Wang 2243 drive enclosure

[Jason Howe]

Are there any Wang people on this list?

I came across a Wang 2243, which is an enclosure w/ 3 8-inch floppy 
drives in it for $75 in the local surplus shop.


Is there a demand for something like this whole or is the value in the 
drives?


I've been wanting to mess around with some 8-inch drives, but it seems a 
crime to break this unit apart.


There's also a smaller Wang enclosure with dual 5-inch floppies in it, 
but I wasn't able to get a model number off it.   Also $75


There big to store, and cut into my retro computing budget a bit -- but 
I'm tempted to grab them.. Is there any potential interest here in these 
units before I go back for them?


--Jason

Re: Looking for 8085a CPU

[allison]

If you were on this side of the pond it would be easy.
The 8085A is a really common part with many vendors and all work.

Also if a different one gets hot (they nominally run warm not hot to the
touch)
check to see if there is a bus or address driver shorted or stuck in the
wrong direction.
Make sure the 8085A is the only warm part.

Allison

On 11/07/2016 06:32 PM, Adrian Graham wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Still working on this STC Executel and it looks like the CPU isn't too good
> given how hot it gets within a minute or so. The display is the same whether
> there's a CPU physically present or not. I built this circuit to test it:
>
> http://saundby.com/electronics/8085/freerun.shtml
>
> Using a 4mhz crystal the address lines are all over the place - I'm using a
> logic analyser rather than LEDs.
>
> Has anyone got a spare they'd like to sell me? I'm struggling to think of
> something I've got that may have a socketed 8085...
>

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[Jon Elson]

On 11/07/2016 07:59 PM, Mark Linimon wrote:

On Mon, Nov 07, 2016 at 11:23:58AM -0800, Chuck Guzis wrote:

But if you're a suburban resident living on Mulberry Street, anything
but single-phase is pretty much out of the question.

Oh, you can get it -- but be prepared for a large hassle.

A former neighbor had a 440V 3-phase Italian lathe in his backyard shop,
among other toys.  After he was laid off from his aerospace job doing
machining it was how he made his living.  He was a very handy person
to know :-)

mcl

I have two 3-phase machines in my shop (Bridgeport mill and 
Sheldon lathe) and run them each off a properly-sized VFD.  
2-phase in, 3-phase out, plus variable speed and dynamic 
braking.


Jon

Re: Looking for 8085a CPU

[Chuck Guzis]

On 11/07/2016 03:32 PM, Adrian Graham wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> Still working on this STC Executel and it looks like the CPU isn't
> too good given how hot it gets within a minute or so. The display is
> the same whether there's a CPU physically present or not. I built
> this circuit to test it:
> 
> http://saundby.com/electronics/8085/freerun.shtml
> 
> Using a 4mhz crystal the address lines are all over the place - I'm
> using a logic analyser rather than LEDs.
> 
> Has anyone got a spare they'd like to sell me? I'm struggling to
> think of something I've got that may have a socketed 8085...

Got any old Adaptec SCSI controllers for PC?   How about an old XT MFM
controller?Wangtek QIC36 tape controller?

The 8085s are all over the place.   If you're buying NOS, I'd probably
go for the 80C85.   Tundra made a pretty good one.

--Chuck

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[Mark Linimon]

On Mon, Nov 07, 2016 at 11:23:58AM -0800, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> But if you're a suburban resident living on Mulberry Street, anything
> but single-phase is pretty much out of the question.

Oh, you can get it -- but be prepared for a large hassle.

A former neighbor had a 440V 3-phase Italian lathe in his backyard shop,
among other toys.  After he was laid off from his aerospace job doing
machining it was how he made his living.  He was a very handy person
to know :-)

mcl

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[Jon Elson]

On 11/07/2016 01:04 PM, et...@757.org wrote:



Hmmm it shouldn't be that hard in this day and age to come 
up with that kind of current assuming switchers would be 
clean enough. I have a home use LED video screen I 
assembled/am finishing from Chinese modules that runs on 
480 amps @ 5vdc, power supplies set me back maybe $300 or 
less. Could probably adjust them down or get similar units 
or higher quality stuff from surplus (Pioneer Magnetics, etc)
Switching supplies can be as clean as you need them to be, 
just a matter of proper filtering.


