qbus).  By 1994, there weren't that many customers left on
maintenance.  The last contract expired around February 1995.

We did have a last breath of demand in the early 90s that garnered a
tiny handful of sales - when EDI began to take hold, one of the
standard transport models was 3780 to an IBM service that essentially
took care of delivery in the fashion of an ISP.  If you wanted to use
that network, you needed _a_ product that would move files using sync
modems and the 3780 protocol.  There were a couple of PC products that
could do it, and we were one of the last companies still in the Bisync
space for minicomputers.

After EDI moved to TCP/IP, that was all over.

But in the early 80s, we made a few million dollars getting PDP-11s
and VAXen to interoperate with IBM mainframes.  At that time, lots of
large companies needed it, then fairly quickly nobody needed it.

-ethan


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

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   Nigel Johnson 


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Re: "First Internet message" and ...

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

No, your home has an intranet!

cheers,

Nigel


On 25/11/2019 13:45, Richard Pope via cctalk wrote:

Noel,
    Isn't the proper term for my network of computers here at home: 
internet and the term : Internet the proper term for the worldwide 
collection of networked computers?

GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!

On 11/25/2019 12:06 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:

 > From: Fred Cisin

 > Is that message about 1) history of internet? (THANK YOU for 
specifying
 > "internet", otherwise "computer to computer" involves much 
older history.

 > ...
 > those messages were sent on PRECURSORS to the internet, NOT on 
the

 > internet.

Did you mean "internet" or 'Internet'?

The poorly educated cretins at the AP nothwithstanding, those are two
different words, with _different meanings_.


 > Definition and history of the WORD "internet" is also critical
 > ...
 > do you know of any actual use of the word/name "internet" 
prior to the

 > December 1974 RFC about TCP?

I believe the word 'internet' was coined for:

   V. Cerf and R. Kahn, "A Protocol For Packet Network
   Intercommunication," IEEE Transactions on Communication, vol. C-
   2O, No. 5. May 1974, pp. 637-648.

There was earlier work in the general area of connecting computer data
networks together, performed in the International Packet Network Working
Group (INWG), which had an alternative term 'catenet' which had much 
the same
meaning as 'internet'. (Although little-known, the INWG - not to be 
confused
with the later DARPA-centric group of the same acronym - is 
documented in two
papers, a draft one by Ronda Hauben, and a later one by Alex 
McKenzie.) I
don't know if the term 'internet' was used there before its 
appearance in the

Cerf/Kakhn paper.

Interestingly, "Internetworking" is mentioned in RFC604, December 
1973, so
the word was in circulation in the technical community before the 
Cerf/Kahn

paper came out.


"Internet" came along later, when we needed a name for the internet 
centered
around the ARPANET. The need was discussed on the then-central email 
list for
the TCP/IP community (which may have been called 'inwg' - my memory 
is, alas,

fading), and we decided on 'Internet'.

I'd previously looked for the first use of 'Internet' in that sense 
in the
RFC's, and found it, but I don't remember what it was! Looking again, 
there's

a lot of 'Internet Protocol' and similar things to sort out; I see an
'Internet' in RFC780, May 1981, but it's marginal (it says "ARPA 
Internet");
the first 'true' use of 'Internet' on its own in the current meaning 
which

I found was in RFC821, August 1982.

Noel



 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
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   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: "First Internet message" and ...

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Do you mean they have finally perfected the WOM???


On 11/25/2019 6:21 PM, ben via cctalk wrote:

Remember we now are moving in the cloud era, a write only device.




 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


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Re: "First Internet message" and ...

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

This is starting to sound like a usenet discussion years ago about the 
correct plural of 'VAX' :-)


Vaxen, Vaces, or just multiple VAX installations anybody?

cheers,

Nigel


On 25/11/2019 21:19, steve shumaker via cctalk wrote:


On 11/25/19 2:14 PM, Richard Pope via cctalk wrote:

Will,
    Good one. LOL! :)
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!

On 11/25/2019 4:10 PM, William Donzelli via cctalk wrote:
Oh goody; when the "intranet" vs. "an internet" vs. "The Internet" 
discussion finally gets boring we can argue over the meaning and 
function of "switches" vs. "routers" vs. "hubs".

If we are lucky, maybe we can start a new holy war along the lines of
vi vs. emacs.

--
Will






this list is better than a free movie ticket


z...




 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


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Re: 8 inch floppies

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Oh the things companies did to try and increase their profits! Bad idea 
indeed, reversible just meant half the profit for the suppliers!


On the same vein, we ordered a TWX line form Bell but supplied our own 
machine. Bell said they were not responsible if the line caused errors, 
and sent a man out with a bit error rate tester - all for 110 baud!


I remember when we sold DSD440 floppies, and the DEC salesmen were going 
around saying that it could not format floppies when their RX02 could - 
although the only thing that the RX02 could do was change the density 
bit from single to double!


cheers,

Nigel


On 13/12/2019 21:06, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:

On 12/13/19 8:22 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

On 12/13/19 5:11 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:


I never saw any flippies commercially made but many
companies made punches for flippy 5.25" disks.  I always
had to make my own for 8".


They were standard products.  Let's see if I can find a period ad...

Well, not an ad, but a precise description:

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/3M/3M_Diskette_Reference_Manual_May83.pdf

Page 8, top illustration.  3M added an "R" to the stock number for
"reversible".  I have a few in my stash.

Must have been targeted at the home market as I don't
remember ever seeing them in any of the supplies catalogs
I dealt with.  And there were numerous white papers
talking about why it was a really bad idea to spin
floppies in both directions.

bill

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: ORNL ORACLE story

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Love those old sounds on an AM radio.  One day, I was working on a ham 
project in the CFRB radio engineering workshop in Toronto. It was just 
after Kilobaud magazine had published a program that would play Valda's 
theme (Somewhere My LOve) on an AM radio next to a Motorola MEK6800D2.  
We had toggled it in and were playing with it  when the evening show man 
walked by.


"What's that," said Carl Banas to the station engineer, Paul.

"The guys are playing with computer music," said Paul.

"Get me a cart of it and I will put it on the air," said Carl.

So I phoned all my friends so they could hear our club repeater 
controller prototype play music on a major market radio station!


He played it for a few seconds than faded in to the fully-orchestrated 
version!


cheers,

Nigel


On 25/12/2019 14:55, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:


https://computerhistory.org/blog/jingle-bits-auditory-maintenance-whirlwind-holiday-songs-the-dawn-of-computer-music/ 




 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Your Vale Coaches order has been received!

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I thought that mysen, then I saw the title.  I believe what is offered 
is a coach ride to get the sandwich at an event of the Royal 
Horticultural Society


Perhaps a little more upscale than the average MacDonalds?


On 31/12/2019 12:09, John H. Reinhardt via cctalk wrote:

On 12/31/2019 10:15 AM, Adrian Stoness via cctalk wrote:

?



I know!!! 69£ for a sandwich lunch??? Talk about price gouging!



On Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 8:16 AM Mark Darvill via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


Good news! After a bit of a configuration nightmare (it is more
complicated than Worldpay) I have got it working.

I will test a couple more times and then figure out what we need to 
do to

make it live.

Mark


Begin forwarded message:

From: Vale Coaches - Office 
Subject: Your Vale Coaches order has been received!
Date: 31 December 2019 at 14:11:32 GMT
To: mark.darv...@mac.com
Reply-To: Vale Coaches 



Thank you for your order
Hi Mark,

Just to let you know — we've received your order #10075, and it is now

being processed:

[Order #10075] (31st December 2019)

Product   Quantity    Price
RHS Cardiff Flower Show - Saturday 18th April 2020
Pickup Point:
Sturminster Newton
Packed Lunch Sandwich:
Egg & cress on brown
Packed Lunch Drink:
Apple Juice
1 £69.00
Subtotal: £69.00
Payment method:   Barclaycard
Total:    £69.00
Billing address

Mark Darvill
Test
April Cotatge
Sackmore Lane, Marnhull
Sturminster Newton
Dorset
DT10 1PN
01258 820871
mark.darv...@mac.com
Thanks for using valecoaches.com!

Vale Coaches
Site built by Marnhull Computers Marnhull Computers 
m...@marnhullcomputers.com>



 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


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Re: Ordering parts onesie twosie

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

And for those who own old vibrator sets, the Royal Signals Amateur Radio 
Club in the UK makes batches of solid state plug-in vibrators.


I just love the smell of the anti-fungal spray and the hum of warm 
valves on those old radios!


There will always be ways and means to find parts for old equipment - 
and the internet makes it easier to find them. No, you cannot walk into 
a store and buy them, but that is is another sign of the times.   I just 
needed some rolls of hookup wire - instead of putting the snowshoes on 
and traipsing through the snowdrifts, I just clicked on an Amazon button 
and let their drivers worry about getting it to me!


cheers,

Nigel



On 01/01/2020 21:45, William Donzelli via cctalk wrote:

I don't weep and moan about something from the past vanishes because of
lack of interest,

Is the list not all about interest in obsolete computer technology,
and getting these weird old machines going again?


any more than I weep about the unavailability of RTL
flatpacks or variocouplers or UV201s.

Variocouplers and UV-201s? Bring them on. The market for those items
still exists, and is quite decent. The old timers still know how the
surplus market works.


  How much of a run do you imagine
that 5V TTL logic will have?  It's pretty much incompatible with tiny
cell geometries.

Um...again...this list? 7400 logic is still in demand, to a smallish
extent, with hobbyists. Like people trying to get PDP-11s and stuff
going again.

But it really does not matter. I could have a pallet of currentish
RPis, and, well, I would end up dying with a pallet of RPis.

--
Will


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
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of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


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Re: Motorola app notes (Al Kossow)

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Have you searched for them on the NXP web site?

I found the RF ones here:

https://www.nxp.com/products/rf/rf-power-application-notes/rf-power-application-notes-by-frequency-range/general-frequency-range-application-notes:RF_FREQ_GEN_FREQ_RANGE_APP_NOTES

73 de Nigel ve3id


On 07/01/2020 18:14, Evan Linwood via cctalk wrote:

did anyone copy the moto app notes that were once at
http://www.shrubbery.net/~heas/willem/PDF/Motorola/apnoteindex.html ?

some of them are available at:
http://archive.retro.co.za/archive/Motorola%20Appnotes/

plus a few more on this level:
http://archive.retro.co.za/archive/

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
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of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: IBM BSC CRC?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

True, but in my case it was a typo! But yes we digital types like 
saturation.  Still have the funny thing with LTSpice though. I used it a 
lot for electricity 1 and 2 demos for students when the college wouldn't 
support me running electronics workbench under a VM on linux!


