There are some interviews with her that are QUITE
good to listen to. Should be available on YouTube or
whatever. She certainly had the LONG view on computing.
Jon
all cases. The 9500 architecture is
good for recognizing long address fields, but otherwise is
not all that efficient for general logic.
Jon
s good as Protel. (KiCad seems to still require picking
operations from a menu, Protel has user-configurable
keyboard shortcuts that are a big help. Maybe KiCad has
that and I just need to learn them.)
Jon
On 02/17/2017 01:35 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> From: Jon Elson
> I'm most concerned about the reliability of the design rules check
> ...
> If these checks miss errors, I REALLY don't want to use the package.
I'm not quite sure what's c
up on TurboCAD in
disgust. Found FreeCAD (https://www.freecadweb.org). Works on Mac, Windows,
Linux.
Several of the guys at work are using FreeCAD and doing
great stuff with it.
Jon
ormat".
CDC made a Patriot drive that used 3480 cartridges, and had
a SCSI interface.
They were serpentine drives. The CDC division was "Laser
Magnetic Storage Int'l"
Jon
s for testing, the 780 came wired for 208/240 3 phase
power, with a big 5-pin plug.
The CPU cabinet seems to have 2 Massbus controllers, I
think. So, maybe there's a Massbus disk included.
Jon
would
take fairly massive rewiring of the power control. The 3
blowers all ran off line-line power, I think, and the H7100
power supplies ran off 120V line-neutral from different phases.
Jon
, of course.
Jon
g blowers below the
circuit boards are likely to be seized and need new
bearings. Not to mention the cap banks in the power
supplies at least need to be re-formed. Likely, this
machine has not been turned on since 1990 or so, (just
guessing).
Jon
A and the other for -3
V 390A.
Jon
On 1/1/22 2:35 PM, ben via cctalk wrote:
On 2022-01-01 12:36 p.m., Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 1/1/22 1:11 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
Just out of curiosity, how much current is needed for an
11/780?
Depending on options, the CPU cabinet would draw about
10-12 A per line, 3
ities of
air out the back. Watch out, women with short skirts, when
you walk behind the CPU!
DEC apparently designed a liquid-cooled VAX code-named
Aquarius, but it was never fielded. A later air-cooled
version was called Aridus.
Jon
helpful, but probably somebody has that.
Jon
VAX
Units of Performance (VUPs)? I /think/ that the VAX
11/780 was 1 VUP.
By definition, the /780 was 1.0 VUP. The KA630 (MicroVAX
II) was supposed to be 0.8 VUP. It beat the /780 on
floating point, supposedly.
Jon
nsible for. we never
had EMC trouble with them, they were really ROCK solid
machines. These were not the first 780 machines made, they
were delivered in about 1980 and 1982-3. Neither were ever
upgraded to /785.
Jon
rd or shunted aside.
See James Ryder or Alan Shugart, who both were forced out,
sued to prevent them from using their own names, but then
went into competition with their old companies and ran them
out of business.
Jon
is at 170V to neutral,
It should be 208V - see center grounded delta online. 240 *
sin 60 degrees = 207.8 V.
Jon
eems to be more available.
Jon
something causing the different waveform.
Jon
an oxide
layer that prevents good contact.
Removing and replacing them might improve the contact.
Jon
. I
think you could squeeze a usable 11/70 into a single rack
with modern peripherals, but No WAY for a /780. But, yes,
I'm also surprised it didn't sell.
Jon
that for this kind of memory board?
Check for Tantalum capacitors on the -15V. These often fail
after a period of not being powered and then having power
applied suddenly.
Jon
n the PLUS side on Tantalums and Oxi-Caps.
Yes, failed decoupling caps could lead to intermittent failures.
Jon
On 1/11/22 5:17 PM, Peter Coghlan via cctalk wrote:
Thanks Jon.
Here is a badly focused picture of the suspect components:
http://www.beyondthepale.ie/cctech/p1010198.jpg
WOW, I don't know what those are! They look like big
ceramic caps to me, but if they don't have any polarit
n. I
guess the permeability was not as high as real DECTapes.
Jon
very fast file system.
Well, the IBM 360 CKD disks had all files contiguous, too.
Jon
, the outer tracks ARE longer, but the whole
platter spins at the same angular velocity, so there can't
be any speed difference! Did they think there is a whole
bunch of magnetic tape inside the drive? Wow!
