test-drb December 2002

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

250 participants
519 discussions

by mranalog＠attbi.com

William Donzelli wrote: > Anyway, if any of you folks have information or samples of old tube based > computing junk (modules, for example, or old unit-record stuff) - could I > bother you to tell me what types of tubes were originally installed? I am > looking for specific numbers, not just "dual triodes". I have a few IBM plug-in (?logic?gate?) modules. Module Tubes AM-5 one tube - 5965(maybe "A") IBM Part# 317261 CF-503 one tube - 5965 PW-505 one tube - 7044 IBM P# 124720 CF-5 one tube - 5965(maybe "A") IBM Part# 317261 TH511 two tubes, both 5696 top one IBM Part# 288626 bottom one IBM Part# 288625 Computer model number unknown And they all look similar to this: http://dcoward.best.vwh.net/tubes2.JPG --Doug ========================================= Doug Coward @ home in Poulsbo, WA Analog Computer Online Museum and History Center http://dcoward.best.vwh.net/analog =========================================

23 years, 1 month

Acquired a PDP11/44, but missing M7095

by glenslick＠hotmail.com

A google search for M7095 turned up www.jtcomputer.com so I already sent an email earlier tonight inquiring about a M7095. Are they a decent place to do business with? I just tried an old barrel key from a Kryptonite lock and it does work (a little rough to insert & remove) so that takes care of that problem. I didn't get any disk subsystems. The rules of the surplus department where I aquired the CPU dictate that disk drives be destroyed before systems are made available to the public. The I/O cards that were installed were an M7521 DELUA ethernet, CMD CDU-720/TM SCSI, M7819 DZ11-A octal serial, Digital Pathways TCU-150 clock module?, M7258 LP11, Datasystems DLP-11. The CPU came in a rack that is about three times the height of the the PDP11/44 and about 1.25x as wide. It's a Digital rack, but I didn't see a model number on the rack. The rack itself really heavy. They used a forklift to load it into my van and I was able to get it out of the van myself with the careful application of gravity, but there was no way I would have been able to get it into the house. I did download the User's Guide / System Technical Manuals which came in handy when I got stuck trying to figure out how to release the rack slide lock mechanism. Now I've got the CPU out of the rack and in the house were I can work on it. The rack did have bulkhead connectors and cables for the M7521 DELUA ethernet (AUI) and the console (DB25). The rack had a couple of other connectors I didn't recognize, I think they must have been cabled up to the M7819 DZ11-A and M7258 LP11. There is no breakout pod for the M7819 DZ11-A. The DLP-11 had a very long LPT ribbon cable attached. It might have originally been attached to a huge Genicom? printer that was also available at the surplus place, but I passed on that at the time. I inspected the insides before thinking about trying to power up the CPU and when I realized the M7095 was missing (I wonder why it was removed?) I didn't go any further. Also, while the power supply is configured for 120VAC it has the high current (20A) plug with one of the lugs rotated 90 degress and I don't think I have any compatible outlets in my house so that is yet another challege to solve. If I do get the CPU running, then I'll have to figure out what software I should try to run on it. I don't really know much about PDP11 software yet. -Glen >From: John Lawson <jpl15(a)panix.com> >Reply-To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org >To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org >Subject: Re: Acquired a PDP11/44, but missing M7095 >Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 01:58:00 -0500 (EST) > > > >On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Glen S wrote: > > > I recently acquired a surplus PDP11/44 (my first real PDP11) and it >appears > > that it is in reasonably good condition, but after opening it up to >check > > out what modules were installed I realized that it is missing the M7095 > > control logic module, one of the 5 core modules that make up CPU. >Anyone > > know where I can find one of these at a reasonable price, or have a good > > spare that they care part with? > > Congratulations! Join the Club.... ;} > > A lot of DEC Stuff is listed here ( they also sell on eBay ). > > www.jtcomputer.com shows a M7095 - $25.00 > > > > > > Also, the keyswitch for the front panel is missing. Anyone know where I >can > > find one of those, or is there an easy way to bypass the switch? > > > > Any barrel key will work... one of mine has flutes, but the other ( a >red plastic one marked 'anti static' has no flutes at all. > > > > On the plus side a CMD CDU-720/TM SCSI controller was installed so if I >get > > the CPU running I hope it won't be too hard to connect it to a SCSI hard > > drive and tape drive. > > > > Depends on the OS you use, and how you generate the new system. > > Did you get any other peripherals, especially the disk subsystems that >were once attached? Is the console serial cable present? ( a longish >cable terminating in a DB25). Any other I/O cards? Have you powered the >machine on yet? Be careful of the power supply - they're REALLY deadly >with the covers off. ALso be sure the fan deck is running. > > Oh yeah - did you get any Doc with the system... or can you get a copy >of the PDP-11/44 System Technical Manual and the System User's Guide... >these will be most helpful getting the beast to wake up. > > Keep us informed of your progress... there are several /44s up and >running among us. > > Cheers > >John _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