Works just fine with 100k!  Maybe I will just go back to the hardware, 
but it is a pain changing resistors in that dense board!  I think I must 
have blown the second transistor with too high a base current, burnt 
fingers tomorrow!


73

id


On 26/01/2020 18:12, Bob Smith via cctalk wrote:

I ma rusty on this, been almost 50 years since I worked on the DP8EP
aka the KG83. then the KG11, and the Autodin 2 CRC32 designs in
hardware.
I don't recall whether bisync, aka bsc used LRC8, 12, 16, or crc16 as
the error detection algorithm.
I don't think it used VRC. I did find a refresher that might help, but
I don't think the polynomial you have for crc 16 has enough terms.
BUT I could be misremembering.

https://www.automatas.org/modbus/crc7.html
bob

On Sun, Jan 26, 2020 at 2:59 PM Mattis Lind via cctalk
 wrote:

Hello IBM BSC Experts!

I am trying to figure out the CRC algorithm used by IBM BSC. I have tried a
lot of different settings in crcreveng but not getting a match.

I am pretty convinced that the CRC-16 used by IBM was
   16  15   2
x  +   x +   x +  1
This would give the polynomial 8005.
Anyone against this statement?

But what was the initial value?

I have two actual messages from equipment employing IBM BSC:
32016CD90240404070032688
and
32016CD90240C84050030D28

 From this document (
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/datacomm/GA27-3004-2_General_Information_Binary_Synchronous_Communications_Oct70.pdf
)
I get that the CRC calculation is reset on SOH (01h) or STX (02h) and
accumulates until and including the ETX (03h). (excluding any SYN (32h)
characters).

I have tried crcreveng back and forth and I am not getting the CRC bytes
right.
I think I have tried most things, different bit order, different initial
values. But nothing.

I also tried the mode in crcreveng where it searches for matches but it
always says "no models found". Maybe I am doing something wrong when using
crcreveng?

Any clues? Surely there are someone out there that has been around for some
time and knows this, right?

On the topic of crc reveng I tried to verify how it works by using some
kind of known value: This article
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23638939/crc-16-ibm-reverse-lookup-in-c

has a specific example where a certain data in (75h) with initial value
90f1h gives output 6390h. I tried to get crc reveng to do the same, but
failed. There has to be some option I simply do not understand. I tried
most combinations.

/Mattis


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Sorry

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Sorry guys, that LTspice stuff was not for this group - my mailer must 
have screwed up!


73 de Nigel ve3id


On 26/01/2020 18:12, Bob Smith via cctalk wrote:

I ma rusty on this, been almost 50 years since I worked on the DP8EP
aka the KG83. then the KG11, and the Autodin 2 CRC32 designs in
hardware.
I don't recall whether bisync, aka bsc used LRC8, 12, 16, or crc16 as
the error detection algorithm.
I don't think it used VRC. I did find a refresher that might help, but
I don't think the polynomial you have for crc 16 has enough terms.
BUT I could be misremembering.

https://www.automatas.org/modbus/crc7.html
bob

On Sun, Jan 26, 2020 at 2:59 PM Mattis Lind via cctalk
 wrote:

Hello IBM BSC Experts!

I am trying to figure out the CRC algorithm used by IBM BSC. I have tried a
lot of different settings in crcreveng but not getting a match.

I am pretty convinced that the CRC-16 used by IBM was
   16  15   2
x  +   x +   x +  1
This would give the polynomial 8005.
Anyone against this statement?

But what was the initial value?

I have two actual messages from equipment employing IBM BSC:
32016CD90240404070032688
and
32016CD90240C84050030D28

 From this document (
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/datacomm/GA27-3004-2_General_Information_Binary_Synchronous_Communications_Oct70.pdf
)
I get that the CRC calculation is reset on SOH (01h) or STX (02h) and
accumulates until and including the ETX (03h). (excluding any SYN (32h)
characters).

I have tried crcreveng back and forth and I am not getting the CRC bytes
right.
I think I have tried most things, different bit order, different initial
values. But nothing.

I also tried the mode in crcreveng where it searches for matches but it
always says "no models found". Maybe I am doing something wrong when using
crcreveng?

Any clues? Surely there are someone out there that has been around for some
time and knows this, right?

On the topic of crc reveng I tried to verify how it works by using some
kind of known value: This article
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23638939/crc-16-ibm-reverse-lookup-in-c

has a specific example where a certain data in (75h) with initial value
90f1h gives output 6390h. I tried to get crc reveng to do the same, but
failed. There has to be some option I simply do not understand. I tried
most combinations.

/Mattis


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: OT - FTGH - U-Matic Tapes

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I have been down that road myself.  In the end I gave up, bought a 
Toshiba  DVR630:


https://www.amazon.ca/Toshiba-DVR630-HDMI-Recorder-Black/dp/B00GH7PP0U

Yikes!  I paid $179.95 for mine a few years back!

It is a lot easier to sit back and let it do the work! (As long as you 
don't have to pay >1k$ for it!)


cheers,
Nigel



On 30/01/2020 14:25, Christian Groessler via cctalk wrote:

On 2020-01-30 20:11, Jason T via cctalk wrote:

On Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 11:49 AM Ethan O'Toole via cctalk
 wrote:


I have a umatic deck and capture hardware if you wanted them converted.



What is your setup to capture videos? I've been given the task of 
digitizing some family VHS-C tapes. VCR is working, but I'm having a 
bad time with video cards...


regards,
chris


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


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Re: HP 9000 Series 360 Thin LAN

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

You can also use RG174 to go between cracks in floor tiles as I did once 
in my apartment.  It was easier than cutting hole sin concrete to get 
where I wanted to go (well before wi-fi)


As a consultant said when he saw it, "I have heard of thin-net but that 
is ridiculous!


cheers,

NIgel


On 22/02/2020 14:13, Gregory Beat via cctech wrote:

Some days I feel like “Doc Brown”, wondering where I parked the DeLorean.
—
YES ... connecting your HP 9000 to your private LAN would be useful.

ThinNet = 10-Base-2 = 10 MB Ethernet over RG-58/U 50 ohm coaxial cable.
The Series 360 workstation should also have an AUI port (15-pin D-subminiature 
with locking mechanism option).
—
I would recommend an AUI transceiver to 10-Base-T media converter (UTP with 
8-pin modular jack).  Black Box, Unicom, and other brands are available.
https://www.omnitron-systems.com/flexpoint-10-aui-media-converter.php

You did not mention the Operating System (OS) that you have installed on this HP 
9000 series 360.  HP-UX was the standard OS offering 30 years ago, when I went thru 
HP’s one month of classroom training on HP9000 hardware, networking, & HP-UX.
https://www.hpmuseum.net/exhibit.php?class=1&cat=40

You will need the Ethernet network driver installed for your OS, and standard 
TCP/IP tools (telnet, ssh, ftp, nfs, etc.).

greg
chicago

Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:19:40 -0800
From: Roger Addy 
To: cct...@classiccmp.org
Subject: HP 9000 Series 360 Thin LAN

Hi All,
I am using an HP 9000 Series 360 with a "Thin LAN" coax card to run a
piece of equipment. The LAN connection is not currently being used.? I'm
wondering if it's possible to connect it to a modern ethernet network??
If so, what could I do with it? I found an adapter on Amazon. I would
like to be able to transfer files and possibly print.? The file systems
are not compatible except for maybe ASCII files.? Anyone have any
thoughts?? Even if I could transfer files into another HP 9000 system it
would be beneficial.

Thank you,

Roger A.


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: 52-pin D-Sub?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

If your reference to D-sub means the connectors originally made by 
ITT-Cannon, I can offer the following from a cutout from a trade catalog 
that I have carried around these last 30 years as ammunition against 
those who erroneously use the term DB-9!


I wasn't sure, so I had to find it and can confirm that there was no 
'standard' D-sub of 52 pins in 3 rows.  The ones available were:


DA15, DB25, DC37, and DD50, that latter of which had 50 pins in three 
rows. There was of course the famously mis-labelled DE9.


Could you have mis-counted the pins?

cheers,

Nigel


On 27/02/2020 18:37, Adam Thornton via cctalk wrote:

I work at an astronomy facility.  I get to do some fun dumpster diving.

I recently have pulled out of the trash a plugboard with a male and a
female D-Sub 52 connector.  3 rows of pins, 17-18-17.  I took the
connectors off the board: there's nothing back there, so this thing only
ever existed so you could plug the random cable you found into it and its
friends to see what the cable fit.

I can't find much evidence that a 52-pin D-Sub ever existed.

Is this just Yet Another Physics Experiment thing where, hey, if your
instrument already costs three million dollars, what's a couple of grand
for machining custom connectors?  Or was it once a thing?

(also posted to COFF)

Adam


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: 52-pin D-Sub?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

More in the trivia department, the DA15 was used for AUI interconnection 
in the 10base-5, -2, and early -T days, as well as analog joysticks.


I'm surprised to see wikipedia saying that the high-density ones had DA 
to DE designations, I have only seen them in catalogs with full part 
numbers.  Could this be a backronym-style regression?


cheers,

Nigel


On 27/02/2020 19:51, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

On Thu, 27 Feb 2020, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
No idea.  I just got a new L-Com catalog, which has a large section 
of "D-Sub" connectors and cables.  It lists the following sizes:

2-row: 9, 15, 25, 37, 50 pin
3-row: 15, 26, 44, 62, 78 pin
So 52 pins is halfway between two standard sizes.  For some 
definition of "standard", of course.  2-row 9, 15, and 25 pin are 
common, 37 is for RS-422 if I remember right but I haven't seen it in 
ages.


A trivial data point:
DC-37 was used by PC (5150), XT (5160) for external floppy drive,
Used a lot of those, especially for tape drives and infrequently used 
drives, such as 3.25" and 3", 720K 5.25", 100tpi 5.25", 67.5 tpi 3.5", 
etc.

also used even by IBM on some add-on external floppies for some PS/2s.

DC-37 was also on the externally-controlled Canon CX printer engines, 
so I had some cables and even switchboxes for those. 
(Cordata/CoronaDataSystems, Eiconscript (both HP and Postscript 
emulation!), JLaser, etc.)

Anybody have any interest in those?


The Amiga used a couple of D23 connectors.  I cut up some DB25s when I 
needed them.



 -- as many people here know, the common 9-pin serial connector is 
not actually a "DB-9" connector but rather a DE-9.


When I had a lot of DB25 cables on hand, I had a few that only had 
pins in place in positions 1-8 and 20.  Would those 9 pins make it a 
"DB-9"?  :-)


--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: VAX/VMS 3.0 Distribution Available for Download

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Blimey, next you will be giving away the secret handshake!

