From the "Mainframe Enthusiasts" Discord; I don't have any other contact
for him but I can send you a link to the Discord if you can't get there
yourself. This is one of the first (maybe the first) of the 64-bit zSeries
(descendant of S/360, S/370, S/390) machines. You would have to pay IBM a
lot of money to legally run a modern z/OS or MVS or VM or z/VM or VSE or
z/VSE on it (and current versions won't work, but, like, z/VM 4.4 would).
You could run MUSIC/SP for free, and of course VM/370 and MVS 3.8 are in
the public domain (although I do not know offhand if the z9 can run those
late-70s OSes). It will also run S/390 and z/Linux of the right vintage,
which are free but maybe difficult to acquire these days.
From Member @Booper : Z9 mainframe, ds8000 storage array , tape drive and
misc components are scheduled to go to scrap at the end of the month. If
someone wants to chime in and throw some money my way, i can sign the whole
storage unit over to you. Located in melbourne fl.
Anyone familiar with this board (S-100 graphics adapter) knows that the
schematics and documentation for it and the matching palette board are
unavailable. I recently made a remarkable discovery on the web:
https://store.gepower.com/mpps/parts/en/USD/search?sortParam=relevance
<https://store.gepower.com/mpps/parts/en/USD/search?sortParam=relevance&solr
sortby=&inValidProductsList=&isSearchTypeAdv=false&recentSearch=&defaultStor
e=parts&shipToAddrCodeHdnSearchPg=&soldToCompanyIdHdnSearchPg=&soldToCompany
CurrencyHdnSearchPg=&text=60628&CSRFToken=3b6088cc-11d1-42c2-8a92-acab81491e
0a>
&solrsortby=&inValidProductsList=&isSearchTypeAdv=false&recentSearch=&defaul
tStore=parts&shipToAddrCodeHdnSearchPg=&soldToCompanyIdHdnSearchPg=&soldToCo
mpanyCurrencyHdnSearchPg=&text=60628&CSRFToken=3b6088cc-11d1-42c2-8a92-acab8
1491e0a
If you follow that link, you will see that GE Power seems to have them in
stock in their parts store. My guess is that, at one time, they used them
as part of a power plant control room. What I'm hoping is that they have
one with the original documentation. Unfortunately, despite several
enquiries, I have been unable to make any contact with anyone in GE Power
that might offer me one for sale or otherwise help. So, I'm throwing it out
to the general community of collectors. You need to be a certified GE Power
customer, contractor or a GE Power employee to access the web store any
further than that link. Anybody know someone who could sign and check?
Thanks,
Bill Sudbrink
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How "stable" is bubble memory, over decades?
There is a Sharp PC-5000 that may be available, I believe from 1983-1985
era, which is said to have bubble memory. But the owner can't find a power
cable, to verify if anything still works.
I have older systems with ICs that are still working OK, but I was
wondering thoughts on any risk associated with bubble memory? (likelihood
of not working at all, or being damaged in long distance shipping)
Actually another thought, can any "normal" ICs be used to
replace/substitute the bubble memory?
Regards,
Steve
Does anyone have a Philips P2000C CP/M luggable with the carrying strap?
I will be restoring such a machine in the near-ish future and mine is
lacking the strap. Clear photos of the end fittings that slot into the
machine, the dimensions of them, etc would be a great help in making
something up.
-tony
Hi,
I recently acquired a Solid State Music SB-1 from which all the chips had
been removed. I've reinstalled all of the chips (I located an SSM2000) and
I've been trying to figure out why this board crashes my computers. The
conclusion that I've come to is rather astounding. The board specifies two
74ls85 4 bit binary comparator chips to perform address decoding. The
designers of this board seem to have had incorrect pinouts for it. Every
source that I can find specifies:
B3 1 16 VCC
A<B (in) 2 15 A3
A=B (in) 3 14 B2
A>B (in) 4 13 A2
A>B (out) 5 12 A1
A=B (out) 6 11 B1
A<B (out) 7 10 A0
GND 8 9 B0
The 7485s that I was able to get have this pinout. BUT! The SB-1 is
designed as:
B2 1 16 VCC
A2 2 15 A3
A=B (out) 3 14 B3
A>B (in) 4 13 A>B (out)
A<B (in) 5 12 A<B (out)
A=B (in) 6 11 B0
A1 7 10 A0
GND 8 9 B1
I Ohm'd out the board to verify this and it matches the schematic here:
https://wiki.theretrowagon.com/wiki/Solid_State_Music_SB1
What the heck??? Did the pinout of the 7485 just arbitrarily change at some
point? Was this some competition between manufacturers? Is there any way
to get the "right" 7485?
Thanks,
Bill
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A bit off topic but I'm curious if anyone has any technical information on
Animatics motion controllers. Animatics was based in (Santa Clara) in
the 1990s. They were bought by Moog sometime around 2000 and all the old
info was thrown out.
A support engineer working for Moog (who had worked for Animatics before
the buyout) provided a bunch of DOS utilities and info on the RS232
programming that he found on a backup, but this is all the info that exists.
Schematics for the hardware (CPU is a Phillips SCC68070 with a MC68881 math
coprocessor), firmware code and any other technical info would be great.
Wayback machine link:
http://web.archive.org/web/19990218104405/http://www.animatics.com/5000list…
eBay link to an actual controller: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124030784795
I have just stumbled across this nice "Timeline of Computer History" from
the CHM:
https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/
I have not seen this before and thought it may be of interest to this list.
Tom
Is it just me? I have recently sent an email to this guy about two
different topics. There was no response in either case. What is going on?
Or am I missing something?
Many thanks,
peter vp
I know this is sacrilege but I am looking for the front panel of a *Data
General Nova *and/or *a DEC PDP 8/11/12/15*.
Why? I collect artefacts from the days of the minicomputer and earlier and
I want them for my collection/display. They should be not too damaged and
of course do not need to be functional. I would be willing to pay
postage/freight.
Any offers? Any offers?
Peter
PS Please don't shout at me!