Jon

Re: PDP 11/20 sold (ebay warning)

[Graham Toal]

the old clothes makes it sound like a prop buyer for movies... on the other
hand they'd probably buy a dead one for less...

On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 6:54 PM, jim stephens  wrote:

> Looks like someone put in a high enough bid to hold onto the 11/20 that
> went today.  I guessed an amount around what it went for would be what I'd
> pay, so don't know if I'd have gotten it or not, but didn't try since that
> was around the 3500 dollar level.  (it sold for $2961).
>
> The fun thing is the buyer is also buying vintage clothing and the like
> according to Epay's useless buyer history it gives out now.
>
> There were three other bidders that doubled the price in the last 8
> seconds.
>
> It was a nice machine, though the seller said it had developed a problem
> in the memory.
>
> thanks
> jim
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/222300550527
>

Re: PDP 11/20 sold (ebay warning)

[Mark Linimon]

On Mon, Nov 07, 2016 at 08:04:09PM -0500, couryho...@aol.com wrote:
> now I know  what ours is worth!

Clearly not.  But I'll be happy to take it off your hands for a hundred
bucks or so.  Contact me privately.

(oh it's a JOKE folks :-) )

mcl

Re: PDP 11/20 sold (ebay warning)

[COURYHOUSE]

now I know  what ours is worth!
$ed
 
 
In a message dated 11/7/2016 5:55:19 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
jwsm...@jwsss.com writes:

Looks  like someone put in a high enough bid to hold onto the 11/20 that 
went  today.  I guessed an amount around what it went for would be what 
I'd  pay, so don't know if I'd have gotten it or not, but didn't try 
since that  was around the 3500 dollar level.  (it sold for $2961).

The fun  thing is the buyer is also buying vintage clothing and the like 
according  to Epay's useless buyer history it gives out now.

There were three  other bidders that doubled the price in the last 8 
seconds.

It was a  nice machine, though the seller said it had developed a problem 
in the  memory.

thanks
jim

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222300550527

PDP 11/20 sold (ebay warning)

[jim stephens]

Looks like someone put in a high enough bid to hold onto the 11/20 that 
went today.  I guessed an amount around what it went for would be what 
I'd pay, so don't know if I'd have gotten it or not, but didn't try 
since that was around the 3500 dollar level.  (it sold for $2961).


The fun thing is the buyer is also buying vintage clothing and the like 
according to Epay's useless buyer history it gives out now.


There were three other bidders that doubled the price in the last 8 seconds.

It was a nice machine, though the seller said it had developed a problem 
in the memory.


thanks
jim

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222300550527

Looking for 8085a CPU

[Adrian Graham]

Hi folks,

Still working on this STC Executel and it looks like the CPU isn't too good
given how hot it gets within a minute or so. The display is the same whether
there's a CPU physically present or not. I built this circuit to test it:

http://saundby.com/electronics/8085/freerun.shtml

Using a 4mhz crystal the address lines are all over the place - I'm using a
logic analyser rather than LEDs.

Has anyone got a spare they'd like to sell me? I'm struggling to think of
something I've got that may have a socketed 8085...

-- 
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?

PDP8a CPU fixed! (was Re: DEC DELQA - seems not to work. Anyone got a spare?)

[Brian Walenz]

On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 11:44 AM, Ian S. King  wrote:

> I love reading stories of component-level repair.
>

Assuming my notes and sketchy memory make any sense:

One of my PDP 8a CPU boards (the M8315) passed all the self tests I could
toggle in, EXCEPT, it would ignore HLT instructions.  It'd just blow right
through them.  That'll get you questioning your sanity real quick.

Several hours of squinting at schematics said I'm looking for the STOPL
signal - I found three or four places, one of which involved a ROM (at
least my notes say there is a ROM involved).  Uh oh.  Page 3-17 of the
microprocessor user manual lists when STOPL is asserted.  Basically, front
panel or HLT.  Page 4-39 has the logic for the front panel, and that was
enough to narrow it down to one instance of STOPL in the schematics, in the
middle of page H-9.  E39 (an 8881 aka 7439) or E33 (a 7402).  I swapped
those two out, repaired the trace that I busted, and viola!  HLT now
works.  I vaguely remember it was the 8881 at fault.

