40 years ago this year Intel came out with the 80386 – 386 – or i386.
Either seems to be correct. What this meant was a memory address of 4GB,
far beyond what an average computer user would need or want, but was so
much more than previously(8086, 80286); ‘true’ multi-tasking which for the
average computer user didn’t mean all that much; and paging, which made
virtualization possible- experimenters were over-joyed! What all this
contributed to was the end of the classical/vintage-computing era. Whether
this began the time of open-source OS development is debatable!
Happy computing?
Murray 🙂
It seems that nowadays you can't get *any* replacement for failing DEC
3639 aka 2N3639 transistors. All parts are obsolete and unobtanium, e.g.
2N3640, PN3640, MMBT3640 and so on.
So, what can be used instead? The most important electrical parameter is
the storage time. It needs to be *very* low, around 20-30 ns.
Does it mean that a failing PDP-8 will stay a dead PDP-8 from now on?
Christian
I am looking for the assembler listing for a bootloader for booting from
MSCP disks like RD-disks.
Google has not been very helpful and my assembler knowledge is not enough
for me to write one from scratch. Does anyone have one they can share?
- Peter
We may have a half a dozen DECtapes, probably from the PDP-6 era,
perhaps with ITS with content...
Is there anyone, preferably in the MIT vicinity, who might have a
working DECtape drive and be willing to try to read the tapes?
Thanks
/guy fedorkow
Can someone tell me the frequency of the R405 module in slot PF36 for the
EAE of the classic PDP-8? Should it be the same as the R405 processor
clock?
Christian
I was reading my own Terak web page, and remembering that
I'd read Doug Gale's history of computing at Cornell:
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/36810/00_TheEarlyYearsOf…
and it mentions (at page 3.23) a "how to repair a Terak" video they
made there, and he claims it was distributed to other universities that
were also using Teraks.
Has anyone ever seen this tape?
- John
Hi everyone,
According to historians, and I consider myself one, let us consider what
classic/vintage computers were: The 1970s saw the three amigos: Apple II,
TRS-80 and Commodore PET and the OS was DOS and its ilk + CP/M. The 1980’s
saw the Dells, HPs and many others with MS-DOS & IBM PC-DOS from QDOS. We
saw this and behold ’bring on the clones’(I just had to say this!) The era
of old computers saw one generation building on the shoulders of giants who
designed these wayback computers(with apologies to Wayback Machine).
Today’s PCs and ARM machines are just the latest iteration of this
theory(by the way not mine).
Happy computing
Murray 🙂
> From: Jim Davis <jim.p.davis(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [cctalk] Re: MFM Hard Drive & 8" Double Side Drives
> Was anything MFM or RLL with a removible cart build in the 80's-90's?
> I never heard of such a thing, Carts were scsi early 90's Syquest and
> others?...
>
Yup
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SyQuest_Technology
The early ones were ST412 type interface
> From: Doc Shipley <doc(a)vaxen.net>
>
> Pretty sure Mr Gesswein is on this list but I don't see him post often.
> Anyway, he designed a very handy MFM drive emulator:
>
> https://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/mfm.shtml
>
Yup but try not to hawk my board. When they say they want a drive I don't
suggest alternatives.
I also get the digest so most questions have been answered before I see them.
Thanks all for the kind words.
I had forgotten that 75 years ago, Oct. 3, 1950, the transistor was
invented leading to integrated circuits making possible personal computers
and the interest of our love of computing. Where would we be without
Bardeen's, Brattain's and Shockley's invention?
Happy computing,
Murray 🙂
>
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2025 20:29:07 -0400
> From: Murray McCullough <c.murray.mccullough(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [cctalk] The transistor invention
>
> I had forgotten that 75 years ago, Oct. 3, 1950, the transistor was
> invented leading to integrated circuits making possible personal computers
> and the interest of our love of computing. Where would we be without
> Bardeen's, Brattain's and Shockley's invention?
>
> Happy computing,
>
> Murray 🙂
>
>
Did you know the role of Camp Evans in the invention of the transistor?
Find out here: https://youtu.be/6wFIVvb-5yQ