On 21/03/2020 20:39, Antonio Carlini via cctalk wrote:

On 21/03/2020 21:43, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote:



The SYSTEM password is MANAGER.

Just like the old days.



Times were different then :-)


Wasn't the FIELD account password SERVICE?


Antonio


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: PDP-8 Straight 8 restoration

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Brings back memories!  My first 6800 cross assembler came to me as 2000 
Fortran source code punch cards. We had an F4R4 compiler on the PDP11 
but the card reader was on the PDP-8.


The only common peripheral was paper tape.  One night, the Chief 
Engineer and I fed the cards into the PDP8 card reader, punched tape, 
and fed it directly into the PDP11 tape reader.  X-on X-off was handled 
by hitting the stop and continue buttons on the PDP8 as the punch was 
faster than the reader.  The buffer was a pile of paper tape in the 
floor, which we carefully prevented from tangling.  Somehow OS/8 managed 
to not crash with the constant start/stop.


Nobody was more surprised than we were when the output compiled 
perfectly on the PDP11 and we made our first 6800 program - a ham 
repeater controller!


The Chief Engineer is still alive - I was at his 95th birthday last year 
and we often have fun talking about the good old days!


cheers,

Nigel Johnson


On 29/03/2020 16:59, Diane Bruce via cctalk wrote:

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 09:47:51AM +1300, Brendan McNeill via cctech wrote:

Here in NZ and around the world many of us are in lockdown and spending more time on 
our computers, if that were possible.  I have just completed the restoration of a 
PDP-8 Straight 8 which I believe is the only one in New Zealand.  You can view the 
restoration story and find appropriate resources here:  https://pdp-8.nz 


While it plays Chess, it would be great if someone wanted to write (say) a 
Prime Number Generator, or some other application and email it to me off list.  
I have Focal-69 and can probably source other languages for this wonderful old 
machine with 4K of memory.

I have memories of keying in RIM and BIN. Long long time ago. I also learned
how to talk to the OS/8 file system so we could play morse code from a file
instead of a paper tape for our University club station. ;)


--//
bren...@mcneill.co.nz
+64 21 881 883





73 de VA3DB for those that care ;)


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: H7874 power supply

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Vectoring through 24 was very important back in the core memory days 
when the memory would still be there after a power failure and you 
wnated the system to keep running, as was our Ontario Bellboy paging 
controller.


cheers,

Nigel



On 30/03/2020 12:49, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:



On Mar 30, 2020, at 10:17 AM, Robert Armstrong via cctalk 
 wrote:


Looks like for this enclosure an ATX supply could well work.
For my VAX my notes say it didn't.

  A VAX would certainly be harder.  You'd have to kludge up the ACOK and DCOK 
signals for one thing, which I don't think the R400x uses.

Thise signals don't seem like a problem: just hardwire them to the desired 
logic level.  PDP-11s need a real functioning DCOK signal iff you want to do 
power fail interrupt handling, otherwise they don't.  Do VAXen have power fail 
interrupt?  If yes, does anyone actually use it?

paul


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Fortran (Was Re: PDP-8 Straight 8 restoration)

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Since we are all at home exchanging stories, I thought I would regale 
you with my best punch card one:


My first job out of school was at Bell Canada in  Downtown Toronto.

I was trained as an FE on their Univac 418 II systems that ran a 
Canada-wide store-and-forward MSDS - Message Switching Data Service 
(MSDS - means something else now!)  I also got trained on the PDP11, 
then PDP8, and Interdata 50.


The year was 1972 or '73 I think.

Since there was very little operating to do with a real-time system, we 
didn't have operators and did all the operating ourselves.  One system 
ran H23 (it had to be shutdown for maintenance over midnight because the 
system would crash if the time went backwards after midnight), the 
other, use by stockbrokers and the T. Eaton Company started at 0600 and 
was turned down at 2100.


Being critical real time (after all, it fed about a thousand 110 baud 
teletypes across Canada :-) ) it would crash sometimes due to racing 
conditions that had not been forecast.  Instead of re-assembling the 
system (about four hours), the programmers would issue us with PARLO 
(PARameter LOader) cards to make patches after we loaded the enterprise 
code and before we started it.  This fixed the bugs by binary changes.


One morning, I was on duty as the 0600 system crashed immediately after 
I started it.  As trained, I switched all the peripherals over to the 
backup machine and loaded the program on there, carrying the PARLO cards 
over and running them before I started that system.  Same crash 
happened, while the panic dump was still running between the first 
computer and the Uniservo VI C.


Lots more attempts happened, including running heavy cables across the 
floor to patch in spares that were not on the transfer switch, until 
first, second, and finally third level managers were standing behind me 
as I tried new things.  "A 20-year old does not need this kind of 
stress", I thought!


Upper management wanted to 'get somebody else' to work the computer by 
my boss told me to stand fast.  Suddenly, I had an idea.  We had an old 
IBM 028 punch sitting at the back of the room.


"Go and copy these PARLO cards" I said to the programmer.  She scowled 
at being told what to do by this young kid, especially since she was 
management and I was not. But as nobody had any better ideas the 
managers told her to do it.


Thankfully, my idea that the PARLO cards were worn thin so that the 
photo readers could see holes where there were not, was accurate.  The 
028 used fingers to feel for the holes and so made a perfect copy!


After that they instituted a policy of changing the PARLO cards or 
re-assembling on a regular basis!


The attachment is a picture of where this happened.

cheers,

Nigel Johnson








On 30/03/2020 11:41, Diane Bruce wrote:

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 09:31:56AM -0600, Warner Losh wrote:

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 8:13 AM Diane Bruce  wrote:


On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 05:33:35PM -0600, Warner Losh wrote:

On Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 5:10 PM Diane Bruce via cctalk <

cctalk@classiccmp.org>

wrote:


...

...

A dropped card deck was disaster and how many folks filled in columns 73
to 80
with an index? Not very many. :-(


Worse: 80% of the cards had that, but the other 20% didn't since they were
later bug fixes.

The decks that I had to verify were from the "in the barn" days of the
company and had sat in storage for a few years. People would remove cards
from the top box in the stack to show visitors and weren't great about
putting them back exactly in order...  So when the boss, who was sure he

And the cards bent due to humidity and stuck together while you read them right?


semi-real editor (visual TECO at a glorious 4800 baud). and I learned a lot
about FORTRAN and just how bad it could be (the boss was a great
businessman, much better than his FORTRAN prowess).

The worst Fortran I remember was from Scientists. I got to fix some of that
back in the day. Nowadays a lot of them learn C/C++ and are not horrible
coders now. Early Fortran as you remember was pretty easy to turn into spaghetti
code. WATFOR and IFTRAN helped.


Ah yes the LARGE array with indexes used as pointers trick. *ugh* I
remember.


Yea. And ugly tricks to overlay/alias heap1, heap2 and heap4 (which were
for byte, word and longword access respectively). And converting between
the different "pointer" types. It was helle ugly...  But pointers in C that

Yep. yep.


I learned a few years later were a piece of cake in comparison...

Pointers were a treat compared to the horrible Fortran mess and was very
appreciated.


Ha! We had some assembler for the most time critical bits, but we wrote
that in MACRO-11 directly and linked it in.

Yep. BTDT I did a lot of 'raw' MACRO-11 too.


Warner

Diane


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. A

Re: Fortran (Was Re: PDP-8 Straight 8 restoration) (Resubmitting without attachment)

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Since we are all at home exchanging stories, I thought I would regale 
you with my best punch card one:


My first job out of school was at Bell Canada in  Downtown Toronto.

I was trained as an FE on their Univac 418 II systems that ran a 
Canada-wide store-and-forward MSDS - Message Switching Data Service 
(MSDS - means something else now!)  I also got trained on the PDP11, 
then PDP8, and Interdata 50.


The year was 1972 or '73 I think.

Since there was very little operating to do with a real-time system, we 
didn't have operators and did all the operating ourselves.  One system 
ran H23 (it had to be shutdown for maintenance over midnight because the 
system would crash if the time went backwards after midnight), the 
other, use by stockbrokers and the T. Eaton Company started at 0600 and 
was turned down at 2100.


Being critical real time (after all, it fed about a thousand 110 baud 
teletypes across Canada :-) ) it would crash sometimes due to racing 
conditions that had not been forecast.  Instead of re-assembling the 
system (about four hours), the programmers would issue us with PARLO 
(PARameter LOader) cards to make patches after we loaded the enterprise 
code and before we started it.  This fixed the bugs by binary changes.


One morning, I was on duty as the 0600 system crashed immediately after 
I started it.  As trained, I switched all the peripherals over to the 
backup machine and loaded the program on there, carrying the PARLO cards 
over and running them before I started that system. Same crash happened, 
while the panic dump was still running between the first computer and 
the Uniservo VI C.


Lots more attempts happened, including running heavy cables across the 
floor to patch in spares that were not on the transfer switch, until 
first, second, and finally third level managers were standing behind me 
as I tried new things.  "A 20-year old does not need this kind of 
stress", I thought!


Upper management wanted to 'get somebody else' to work the computer by 
my boss told me to stand fast.  Suddenly, I had an idea.  We had an old 
IBM 028 punch sitting at the back of the room.


"Go and copy these PARLO cards" I said to the programmer.  She scowled 
at being told what to do by this young kid, especially since she was 
management and I was not. But as nobody had any better ideas the 
managers told her to do it.


Thankfully, my idea that the PARLO cards were worn thin so that the 
photo readers could see holes where there were not, was accurate. The 
028 used fingers to feel for the holes and so made a perfect copy!


After that they instituted a policy of changing the PARLO cards or 
re-assembling on a regular basis!


The attachment is a picture of where this happened.

cheers,

Nigel Johnson








On 30/03/2020 11:41, Diane Bruce wrote:

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 09:31:56AM -0600, Warner Losh wrote:

On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 8:13 AM Diane Bruce  wrote:


On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 05:33:35PM -0600, Warner Losh wrote:

On Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 5:10 PM Diane Bruce via cctalk <

cctalk@classiccmp.org>

wrote:


...

...

A dropped card deck was disaster and how many folks filled in columns 73
to 80
with an index? Not very many. :-(

Worse: 80% of the cards had that, but the other 20% didn't since they 
were

later bug fixes.