BTW, I'm open to suggestions as to how to even begin debugging an HP 1000 E
Series.  There seems to be a case holding a power supply in the way of any
access to the motherboard.  The machine fails to exit the 'counting' self
test right after power up.  I plan on writing up a better description once
it gets cold and snowy out, so don't feel bad if you don't see this plea
for help.

Cheers!

b

Various Software and Documentation for shipping + donations (round 2, much delayed)

[Tapley, Mark]

All,
Sometimes my wheels turn slowly. Work, life, etc. intervened since last 
Sept. but I’m back to this task for a while.

I'm trying to help Cindy find homes for some of what's left from her 
warehouse. I can hold them only temporarily ( :-) ), but if any of this 
interests you please contact me via Private (not list) email at 
mtap...@swri.edu.

If you do want something, send me your shipping address and exactly 
what you want. I'll get back to you with estimated shipping costs (USPS media 
rate where possible) as soon as I can. You send me payment (any method is 
acceptable; USPS does not recommend cash in the mail) and I will ship when 
payment arrives. If you want Fed-Ex or something different from USPS media let 
me know at your first contact and I will price that for you. If you can afford 
to send slightly more than costs, I'll collect up the surplus for Cindy and get 
it to her.
If more than one person wants the same thing, it goes to the person 
sending me the earliest time-tagged email. 
If Al K. wants anything for Bitsavers, he gets priority (even if his is 
not the first email) up until it leaves my hands.

There will be multiple sets of email from me, hopefully at a faster 
cadence, each with a short list of things, unless/until someone asks me to 
quit. (I think I tried to send this in July but never saw it come back nor got 
any answers; if it did go out and this is a re-send, please let me know and 
accept my apologies for the spam.)

Thanks for your attention! More coming soon.

-   - Mark
———

These are documentation or book only.

Orion Blue Book Computer Spring 1998
book only; hardbound

Frontier Technologies Super-TCP for Windows
book only; softbound, shrink-wrap intact.

Novell Netware 5.1 Administration Student manual
book only; softbound, highlighter/pen/pencil markings inside.

Drum Jansen Using PFS: First Choice Tutorial and Applications
book only; softbound

Epson Stylus COLOR 760/860 Printer Basics
book only; softbound

Epson Setup Guide for Stylus COLOR 400
book only; softbound

Toshiba CD-ROM Drive Safety Instruction manual (XM-5702B, xx/XM5701B 
xx/XM-3801B
single sheet of paper in english + single half-size sheet in Japanese

Jaton VIDEO-67P/VIDEO-67TV Quick start guide
Single sheet multi-fold pamphlet

Output Technology Corporation OTC 2100 Series Printers Setup and Operation
book only; spiral-bound

———

Looking for terminals again - oops

[Brian Adams]

Whoops, looks like I sent this to the wrong cct*** email, apologies!



My interest in video terminals has been awoken again, and I am again searching 
for one.
I like the look/size of the VT220s, very nice and compact!


Anybody have extra DEC or IBM terminals in Toronto (Canada) ? I’m probably 
somewhat interested!

-brian

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[Chuck Guzis]

On 11/07/2016 11:04 AM, et...@757.org wrote:

> Hmmm it shouldn't be that hard in this day and age to come up with
> that kind of current assuming switchers would be clean enough. I have
> a home use LED video screen I assembled/am finishing from Chinese
> modules that runs on 480 amps @ 5vdc, power supplies set me back
> maybe $300 or less. Could probably adjust them down or get similar
> units or higher quality stuff from surplus (Pioneer Magnetics, etc)

A lot depends on location.  If you're out in a rural area and serviced
by a Rural Electric Cooperative (REC), it's pretty easy, although there
are the initial costs for the cable, distribution box and transformer.
Farm equipment such as hay dryers tend to be 440V 3-phase, so it's not
something out of the ordinary.

Similarly, if you've got space in a commercial/industrial section of
town, 3-phase power almost goes along without mention.  Office buildings
and warehouses tend to have 3-phase service.

Of course, this is US practice.  If you were, say, in Germany, 3-phase
power is pretty standard for residential service--the only concern is
the current-carrying capacity.