23 years, 1 month

Fw: DEC 7000 (AXP) stuff available in Austin, TX

by rschaefe＠gcfn.org

As seen on the NetBSD port-vax list... Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: "Olof Johansson" <offe> To: <port-vax> Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 1:10 PM Subject: DEC 7000 (AXP) stuff available in Austin, TX > This is somewhat offtopic given the processor architecture, but given that > everything else on these systems seems to be common with VAX: > > I just came back from looking at some of the stuff a local liquidator is > trying to get rid off. It's 3 or 4 DEC7000's (all of them alphas, as far > as I can tell. At least one of them 2-CPU). Each machine has one or two XMI > boxes as well. There's also a crapload of disk arrays, with 1/2/4GB disks. > > Most of this seem to have been clustered (using OpenVMS). I also spotted > a couple of TZ87/86 units. > > I'm not enough of a texan to own a huge truck, and given the sheer size of > all this equipment, there's no way I can even resque some of it for anyone. > But I figured if there's someone else in the area that's interested they > might want to know about it. > > The liquidator can be reached at 'derrick' [less the quotes] > @sanmarcos.net or 512-665-6655. > I have no idea what kind of money he might be looking to get for it.

23 years, 1 month

The effects of employment

by mbg＠TheWorld.com

>> > * I will no longer gripe about lack of funds in nearly every post. >:-) >> >> Yes, now you will move to the group that gripes about lack of spare >> time. :-) > >Allow me to welcome you to that group :^) While I, unfortunately, will soon join the group of those with worries about money and future because after 25 years with DEC/Compaq/HP, the company has decided to continue without me... I will sonn be a statistic in the on-going merger work of HP and Compaq... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | email: gentry at zk3.dec.com (work) | | Unix Support Engineering Group | mbg at world.std.com (home) | | Hewlett Packard | (s/ at /@/) | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 (DEC '77-'98) | required." - mbg KB1FCA | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ Soon to be ex-HP.

23 years, 1 month

PDP11/44 system mains current

by jpl15＠panix.com

As a working example: I have an 11/44, FPP, 2MW, 2 DZ11, RLV11, Dilog ESDI card. 1 RL02 2 5 1/4" ESDI drives in a PDP11/23 chassis of all things. All this is in an H960 with the usuall DEC power control box... all of it plugs into an outlet in my dini^H^H^H^H machine room, which is on a 15 A breaker... I have yet to amprobe it, but if it's more than 8A at 120 I'd be quite surprised. Now, when I get the Kennedy 9100 and another RL02 hooked up, and an LA36.... sigh. it never ends. Cheers and ZZZZaaaappp! John

23 years, 1 month

BBC Acorn

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

Today I went and picked up another part of my lot of computers that I bought last week. One of the things that I brought home today was a BBC Acorn computer. I'd heard of these but never seen one before. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this one was apparently built for use in the US and that it operates from 110 VAC 50 or 60 Hz and has a US style power plug. Does anyone know how many of these were imported into the US? I'm assuming that since it's set up for US power system that it will also operate on standard US TV and monitor frequencies. Does anyone know for sure. BTW the model number on this one is UNB 09. All the Acorn websites that I've found only list models A, B and B+ so I'm not sure what this is equivelent to. Joe

23 years, 1 month

Acquired a PDP11/44, but missing M7095

by glenslick＠hotmail.com

I recently acquired a surplus PDP11/44 (my first real PDP11) and it appears that it is in reasonably good condition, but after opening it up to check out what modules were installed I realized that it is missing the M7095 control logic module, one of the 5 core modules that make up CPU. Anyone know where I can find one of these at a reasonable price, or have a good spare that they care part with? Also, the keyswitch for the front panel is missing. Anyone know where I can find one of those, or is there an easy way to bypass the switch? On the plus side a CMD CDU-720/TM SCSI controller was installed so if I get the CPU running I hope it won't be too hard to connect it to a SCSI hard drive and tape drive. _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

23 years, 1 month

RL02 Disk Cartridge Problems

by cmcnabb＠4mcnabb.net

I just received an RL02K-DC disk cartridge that I won on Ebay. It looks the same as all my other cartridges, and the shock indicator is still white. When I put the cartridge in either of my drives, it spins up for a while then the fault light comes on. This does not happen with any of the other RL02 cartridges I have. I can see no difference between this cartridge and any of the others, and it seems to take no less force to turn by hand. I'm wondering what I could be missing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. -- Christopher L McNabb Operating Systems Analyst Email: cmcnabb(a)4mcnabb.net Virginia Tech ICBM: 37.1356N 80.4272N GMRS: WPSR255 ARS: N2UX Grid Sq: EM97SD

