test-drb February 2011

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

155 participants
210 discussions

by lynchaj＠yahoo.com

Hi! I did a recent reorder of the S-100 4MB SRAM boards and have a few left over. If you would like one they are $20 each plus $3 shipping in the US or $6 elsewhere. These boards were very popular last year and many builders requested for another batch. I got some extra PCBs anticipating there would be others coming along later. These boards have no known defects AFAIK and dozens builders have gotten them since last year. They can use either SRAM or Flash memory chips and are all DIP/PTH construction for easy assembly. Please contact me if you would like one or more. Thanks and have a nice day! Andrew Lynch PS I set up a Google Group for announcements on the S100computers and N8VEM S-100 projects called N8VEM-S100

14 years, 2 months

VCF East -- early GUIs exhibit

by evan＠snarc.net

Whoever registered an exhibit about early GUIs, you need to contact me, there's a problem with your registration -- for starters it lacks your name!

14 years, 2 months

Microsoft Online

by silent700＠gmail.com

OK, does anyone know what this is?? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140474798391 Google fails me on this, other than to find that a guy once wrote a manual for it. My (uninformed) guess is that it's an early TCP/IP stack for Windows 3.x. I'm almost tempted to buy it to find out, were it not for the Canadian shipping. -- jht

14 years, 2 months

VCB02 woes in a MicroVAX III

by derschjo＠mail.msu.edu

I'll attempt to keep a long story short here: I have over the past few years been putting together a MicroVAX III; I have a KA650-B CPU, 16MB of memory, a CMD SCSI interface and a DEQNA ethernet interface. A couple of years back I got a VCB02 and finally this week I got ahold of a BC18Z cable so that I can actually connect the VCB02 to a monitor/keyboard/mouse :). I've got everything installed and wired up this evening, the problem is, I can't seem to get it working. On powerup, the monitor syncs with the video signal the VCB02 is sending out (and I get a brief screen with some garbage on it followed by a black screen), and the keyboard emits a couple of very short beeps during the diagnostic cycle, but the MicroVAX doesn't seem to acknowledge the existence of the VCB02. All diagnostics pass. So, a few questions: - Is there a specific ROM version I need in order for the KA650 to recognize the VCB02? I have V1.2/0123 which seems pretty early (given that I've seen references to 5.3 on the 'net). If so, anyone know where I can find a dump? - What keyboards is the VCB02 compatible with? I'm using it with an LK201 from my VT220 currently, and all four LEDs are lit constantly, which starts me to wondering... - Are there any restrictions on slots/card ordering I should be concerned with? This is in a BA23 backplane (which originally housed a MicroVAX I) Thanks! Josh

14 years, 2 months

RL02 head numbering

by chrise＠pobox.com

I'm trying to fix up an RL02 that throws constant errors in XXDP's ZRLMB1 test from head 1. In, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/disc/rl01_rl02/EK-RL122-TM-001_techAug82.p… "RL01/RL02 Technical Manual" on page 58, it shows upper head (1) and lower head (0). But, http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/disc/rl01_rl02/RL02techDescr.pdf throughout refers to the upper head as 0 and the lower as 1. Which "1" is ZRLMB1 refering to? ;-) Chris -- Chris Elmquist

14 years, 2 months

Identify core board?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I recently acquired: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320652132954&ssPageName=… but I don't know enough about 70s minis to recognize which sort of system it came from... - John

14 years, 2 months

VCF East 7.0 updates

by evan＠snarc.net

Some updates .... 1. VCF East 7.0 is on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Computer-Festival-East-70/12799934393… Yes, that link stinks. Facebook says we need 25 page fans before we're entitled to a customized link. So please "like" and become a fan of our page ASAP. 2. Dan "Ragooman" Roganti will run a "Build your own transistor logic circuit" workshop. Neat! 3. Our exhibit registration is open at http://www.vintage.org/2011/east/index.php (click the 'exhibits' link on the top right), BUT, it currently only works for people who previously registered. It's not working for new registrants. We're trying to fix that. 4. So far we have lectures confirmed about UNIVAC/Unisys and about the heydey of homebrewed microcomputing in the NYC, NJ, and Philadelphia region. We're working to create lectures about Monrobot; Bell Labs' TRADIC; Electronic Associates; the IBM 1130; Jason Scott's Get Lamp; and our future museum plans. We'll announce those when they become official. 5. So far four exhibitors signed up. We expect 20-30 overall, in line with our past VCF Easts. 6. We'll also have consignment sales, a used book sale, and museum tours. 7. This year's VCF East t-shirt will be AWESOME. The only way to get one is to be there. :)

14 years, 2 months

Early days of TCP/IP on the desk (was Re: Microsoft Online)

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

>> I was on the MSN team and we were building an AX.25 network > Have you read "Barbarians Led by Bill Gates" ? > What a mess. Apple was no better, though (eWorld, etc.) I don't > remember much push for broadband as mentioned in "Barbarians" I came from the academic side where Ethernet networking had been standard for some time by the mid-90's and getting networks of VAXen and Suns to interoperate was a breeze. In contrast the mid-90's era focus by consumer OS's (read that as "Windows and bolt on products") on the modem as the lynchpin in networking, was simply bizarre to me. By that time on PC-clones with MS-DOS we had been using the NCSA stack for Telnet and FTP and all the other good stuff, for many years. Completely stable and just worked. I was especially fond of a simple configuration of MS-DOS Kermit. I was completely stumped by Windows 95 networking and Trumpet Winsock. They made it a zillion times harder. To this day whenever I have to configure Windows networking and am forced to click on all the variations of "No I don't have an ISP but I can still connect to the internet" I still become enraged. Tim.

14 years, 2 months

Egads!

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/INTEL-P4040-D4040-C4040-PROLOG-MICROPROCESSOR-BOARD-/30…

14 years, 2 months

Bit of DEC Trivia

by bqt＠softjar.se

On 02/24/11 19:00, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: > On 2/24/11 2:58 AM, Philipp Hachtmann wrote: >> > For me it sounds quite more interesting to format a tape on a normal drive - and then use it on a drive which has been adjusted to spin faster...:-) >> > > It shouldn't matter over the range that the G888A can decode it. DECtape uses Manchester encoding, so it is self-clocking. Yes, but you need the clock track in order to write. So, read is self-timed, and write is done with the help of the timing track. And yes, the speed of the motor will affect how fast data comes in/out, but only indirectly, since it's the clocking off the data from the tape that matters. Tricks to increase speed would be to run an already formatted tape faster or to format a tape at a slower speed. Formatting a tape at a slower speed will also make it possible to fit more data onto the tape (obviously). > Head skew relative to the timing tracks becomes more of an issue, but even that was mitigated by putting redundant tracks > on different parts of the tape and or-ing the heads together. I'm not sure how much head skew could happen. The data from the tape is read by just one head, with 10 tracks. So, the timing track is read at the same point as the data. You could possibly get some kind of skew if the signal was delayed through the electronics. > The trick with holding your thumb on the reel became necessary when DEC started shipping less tape on the reel than > certain PDP-8 operating systems expected. Yes... Johnny

14 years, 2 months

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test-drb February 2011