But if you're a suburban resident living on Mulberry Street, anything
but single-phase is pretty much out of the question.

--Chuck

Re: TEAC-55Fxxx

[Chuck Guzis]

On 11/07/2016 06:24 AM, emanuel stiebler wrote:
> Anybody has a spare to sell, give away, trade?

I've got a couple of 55Fs (with head-load solenoids) that I'm not using,
but I suspect that you're on the wrong side of the pond.

I think I may also have a few 96tpi Japanese drives as well, if you're
after a match.

All have black bezels.

--Chuck

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[ethan]

I wonder if LCM has ever measured the power draw of each of their big machines?


Do they run them on any sort of commercial PDU system? I'd hope so, not 
too expensive and they should be able to see real time at least the 
current draw.



--
Ethan O'Toole

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[ethan]

Yes, that's how the 360's (at least mid-range) were set up.  You could tell, 
the converter-inverter was INSANELY loud, at a massively piercing audio 
frequency.  The key was that this one unit gave regulated AC power to all


Wild!

We tried to get a 370/145 running at a guy's house.  That had the 17 KVA 
motor generator set in the back (WAY more than a 145 needed, but they 
apparently used one MG set for a range of machines).  But, he only had 60 A 
240V single-phase service, and we couldn't even spin up the MG set with no 
load.  We built a static phase converter, but the imaginary current was over 
60 A.  Well, NO SURPRISE, if we'd just read the nameplate we would have known 
it was a fool's errand. The 3-phase line current on the thing was about 55 A, 
per 3-PHASE LINE, so running it off SINGLE-PHASE, the line current would HAVE 
to be 1.7 X that much, wouldn't it?  OF course!
We should have just scrapped the original 415 Hz power supplies and got our 
hands on a bank of 5V supplies and adapted them.  The thing ran off +1.2 and 
-3 V supplies at 390 A, although I think that was for the max configuration, 
this one had minimal internal memory, so should have been less.


Ah yea, the laser show geeks IIRC would run full 200A household service 
just to get 30A 3phase off of rotary converters. A used diesel generator 
set might be another option, or if you're REALLY lucky getting 3 phase 
from the utility without paying crazy (probably only going to work if 
you're next to commercial user that already has 3ph step down already in 
place.)


Hmmm it shouldn't be that hard in this day and age to come up with that 
kind of current assuming switchers would be clean enough. I have a home 
use LED video screen I assembled/am finishing from Chinese modules that 
runs on 480 amps @ 5vdc, power supplies set me back maybe $300 or less. 
Could probably adjust them down or get similar units or higher quality 
stuff from surplus (Pioneer Magnetics, etc)



--
Ethan O'Toole

Re: Sage II

[Tony Duell]

On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 2:22 PM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:

> Thanks!
> It looks like you are right, playing a little with the RAM banks,
> finally got me errors, so at least one chip is dead.
> Will take few days, until my replacements arrive, but now I
> have 384k of RAM ;-)
>
> Still crashes, but we will see. The original sockets on the board are cheap,
> sometimes it feels that the chips are barely hanging in there :(

I seem to remember that every chip (even TTL) is socketed in the Sage. In
really nasty sockets.

Personally, I'd buy a few tubes of turned-pin sockets (machined pin?) and
replace the lot. It may take a little time now, but it will save a lot
more looking
for obscure faults!

-tony

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[Al Kossow]

I wonder if LCM has ever measured the power draw of each of their big machines?

On 11/7/16 10:25 AM, Jon Elson wrote:

> We tried to get a 370/145 running at a guy's house.  That had the 17 KVA 
> motor generator set in the back (WAY more than
> a 145 needed, but they apparently used one MG set for a range of machines).  
> But, he only had 60 A 240V single-phase
> service, and we couldn't even spin up the MG set with no load.  We built a 
> static phase converter, but the imaginary
> current was over 60 A.  Well, NO SURPRISE, if we'd just read the nameplate we 
> would have known it was a fool's errand.
> The 3-phase line current on the thing was about 55 A, per 3-PHASE LINE, so 
> running it off SINGLE-PHASE, the line current
> would HAVE to be 1.7 X that much, wouldn't it?  OF course!
>

