test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by michael.99.thompson＠gmail.com

> > Date: Wed, 9 May 2018 13:08:51 -0400 > Subject: Re: Sparc Laptops > > I have a pretty cool DEC 486 laptop. I am unsure if they made a Pentium > laptop before they were bought out. > http://www.vintagecomputer.net/digital/DECpc_433SLC/ > DECpc_433SLC_Premium_open2.jpg > b > > On Wed, May 9, 2018 at 11:46 AM, Zane Healy via cctalk < > cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > I dream of owning an Alphabook. It?s a silly dream, but it?s one I dream > > anyway. > > > > I have a Sparcbook 3GS (I think that?s the model) somewhere. > > > > Zane > I have about 15 SPARC based lugables and laptops. Some are TRIgem/RDI Britelites that have an IPC/IPX/LX motherboard inside, three Voyagers, the rest are Tadpole SB2, SB3, SB3GX, and Ultrabooks. Michael Thompson

8 years, 4 months

Sparc Laptops

by sales＠elecplus.com

Maybe not old enough? Not affiliated with seller, etc. WTS: (6) Like new Tadpole/RDI/Cycle UltraSPARC II/e Laptops UltraSPARC 500MHz CPU 2GB Memory 60GB Disk Complete and tested with AC Power Supply ?Make Offer george at datalease.com Best Regards, George Seldin Datalease Systems (714) 632-6986 x200 george at datalease.com Cindy Croxton Electronics Plus 1613 Water Street Kerrville, TX 78028 830-370-3239 cell sales at elecplus.com AOL IM elcpls --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

8 years, 4 months

cctech Digest, Vol 44, Issue 10

by commodorejohn＠gmail.com

> Looking at modern hard disks, I'm unconvinced we could even mass-produce > something like that today. > > A 40mm radius is comparable to a 3.5" disk, which are generally 5,400-7,200 > RPM. 15,000 RPM is the fastest available, but those tend to be low-capacity and > expensive, and are often 2.5" drives with a huge heatsink. We could perhaps > rotate a very narrow smaller cylinder faster still but then the capacity > suffers further, and the seek time would start to dominate. I Am Not An Engineer(tm) but it seems to me that a taller cylinder should be less prone to wobbling on its axis than a flat disk, particularly if it's built at the scale of the drums I've seen at the CHM where there's room enough to really bolt that sucker down. Bit different than a 3.5" box with a stack of thin metal platters in it, I'd think.

8 years, 4 months

how fast were drum memories?

by grif615＠mindspring.com

I wonder how the late generation paging disks (fixed head per track) like DG used in the 80's compared? -----Original Message----- >From: Paul Koning via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Sent: May 10, 2018 7:29 AM >To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >Subject: how fast were drum memories? > >Drums were used as main memory in a number of early computers, and as secondary memory for a while longer. I wonder how fast real ones (actually constructed) managed to be. > >What prompted this question is reading an interesting document: https://ir.cwi.nl/pub/9603 (in Dutch), "Principles of electronic calculating machines, course notes February 1948" by Prof. A. van Wijngaarden at the Mathematical Center (now CWI) in Amsterdam. It's quite a fascinating short introduction into computing technology of that era. (One comment in the intro: "The field is new. At the moment, the Eniac is the only working machine..." -- probably not quite accurate given some classified machines, but not too far wrong.) > >The section on main memory describes a bunch of different technoly possibilities, one of them drum memory. He writes that a drum of 8 cm diameter (a bit over 3 inches) and "a couple of decimeters height" could hold maybe 100k bits, with a track pitch of "a few millimeters". So far so good. He goes on to suggest that such a drum might spin at 1000 revolutions per second, i.e., 60,000 rpm. That seems amazingly high. I could see it being physically possible for a drum of only 40 mm radius, but it sure doesn't sound easy. It's a good goal to strive for given that the logic, even in the days of vacuum tubes, can run at cycle times of just a couple of microseconds. As one more way to speed things up he suggests having multiple rows of read/write heads, where the addressed word would be picked up by whichever head sees it soonest. 10 rows and 60k rpm would give you 50 microseconds average access time which "even for a parallel computer would be a very attractive number". (Pages 17-18) > >I'm wondering what the reality of fast drum memories looked like, and whether anyone came even close to these numbers. Also, am I right in thinking they are at least in principle achievable? I know I could run the stress numbers, but haven't done so. > > paul >