The decks that I had to verify were from the "in the barn" days of the
company and had sat in storage for a few years. People would remove cards
from the top box in the stack to show visitors and weren't great about
putting them back exactly in order... So when the boss, who was sure he
And the cards bent due to humidity and stuck together while you read 
them right?


semi-real editor (visual TECO at a glorious 4800 baud). and I learned 
a lot

about FORTRAN and just how bad it could be (the boss was a great
businessman, much better than his FORTRAN prowess).
The worst Fortran I remember was from Scientists. I got to fix some of 
that

back in the day. Nowadays a lot of them learn C/C++ and are not horrible
coders now. Early Fortran as you remember was pretty easy to turn into 
spaghetti

code. WATFOR and IFTRAN helped.


Ah yes the LARGE array with indexes used as pointers trick. *ugh* I
remember.


Yea. And ugly tricks to overlay/alias heap1, heap2 and heap4 (which were
for byte, word and longword access respectively). And converting between
the different "pointer" types. It was helle ugly... But pointers in C 
that

Yep. yep.


I learned a few years later were a piece of cake in comparison...

Pointers were a treat compared to the horrible Fortran mess and was very
appreciated.


Ha! We had some assembler for the most time critical bits, but we wrote
that in MACRO-11 directly and linked it in.

Yep. BTDT I did a lot of 'raw' MACRO-11 too.


Warner

Diane



--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. A

Re: Identifying Machine for DEC Memory

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I have a copy of the DECDirect catalog dating back to somewhere in the 
90's, and it runs under W98 on a VM under SuSE!


I search for the 2-5-2 part number with no results, although it has 
MS01,MS02, MD42, and MS-62.


I used to have a cross reference to 2-5-2 numbers somewhere and if I 
find it I will have another try.,


Sorry!

Nigel


On 01/04/2020 10:39, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:

On Wed, 1 Apr 2020 at 16:13, Rob Jarratt  wrote:

This is the listing: 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIntage-DEC-VS4000-memory-SIMM-50-19464-02/223624600040

That is... not very informative. :-(

I also note that the listing just says VS4000 and does not specify a model.

It could be one of 5 different models, all of different speeds: a
4000/60, 90, 90A, 96 or VLC.

Could you just put the DIMM onto a flatbed scanner or something?

The -12 on the chip part number implies 120ns RAM to me. That is slow
by modern standards -- before EDO came in, PCs tended to take 70ns,
80ns was slow and 60ns was fast. 120ns would be quick enough for a
4000/60 or 4000/90, marginal for a 4000/90a and too slow for a VLC or
4000/96.

Speeds from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAXstation#VAXstation_4000_Model_VLC

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: State of New Jersey needs COBOL programmers

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

There were a lot of differing opinions, some of which held out over 
time. Even Fred Brooks had to admit that David Parnas was right about 
data encapsulation



On 05/04/2020 15:53, geneb via cctalk wrote:

On Sun, 5 Apr 2020, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:

Edsger Dijksta said, "The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its 
teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense."


I'm pretty sure he said that about BASIC, and I'm totally bummed he 
died before I could bitch slap him over it. ;)


g.

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: pdp11/05 key?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

How about a CA Naked Mini, I may have a picture somewhere!

On 09/04/2020 13:42, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
MOST of the other PDP machines use the XX2247 key, which is a 
tubular one.

But, THIS thread is about the weird one that is NOT tubular.

Here is my locksmith-cut 11/05 key attached to my pdp11 keyfob:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3110483

The key fob is pretty cool!


But, we like hardcore porn.
How about some pictures of the machine?
(key in the lock, with covers off, and panels open!)


On Thu, 9 Apr 2020, Norman Jaffe wrote:

I hope that you mean 'hardware porn', not 'hardcore porn'... :)


We like hardcore hardware.
Got any pictures of bare core planes?


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: DEC QBUS Backplanes

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

The actual sockets were always labelled with Digital's trademarks, but 
they sold them to OEMs to do what they like with them.  We OEM'd for the 
Components Group, at one time placed a million dollar order of stuff 
including boxes of those backplane sockets!


cheers,

Nigel



On 17/04/2020 21:40, Paul Anderson via cctalk wrote:

I remember the VT72 had a non-standard backplane in it, but I don't
remember the details.

Paul

On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 8:10 PM Bill Gunshannon via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


On 4/17/20 8:36 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:

Hm. Plessy backplane?

No name on the phenolic board part but the QBUS sockets are labeled
"Digital Equipment Corporation".

bill


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Wanted for non-profit public museum: DEC VT100

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Where is this to be displayed?  I can't help you with the VT100 but I 
was very involved in the PDP11/40 machine that David McLey built his 
software on!


In fact, I worked until 1 in the morning the night before he had a 
meeting with the financiers from New York to finance project, when it 
failed the day before and DEC could not get somebody out to help!


cheers,

NIgel Johnson



On 20/04/2020 14:12, barry bortnick via cctalk wrote:

Old IBM magnetic media

I am hoping someone can help me with a project. I’m volunteer at our local
music museum (National Music Centre/Studio Bell.) They are restoring a
vintage Synclavier, an early digital audio workstation, which happens to
have an embedded DEC PDP 11/23. Part of the museums purpose is to restore,
maintain and make available these instruments for musicians to use in
addition to static displays.

The Synclavier should have a matching VT100, but that is the only component
the museum does not currently have for this functioning device. Yes, the
VT100 can be easily emulated, but as a museum, historical accuracy is also
vital.

I was wondering if anybody had any leads on a VT100 that might be donated?

Thanks for any help!


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Wanted for non-profit public museum: DEC VT100

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I thought they were the same!  Maybe the name was changed when he 
founded Syntronics with his partners form NYC!


A bit too far for my wanderings! The last time I was in Calgary I picked 
up a horrible disease while on a five-hour layover at the airport!


cheers,

Nigel


On 20/04/2020 15:02, barry bortnick via cctalk wrote:

It's located at the Calgary based National Music Centre/Studio Bell in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
I have to correct the original posting, it's a McLeyvier, not a Synclavier.

-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Nigel Johnson via
cctalk
Sent: April 20, 2020 12:19 PM
To: barry bortnick via cctalk 
Subject: Re: Wanted for non-profit public museum: DEC VT100

Where is this to be displayed?  I can't help you with the VT100 but I was
very involved in the PDP11/40 machine that David McLey built his software
on!

In fact, I worked until 1 in the morning the night before he had a meeting
with the financiers from New York to finance project, when it failed the day
before and DEC could not get somebody out to help!

cheers,

NIgel Johnson



On 20/04/2020 14:12, barry bortnick via cctalk wrote:

Old IBM magnetic media

I am hoping someone can help me with a project. I’m volunteer at our
local music museum (National Music Centre/Studio Bell.) They are
restoring a vintage Synclavier, an early digital audio workstation,
which happens to have an embedded DEC PDP 11/23. Part of the museums
purpose is to restore, maintain and make available these instruments
for musicians to use in addition to static displays.

The Synclavier should have a matching VT100, but that is the only
component the museum does not currently have for this functioning
device. Yes, the
VT100 can be easily emulated, but as a museum, historical accuracy is
also vital.

I was wondering if anybody had any leads on a VT100 that might be donated?

Thanks for any help!



--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from
me to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any
number of system administrators along the way.
 Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print
this message


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Univac 490 Gallery Talk - 1963 Real Time Computer

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Thanks for the link.  I am sure I am going to come down and see your 
site when this crisis is over!


I was an FE on three Univac 418 IIs at Bell Canada in Toronto between 
1971 and 1975.


Don't suppose you have any 418s there?

cheers,

Nigel


On 22/04/2020 08:52, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:

A true treasure and worth the trip to System Source to see in person.
First class stuff there!  (When it reopens, ug)

On Tue, Apr 21, 2020, 7:16 PM rar via cctalk  wrote:


The System Source Computer Museum is closed due to COVID-19, so we are
making some video gallery talks.

Here is the first one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq7aVCc2GP8

The video describes some of the applications of this 57 year old computer
including it original use at Goddard Space Flight Center

Bob Roswell
mus...@syssrc.com
https://museum.syssrc.com

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Dixie Canner CPT 8000?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Does anybody have a wp made by AES?

In the late 70's, they were experimenting with voice recognition for 
their systems. We were a nearby DEC Components OEM and had a hundred or 
so LSI11/23 modules in stock.  They sent an engineer over to our plant, 
took out the whole stock, and replaced the 13.824 MHz clock crystal 
module with the output of a function generator to see how high they 
could overclock it to get the response they needed for voice 
recognition. I think they bought the 4 or 5 that passed diagnostics with 
the highest clock speed, somewhere near 40 MHz IIRC.


cheers,

Nigel


On 24/04/2020 21:50, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

It really is a shame that little attention is paid to the early WaPro
vendors.  I remember that we had an Artec system, with a floor-standing
dual 8" drive box and a Diablo KSR Hitype with an attached one-line display.

Artec was acquired by Dictaphone, who was then swallowed by Pitney
Bowes, who then got out of the rather crowded word processor market.

I can't find a photo of the original blue Artec box on the web; only the
later PB "Dual display" models.

I mean, who remembers Qyx or Vydec?

--Chuck


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Dixie Canner CPT 8000?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Thank you for the link.  I really enjoyed seeing that video! Maybe there 
was another one done on the great Volker-Craig/NABU catastrophe, which I 
believe is another example of government getting involved with business 
and screwing it up.  I was at their factory when they were trying to 
liquidate - selling VT100-compatible terminals for peanuts - I got a 
VC100 and VC3100 (with TEK 4010 emulation) for a few hundred dollars each!


cheers,

NIgel


On 24/04/2020 22:25, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

On 4/24/20 6:58 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:

Does anybody have a wp made by AES?

In the late 70's, they were experimenting with voice recognition for
their systems. We were a nearby DEC Components OEM and had a hundred or
so LSI11/23 modules in stock.  They sent an engineer over to our plant,
took out the whole stock, and replaced the 13.824 MHz clock crystal
module with the output of a function generator to see how high they
could overclock it to get the response they needed for voice
recognition. I think they bought the 4 or 5 that passed diagnostics with
the highest clock speed, somewhere near 40 MHz IIRC.


Some years ago, I received a Harris/AES hard-sector 8" floppy from a
friend of a newspaper reporter.  Took me forever to decode the format,
after which I wasn't able to locate the customer.

I do recall that those systems were quite popular in the newspaper
trade, however.

Here's a video documentary from CBC relating the sad story of that
Canadian tech outfit.