Jon
On 2/1/22 10:17, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk wrote:
Covering more distance in the same time means increased
speed to me!
Clearly, on a disk, the outer tracks ARE moving faster, in
terms of linear velocity.
Jon
stood your sentence above, what the "later" applied to.
Jon
On 2/2/22 12:30, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
Nice. It would be a good term to apply to VMS SYSGEN parameters that are documented as
having units "microfortnights".
A footnote in the system config guide noted that ufortnights
would be approximated at one second.
Jon
l, it will probably only hold the approximate voltage for
a few seconds, but should be long enough to see on a voltmeter.
Jon
On 2/8/22 16:35, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
On 2/8/2022 5:22 PM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 2/8/22 13:34, Douglas Taylor via cctalk wrote:
Update on this: I did put together a battery and
voltage divider to test the AXV11. The label on the A/D
module says it brings the output from
tape to a no-transitions state before it is
written on. This allows you to obliterate old data when
writing a new record, and leave gaps between records. Since
DecTape was synchronized by clock and mark tracks, that was
not needed.
Jon
sstalk was not a common issue.
But, you HAD to terminate any line over a foot, and better
to make it 6" to be sure. And, the termination and pulldown
resistors ate a LOT of power!
Jon
up a baud rate divider that was
already using AS or FAST 4-bit counters. I worked out how
much faster I could do it with ECL, and the result was not
worth it. But, back in the days when TTL was king, before
LS, AS and FAST, ECL had a REAL advantage.
Jon
, two Data General Nova (16-bit) CPUs roughly in the
center of each rack. Doesn't help that the aspect ratio of
the photo is not right.
Jon
it working, so I migrated the plotting
to a Beagle Bone with the PRU microcontroller emulating the
DMA card. Then, I migrated the Gerber-raster converter
program to FPC and cleaned it up a bit.
Jon
should be able to cross-refence them to standard
Intel EPROMs.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6rvemx9ldbbv5x/EPROMS1.jpg?dl=0
Jon
On 3/28/22 21:55, Jon Elson wrote:
On 3/28/22 17:22, Rob Jarratt via cctalk wrote:
Its 600mV, but it is more of a spike than a ripple.
That's probably not real. It looks like noise pickup from
the probe ground lead. Try disconnecting the probe tip
and see if you still get similar si
somebody would snoop on the browsing history.
Jon
esive-Multiple-Available/dp/B07TXN8TD8,
but I have no idea if it's too stiff/thick/not sticky
enough/etc.
I have some of this material on a roll. It is "Scotch"
brand 650 sensing markers "for magnetic computer tape used
on digital transports". I could send you some if you are in
the US.
Jon
%20Computers%20and%20Boards/00-Imsai/10-Imsai%20S100%20Boards/Imsai%20SIO-2%20dual%20serial%20IO/SIO%20with%20cables.JPG
You can buy the DB-25 IDC connectors, and most likely you
can buy the card edge connectors, too.
Jon
hat I got out of a dumpster. The user
interface is QUITE awful compared to modern digital scopes.
Setting the trigger level requires going through several
menus, for instance.
But, it is a decent scope except for the human-machine
interface.
Jon
On 6/27/22 08:34, Mark Kahrs via cctalk wrote:
Anyone have one of these haunting their Q bus board pile? The LSSM would
deadly like one.
OH MY! I MIGHT have one, I'm pretty sure we had a 2922 at
work, that will certainly never be used again. I will look.
Jon
think that went to recycling
about 2 years ago. Sorry!
Jon
the
clip close the contacts down onto the chip's pins. The
barrier is there to prevent the clip from sliding out of
alignment with the pins, but it doesn't work on these
ceramic packages.
Jon
dwards AFB with the
right energy to land in one shot.
It was the first all IC computer delivered. (The Apollo
Guidance Computer project started first, but due to the
complex software, it was delivered a bit later.)
Jon
On 9/4/22 18:20, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
I will be at the VCFMW both days. I am bringing a bunch
of stuff to sell. I have a big box of Q-bus boards from
my Micro-VAX II system. I also have two ESDI disks that
have VMS 4.7 on them, and an Emulex QD21 controller. I'm
hoping somebo
t you really did! But, I sure can't put my hands on it now!
Jon
On 9/5/22 16:34, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk wrote:
If anybody out there has a DQ696 or an RQDX3 available,
I'd like to hear from you!