8 years, 4 months

S-100 systems appraisal

by nick＠burkitt.net

Back in the 1970s and 80s, my brother and I used to frequent computer swap meets in and around Orange County, CA. We both built S-100 systems >from the boards we bought there. I sold mine long ago, but my brother kept at it for several more years. Last December he passed away, and I discovered that he had kept his "big" system, and had put together a second as well. I'm interested to know people's thoughts on what they might be worth, both as complete systems, which I would prefer, and if sold as individual components. Everything is located in Santa Ana, CA. My brother was a fan of OASIS, so his main machine was switch-selectable to boot either that or CP/M (MP/M). It was almost certainly running when it was decommissioned (which would have been at least 20 years ago). OASIS Box Large (as in washing-machine) enclosure containing: Four 1/2-height, eight inch floppy drives, in enclosure. Two eight inch hard drives, probably 10 or 20 MB each, in enclosure. 18-slot CCS mainframe with these cards: CCS 2805, Rev. D, Terminator/Wallclock (terminator unpopulated) CCS 2830 Six/SIO, Assy No. 02830-00001, Rev. A CCS 2832 2 Rev. A, Winchester disk controller (2-board set). Module 9016-Rev02, 7-82. CCS 2422 Assy No. 02422-0001 Rev. B, Multimode Floppy Disk Controller. CCS 2066 Rev. B 64K Dynamic RAM, bank selectable CCS 2066 Rev. A 64K Dynamic RAM, bank selectable Cromemco 16KZ Cromemco 16KZ CCS 2068 Assy No. 02065-00001 Rev. C 64K dynamic Memory Computer System Resources (CSR) RAM 64D, modified w/external switch(es) CCS 2820 Assy. No. 02830-00001 System Processor CCS 2704 Assy No 02704-0000? Rev. ? Terminator Board The other system is just the mainframe. The manufacture's label is hidden by the floppies and I was too lazy to remove them to read it. Black Box 12-slot mainframe, with two 1/2-height 5.25 inch floppy drives (and room for two more). Includes these cards: CCS 2066 Assy. No. 2066-00001 Rev. A 64K Dynamic RAM, bank selectable CCS 2820 Rev. B System Processor CCS 2066 2.2K Rev. C 64K Dynamic RAM, bank selectable CCS 2066 Assy. No. 2066-00001 Rev. A 64K Dynamic RAM, bank selectable CCS 2066 2.2K Rev. B 64K Dynamic RAM, bank selectable CCS 2422 Assy No. 02422-0001 Rev. B, Multimode Floppy Disk Controller. CCS 2805, Rev. D, Terminator/Wallclock (terminator unpopulated) Konan SMC200 P-SMC-201-A Hard disk controller (no hard disk) CCS 2830 Six/SIO Rev. C CCS 2704 Assy No 02704-00001 Rev. C Terminator Board Separately, he also had: CCS 2520K Extender/terminator board kit, unassembled, in box with manual. Archive Corporation Sidewinder tape drive with two tapes. Cromemco 16KZ RAM board, with manual I have photos of everything. Thanks, -Nick

8 years, 4 months

UUCP "bag" files

by cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net

Does anyone know why UUCP "bag" files are called "bag"? Thanks in advance. -- Grant. . . . unix || die