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1890827641


--Chuck

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: AT&T PC 6300

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

You might find someone on an Olivetti forum who is interested :-)


On 11/05/2020 08:35, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:


I have never seen one mentioned but is there anyone  here
with an interest in these?  I found a still sealed copy of
the Software Development Set Ver. 2.0.  What's it worth?

bill


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Replacing Power LED on MicroVAX 3100/95 Power Supply

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

If all you need it that little mounting collet, I have a dozen or so of 
them somewhere for the price of postage from Canada!


cheers,

Nigel


On 13/05/2020 02:23, Rob Jarratt via cctalk wrote:

That's fantastic Maciej! I often buy from Farnell, so there is no issue with
getting those parts myself. When I have accumulated enough wants to warrant
an order I will get them.

Regards

Rob


-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Maciej W.

Rozycki

via cctalk
Sent: 13 May 2020 02:41
To: Peter Coghlan ; General Discussion: On-Topic
and Off-Topic Posts 
Subject: Re: Replacing Power LED on MicroVAX 3100/95 Power Supply

On Sun, 10 May 2020, Peter Coghlan via cctalk wrote:


I seem to remember people saying it is quite difficult to replace
these, mainly because you can't get them out without breaking the
holder. Is that right? Has anyone done this successfully and have any

tips?

Is this the green LED in a H7821 PSU? I managed to get one out of the
holder with a bit of difficulty before I realised I could have left it
in place and the board can just about get past it when the plug at the
far end of the leads feeding it is plugged out from the board.

  If the holder is the same as with the H7826 PSU, then it's a generic part

still

manufactured.  I bought whatever was the minimum quantity sold by Farnell
when I broke one along with the LED a few years ago.  I still have a few
available and I could post one set once I am back to my UK home (which is
given the current situation regrettably not going to happen anytime soon).
Otherwise you can order it yourself:
.


Are there any recommendations for a replacement? If I remember
correctly the LEDs used in those days were not as bright as modern
ones and a modern one would end up being much brighter because of the

higher voltage maybe?

Maybe it would be possible to tack blobs of solder onto what's left of
the leads on the original and use them to attach fine leads, digging
out a small amount of the LED casing around the leads if necessary?

  I chose an LED matching the original colour, also of the case, as closely

as

possible:
, but

still

haven't installed it (well, ahem, I need to fix the PSU itself first), so

I can't

comment on the result.  I could post one of those along with the holder if
needed (subject to the condition noted above).

  An LED will dim with use, so you may not be able to closely match a worn

one

with a brand new part, but I suppose you don't actually need to be
*that* exact with your equipment, do you?  Otherwise you can always put a
resistor in series to dim the light produced.

  HTH,

   Maciej


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I know where you are coming from. Starting out as an FE I was only 
initially trained in assembler - specifically to trace each instruction 
through the machine for troubleshooting!  My first database was written 
in ART418 (Assembler for Real Time/ Univac 418 :-))Later I learned C and 
used it to do any real programming.


When the 'big iron' computer industry was taken over by the peecee, I 
went into teaching ECE at college.  For 25 years I was always trying to 
teach my students efficiency in coding - especially important until the 
latter years in embedded systems.


Now even embedded systems are running with gigahertz clock speeds!  Over 
my career I have seen the change from three assembler courses in a 
six-semester program to just one 'so they can get their hands wet'!


In the end, when asked 'why do we have to learn this?' I ended up just 
saying "When embedded systems start displaying really weird problems in 
a worldwide installed base, some knowledge of assembler may be the only 
way to fix it.  People who can will be the first to be hired and the 
last to go if a company down-sizes! Even when teaching C I showed them 
how to get down and understand the assembler in the debugger.


I am retired from teaching now now and write in C and SQL :-) One day I 
will do some PDP-11 assembler just for old time's sake on my PiDP-11!


cheers,

Nigel


On 22/05/2020 08:06, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:


On 5/22/20 2:56 AM, Rod Smallwood via cctalk wrote:

Now that is really cool. Good old MS

In '83 I was working for DEC and had access to things like BASIC+.

I was amazed at what they could do on a micoprocessor.



In my early days :-)  I was given a project to develop programs
for an LSI-11/02 with 28KW of memory and RX02 8" floppies.  I
got the project because the mainframe programmers I worked with
did not believe anything serious could be done in a machine that
small.  I developed programs that later e\went production using
MACRO-11, Pascal, Fortran and COBOL.  I doubt the products of
modern computer science education could duplicate what I did.
Efficiency is no longer a consideration.  Just throw more hardware
at the problem.

bill

 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: BYTE Magazines

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Actually, yes.  I had the first two years of them bound - the first 
issue sold to me personally by Wayne Green, and let them go for a song 
.  A couple of years later each bound edition was advertised for $200 - 
that was in 1995 prices!


No idea wha tthey woul dbe worth now.

cheers,

NIgel


On 02/06/2020 19:15, Kevin Parker via cctalk wrote:
I know the response to this might be quite subjective and depends on 
your particular interests.


Do BYTE magazines have any collectability (maybe even from a 
historical perspective or something else)?


I have to make some decisions about space (the perennial problem for a 
collector of course) and I have quite a few of these taking up a few 
shelves.


Thank you.


Kevin Parker


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Malfunctioning VT240 - help please

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

One trick I found with the -5V if it is driven by  a charge pump: check 
the voltage. If it is being pulled down since the charge pump cannot 
supply the current, just disconnect the charge pump and put a lab supply 
in its place.  The increased current will clean out whatever is shorting 
it to ground without harming any good chips.  If you are lucky a puff of 
smoke will identify the chip. Otherwise there may be enough memory 
running to give you a diagnostic message to say which bit.


I did it once on an $1800 board, all chips soldered in, results in minutes!

cheers,

Nigel


On 11/06/2020 16:33, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote:

On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 2:37 PM Adrian Graham via cctalk
 wrote:

The 4116's are soldered to the board, too

You’ve just mentioned the magic 4116 word, I’d bet some of your dollars that 
it’s either one of those that’s gone south or the -5V required to run them

Definitely check the -5V for the 4116s.

-ethan


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Ancient transistor ?computer board

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I get the same, no matter how carefully I cut and paste either link.

Sure looks like a standard NO-ENTRY road sign to me!

Nigel ve3id


On 16/06/2020 12:00, Richard Pope via cctalk wrote:

Chuck,
    I get the same thing!
GOD Bless and Thanks,
rich!

On 6/16/2020 10:56 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

Sorry, Peter, but when pasting your links into my browser, I get a white
square with a circle with a hyphen in the center.  Nothing more.

Perhaps it's a permission issue?

--Chuck



On 6/16/20 7:51 AM, Peter Van Peborgh via cctalk wrote:

Guys,

I have acquired this board and have trouble assigning it to a 
particular

computer manufacturer and type:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/byRPH3wCR2aqxGX9U8BZfFTT_XtF7QCKSyVXoNmGIk 

UheiJ5BWqxYaCWdEshppLGYkOqUD7fl9XNeVzO_tDRKVOtbC3Js7T-pOvNUHs9MY9A36fc7dU6ro 

1i7hx9Uhcfc6ukEGIdC5Ac6aTQhEFFoeWBxiI6Z24hZdvq1r6vRb4o-Lj778Wbo15hwxu0JxMuxE 

tcopNv0FG0_g6nUv0Eofalqu4TmgPfUWVCd4Y4LdA0pnhDRMYF5c2ASzS00TsyukCVrUyr298tjo 

vztVzUGEPHNL1beVCriuQIBLITaEMX3N8EBDuxpfav0vHFuyy9yfAgUI4uJB9qT6aFGEk2KplIVt 

yNWZf9phTdj-jLtqns9WvdA9Ur2klrk4uPzMyWg6SKTKRlpMrvbJuMnqZodzxPFPvWCG5--kVVBD 

KRAXW8xOTOPyxXx0xrcPifO49ni2SFYIkZgTb9d4gzvJaM8ugEb-jqHlc7uqHz5glwe4PfoN838w 

zMozr43veZSNHRTm9IMfON-w7xvbVufJpa_MzhuaTlKf9pvVcRIuxfhG4pMeVq7K6phhHpsKPfG5 

h4BRgDSimCE8mToI35IWS3Ty8j01-6bibKH_kB-t35aIdkv7JIC-YZ1sDoguSdyk8h1xbM2d9i_U 

LFQYVC0oCHESgEGdqzGO3ntgwmV4khjgaQkcp2Bk-TuC7Nwrl57JI=w654-h871-no?authuser= 


0

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HvltevPwIvyJF0qiAJR6wCAkI4lHfFGL2Gos5uoT4a 

qEJNFBAwJ3m6XX8E6k0m515EYgZJMaCwFGXiGiTCkxDeT396EjsbkukK3_XYqNDjfU8o3Pbtdq8z 

vm_q7MXShANXVFUL2wjXEbAhvBug1h42tZnxpDaxTCeNIHjqF2bgs6J_S3wCjmx538E4AuHCHxrr 

CqIr8yvL7AGlZXCWe8u05YNNZbIrUCYHbTtxh15hc0SwfRPzQ2U2v-pPxHs7-rx5mPpwxovbp24a 

CdwLBf5RRvvEZWZgyDGKG8xdF-al4kQdZMgxrVVXFMse3ee_J-QaYgALUxckGeWp2QxM4wolrd8Q 

Y1PqaMaTgbws5WSrOeBBBZrhmrUeL4TzZAlCA4-FqtRpoPIA339y9JRixB8Q6LlUeNsWzlqGqkvC 

JSCHlh_hpCXgwemhOtF4B1CLvNGs-PSZjTsnj_KOeSgeINz5Sc6TCrHmnxCcIY6D42aKMJRHZ9I9 

7Z02FLsKwN6IKLxjifZvrkmEX4L8qXLbd8cuF0uf1PMjwC9WNC1_QpOmMiJOrBloG9pdrHRGvmfR 

RPQE7c6_HxVklEpIbxqkLmQVkKF-oM8VYS3A11tvslxiZUcvQcEhuEYhPLoqTD8PDikYhxKyVLhq 

S0DC-bIVBDDLeqiegQelHFjhptKwgs-0Q5mMrxvE6rdsd6-ipEf5Q=w654-h871-no?authuser= 


0


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: Unknown Intel blinkenlight panel circa 1973

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I remember that shortage of memory chips. People in my office were all 
blaming it the Ayatollah Khomeni!


On 16/06/2020 20:13, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

On 6/16/20 2:29 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:


It's a stack of 16 memory cards covered in 4116 DRAMs and a couple of
control/management  boards that cable over to the 11/70 the same way a
DEC MK11 box does.

Oh yeah--I remember when 4116/2116 DRAMs were still new and in short
supply.   The local Intel sales rep dropped off a number of 2108s
("half-good" 2116s) as a stopgap.  There was a suffix on each one that
specified whether the bank (there were two "banks" in the 2116), should
be high or low.

I still have a few of those.   Interestingly enough, some weren't bad
enough that prevented me from using them as 16Kb parts.