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[Jon Elson]

On 11/07/2016 10:59 AM, et...@757.org wrote:
All 370's ran off 415 Hz 3-phase power. The mid-sized 
ones had the motor-generator set built into the back of 
the machine.  The 415 Hz (regulated) power was 
transformed to low voltage and run through an 
inductor-input filter and then series pass regulated.  
They had a circuit they called an "electronic capacitor" 
that pulled extra current through the inductor during the 
voltage peaks, so the inductor carried enough current 
during the voltage valleys.  This reduced the ripple 
current on the capacitor banks.
The 360s ran off single-phase 120 V 2500 Hz power, 
produced by a "converter-inverter" unit in the back, that 
converted utility 3-phase power to DC, then inverted it 
with an SCR inverter. This made the DC power supplies in 
the machine quite small. Since they ran off regulated 
2500 Hz power, they dropped only a very small voltage 
across the series-pass transistor.

Jon


Am I getting this right?

So they take AC turn it to DC then turn it back to high 
frequency AC then turn it back to DC to drop the need for 
larger capacitors to keep the DC clean?


Pretty wild.

Yes, that's how the 360's (at least mid-range) were set up.  
You could tell, the converter-inverter was INSANELY loud, at 
a massively piercing audio frequency.  The key was that this 
one unit gave regulated AC power to all critical power 
supplies in the system, so they could skimp on regulation on 
the individual power supplies.
It actually didn't work so well, if you had crummy power, 
which we had a bad case on at Washington University in the 
70's - 80's.  They had 4160 V cables buried all over campus, 
fed from one transformer at the power plant.  These cables 
were in concrete "conduits" which had water leaks.  So the 
wires, with 4160 V on them, were essentially sitting in 
muddy water all the time, and corona discharges broke down 
the insulation.  We had one of these cables fail every 
couple months, with a massive power dip for a few seconds 
before the fuses cleared.  But, for weeks before the big 
POP, they would be arcing and flashing, which drove the 360 
crazy.  A small dip would cause things like control store 
parity errors, main store parity errors or just system 
power-on resets.  They got a Dranetz analyzer, and could 
correlate more than half the machine crashes with a power 
glitch.  They got some big Digital Power Systems 
ultra-isolation transformers, but I really don't think they 
helped much, as the problem was momentary dips.  (Later, 
shielded cables came in, these have a layer of copper mesh 
over the main insulation, so there is no AC field present on 
the outside of the cable.  As far as I know, the original 
shielded cables are still in there, once they got all the 
old unshielded stuff out, these problems just stopped 
happening.)
Anyone run any of this stuff at home / light commercial 
clubhouses?


We tried to get a 370/145 running at a guy's house.  That 
had the 17 KVA motor generator set in the back (WAY more 
than a 145 needed, but they apparently used one MG set for a 
range of machines).  But, he only had 60 A 240V single-phase 
service, and we couldn't even spin up the MG set with no 
load.  We built a static phase converter, but the imaginary 
current was over 60 A.  Well, NO SURPRISE, if we'd just read 
the nameplate we would have known it was a fool's errand. 
The 3-phase line current on the thing was about 55 A, per 
3-PHASE LINE, so running it off SINGLE-PHASE, the line 
current would HAVE to be 1.7 X that much, wouldn't it?  OF 
course!


We should have just scrapped the original 415 Hz power 
supplies and got our hands on a bank of 5V supplies and 
adapted them.  The thing ran off +1.2 and -3 V supplies at 
390 A, although I think that was for the max configuration, 
this one had minimal internal memory, so should have been less.


Jon

Looking for terminals again

[Brian Adams]

The interest in video terminals has been awoken again, and I am again searching 
for one.
I like the look/size of the VT220s, very nice and compact!


Anybody have extra DEC or IBM terminals in Toronto (Canada) ? I’m probably 
somewhat interested!

-brian

Re: Mac SE NVRAM battery removal

[Chris Hanson]

There's nothing stored in the Parameter RAM that won't be restored to a default 
state by the OS on boot.

Macs generally won't boot without a PRAM battery though, so if you're storing 
your systems without one, you'll need to replace the battery before use.

