This decade seems to have increased the number of failing things in such
a way that the "to be repaired" backlog is growing much faster than I
can get to diminish it. Argh.? A month ago my trusty HP9000/380 ran just
fine and I booted the different OS's in the SCSI and HPIB drives
connected to it (this particular machine is interesting because the
9000/300 port of NetBSD was partly developed in it: it was Mike
Wolfson's). Yesterday, it failed to turn on; the power supply is dead.?
So I unracked the pile of drives and the computer, checked for obvious
things (the fuse is fine, and nothing in the power supply is swelled up
or leaking, or browned by heat; visually, it looks new; the HV caps seem
to hold a charge).? I need the schematics for the power supply (at least
the output connector; I can work my way back from that)? and also those
for the backplane in this hp9000/380.? A preliminary search at bitsavers
and elsewhere did not help.? Does anybody have these?
In the meantime, I finally improved the mainboard (had the parts for a
long while) from a 380 to a 385 by changing the clock generator, and
replacing the 68040RC25 with an RC33.
I ran this machine as a web server continuously for ten years in the
2000's, totally exposed.? Many tried to hack it... and failed. Another
personal connection to this architecture is that I used Apollos and
hp9000/300 at UW-Madison back in 1989-91.? Boy, did I crunch numbers...
carlos.
What is the best way of dumping the contents of an ESDI disk?
I have an original IBM Enhanced ESDI ISA controller board. Could that be
used under Linux? Or NetBSD/FreeNSD? I googled but didn't find much.
Is there any other way of dumping the disk contents?
In theory it should be just a matter of clocking the raw data and finding
the marks and extracting the data. Has anyone done something similar?
/Mattis
Counting in binary on ones fingers was something I first ran into at
age 11 when found a book on Military Electronics in a surplus
store. Everything simplified, but in computer section found binary
system explained with using fingers to represent bits. That was
something that I used immediately as used to count steps to various
places but after 1000+ steps would often forget where I was so would
increment my binary digital counter every 100 steps. At that age 1
mile was probably about 2500 steps so I my counter would have
overflowed at about 40.9 miles. Also LSB was my left small finger
which seems weird now but suspect that's what illustration in book
showed of how to count in binary on your fingers. Found manual
method easier to use than a pedometer.
>I too count sheep with my fingers, but I never get past zero due to the
>lack of sheep. :-)
>
>Tom Hunter
>
>On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 5:34 PM Tor Arntsen via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 30 Jan 2021 at 03:27, dwight via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
> > wrote:
> > > If we'd thought about it we could count to 1023 on our fingers.
> > > Dwight
> >
> > Some sheep herders in (IIRC) the Caucasus do, or did at least. I
> > learned about that some decades ago. Counting sheep on their fingers.
> > I use the system sometimes.
> >
> > -Tor
> >
Dear all,
I have been looking to downsize a bit in recent times and am looking to get rid of an IBM AS/400 9404 F10 and an HP 175a oscilloscope. As these things are large they are pickup only in the Petersfield area. I cannot guarantee either work. Although the scope comes with spares and does show some signs of life. It is not my area of expertise and it is probably going to need a full rework, it being from the 60s. The AS/400 is a similar story although will probably be a much simpler task.
Send me an email if you are interested in either one of them or want pictures or have questions. I also realise it is lockdown, but if you send me a line now I can hold them for you rather than them being scrapped.
Thanks,
Al
This evening begins a series of events celebrating the
75th anniversary of the unveiling of the ENIAC at the
University of Pennsylvania.? On the 11th and 18th, the
Philadelphia Venture Cafe will be hosting virtual round
tables with a number of us who have some connection to
the ENIAC and Philadelphia technology.? Included among
the people present will be:
- Bill Mauchly and Chris Eckert, sons of the ENIAC
creators
- Bill Mensch, part of the 6502 engineering team
- Kathy Kleiman, producer of the ENIAC programmers
documentary
(And yes, I'll be there for anyone who wants to get
nerdy and talk about the technical aspects of the
machine and its programming.)
Monday, the 15th is the day of the anniversary, and
there will be a full day of webcasting.? Starting at
10:30 EST, UPenn will be holding a mini-symposium in
recognition of the ENIAC.? Then at 3:30 EST, Unisys
will be webcasting an ENIAC celebration video that
includes a number of panel discussions, as well as
clips from early newsreels, and happy birthday wishes
>from the various locations housing ENIAC artifacts.
More details and links to all the events can be found
here:
http://www.eniacday.org/events/
BLS
On 2/8/21 1:00 PM, Mattis Lind wrote:
> This is highly annoying. Back in 2015 I did exactly this and now I have
> forgotten how.
>
> I dumped a set of RX02 disks with catweasel into .DMK and now I want a raw
> sector image to be able to test them with SimH.
>
> What is a good tool to use? I have some faint memory of glancing through
> hexdumps of .dmk files. Perhaps I did something myself using dmklib by Eric
> Smith? Don't really remember, unfortunately.
>
> But surely someone else has already done this, right?
>
> /Mattis
I wrote my own, not knowing where another one lived. I happen to think
in Java, so that's what it's implemented in.
Description is here:
https://github.com/RetroFloppy/transformenator/wiki/Utility-Functions#dmk2r…
Code is here:
https://github.com/RetroFloppy/transformenator/blob/master/src/org/transfor…
The only thing of interest is the cw2dmk tool would read RX01 disks and
"double" the data - so my tool will make an attempt to detect that and
halve the data back out the other end.
- David
Hello list,
there is an NCR-labelled disk pack offered in the bay with a geometry that I've never come across before:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/353379280282
It seems to be a 14" pack with three platter and six recordable surfaces. The platters themselves are quite thick and the distance between the platters is quite wide compared to the IBM 1316 and 2316 type standards.
Does anybody know if this is really an NCR development or if it is a rebadged pack from another manufacturer?
Any hints to solve this mystery is much appreciated :)
Best regards,
Pierre
PS: I wonder if the seller describing the party dog is describing himself, but partying seemed to be an important part of his life ;)
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