In any case, they were a BIG improvement over the 22-pin 0.400" 2107
commodity parts.

--Chuck


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: IBM vacuum tubes

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

An electronic parrot in the vacuum tube days? -- must have been very large!

On 22/06/2020 07:56, William Donzelli via cctalk wrote:

Thanks!  What is the secret decoder ring that tells you 188 means GE?

EIA manufacturer codes. These were often applied to private and house
branded labelled tubes. Other numbers are 274 for RCA, 280 for
Raytheon, 158 for DuMont, and so forth.

EIA codes were used for non-tube electronic parrots.

--
Will


 


--
Nigel Johnson
MSc., MIEEE, MCSE
VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU

Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!


You can reach me by voice on Skype:  TILBURY2591

If time travel ever will be possible, it already is. Ask me again yesterday

This e-mail is not and cannot, by its nature, be confidential. En route from me 
to you, it will pass across the public Internet, easily readable by any number 
of system administrators along the way.
   Nigel Johnson 


Please consider the environment when deciding if you really need to print this message

Re: PDP-11 tape question

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Sometimes I had only lunch hour to do PMs, and one office worker always 
ate into my time because she had to 'finish something'.


Pretty soon I found that  [ 2 ; 9 y would put all ANSI terminals 
into continuous self-test, and that solved the problem:-)


Those were the days!

cheers,

Nigel


On 24/06/2020 17:12, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:

On 6/24/20 1:23 PM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:


The 1052 Selectric console on the 360's were not on a channel, but
driven via direct I/O directly from the CPU microcode.  (Yes, the
console has a pseudo channel address that made you THINK it was on a
channel, but it actually wasn't.)

One prank to pull on an operator was to write a CCW chain to ring the
1052 bell and then to a TIC back to the bell ring CCW.

At least on DOS/360, pretty much impossible to kill without doing an
IPL, as the keyboard would be locked.

Fun from my younger days.

--Chuck


--
Nigel Johnson, Sc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org

Re: IBM System/370 turns 50 years old

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I remember the day!  I was in school then, and had  an older friend who 
worked at IBM.  He had previously told me that they had bought the 
entire (416)360 exchange for their offices, and I asked him if they were 
all going to change to 370 now!


cheers,

Nigel



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 30/06/2020 16:44, Kyle Owen via cctalk wrote:

Happy birthday to the 370! Looks like it was released to the press on 30
June 1970.

https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PR370.html

Kyle

Re: More DECnet/E items

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

No, I spoke to him in April/May and had  a date booked to go and pick up
stuff from his home, but then the warning about social distancing came
about and he told me to postpone.

At the time he was moving from his house and wanted everything gone, but
I don't know if he has done that yet as he has not called to re-schedule
the pickup of what he is throwing out :-(

cheers,

Nigel



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 03/07/2020 04:43, Jonas Otter via cctalk wrote:
> On 2020-07-02 19:00,jw...@classiccmp.org wrote:
>
>> Message: 6
>> Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2020 12:51:42 -0500
>> From: 
>> To: "'Paul Koning'" , "'General Discussion:
>>  On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" ,  "'Tony
>>  Nicholson'" 
>> Subject: RE: More DECnet/E items
>> Message-ID: <001801d64fd0$47911290$d6b337b0$@classiccmp.org>
>> Content-Type: text/plain;charset="us-ascii"
>>
>> --
>> Nice.  I looked at fixing RT11 RTS applications like MACRO, but that's not
>> possible because the RT11 date format stops in the early 21st century (5 bit
>> year field).  Perhaps RT-11 has created a solution, but if so I don't know
>> it.
>> --
>>
>> It was my understanding that Jerome Fine did y2k fixes (commercially) for
>> rt11 years ago. Is he still around the list?
>>
>> J
> Apparently Jerome Fine has not posted anything since July 2016. I believe he 
> is/was retired and fairly old, it might be that he is deceased.
>

Re: Ancient transistor ?computer board (Peter Van Peborgh)

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I just copied the email to a friend who was at CDC ad he says they were
from the CDC3100.

cheers,

Nigel


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 07/07/2020 13:29, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
>
>> On Jun 18, 2020, at 4:14 PM, Peter Van Peborgh via cctalk 
>>  wrote:
>>
>> OK, now here are some pics that should be available to everybody. I hope.
>>
>> https://photos.app.goo.gl/h64tye8ecmPHQfJD7
>>
>> Smells of (early) 1960s transistorized.  
>> No helpful marking apart from 
>> *"GATE JJ01" on SIDE A. (components).
>> *"C NT OL DATA" on side B (solder traces).
>>
>> Big transistors are Motorola "180376008". Also, any ideas what the "246 636
>> B" boxes are, they have four legs?
>>
>> A curse on TinyURL and praise to Camiel Vanderhoven.
>>
>> peter
> Since CDC was mentioned I forwarded the question to a list of CDC people and 
> CDC system hobbyists.  Here's a reply that may be useful:
>
>> On Jul 6, 2020, at 8:59 PM, Joe Cychosz <3ksn...@ecn.purdue.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Originally I said not CDC but I found this on ebay.
>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-CONTROL-DATA-Computer-Module-PCB-196Os/283900083657
>>
>> I had seen boards like this earlier and have a few but they are LEC 
>> (lockhead electronics corporation).  Interesting this one has lec on 1 side 
>> and cdc on the other side.  I suspect CDC manufactured these for LEC.  CDC 
>> could have been secondary contractor for Lockhead on a government project.
>>
>> Joe

Re: RK11-D "diskless" test ZRKJE0???

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

The error signal was wire-or'ed through up to four drives, so it must be
terminated somewhere - IIRC there was a Unibus terminator in the last
drive, but it has been 45 years since I worked on them, the little grey
cells are fading _\:-)

cheers, Nigel

Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 09/07/2020 20:02, Robert Armstrong via cctech wrote:
>   I have an 11/04 with an RK11-D.  I have a couple of RK05s, but I
> wanted to test the controller before I start working on the drives. 
> The PDP11 Diagnostic Handbook says that ZRKJ?? "checks only the
> drive-independent logic of the RK11 controller. no drive is
> needed..."  I assumed that meant it was a diskless test, but now I'm
> not sure that's true.  Can anyone confirm or deny this? Does anyone
> have a listing of ZRKJE0?
>
>   My RK11-D has the BC11 drive cable plugged into the backplane, but
> the free end of the cable is just lying on the floor.  No drive is
> connected.  The test fails with
>
>     RK11 LOGIC TEST I
>     MAINDEC-11-DZRKJ-E
>
>     REGISTER NOT CLEARED
>       PC   REGADD    RECVD
>     002560  177402  10
>
>  177402 is the RKER register and bit 15 is DRE - "Drive Error".
> According to the manual this bit is set when the AC power to the drive
> is lost, which given that I don't have a drive at all, doesn't sound
> unreasonable.  Continuing ZRKJ?? also gives
>
>     REGISTER NOT CLEARED
>       PC   REGADD    RECVD
>     002560  177404  140200
>
>     RKCS ERROR
>       PC    WROTE   READ
>     002636  02  140202
>
> 177404 is the RKCS register and the first two bits are ERROR and HARD
> ERROR.  These are both set by the DRE bit in RKER and aren't really a
> surprise.
>
>   I'm starting to wonder if this diagnostic really works w/o a drive
> attached, or if these errors are expected.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob
>

Diloq SQ703 to SQ706 conversion

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I'm getting back to trying to restore my MicroVax II.  Existing
controllers are ESDI and MFM, disks hard to find.

So I would like to convert a brand-new DQ703 I have to SQ706 so I can
mount SCSI disks.

I understand it is just  a prom change.

Does anybody have any info, or perhaps a PROM image?

cheers,

Nigel

-- 
Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org

Re: Diloq SQ703 to SQ706 conversion

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Chris, if I had that ESDI drive I could at least get a system onto the
machine to explore further!

Where are you? Could you mail it to me in Toronto, Canada?

How much moolah do you need to do this?

cheers,

Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 16/08/2020 15:16, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
> Don't know much about the Dilogs (other than there were tape and disk
> versions) but ESDI disks can still be found on Ebay, I have a spare
> 150mb drive if you need it. They are quite quick all things
> considered, and some of the ESDI controllers had pretty good hardware
> acceleration features in addition to block and burst mode DMA.
>
> C
>
> (running 327mb ESDI disks on my 11 and am very happy with performance)
>
> On 8/16/2020 11:24 AM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
>> I'm getting back to trying to restore my MicroVax II.  Existing
>> controllers are ESDI and MFM, disks hard to find.
>>
>> So I would like to convert a brand-new DQ703 I have to SQ706 so I can
>> mount SCSI disks.
>>
>> I understand it is just  a prom change.
>>
>> Does anybody have any info, or perhaps a PROM image?
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Nigel
>>

Re: Diloq SQ703 to SQ706 conversion

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Thanks for the reply, Glen.

Now, I am not sure where I got that info from, but I believe it was from
this list or maybe netbsd-vax.

My SQ703s have an unpopulated area near the 50 pin connector, and are of
one of the later versions. I have always assumed that was for extra
drivers to do differential SCSI. Is it possible that your board with the
external drivers is for DI?  Or maybe it was an earlier version?

Either way, is your 706 the one without the daughter board?  I have also
heard that the board is capable of doing TMSCP as well as MSCP, but I
can't see doing it at the same time because the register addresses would
be different.

cheers,

Nigel


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 16/08/2020 20:58, Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 16, 2020 at 8:24 AM Nigel Johnson via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> So I would like to convert a brand-new DQ703 I have to SQ706 so I can
>> mount SCSI disks.
>>
>> I understand it is just  a prom change.
>>
>> Does anybody have any info, or perhaps a PROM image?
>>
> The two Dilog SQ703 and SQ706 boards that I have are not physically
> identical. One has a SCSI bus driver daughter board and the other does
> not. I don't know if the firmware is swappable between the two. I
> never got around to trying that before the TMSCP board died. The MSCP
> board still worked fine the last time I used it.
>
> I also have a couple of the later SQ3703 and SQ3706 S-handle versions
> of the boards. On those I did swap the MSCP firmware into the TMSCP
> board and it then worked fine as an MSCP version.

Re: paging Jerome Fine

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I just spoke to Jerome on the phone a few days ago.  He just doesn't
answer emails!

I will be going to his house sometime in the near future, is there a
message?
cheers,
Nigel

Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype: TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 30/09/2020 13:09, jwest--- via cctalk wrote:
> Anyone know if Jerome Fine is still around and/or a good email address?
>

Re: Microvax 3100 VMS 7.3 password reset.