I DO have a DQ696 that I will be bringing to the VCFMW. If
it won't read my ESDI drives formatted on an Emulex QD21,
then it is of no use to me.
Jon
On 9/7/22 10:59, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
I have the PDP-8/A from a Kierney Techney CNC machine.
Does anybody have any documentation on this system?
That would be a Kearney-Trecker machine. Maybe that
spelling will help.
Jon
I talked to Connor at the VCFMW about a QD21 that I need to
pull data off a retired hard drive.
Connor, can you contact me?
If somebody knows who this Connor is (tall slender guy with
short dark hair) can you give me his email?
Thanks,
Jon
onto movie film, the film ran through a
developer, and then was projected onto a large screen. I
don't know what the delay for film processing was, but it
must have been 30 seconds or so.
Jon
ng
out to related sources, such as this group, for any suggestions or interest.
WOW! I worked on one in 1973 or so, but it had dust get in
and wreck the drum surface.
Certainly an ambitious project, and even their schematics
are QUITE unfamiliar looking.
Jon
On 10/5/22 22:00, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 10/5/22 16:14, Stephen Buck via cctalk wrote:
Hi All,
I wanted to let the group know about a Bendix G-15
Restoration project I just launched:
https://headspinlabs.wordpress.com/bendix-g-15-restoration/
It's a pretty intimidating restoratio
inished. Without tearing the entire machine apart and
redesigning the logic, core would not make it faster.
The PDP-8S did have core memory, and for a bit serial
computer, it was fairly fast.
Jon
I believe that each instruction had the address of
the next instruction in it. That allowed you to jump to
another track for the next instruction in the sequence.
Instruction addresses were not that many bits.
Jon
there are
2 layers, it may be the inner layer is the original factory
marked wrapper for the cap. So, you might try to not cut
through the inner layer. But,, maybe don't be too worried,
as the caps definitely sound bad.
Jon
advanched russian "PDP11-clones".
Saratov-2 seems to be PDP-8 "clone"
Wow, they even copied the DEC car handles of the flip-chip
style!
Jon
systems.
Jon
I have great doubts that
it would work.
Jon
going on, because when ours went bad, they
would start blinking LEDs without any movement of stuff
inside. So, some of the chips failed internal self-test.
Or, that's how I remember it.
Jon
s NOT good for
electronics. Funny, the man-machine interface computer is a
consumer-grade PC, I think it is original, and is still
chugging along. VME boards and industrial servo drives have
gone out.
Jon
3 tapes.
Very very few of the older (I think of them as IBM or 70's/80's style) "hard
plastic" tape seals failed.
Yup, these seals were under tension. I think the failure
mechanism is the square holes in the seal band develop
cracks at the outer corners, and the tension continues to
expand the crack.
Jon
On 11/14/22 09:19, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 11/14/22 06:25, Shoppa, Tim via cctalk wrote:
I've been reporting on 9-track tape seal failures over at
least the past 2 decades here.
Very very few of the older (I think of them as IBM or
70's/80's style) "hard plasti
he sizing which the issue or what as other size bags seems to be easy to
find. TIA!
I buy shield bags from Digi-Key, but not the zip-lock style. I think Uline has
them.
Jon
loped software in a group, but it pulled together a lot of interesting
observations and anecdotes. RIP indeed!
Jon
l air-bearing.
I am located in the St. Louis, MO area.
Jon
NY years ago, I got a surplus 800 BPI 9-track key to tape
system and hacked into it to put 9-track tape on my Z-80
CP/M system. That was a fascinating project.
Jon
On 11/28/22 12:08, ben via cctalk wrote:
On 2022-11-28 10:27 a.m., Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
MANY years ago, I got a surplus 800 BPI 9-track key to
tape system and hacked into it to put 9-track tape on my
Z-80 CP/M system. That was a fascinating project.
Jon
What was the character
the amplitude exceeds a threshold.
So, unformatted Pertec is as close to the signals on the
tape as you can get in a digital format.
Jon
ent.
So, maybe that was a case of "bit rot".
So, I still use some old PC systems by necessity.
I also use an electronic design program (Protel 99 SE) that
originally ran on Win 95, then Win2K, and now I run it under
VirtualBox with Win XP on my Linux system.
Jon
ke the job easier,
but really all you need is a scope and generally a rod with
an eccentric tip to adjust the head position.
Jon
if it goes
on contaminating information repositories like this.
Jon
complicates matters.
