test-drb December 2015

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

191 participants
268 discussions

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

A colleague and I are working on getting our respective Fabritek MP-12s working. The MP-12 is an industrial-looking computer with a very limited front panel (deposit doesn't increment PC...gah!) but does emulate most respects of a PDP-8. So far, we've been able to find the device codes for updating the 7-segment LED displays on the front, turning on and off relays, and setting some arbitrary open-collector outputs. It appears as though there is no serial port option on ours, which is unfortunate. There are three 512-by-4 bipolar (configured as 512-by-12) PROMs that seem to override the core memory at the top of the 4k field. If the PROM's value is 7777 octal, the core memory is accessible. Otherwise, you're stuck with ROM, best I can tell. We've dumped the ROMs to verify, but here's the code I've backed out of them, disassembled and labeled where appropriate: *7756 TEMP, 7755 /NOT IN ROM CLA HLT /7602 ADDR, 7755 /7755 STARTING ADDRESS? START, TAD ADDR /1360 GET STARTING ADDRESS? DCA TEMP /3356 SAVE TEMPORARILY LOOP, RRB /6012 GET CHAR CLL RTL /7106 RTL /7006 RTL /7006 ROTATE SO BIT 0 IS IN BIT 7, BIT 4 IN BIT 11, ETC. 6015 /6015 SKIP ON FLAG? JMP .-1 /5367 SNL /7420 SKIP IF LINK IS SET (BIT 6 OF PAPER TAPE IS SET) JMP LOOP /5363 DCA I TEMP /3756 ISZ TEMP /2356 JMP 7755 /5355 7776 /NOT IN ROM JMP START /5361 $ The "NOT IN ROM" indicates that the ROM's value is unprogrammed, so that you can in fact access those core locations. The values I've provided just happen to be what's in my machine's memory at this time. It looks a lot like a RIM loader, except I can't figure out for the life of me what the format should look like. Best I can tell, if RRB ORs the read buffer with the accumulator, you'll never be able to send anything but patterns matching (data & 7737). At least, that's what I've simulated. Due to the fact that they're clearing the link after the second go around, you'd be losing one bit of data. So, maybe this isn't really a program loading routine, but rather just something to store 8-bit values in core? Any other ideas? Thanks, Kyle

10 years, 1 month

TU-58

by rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com

Dear List While the silk screeners process the panels I have a couple of days for a little project I have a TU-58 and yes it had gooey drive wheels. Now it no longer has that problem but I have black and gooey fingers.!!! I know this issue has been addressed before. So I think somebody must know where I can get the right tubing to replace the degraded stuff. The drive hub is 0.42" and the rubber bit was 0.62" o/d A UK source would be nice, Rod

10 years, 1 month

Long shot: Connection Machine board needed.

by tmfdmike＠gmail.com

The chances are slim, but someone may know someone... feel free to contact me off-list. I have a CM-200A; the smallest 'classic' CM machine. I've started a project, with some ex-TMC people (notably the designer of the beautiful chassis the CM machines came in, Tamiko Thiel) to get my machine operational next year, for the 30th anniversary of the launch of the CM. Unfortunately we've hit a complete show-stopper right off the bat. My machine has a complete set of compute node and I/O boards, but is missing the crucial 'NX' board; the board in the CM that interfaces to the front-end. See: http://www.corestore.org/cm2a.htm I need to locate one, or we're dead in the water. I *know* there are people out there who keep a very low profile and have CM hardware squirreled away in their basements. Another possibility, perhaps the best, is to *borrow* an NX board from a non-functional machine in a museum collection, something that will never be more than a static exhibit. Anyone in a position to help or advise, please get in touch. I'm reaching out to former TMC staff and customers by various other routes, but someone here may know something. Thanks Mike http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

10 years, 1 month

TU-58

by anders＠abc80.net

Great! We take it off list from here. Very nice work on the HP by the way! /Anders > Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 21:04:55 +0100 > From: Rik Bos <hp-fix at xs4all.nl> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts" <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: RE: TU-58 > Message-ID: <dc985939bd791910a6b715f873573a15 at smtp-cloud3.xs4all.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Anders, > > I can fix them, if you look at my Flickr page you can see some examples of > new capstans I made.about halfway the site. > www.flickr.com/hp-fix > And of the HP3000 ;) > > -Rik

10 years, 1 month

Help w/ HP 88780 Tape Drive

by cctalk＠fahimi.net

So I got my hands on an HP 88780 1/2" Tape Drive from list Member Mark (Thanks!). The drive physically looks to be in good shape but was pretty dirty when I got it. I've cleaned up the drive and powered it up. The good news: The drive powers up. Initially I had trouble getting it to load a tape but that seems to have been resolved.