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Try this:

http://h30266.www3.hpe.com/odl/vax/opsys/vmsos73/vmsos73/6017/6017pro_009.html#emerg_startup_uaf


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2020-11-11 9:11 a.m., devin davison via cctalk wrote:
> I picked up a microvax 3100 this past weekend from a office that was
> shutting down.
>
> I was able to start the system up, it boots up to a login prompt for VMS
> VAX 7.3.
>
> I do not have any login info for this machine, is there a procedure i can
> follow to reset a password to an account?
>
>
>
> Image of system :
>
> https://i.postimg.cc/43bG0nSx/2020-090018.jpg

Re: when was memory "above" the terminal screen invented?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I'm pretty sure the DEC VT100 didn't have it.  It was very memory
-limited - the standard was 80x 24 and if you wanted 132 x 24 you had to
buy the advanced video option.

There was a demo program that made it look like it recovered data that
had been scrolled off the top of the screen, but I think it was just
re-sent form the computer.

cheers,

Nigel



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2020-12-13 9:37 p.m., Stan Sieler via cctalk wrote:
> Hi,
>
> First, apologies if I asked this years ago (I've searched my archives, no
> hits :)
>
> When was the concept of memory "above" the screen invented for terminals?
>
> I.e., previously displayed data that had scrolled up and off the screen ...
> but could be retrieved (usually by scrolling down).
>
> (Sometimes called "scrollback", or "offscreen memory".)
>
> (BTW, I'm talking about terminal-local memory, not a scrollback implemented
> by the computer to which the terminal is connected.)
>
> The HP 2640A, 1974, had (IIRC) several pages of memory available ... the
> user could scroll
> backwards and see what had been on the screen before it scrolled off (as
> long
> as it hadn't been lost by having too much subsequent output).
>
> I suspect the DEV VT100, 1978, had it, but I can't find definitive proof
> online (sure, I can find VT102 emulators that have scrollback, but reading
> an old VT102 manual doesn't make it clear that it has it.)
>
> thanks,
>
> Stan

Re: Macro-10 humour

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Nothing can beat HCF!

Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2020-12-14 2:39 p.m., Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
> Byte magazine in the late 70’s had a list of funny mnemonics like this.
>
> My fav was 
> SDSD - Seek Data and Scar Disk.
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Dec 14, 2020, at 07:54, Don Stalkowski via cctalk  
>> wrote:
>>
>> I came across this among some junk I had.
>>
>> Don
>>
>> .TY NEMON.DOC
>>
>> LEVEL 5  MACRO-10   MNEMONICS
>> =
>>
>>
>>
>>   COINCIDENT WITH THE RELEASE OF THE LEVEL 5 MONITOR SERIES, THE
>> MNEMONICS FOR THE HARDWARE INSTRUCTIONS USED IN THE MACRO-10
>> ASSEMBLER HAVE BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT CHANGES TO THE MONITOR, AND
>> NEW OPERATING PROCEDURES. ALTHOUGH THEY HAVE NOT ALL BEEN IMPLEMENTED
>> AS YET, A PARTIAL LISTING FOLLOWS:
>>
>> TRCETRANSLATE REDUNDANT CODE TO ETHIOPIAN
>> ROTCREQUEST OPERATOR TAKE OFF CLOTHES
>> TDCETRY TO DUMP CORE EVERYWHERE
>> HRRHASH RELOCATION REGISTERS
>> XCTEXTEND CYCLE TIME
>> ANDCMBALLOW NO DIRECT CURRENT IN MEMORY BANKS
>> AOSEALERT ONE SYSTEMS ENGINEER
>> SETNMSTART EJECTING TRANSISTORS AT NEAREST MACHINE
>> SETCMSTOP EVERYTHING TO CRASH MONITOR
>> SETAMSTART EATING TAPE ON ALTERNATE MONDAYS
>> TLCNTHROW LIFEPRESERVER INTO CHANNEL FOR NON-SWIMMER
>> MULMMONITOR UPDATE FROM LUNAR MODULE
>> MOVMSMAINTAIN ONLY VARIABLE MAGTAPE SPEED
>> FSBRIFIVE SONIC BOOMS OVER REMOTE INTERFACE
>> HRRESHIJACK REMOTE READER TO ENGINEERING SCIENCE
>> HRREMHALT AND REVERSE ROTATION ON EVERY MAGTAPE
>> JUMPEJUMBLE USERS' MEMORY ON PARITY ERROR
>> IDPBIMMEDIATELY DROP PARITY BIT
>> SETCAISUDDENLY ELECTRIFY TERMINAL ON CRUDELY ARTICULATED INPUT
>> JFFOJAIL AND FINGERPRINT FLIPPANT OPERATOR
>> ORCMBOPERATOR REQUEST TO CHANGE MAIN BATTERIES
>> SKIPSEARCH FOR KNOT IN INPUT STRING
>> SKIPLSKIP ON KNOT IN POWER LINE
>> ORCBIORDER REDUNDANT CHANNELS TO THE BACK OF THE I/O BUS
>> SUBISTART UNLOADING BAGGAGE FROM THE I/O BUS
>> PUSHPUNCH USING SEMI-CIRCULAR HOLES
>> JUMPLJUMP AND UNRAVEL MAIN POWER LINE
>> SOSLSMEAR OUTPUT ON SLOW LINE PRINTERS
>> TRONTRY TO REWIND OPERATORS' NECKTIE
>> SOSNSEND OUTPUT TO SUPERVISORS' NECKTIE
>> AOBJNADD ONE BIT TO JOB NUMBER
>> IMULMINSIST THAT MALICIOUS USERS BE LOCKED IN MEMORY
>> FMPRFORGET MEMORY PROTECTION AND RELOCATION
>> FMPRBFAKE MONITOR PROBLEMS AND RESET BRIEFLY
>> CAIECHANGE ADDRESSING TO INEFFECTIVE FROM EFFECTIVE
>> TRNTRANSLATE TO ROMAN NUMERALS
>> DPBDETACH PROCESSOR BRIEFLY
>> DIVBDECODE INTEGERS TO VERIFIED BRAILLE
>> SETCAISNICKER ON ERRONEOUS TYPEIN FOR CAI
>> DIVMBDESTROY INDIVIDUAL MEMORY BANK
>> ORCBOUTPUT A RECORD CODED IN BRAILLE
>> TRCETRANSFER ON ROMAN CATHOLIC ENGINEER
>> TLNETRANSFER ON LUTHERAN ENGINEER
>> TROATRANSFER ON ATHEIST
>> SOSSERVICE ONLY STUDENTS
>> SOJGSERVICE ONLY JEWISH GRAD STUDENTS
>> TDCTAKE DISK TO CHIROPRACTER
>> TSCATURN SYSTEM CLOCK AHEAD
>> FADRBFILTER AIR ON DETECTING ROPE BURNING
>> FADMFILTER AIR ON DETECTING MOUNTIE
>> PUSHJPROCESS USER'S SHORTHAND JOB
>> TDCATYPE DOCUMENTATION, CENSORING ANECDOTES
>> MOVEMMONITOR OUTPUTS A VULGAR ERROR MESSAGE
>> ADDMALLEVIATE DELAYS IN DECTAPE MOUNTING
>> AOSLAWAKEN OPERATOR IF SNORING LOUDLY
>> CAIECENSOR ALL INPUT FROM ENGINEERING
>> DPBDISPLAY PASSWORDS FROM BATCH
>> FSBMFAST SPLICE OF BROKEN MAGTAPE
>> BLTBEGIN LOSING TIME
>> S0JGSTACK OPERATOR (JUST GIRLS)
>> TSONTIME SLICE OF ONE NANOSECOND
>> JRSTJOG 'ROUND SEVEN TRACK TAPE
>> TSCTRANSFER SWAPPING TO CARDS
>>

Re: Emails going to spam folder in gmail

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

The IEEE also uses google!

One of my NetBSD correspondents simply blocks all mail from google
servers on his system!

cheers,

Nigel


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2020-12-29 10:04 a.m., Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
>> Google has more resources than me. How about they update their
>> systems to
>> match Internet email standards?
>
> The big problem isn't google doing it: They can do whatever they want.
>
> The problem comes when state and local governments switch to google
> mail services and now your constituents can no longer contact their
> govt officials. This happens here and it is *extremely* annoying.
>
> CZ

Re: Emails going to spam folder in gmail

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

My original email alias was from computer.org.  Then I got a mysterious
email saying that they were no longer going to offer computer.org email
aliases, so I switched to ieee.org. 

I had one site refuse to let me use my ieee.org email address to log on
since the initial request came from a google server!  He called it a
freemail account!

Strange world we live in!

cheers,

NIgel

IEEE member for 20+ years now - so I missed the computer society debacle
of which you speak.



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2020-12-29 10:43 a.m., Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
> You're kidding? I actually *wrote* the entire E-account, E-Alias, and
> E-commerce system used by the IEEE Computer Society back in 1995, and
> I keep my membership because of the mail forwarding to my home address.
>
> Amazingly enough the forms I developed are still used, and I'd guess
> the back end code as well. Not bad for 25 years. http://cs-ems.ieee.org/
>
> I left the Computer Society in 2000 after that complete fuckage
> takeover trick by Daniel Senese from the IEEE. Since then they haven't
> done much of a thing to support either computing or technology.
> Innovation there pretty much died...
>
> The fact that they would use a non-standard, monopoly, proprietary,
> privacy stealing email solution is just not a surprise at all.
>
> Ah well, things happen. We did have an amazing run there for 6 years
> but all good things
>
> CZ
>
> On 12/29/2020 10:07 AM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
>> The IEEE also uses google!
>>
>> One of my NetBSD correspondents simply blocks all mail from google
>> servers on his system!
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Nigel
>>
>>
>> Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
>> Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
>> Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2020-12-29 10:04 a.m., Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
>>>> Google has more resources than me. How about they update their
>>>> systems to
>>>> match Internet email standards?
>>>
>>> The big problem isn't google doing it: They can do whatever they want.
>>>
>>> The problem comes when state and local governments switch to google
>>> mail services and now your constituents can no longer contact their
>>> govt officials. This happens here and it is *extremely* annoying.
>>>
>>> CZ

Re: Emails going to spam folder in gmail

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Yes, I know.  I have an email from 2005 saying that I was forced to give
it up 'a few years ago' with them saying they were being discontinued,
but don't have the original email.  I lost some stuff when I converted
from Eudora to Thunderbird.  However I dropped my membership of the
computer society and printed the ieee address on all my cards, so didn't
go back.