You might want to run some wire for a socket out of the case if you're going to 
do that regularly, since it can be a pain to get in there on many models―and 
not just on compact Macs, either, though they're obviously tough.

  -- Chris

Sent from my iPad

> On Nov 6, 2016, at 2:49 PM, Jules Richardson  
> wrote:
> 
> 
> So I'm working my way (more slowly than I probably should be) through my 
> systems, ditching ancient on-board batteries before they leak...
> 
> In the case of the Mac SE's, are there any critical settings which I should 
> make a note of before removing the on-board battery? Should I expect any 
> issues trying to run the machines without? (I'm not inclined to replace 
> batteries unless I have to, just so I don't have to worry about replacement 
> again in x years time)
> 
> cheers
> 
> Jules
> 

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[ethan]

Yup, all dumpstered by the company formerly known as Rackable

What survives is in the hands of collectors. They worked hard to save what
was still left at the end.

SGI was just as brutal to Cray. Scorched earth to their archives a decade 
before.



Ugh. To be fair, I even know CEOs today of companies making tech products 
that don't really like to look at the past or live in it -- they see 
themselves as focused on the future.


Still a shame they couldn't of at least shelved documentation and source. 
At the time of it's disposal it probably didn't seem relevant, and perhaps 
it isn't so much outside of those of us with nostalgia for the systems we 
grew up around or ones we dreamed of messing with.


Also, when I was younger (I didn't really participate in any of this hands 
on) I used to hang out in some IRC channels and remember seeing source 
code tarballs get passed around to things like SunOS, Solaris and IRIX. I 
guess they were leaked from companies with partner source code license 
contracts or insecure systems. Mostly used either as trophies or people 
looking for more security vulnerabilities (independent unauthorized source 
code audit I guess you would call it.) Right as it would happen you would 
see a bunch of new CERT advisories from some random group and it was like, 
"Yep, they're digging through that source tarball floating around." Those 
source tarballs are likely to still be out there somewhere.

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[ethan]

All 370's ran off 415 Hz 3-phase power.  The mid-sized ones had the 
motor-generator set built into the back of the machine.  The 415 Hz 
(regulated) power was transformed to low voltage and run through an 
inductor-input filter and then series pass regulated.  They had a circuit 
they called an "electronic capacitor" that pulled extra current through the 
inductor during the voltage peaks, so the inductor carried enough current 
during the voltage valleys.  This reduced the ripple current on the capacitor 
banks.
The 360s ran off single-phase 120 V 2500 Hz power, produced by a 
"converter-inverter" unit in the back, that converted utility 3-phase power 
to DC, then inverted it with an SCR inverter.  This made the DC power 
supplies in the machine quite small.  Since they ran off regulated 2500 Hz 
power, they dropped only a very small voltage across the series-pass 
transistor.

Jon


Am I getting this right?

So they take AC turn it to DC then turn it back to high frequency AC 
then turn it back to DC to drop the need for larger capacitors to keep 
the DC clean?


Pretty wild.

Anyone run any of this stuff at home / light commercial clubhouses?



--
Ethan O'Toole

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[Al Kossow]

On 11/7/16 8:46 AM, et...@757.org wrote:
> I think one of the guys might of
> mentioned you! But he talked as if much of that documentation was gone.
> 

Yup, all dumpstered by the company formerly known as Rackable

What survives is in the hands of collectors. They worked hard to save what
was still left at the end.

SGI was just as brutal to Cray. Scorched earth to their archives a decade 
before.

Re: Supercomputers, fishing for information

[ethan]

Supercomputer collectors are like the mainframe collectors, they like to keep a 
low profile other than the
Cray-Cyber folks in Munich.


Those guys are cool, and I appreciate them putting notes online. My Crays 
had their hard disks removed and destroyed (came from high side / govt 
contractor / nuclear engineering for war machines.) When it came to trying 
to get info to re-install the OS I found that every collector I could find 
with a working machine -- it came to them with the OS installed and 
everything :-)


I have Unicos for the J90 series but I'm not 100% sure the release and 
stuff I have is compatible with my machine. It kernel panics on install 
boot -- could be a config thing or it could be the binaries I have are for 
some other version / iteration / etc.


