Hi Mark !
Ran across your 2016 note at ( http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctalk/2016-July/025530.html ) while looking for info on the HP9885M Disk Drive. I have one of these old drives in what appears to be near mint condition. I can't fully test it, don't have any disks, but it powers up without any magic smoke leaking out. LEDs lit up, capstan drive is working, belt is in pristine condition, ventilation fan is working, boards are powered. Certainly looks like it's ready to go.
I've carried the thing all over the country as I've moved between jobs, intending to use the chassis in construction of a different electronic device. It has spent a lot of time in closets. I don't have an HP9825A or HP9845 computer and I'm getting too old to acquire such toys.
If you have interest, I would like for someone who understands and appreciates such things to have it. I can share pictures. It would be a shame to disassemble such a well-built old beast. Please let me know.
Have a great week!
Ernie
K7KT at yahoo.com
The DDS cleaning tapes have been claimed.
I may have more unused cleaning tapes in storage,
but I won't know for a few months. If I find
any, I'll post.
Stan
On Wed, 9/5/18, Ethan Dicks via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> The part that puzzles me is the collection of object files and
> binaries in the directory above that.? 'file' tells me that they are
> "m68k COFF" files.? From what I've read so far, COFF binaries are from
> System V Release 2-4.? What I can't reconcile is what they might have
> been compiled on.? Is it possible these were made for A/UX?? The
> relevant file dates (late-1988 through mid-1989) do overlap
> availability of A/UX version 1.
I'm pretty sure the AT&T UNIX PC (7300/3b1) used COFF.
I remember messing around with it when porting an old
version of gcc to the machine. At that time, GNU was
playing around with something called robotusin (COFF
medicine).
BLS
I'm worried that VMS Mosaic 4.2 is lost since WVNET's VAX systems are no
longer operational, and it was stored on their FTP server (not somewhere
that the Wayback Machine got to). I only have an old version of 3.6 and a
diff of 4.2. Does anyone have the original copy of 4.2? It was named
MOSAIC4_2.ZIP. What I've got is here:
gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/gopher/clients/vms/
--
------------------------------------ personal: http://www.cameronkaiser.com/ --
Cameron Kaiser * Floodgap Systems * www.floodgap.com * ckaiser at floodgap.com
-- The world is coming to an end. Log off now. --------------------------------
In the 1990s a computer terminal standard "AlphaWindows" was proposed by the
Display Industry Association (DIA).
Sort of X-Windows for the poor.
A few terminals appeared which supported multiple text windows following the
this standard. Some limited global facts can be found in Wikipedia.
I learned that for example the TeleVideo 995 and 9089 or the HP 700/70
terminals supported AlphaWindows.
Obviously there were several implementation levels like:
(1) Basic AlphaWindow
(2) Mouse Operations
(3) Decorations
(4) AlphaWindow Credits Flow Control
Unfortunately I cannot find any information on the protocol resp. escape
sequences and the DIA is long gone.
Does anyone have a manual with escape sequences for one of the terminals
mentioned?
Or other material describing this protocol?
Note that other terminals of the similar types (e.g. HP 700/71) do not
support this feature.
Martin
> From: Anders Nelson
> https://www.facebook.com/503408869821526/posts/1084448565050884/
This is an incredibly cool thing, and my hat is off to the LSSM for
undertaking this.
How's the fund-raising going? If money is still needed, I'll head off to
Paypal and send a goodly chunk.
Noel
On Wed, 9/5/18, Martin Hepperle via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> In the 1990s a computer terminal standard "AlphaWindows" was proposed by the
> Display Industry Association (DIA). Sort of X-Windows for the poor.
>
> Does anyone have a manual with escape sequences for one of the terminals
> mentioned? Or other material describing this protocol?
It so happens that I do have a copy of the standard. I
suppose I'm one of only a few who paid the $99 to DIA
to get a copy. Back in the early '90s I started writing an
implementation for the Mac, but ended up not getting
very far before other projects pushed it down onto the
stack. I'll see what I can do about scanning it for you.
BLS
Another small project off my plate.
Ethan had asked me years ago to make copies of the software for this machine.
It is pretty obscure, one full page add in Byte, and it sank without a trace.
6502, p-System, totally custom MFM-encoded floppy interface based on a Moto 6852
synchronous serial interface chip.
I had bought a Supercard Pro a while ago, and set it up to do some hard-sectored
floppy imaging. Figured this would be a good test case, since it didn't have the
problems with dealing with out of sync data streams (the SCP doesn't grok more
than one sector hole so you have to turn off index synchronization).
Made images, dragged my machine out of storage, cleaned it up, made a clone from
the SCP image, and it booted! yay!
SCP images are up under http://bitsavers.org/bits/MilwaukeeComputers
I also put up cleaner images of the schematic and board layout, and annotated a
disassembly of the boot prom from a scanned listing i've had for a while under
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/milwaukeeComputers
One thing I noticed that made me nervous is looking at the code there is no
checksum on either the sector address or data fields on the floppy. I made an
image of a floppy that I bulk-erased and initialized this morning, and all you
see are the sync bytes and data, no trailing data where a crc would be.
On the 'bay: 183405165416 and 183405165414 "Scrap / Gold Recovery"
Six total. One wonders what the scrappers did with the rest, and where they
came from given that the location is Goffstown, New Hampshire.
paul
I unearthed some old TU58 tapes that luckily was readable (after carefully
replacing the tension band)
It resulted in two RT11 V4 images with two versions of the formatter
program. One is bootable and the other not.
http://storage.datormuseum.se/u/96935524/Datormusuem/Dilog/DQ604/sq604c.dskhttp://storage.datormuseum.se/u/96935524/Datormusuem/Dilog/DQ604/sq604d.dsk
I tried to run the formatter program in Simh:
.run sq604C.sav
TEST AND FORMAT DQ604 DISK SYSTEM (REV C.)
DRIVE FORMATS AS RL01 UNIT (5.24 MB)
SWITCH 3 CLOSED ENABLES BOOTSTRAP
THERE ARE 17 PHYSICAL SECTORS PER TRACK
(2) ALTERNATE CYLINDERS MAY BE ASSIGNED PER UNIT
THE INTERLACE FACTORS ARE TWO OR THREE TO ONE
DATA BUFFER ERROR
USE PROCEED (P) TO REPEAT TEST
HALT instruction, PC: 006312 (BR 6202)
.RUN SQ604D
TEST AND FORMAT DQ604 DISK SYSTEM (REV C.)
DRIVE FORMATS AS RL02 UNIT (10.48 MB)
SWITCH 3 CLOSED ENABLES BOOTSTRAP
THERE ARE 17 PHYSICAL SECTORS PER TRACK
(4) ALTERNATE CYLINDERS MAY BE ASSIGNED PER UNIT
THE INTERLACE FACTORS ARE TWO OR THREE TO ONE
DATA BUFFER ERROR
USE PROCEED (P) TO REPEAT TEST
HALT instruction, PC: 006312 (BR 6202)
So it appears to be runnable.
I also found the manual for the board and scanned it:
http://storage.datormuseum.se/u/96935524/Datormusuem/Dilog/DQ604/DQ604.pdf
Now the next step is to see if this can make the DQ604 board I have working
with David Gessweins MFM emulator.