cheers,

Nigel


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2020-12-29 11:23 a.m., Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
>> My original email alias was from computer.org.  Then I got a mysterious
>> email saying that they were no longer going to offer computer.org email
>> aliases, so I switched to ieee.org.
>
> Really? When did that happen, you should still be able to re-sign up
> for one using that link. Give it a try.
>
>> I had one site refuse to let me use my ieee.org email address to log on
>> since the initial request came from a google server!  He called it a
>> freemail account!
>
> That I can believe. Strangely enough when we built it we assumed that
> people would simply use the From: header as computer.org so they could
> get replies. However this breaks a lot of SPF obviously (because
> computer.org is not going to say they support coming from you) but spf
> didn't exist back then.
>
> Ah well. Still cool though. Let me know if it still works for you and
> if you have that message forward it to me off list.
>
> CZ
>
>>
>> Strange world we live in!
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> NIgel
>>
>> IEEE member for 20+ years now - so I missed the computer society debacle
>> of which you speak.
>>
>>
>>
>> Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
>> Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
>> Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2020-12-29 10:43 a.m., Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
>>> You're kidding? I actually *wrote* the entire E-account, E-Alias, and
>>> E-commerce system used by the IEEE Computer Society back in 1995, and
>>> I keep my membership because of the mail forwarding to my home address.
>>>
>>> Amazingly enough the forms I developed are still used, and I'd guess
>>> the back end code as well. Not bad for 25 years.
>>> http://cs-ems.ieee.org/
>>>
>>> I left the Computer Society in 2000 after that complete fuckage
>>> takeover trick by Daniel Senese from the IEEE. Since then they haven't
>>> done much of a thing to support either computing or technology.
>>> Innovation there pretty much died...
>>>
>>> The fact that they would use a non-standard, monopoly, proprietary,
>>> privacy stealing email solution is just not a surprise at all.
>>>
>>> Ah well, things happen. We did have an amazing run there for 6 years
>>> but all good things
>>>
>>> CZ
>>>
>>> On 12/29/2020 10:07 AM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
>>>> The IEEE also uses google!
>>>>
>>>> One of my NetBSD correspondents simply blocks all mail from google
>>>> servers on his system!
>>>>
>>>> cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Nigel
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
>>>> Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
>>>> Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 2020-12-29 10:04 a.m., Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
>>>>>> Google has more resources than me. How about they update their
>>>>>> systems to
>>>>>> match Internet email standards?
>>>>>
>>>>> The big problem isn't google doing it: They can do whatever they
>>>>> want.
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem comes when state and local governments switch to google
>>>>> mail services and now your constituents can no longer contact their
>>>>> govt officials. This happens here and it is *extremely* annoying.
>>>>>
>>>>> CZ

Re: Rod Coleman's personal history of founding, building & running SAGE

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

For one exciting moment there I thought that you were talking about the
Semi-Automatic Ground Environment - which a friend of mine was a tech on
in North Bay, ON, part of the DEW line!

I was getting ready to up stakes and hop off to Philadelphia!

cheers,

Nigel



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2021-01-02 8:44 p.m., Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 2, 2021, 7:11 PM Liam Proven via cctalk 
> wrote:
>
>> This may be old news -- it was new to me, though.
>>
>>
>> https://suddendisruption.blogspot.com/search/label/Booting%20Sage%20Computer
>>
>> I'm not really familiar with SAGE machines. They were not as
>> well-known in the UK, I think, being upmarket from the Apple ][ and
>> IBM PC, both of which were eye-wateringly expensive by UK standards of
>> the time.
>>
>> Also, they were terminal-based things and even back then I was
>> interested in boxes with graphics. :-)
>>
> There is a SAGE II at Kennett Classic.  When I give tours I like to compare
> and contrast the SAGE with the IBM PC, Motorola 68000 vs Intel 8086.
>
> If anyone is in the Philadelphia area stop by and we can fire them up.
> Pascal.
>
> Bill
>

Dilog SQ703 Manual anybody?

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I'd like to get a Dilog SQ703 I have to work on my microvax, does
anybody know where I can get a copy of the manual?

cheers,

Nigel

-- 
Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org

Small DEC QBUS backplane

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I'm trying to repair an LSI-11/93 that has a bus timeout problem. 
Unfortunately the BA23 box it normally sits in lives in a cupboard with
printers stowed on top of it and due to my domestic situation (small
condo) I can't get it out to scope or get a scope anywhere near it to
scope the bus.

I'm thinking that the solution would be to get a small QBUS backplane
that I can put on my desk in the middle of my test equipment.

Like a 4-slot ABAB oir even ABCD would do.

Does anybody have one they don't want?  Power supply not needed.

cheers,

Nigel

-- 

Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org

Re: Small DEC QBUS backplane

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Yes the BA11S would be too big. Can't see why not for the 11/03 chassis.
I used to make a good living upgrading 1/03 chasses with four extra bits
for the 11/23/73  (Hmm, where is my old stock of W933 bus strip!) 
Always works except in the MINC laboratory system, which used those four
pins for module identification.

Since all the memory is on-board with the 11/93 I don't think it would
make a difference unless DMA used, and I don't plan to go that far!  I
could always wire-wrap them.

Can you ship to Toronto, ON?  How much?

cheers,

Nigel



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2021-01-30 4:14 p.m., Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
> Hm. I have a 9 slot BA11-S that I have to sell/ebay/something here,
> but that's probably way too big for you. I wonder though: Would an
> 11/93 explode if put in a traditional 18 bit 11/03 chassis? The one
> with the memory refresh lines and power for core memory.
>
> Probably.
>
> CZ
>
> On 1/30/2021 12:30 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote:
>> I'm trying to repair an LSI-11/93 that has a bus timeout problem.
>> Unfortunately the BA23 box it normally sits in lives in a cupboard with
>> printers stowed on top of it and due to my domestic situation (small
>> condo) I can't get it out to scope or get a scope anywhere near it to
>> scope the bus.
>>
>> I'm thinking that the solution would be to get a small QBUS backplane
>> that I can put on my desk in the middle of my test equipment.
>>
>> Like a 4-slot ABAB oir even ABCD would do.
>>
>> Does anybody have one they don't want?  Power supply not needed.
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Nigel
>>

Re: Small DEC QBUS backplane

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

OK, thanks, Glen, i didn't think of that! Not sure why they would do
that with all memeory on-board!

One thing I though of was just buying some IDC 36-pin card edge
connectors and wiring them together for the work bench!

cheers,

Nigel



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2021-01-30 6:08 p.m., Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 2:20 PM Nigel Johnson via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> Yes the BA11S would be too big. Can't see why not for the 11/03 chassis.
>> I used to make a good living upgrading 1/03 chasses with four extra bits
>> for the 11/23/73  (Hmm, where is my old stock of W933 bus strip!)
>> Always works except in the MINC laboratory system, which used those four
>> pins for module identification.
>>
>> Since all the memory is on-board with the 11/93 I don't think it would
>> make a difference unless DMA used, and I don't plan to go that far!  I
>> could always wire-wrap them.
> The KDJ11-E 11/93 has PMI signals on the CD connectors, so you need a
> Q/CD backplane, such as the 18-bit 4x9 H9273, the 22-bit 4x9 H9276, or
> the 22-bit 4x8 H9278 (BA23 backplane).
>
> The 4x4 H9270 is a Q/Q backplane, so that would cause a conflict with
> the PMI signals on the CD connectors of the KDJ11-E 11/93.

Re: Small DEC QBUS backplane

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Thanks, Glen.  I got out of direct field work around that time, and set
up a subsidiary of Emulex in Canada - so I was more concerned with sales
figures than buses.  That makes perfect sense, I had forgotten about the
11/94. Funny how all my controllers are now Dilog, Plessey, and Sigma :-)

btw, I found an Exabyte 8200 in a pile of stuff I bought at VCF East
last year (but one :-) )  Does anybody on the list have experience
getting this to work on a Dilog SQ703 under NetBSD?

cheers,

Nigel


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2021-01-30 7:19 p.m., Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 3:58 PM Nigel Johnson via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> OK, thanks, Glen, i didn't think of that! Not sure why they would do
>> that with all memeory on-board!
>>
> The PMI interfaces of the KDJ11-B and KDJ11-E modules are used to
> interface to the M8191 KTJ11-B UNIBUS adaptor in the PDP-11/84 and
> PDP-11/94 systems.

Re: Small DEC QBUS backplane

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

I can't go very far with the EXB8200 because I don't have a cartridge
for it.  I am now trying the Compaq DLT4000.

Unfortunately there is not a lot the on-board Dilog diagnostics can do. 
I have tried sedning direct commands to it such as unload, but nothing
ha[p[pens.it is my oinly hope to get some tapoe backup!

If I try:

dd if=/dev/mt0
of=/dev/null  

I get dd: /dev/mt0: Input/output error

But if I try another LUN I get e.g.

dd: /dev/mt1: Device not configured   

So it looks like it is recognising the drive.

Maybe Compaq DLTs required something that the controller of NetBSD
driver does no know about.

Since I have lost the MTI TSV05 QIC2 controller

cheers,

Nigel



Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2021-01-30 8:52 p.m., Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 5:41 PM Nigel Johnson via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> btw, I found an Exabyte 8200 in a pile of stuff I bought at VCF East
>> last year (but one :-) )  Does anybody on the list have experience
>> getting this to work on a Dilog SQ703 under NetBSD?
> I'm not sure if I have tried an EXB-8200 and Dilog SQ703 combination,
> I might have.
> I know I have used an EXB-8200 and CMD CQD-220/TM combination numerous
> times to install 2.11BSD and RSTS/E 10.1 from tape on PDP-11 systems.
> That has worked well for me.
>
> I haven't done much with tape on MicroVAX systems.

Re: Small DEC QBUS backplane

[Nigel Johnson via cctalk]

Thank you Jim, John, and Glen.

I'll see if I can find one to tryout.

Good night,

Nigel


Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype:  TILBURY2591 nw.john...@ieee.org



On 2021-01-30 8:52 p.m., Glen Slick via cctalk wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 5:41 PM Nigel Johnson via cctalk
>  wrote:
>> btw, I found an Exabyte 8200 in a pile of stuff I bought at VCF East
>> last year (but one :-) )  Does anybody on the list have experience
>> getting this to work on a Dilog SQ703 under NetBSD?
> I'm not sure if I have tried an EXB-8200 and Dilog SQ703 combination,
> I might have.
>
> I know I have used an EXB-8200 and CMD CQD-220/TM combination numerous
> times to install 2.11BSD and RSTS/E 10.1 from tape on PDP-11 systems.
> That has worked well for me.
>
> I haven't done much with tape on MicroVAX systems.