From: Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
>Anyway, there were at least 3 command sets ued by HP -- Amigo (mostly used
>on older flippy drives), SS/80 (more modern floppies and small hard disks)
>and CS/80 (larger hard disks). I _think_ specifcations of all exist, I have
>some of the mon paper, or a poke around on http://www.hpmuseum.net/ may
>find something (for some odd reason this information is often included as
>an appendix to the boardswapper guides!).
If anyone is interested I wrote an HP-913x emulator which I have used very
successfully with my HP1630B logic analyser. Not the most elegant pieces of
code, but it does work! It behaves like an HP drive to the 1630 but stores
everything on my PC hard drive. It's a base Amigo emulatation and I only
included the functionality necassary to make it work, but the code's should
not be difficult to extend to SS/80 and CS/80. I can post the source for
someone to put it somewhere more accessible and permanent. Let me know.
Peter
Hi,
I wrote a Wikipedia page for the WaveMate Bullet. I think it is a
noteworthy historical computer but apparently the people at Wikipedia
disagree.
They have placed the "This article may not meet the general notability
guideline <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability> " tag on the
page. Apparently, this is a prelude to deletion as a non-relevant article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WaveMate_Bullet
I will agree the WaveMate Bullet certainly isn't the most common vintage
computer and even my Wikipedia page stub isn't all that great.
However, there are ought to be *some* notation in the historical record of
this machine existing. Practically nothing on it exists on the internet.
If anyone has any pictures or reference material on the WaveMate Bullet and
would like to include it in the Wikipedia page, please either edit the page
or send it to me and I will include it.
It sure would be a shame to see this classic vintage CP/M disappear without
so much as minor footnote of it ever existing.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Andrew Lynch
PS, Don Maslin thought it was a note worthy machine and he even thought it
belonged in the top 150 most collectible vintage computers. Too bad he is
not here to defend it any longer.
> From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca>
> Long live fixed point math. :)
> I can think at least one problem that I know that needs exact
> calculations
> and lots and lots of tiny numbers.
I used to write/maintain compilers for a language with fixed point
arithmetic built in (Coral 66). For some jobs much better than
floating point, such as storing angles as a fraction of a circle, so
that if you add/subtract two angles together you don't have to do mod
360 or 2Pi as it automatically overflows and gives you the correct
answer. Not so useful for describing spirals and helixes though.
Roger Holmes
Ex employee of Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd / Marconi Elliott
Avionic Systems Ltd / GEC Avionics in the 1970s
>
>Subject: Re: Q-bus to CF [was: IOmega]
> From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net>
> Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:41:13 +0000
> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>On Thu, 2008-02-28 at 00:19 -0500, tiggerlasv at aim.com wrote:
>>
>> I stopped holding my breath for creation of a Q-Bus IDE
>> controller a long time ago. While I like to think that I
>> do a reasonable job troubleshooting some problems,
>> I'm definitely not a hardware/software engineer.
>>
>> It would have been nice, but it makes more sense
>> these days to go Q-Bus to SATA. I would imagine
>> that it would be alot less hassle, and certainly alot less
>> real estate on the board, with the smaller connectors,
>> and fewer traces.
>
>Actually SATA is extremely exacting and needs unbelievably complicated
>controller chips.
>
>PATA, on the other hand, is just a fast parallel port. You can hook a
>CF card up to anything, even a microcontroller, with just a tiny amount
>of glue logic.
>
>> At any rate, back to the topic, Q-Bus to Compact Flash.
>>
>> If you can do Q-bus to Compact Flash, then you can do
>> Q-bus to IDE, because CF *is* an IDE interface.
>> Those wonderful CF to IDE adapter boards generally don't
>> have any circuitry on-board, except to drive status LED's.
>
>Exactly. Simply grafting a PATA interface onto a QBus card is trivial.
>Actually getting something that will either pretend to be an existing
>controller or writing a device driver for the operating system in use is
>much much harder.
>
>If you really wanted to push this forwards, write me some MSCP
>controller firmware for an Atmel microcontroller...
>
>> Right now, I have Compact flash / IDE on my Q-bus,
>> albeit in a round-about way.
>>
>> I have older CMD SCSI controllers (CQD-200's).
>>
>> Attached to those are ACard 7720U SCSI <> IDE adapters.
>> http://www.acard.com
>
>These seem to crop up on the various sampler mailing lists I'm on, as a
>way of using CF with older samplers which often have "funny" SCSI
>implementations.
>
>Gordon
Generally IDE and CF (compactflash) are the same interface and for
Qbus-11 fairly simple. It's been done, however, the problem is the
driver as bare IDE or CF is NOT MSCP not is it DL, DX, DY or RK
so a driver is needed and noone has apparently stepped up to do it.
I beleive its fairly straight forward work but never having done it
but having seen drivers like DD and DY They have a structure that
must be held to.
SCSI is actually harder to talk to than CF or IDE, I have done that
for CP/M and SCSI is a pain as you have to deal with the SCSI chips
and their particular protocal.
MSCP is a complex protocal whols primary job is to create a logical
abstraction hardware from the software and I don't think an atmel uP
is enough and definatly enough ram plus enough is not known to create
it(MSCP) from scratch.
Allison
Well, I did something really stupid this time. I had an old Atari 800
cartridge that had lost its label. I figured that maybe something
inside would tell me what kind of cartridge it was so I took it apart.