I worked around a number of Cray employees as well and they had no idea.



I don't know what they do for software. We tried getting it with the last Cray 
we got, and got nowhere getting it released.


Yep, I hit the same thing. Cray was willing to write me permission to use 
though -- they faxed me document saying I was okay to run my system and 
such but they obviously weren't going to fork over the OS. At this point 
Cray had already switched hands and was out of the custom computer 
business and in the PC cluster business I think.


I wouldn't be surprised if Unicos like IRIX has licensed components in it 
and they can't distribute it even with it being old.


I was just in California / Silicon Valley for work and got to hang with 
some ex-SGI people that are friends of friend and I was asking them what 
happened to all the SGI documentation and stuff on the proprietary 
graphics systems and such -- any chance of it ever being cleared for 
release / does it still exist / etc. I think one of the guys might of 
mentioned you! But he talked as if much of that documentation was gone.



--
Ethan O'Toole

Re: DEC DELQA - seems not to work. Anyone got a spare? [SOLVED]

[Ian S. King]

On Sun, Nov 6, 2016 at 6:13 PM, Joseph Zatarski 
wrote:

> >On 2014-10-26 3:07 PM, Toby Thain wrote:
> >>* On 21/10/14 7:38 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
> *>>>*  > From: Toby Thain
> *>>*  > Looking to see what the internal self-test returns as an
> error
> *>>>* code
> *>>>*  > (that can be done with console ODT, it doesn't need a
> program) is
> *>>>*  > probably the first step in diagnosing.
> *>>>*...
> *>>* OK, after powerup, the bits of the VAR register (e/w/p 2000192c) are
> *>>* D800, i.e. the test result bits VAR12:10 are 1,1,0 - meaning RAM test
> *>>* failed.
> *>
> >Hi all,
> >
> >As an update to this project, I can report that the DELQA has been
> >repaired with four new static RAM chips, and now the MicroVAX II's
> >network is fully working (including netboot).
> >
> >Credit due to Joe Zatarski (joe_z) who did a beautiful job of
> >desoldering and putting sockets in for the four RAM chips.
> >
> >--Toby
>
> Glad to have helped :)
>
> Joe Zatarski
>
> * I must be doing something wrong running the test manually, though -
> *>>>* d/w/p 2000192c 2000
> ** Just leaves 2000 in the VAR register, permanently.
> ** --Toby
> *>>* Noel
> *>>>
>

I love reading stories of component-level repair.

-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School 
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal 
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab 

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."

Re: TEAC-55Fxxx

[william degnan]

On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 9:24 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:

> Anybody has a spare to sell, give away, trade?
>
> Thanks
>

You might be able to get away with more than just TEAC for the Sage II.
Here is a pic of a system with a replaced drive
http://vintagecomputer.net/sage/SageII/Sage-II_front-d.jpg
Do you recognize the "other" drive than yours?  96tpi is harder to find
than more common drives.
Bill

Re: Analogue monitor board repair

[Adrian Graham]

Hi folks,

Replying to myself here since I've had a bit of a breakthrough but not in
the way I'd have liked. A fellow collector who also got one of these
machines at the same time opened his up and there was an extra little
bridgeboard piggybacked off some resistors next to the teletext display chip
that goes to a 7-pin socket on the rear of the case.

The board only has a small cap and a 74LS244 buffer chip on it so I traced
it all out and built my own to produce composite RGB + sync which I plugged
into an old Microvitec CUB monitor, the workhorse of the BBC Micro.

This is the picture I got:

http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/STCExecutelScreenOutput.jpg

Funnily enough that's EXACTLY what I get on the little B display, the
green background explains why I thought the brightness/contrast wasn't
correct, and it's scrolling in the same way.

This means of course that the analogue board is fine and it's the INPUT to
this display chip that isn't correct, I know the chip itself is OK because I
have a Tandata TD2500 teletext terminal that uses the same device and it
works in that. 

I might have to admit defeat on this one, documentation on this system is
non-existent. I've dumped the ROMs so I know they're OK and I can get the
datasheet for the 8085a CPU to check clock/address/data lines etc, RAM is
all 4116-2 so one of them could be bad as well. But there my knowledge ends.

Cheers!