If you need JUST ONE badly enough, you can probably keep it
going. Likely an LED could be used as a substitute. But, a
roughly equivalent bulb with the wrong base could likely be
found and hacked.
Jon
On 1/17/23 21:34, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
Another forum said a museum
in Pa won it.
LSSM (Large Scale Systems Museum)? I just donated some
stuff to them.
Jon
. The PAL requires acceleration of liftoff,
coast and deceleration when re-entering the atmosphere (at
least) before the weapon can be armed. this function is NOT
under computer control.
jon
Forwarded Message
Subject:Re: [cctalk] Re: AI applied to vintage interests
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:59:11 -0600
From: Jon Elson
To: Sellam Abraham via cctalk
On 1/19/23 15:25, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote:
On Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 12:43 PM Chris via
tronic CAD work, and the mouse moves when I go to click
a button. That requires me to have a death grip on the
mouse, and that gives me carpal tunnel symptoms. You can
take your fingers off the trackball before pressing the
buttons, then there is no cursor motion.
Jon
On 1/26/23 16:07, Don R via cctalk wrote:
What about the SCM Kleinschmidt spin printer.
Yup, I think those did 30 CPS.
Jon
RY slow in graphics mode.
When laser printers came out, I was VERRRY glad to move into
the future!
Jon
ectric field, not magnetic, and the electric
field is sensed by a field effect transistor. I have NEVER
heard of core wear-out in magnetic core memories. The
flipping of the magnetic polarization in ferrite materials
does not break down the crystal structure.
Jon
Jon
ficult as the amount of stuff to be
backed up is just a bit too big for a single blu-ray disc.
I also do much more frequent backups to a large hard drive.
Jon
) for that temperature.
My recollection is the 1620 had the core planes in a tank of
oil, and the 360/50 had a heater in the air stream flowing
past the local store core stack.
Jon
around as necessary.
I have an Emulex TC03 (TC0310201-SSB on the label).
Jon
,
it must have been the size of a 360 CPU! We had a GCR
controller from Storage Tech. in 1982 or so that was the
same size as a PDP 11/44 large cabinet. CDC Keystone drives
(92185) had it integrated into the 680x controller micro,
which I thought was pretty amazing.
Jon
it hit those
little gaps. This would be on 800 BPI NRZI tapes, of course.
Jon
was skew.
If you ever adjusted the skew using a skew tape, you could
clearly SEE on a scope how close 800 BPI came to the limits
of tape weave (and it WAS close).
Jon
e 3420 drive, iirc a bit shorter,
but very roughly the same occupied square footage.
OK, well, 1973 would have been built from MST instead of
SLT, that gives a huge density improvement.
Thanks for the update,
Jon
mputer.
Yes, there is a "famous" picture of a LINC set up at the
bottom of the stairs of Mary Allen Wilkes parent's home
(Nobody wanted to carry the beast up the stairs...)
This was in 1965. She wrote the definitive OS for that
machine (LAP6).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Allen_Wilkes
Jon
.
The Bendix G-15 also fits that description.
Jon
On 3/8/23 20:01, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 6:46 PM Jon Elson via cctalk
wrote:
On 3/8/23 14:31, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote:
THe LGP-30 was to arguably the first personal electronic (non analog)
computer, my opinion, but it covers all of the bases as I see them
e cabinets.
Jon
rives for that.
So, I got one of those floppy emulators that takes a USB
thumb drive and emulates a bunch of 1.44 MB floppies. It
worked great until I figured out how to get the network
running on that machine. (It runs Win 95 and needs it
because user programs access hardware directly.
Jon
es in some standard quanta like 50 K. If you asked for
37 K you would run in a 50K partition and be charged for it.
MVS was a 370 OS.
Jon
the whole system will be frozen.
Jon
ies ran off that 2500-Hz power, and were
astonishingly small.
At least the mid-range 370's had built-in motor generators
that converted 208V 3-phase power to 120/200 V 415 Hz
3-phase power. The internal supplies ran off that, vastly
reducing the size of transformers and capacitors.
Jon
to reflow over 2000
boards. I got a ramp and soak thermocouple controller (it
allow you to program temp points and time intervals between
the points) and poke a micro-size thermocouple into a PC
board plated through hole. Thus it controls actual board
temperature.
Jon
Does this help?
https://flic.kr/p/2omGxh8
-Jon
501 - 600 of 1414 matches
Mail list logo