10 years, 1 month

PDT-11/150 Field Maintenance Print Set wanted

by spacewar＠gmail.com

I have a non-working PDT-11/150, which fails self test 7 (console USART) and when not in test mode, and with autobaud disabled, doesn't send anything to the console. I dumped the ROMs (two 82S2708 1Kx8 PROM for LSI-11 code, three 8316E 2Kx8 masked ROM for the 8085 I/O processor, and one 8316E for the 8085 floppy controller), and I've started disassembling the 8085 ROM code to figure out what the self-test actually does, but it's slow going. It would be really helpful to have a copy (paper or scan) of the Field Maintenance Print Set. Does anyone have it? Thanks! Eric

10 years, 1 month

Searching HP drivers/libraries for E2071/82341 HP-IB

by supervinx＠libero.it

Hi! I'm looking for drivers of E2071/82341 HP-IB ISA card. I think they should be contained in the WNG0202.EXE self extracting archive. Thanks!

10 years, 1 month

Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor]

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2015 09:18:56 +0100 > From: Pontus Pihlgren <pontus at Update.UU.SE> > Subject: Triprocessor PDP-10 [Was: Re: [multicians] Emacs humor] > > You make it sound like someone hacked up a computer consisting of one > KL-10, one PDP-10 and one PDP-6. But I assume you mean homogenic > three-processor machines? > > Who, besides Peter L?thberg, ran threeprocessor machines? > > Also, what are you refering to as PDP-10? KA-10? > > Thanks, > Pontus. > > 1026 TOPS-10 DEC Development Marlboro, MA KL1099 Tri-SMP Scrapped 12/14/97 1042 TOPS-10 DEC Development Marlboro, MA KL1099 Tri-SMP Scrapped 12/14/97 1322 TOPS-10 DEC Development Marlboro, MA KL10 Tri-SMP Michael Thompson

10 years, 1 month

Oak Ridge PDP setups

by killingsworth.todd＠gmail.com

>Lots of places. The folks at Oak Ridge ("Atomic City") ran a 5-processor >SMP configuration. Rich - can you elaborate on this any? Which facility, what was it used for? I've got family from Oak Ridge, and its unusual for my vintage computer / atomic history to intersect like this. Todd Killingsworth

10 years, 1 month

Oberon and the OberonStation (retro-style FPGA computing)

by wmaddox＠pacbell.net

The revived 2013 re-issue of Niklaus Wirth's Oberon system is a joy to behold.? If you've never heard of Oberon before, it is a minimalistic education-oriented language and operating system designed after Wirth had taken a (second) sabattical at PARC in the 80's. The new version runs on a custom RISC processor, implemented in an FPGA, instead of the NS3032 in the orginal Ceres workstations.?? Originally, it required a Digilent "Spartan 3 Starter Kit" with a custom-built daughterboard providing a few additional connectors.? This board is no longer made, however, and no other FPGA development board appears to provide the 32-bit wide fast SRAM the Oberon CPU required. Recently, a new board, the OberonStation,? has come onto the market that was designed specifically for Oberon, and will boot up Oberon 2013 out of the box.?? It also looks like an excellent platform for other retro-style FPGA CPU designs that want to stay away from complex SDRAM controllers and the caches they like to feed. My OberonStation arrived a couple of days ago, and it's really amazing to see what can be done with a hardware and software stack that is small enough to actually read and understand. https://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/wirth/ http://www.projectoberon.com/ OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform --Bill | ? | | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | | OberonStation - The Oberon computing platform/*{{{*/* html .tiddler {height:1%;}body {font-size:.75em; font-family:arial,helvetica; margin:0; padding:0;}h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {font-weight:bold; | | | | View on oberonstation.x10.mx | Preview by Yahoo | | | | ? |

10 years, 1 month

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test-drb December 2015