23 years, 1 month

RL02 Disk Cartridge Problems - why that particular pack is junk

by bqt＠update.uu.se

Jumping in a bit late... On Tue, 10 Dec 2002 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: [description of RL02 physical format deleted...] > > There is also a "guard track" on each side of the data track,whose > > purpose is to cause the head to go back to the center of the data track > > should it drift. > > Is there? I was under the impression there were guard bands on the very > inside and very outside of the disk (used when the heads are loading, > etc). Bot not between each pair of data tracks. I think you are correct, and that the original poster misunderstood the manual. (Actually, I'm pretty sure you are correct :-) > There are, however, offset (from the track centre line -- in fact I think > they're halfway between 2 adjacent tracks) signals in the header area. > > > Something like : > > ===== ==== > ---DATA---- -----Next data----- > ==== ==== > -- Data----- ----Yet more data-- > ===== ==== > > Where the ==== are the servo signals. Huh? No. Actually, the data track itself is used as the servo signal. The head centers in on the track by centering on where the amplitude is strongest. > > When a drive is told to seek to a particular sector, it reads the > > factory written sector header to determine if it is the correct sector. > > If the drive can not find this info quickly enough, it will fault. > > Sorry, but no. The drive doesn't check the headers at all. I've been > through the schematics and there's nothing that will look at digital > data on the disk. It will fault if it can't find the servo signals, though. Actually, the *drive* just moves a number of tracks back and forth. (And seek is just to a relative track). When you progam a driver to seek to a track, you check the current track, calculate the track delta, and request that of the drive. When the drive report ready you once again check the track to see which one you actually are on. Hopefully it is the right, but if not, do another seek. However, when you *read* a sector, the *controller* checks that you read the right sector by checking every sector header that the head passes over, and when the right one comes, the data is transferred (the same applies for write). If the right sector don't show up, it will fail, but I don't think it will fault. > > It seems to me that to correctly format one of these disks after a bulk > > erasure, you would have to be able to do the following: > > 1. Correctly position the head - probably the easiest part > > I would think that generating the right pattern of bits for the header > was the easy part. That's just (relatively slow) digital electronics. Correctly position the heads when you don't have a servo track, and the heads are actuated by voice coils, means you cannot position the heads at all. So that is a big hurdle. Find another type of drive for formatting, that is item #1. > > 2. Write the correct sector header, including addressing Which no RL01/RL02 controller can do. There is no function to write sector headers. So, in addition to finding another drive to be able to position the heads, you need another controller, to be able to write the data. > > 3. Write the guard tracks ( I bet this is the most difficult) > > If you mean the 'servo bursts', well, you need to be able to accurately > position the heads on half tack spacing. Actually writing the signals is > easy. Yes, once the above conditions have been fulfilled, actually writing is the easy part. > > 5. Create the "Bad Block" file at the end of the disk. > > > > So, looking at the above, I can see where it would very difficult to > > format one of these guys using a stock RL01/RL02 drive, even modified. > > IMHO the really hard part is going to be positioning the head accurately > at half track spacings... You don't have any half-track spacings. However, you also need to write the guard bands, which are outside the normal data area. But if you happen to have a drive you can move the heads about with absolute precision (well, pretty good precision anyway), and being able to write headers, I doubt writing the guard bands would be that hard. You just have to know how the guard bands look physically. The drive recognoze them, and immediately move back to the data area if they show up. Johnny Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus || on a psychedelic trip email: bqt(a)update.uu.se || Reading murder books pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

23 years, 1 month

KIMplement for the C64

by spectre＠stockholm.ptloma.edu

I've threatened to do it and so I did. This is The Incredible KIMplement, a partial emulation of the KIM-1, entirely in software, for the stock Commodore 64. http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/kim-1/ This isn't a joke. It has a full software 6502 core, which works by distilling opcodes down into "safe" equivalents and running those natively to reduce the work it has to do. All memory access is trapped and abstracted. The 6502-on-6502 core is machine-independent and hopefully I can use it to do tricks like virtual memory, protected memory and interruptable/restartable instructions. The emulator includes LED emulation, 6502 emulation (NMOS documented instructions only), SST emulation, keypad emulation, and even supports an emulated TTY. No interval timers yet, but I'm working on it (the ROMs have been trapped so they don't need them). Revision E ROMs are built-in. Hope no one still asserts the rights ... Thanks to Jim Butterfield and Peter Jennings, I've also included Lunar Lander, Addition, Key Train, Sort (all from First Book of KIM) and the original Microchess as a separate download. Beware of Microchess; on the emulator running on a stock C64 in Normal mode, it will take about 30 minutes to compute a move! :-) In the future, I want to use that software core to make a proper OS for the C64 (or Commodore One). The 6502 has gone too long without a proper MMU. Let me know what you guys think, -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu -- Remember, kids: for great justice take off every zig! ----------------------

23 years, 1 month

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test-drb December 2002