8 years, 4 months

Old newsreader source code

by web＠loomcom.com

I'm experimenting with setting up UUCP and Usenet on a cluster of 3B2/400s, and I've quickly discovered that while it's trivial to find old source code for Usenet (B News and C News), it's virtually impossible to find source code for old news *readers*. I'm looking especially for nn, which was my go-to at the time. The oldest version I've found so far is nn 6.4, which is too big to compile on a 3B2/400. If I could get my hands on 6.1 or earlier, I think I'd have a good chance. I also found that trn 3.6 from 1994 works well enough, though it is fairly bloated. Earlier versions of that might be better. Does anyone have better Google-fu than I do? Or perhaps you've got earlier sources squirreled away? As an aside: If you were active on Usenet in 1989, what software were you using? -Seth -- Seth Morabito web at loomcom.com

8 years, 4 months

Old core memory system.

by donald＠donaldwhittemore.com

My 360/65 panel has the control panel for Fabri-Tek add-on memory on the left side. http://www.myimagecollection.com/webpics/65panel.jpg

8 years, 4 months

'90s era PC recommendation.

by seefriek＠gmail.com

Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > Does anyone have any recommendations for a '90s era PC that has PCI and > ISA slots? Ideally I'd like to have EISA slots too. ? At least I > think that's what I want. EISA is a nice-to-have, especially if you want to run multiple interfaces (much better irq handling than ISA) and/or higher speed stuff like FDDI, 100Mb enet, T-3/ATM, etc. Or you already have a cache of EISA cards. That said (and this is x86 specific, because there's a whole HPPA EISA world I don't know a lot about with all sorts of weird stuff): 1) PCI does a better job......usually. 2) EISA motherboards, desktop machines and fun/exotic network cards seem to be getting increasingly rare and ridiculously expensive, at least on evil auction sites. On the other hand, 10Mb EISA ethernet and scsi cards are chump change. 3) There are some interesting network things that just don't seem to have ever been made for EISA. For example, I've never heard of a fibre ethernet or HSSI card for EISA. 4) I think EISA limits you to 386 through PII CPUs (and probably PII as a PPro Overdrive upgrade outside of a server class machine). At least, I can't think of a P3 machine with EISA. YMMV. 5) The video card options are a bit thin on EISA. The Compaq QVision VGA is common as dirt (and just as dumb), but outside of that the ELSA Winner and ATI Mach32 are the only "real" graphics cards I seem to see often. There's probably some awful TIGA boards out there somewhere. Go PCI. I held on to a couple of Intel Xpress machines for the EISA bus. I doubt I'd pay the premium over a solid PCI/ISA machine. Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > Depends on your CPU needs, but if you're willing to settle for P2/P3 era, > anything using the Intel i440BX or GX generally has very good ISA support. Yeah, but didn't the GX (and KX) have some pretty serious bugs until really late steppings? Same to a lesser extent with the NX. The BX (and FX) however was very reliable, as I recall. Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote: > I've long had a soft spot for the Pentium Pro. Yeah, me too. Great chip with a long useful life. I ran a couple of Intel PR440FX based machine for years past their expiration date because they kept up with the load and just wouldn't die. > A LONG time ago I saw an advertisement for a system that could accept six Pentium Pros. ALR Revolution server, probably. NCR and Corollary made 8-ways. > I /think/ it's a Compaq Deskpro XL 560 Great machine; built like a tank. Much better quality than the Xpress. I had an XL 6200 (200Mhz PPro) for many years and still regret getting rid of it. Lucky you you got yours back. The HP Vectra XU was also pretty nice.

8 years, 4 months

FS: California Computer Systems Model 2210 S-100 system

by sellam.ismail＠gmail.com

Hello Folks. I've listed a nice California Computer Systems S-100 computer for sale. Details are here: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?63588-California-Computer-Systems… Thanks! Sellam P.S. If you're waiting on something from me, know that I have not forgotten about you, just took most of the last month to setup and plant the garden. I am getting back up to speed and will respond to everyone and pick up where we left off promptly, but feel free to nudge me if you somehow fall through the cracks and are neglected. Forgive me, and please know it is not intentional.

8 years, 4 months

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