First, there was no marking on the PC board that gave any clue as to
what cartridge it was. But worse, I didn't pay enough attention to the
original orientation of the PC board inside the plastic housing so I
don't know how to put it together again. The circuit board has a big
blob of glue on the top of what I assume is a ROM chip. Does that side
of the PC board face the side of the plastic housing with the screw or
the other side? To make matters worse, I *found* the label for the
cartridge at the bottom of my box of old Atari stuff so I didn't
really need to take the cartridge apart after all. Can anyone give me
some advice about how to reassemble the cartridge with the circuit
board in the correct orientation?
Thanks!
David
My thanks to Glen Slick of Redmond. He was the first local responder, and the S-100 pile has been claimed.
Thanks also to the listmembers for putting up with my occasional ads.
Happy tweaking.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"Quid Malmborg in Plano..."
>paramucho wrote:
>MACRO V5.05 crashed on 4-Mar-2008.
>
>It's a coding bug. MACRO was bit clearing a 5-bit rather than 4-bit
>field for the month. The fix:
>
>Loc Old New
>62160 177740 177760
>
>For other versions you're looking for this sequence:
>
>Old New
>000315
>006215
>006215
>042725
>177740 177760
>010015
>
Jerome Fine replies:
This post appeared on alt.sys.pdp11 and vmsnet.pdp-11 on
Monday, March 3rd, 2008. While it fixes the bug for the month,
the year is still incorrect.
By the way, I can make available a full Y2K fix for V05.05 of MACRO
which includes a 4 digit year - as opposed to DEC's version which only
supports a 2 digit year. Just over a dozen words need to be modified,
so an SLP file is probably the way to submit it. Naturally, the patch
includes the above modification along with checking the rest of the
year in the date word.
Is there sufficient interest in having the patch? I have not found any
interest in fixing bugs in RT-11, let alone in enhancements. Let
me know. I can also produce Y2K bug fixes for DIR, PIP, IND,
LINK, LIBR, etc.
I use a free read only server to monitor a few text only news groups.
Does anyone know of a free server that I can use to post a few times
a year to news groups? Can anyone forward a post for me instead?
I would request that you "modify" my e-mail address to prevent spam.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
EQUIPMENT LOCATION: Kent, Washington, southeast of Seattle. NO SHIPPING. LOCAL PICKUP ONLY.
Fellow techies,
Since I'm no longer in the computer collecting arena, I think this would be of more use to others who are.
I have available a huge pile (about 5 foot high by 3 or so wide) of S-100 computer stuff. There's one complete computer (a big NNC chassis with 8-inch floppies), plus a huge load of boards, documentation, extenders, an external drive cabinet, etc.
This is taking up valuable space in my garage. I would much prefer that it take up space in someone else's, preferably someone who can appreciate it. With that in mind, first person to offer me $100 for the entire lot can have it. That cost is based solely on the time, gas, and effort I spent getting the stuff home.
NO SHIPPING! LOCAL PICKUP ONLY!
I don't have the facilities or tools to ship this lot, and I'm not sure I'd want to trust any of it to FedEx Ground or whoever in any case.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"Quid Malmborg in Plano..."
> Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:54:50 -0800
> 9034 - S/B 9094 = Dual J-K
Argh. You have no idea how many databooks and catalogs I went
through to find that 9034--and then was perplexed as to why anyone
would carry a mask-programmed ROM as a generic part. Sigh.
At any rate, there were a lot of manufacturers making DTL that we
don't think of today. In particular, Philco:
9093 = 853
9094 = 856
9097 = 855
9099 = 852
9930 = 830
9931 = 831, etc.
800-series is the lower-cost "commercial" grade of 900-series logic
with a narrower temp range, also available in plastic DIP.
The confusing thing about DTL part numbers is how they're
"shoehorned" within the RTL part number scheme. So, a 928 is RTL,
but a 930 is DTL; A similar situation exists with the 9000 numbers.
9931 is DTL, 9989 is RTL.
A point of curiosity that I have is what was the highest level of
integration achieved before DTL was relegated to the "obsolescent"
bin? I have a couple of Fairchild addressable 8-bit memories; was
there anything more elaborate? A full adder, perhaps?
Cheers,
Chuck
Hi, all,
Has anyone here worked with or ever plotted silently to create a moderish
7-segment decoder/driver from a GAL16V8? I'm working on a project made
>from classic parts, and am trying to reduce part count rather aggresively,
since I'm going to hand-wire it.
One thought was to attempt to combine a 7490 _and_ a 7447 in a single
GAL16V8. I have blown hundreds of PALs, but have much less experience
in designing with them, so I'm not even sure that it's possible to mash
together that much logic internally in a 16V8. I know all the outputs
are optionally registered, so presuming one has 4 assignable flip-flops,
one could theoretically make a counter on the output pins, but what's
less clear to me is if you could then take those terms and internally
decode them to a 7-segment display.
After the large amounts of replies about this 8-way digital switch, I
don't necessarily want to clog the list with discissions of what is and
isn't possible for a GAL16V8, so if you can remember, please make any
suggestions and comments to me directly, not the list.
Thanks for any nudges towards a solution.
-ethan
--
Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 8-Dec-2007 at 15:40 Z
South Pole Station
PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -25.4 F (-31.9 C) Windchill -52.5 F (-47.0 C)
APO AP 96598 Wind 13.7 kts Grid 12 Barometer 678.8 mb (10674 ft)
Ethan.Dicks at usap.govhttp://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html