On 31/10/2016 22:29, "tony duell"  wrote:

> 
>> Before I replaced the failed potentiometer (new one seen top left) the
>> display looked like its horizonal hold had gone so I reasoned that's what
> 
> OK... The TDA1180 is the horizontal oscillator, etc, IC. It's well-known.
> 
> Start by getting its data sheet. Indentify the horizontal oscillator
> components
> connected to pins 12, 13, 14, 15 of that IC. Typically you will find a pot
> that controls the DC voltage on pin 15 (slider of pot to pin 15 through a
> resistor). That sets the free-running horizontal frequency

That's the pot I replaced, it goes through a 22ohm resistor.

> Now try adjusting it. If you can get the oscillator to run both too fast
> and too slow (lines sloping both ways) that that part is most likely fine
> and the fault is in the sync circuit. If not, then the oscillator components
> have problems.

Yep, lines sloping both ways is exactly what happens. Perhaps bizarrely this
also seems to affect the contrast.

> Are you getting a sync pulse at pin 8 of the IC? If not, trace back from
> there to the connector to the logic board and if necessary to the video
> IC.

Pin 8 goes right back to a 74LS04 up near the RAM/ROM section of the
motherboard. I'm going to see if it's possible to assemble the whole thing
outside of the big plastic housing and still hold the screen as securely as
possible, it's a complete pain to get the screen in its swivel top and
connect up everything without risk of breakage.

> Are you getting a flyback pulse at pin 6? The horizontal control circuit is
> basically a phase-locked loop comparing the incoming sync pulses with
> flyback signal from the horizontal output stage.

Watch this space :)

-- 
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?

-- End of Forwarded Message

TEAC-55Fxxx

[emanuel stiebler]

Anybody has a spare to sell, give away, trade?

Thanks

Re: [ex-convex] Re: Fwd: Audio interview that mentions my Convex

[aswood]

A very interesting story.

Now we do need detailed information, schematics, maintenance procedures and 
software for C1,C2,C38 as well for SPP systems. My SPP1600XA, which I used e.g. 
to heat my cellar stopped operation due to breaking the voltage limit using 
psu_util.


@Camiel: would you like to swap one of your C1 for an X or S-Class? My S-Class 
is using 48 PA-Risc processors.

Andreas

> Am 07.11.2016 um 14:50 schrieb steve wallach :
> 
> all correct
> 
> actually the story goes as follows
> 
> .he had his sabattical year coming.  however,  he would still go into   his 
> office to use the convex.
> 
> .so i offered him a FREE return C1 (returned after an upgrade to a C2).  he 
> would have to pay for the maintenance and pay for the electrical system 
> needed in his basement.
> 
> .prof jameson is brilliant and people all over the world would come to visit 
> him.  during his sabattical they would come to his house and he delighted in 
> showing them his OWN SUPERCOMPUTER in his basement. also after his sabbtaical 
> finished.
> 
> .we sold several systems based on his use of the convex.  
> 
> .when he presented papers,  he always said,  “i ran these simulations on my 
> own convex supercomputer in my basement”.  we got an enormous amount of press 
> and good will.
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> + Ex-Convex Mailing List, l...@ex-convex.org, http://www.ex-convex.org/
> + To unsubscribe, send an email to leave-ex-con...@ex-convex.org
> + To subscribe, send an email to join-ex-con...@ex-convex.org

Re: Sage II

[emanuel stiebler]

On 2016-11-05 14:25, tony duell wrote:



I have one question:

How does it check, how much RAM is in it?
Boot shows 128K, but the board has 512K


Incidentally there is a .zip file on Bitsavers called SageSources. Unpack it,
and in Sources1 look at PROM2.TXT. That is part of the 68000 source
for the boot ROM and contains the RAM test.


Thanks!
It looks like you are right, playing a little with the RAM banks,
finally got me errors, so at least one chip is dead.
Will take few days, until my replacements arrive, but now I
have 384k of RAM ;-)

Still crashes, but we will see. The original sockets on the board are 
cheap, sometimes it feels that the chips are barely hanging in there :(


Cheers!

Re: KIM-1 Debugging tool

[dwight]

I still need to post the final schematic. A new thread might be a good

idea.

I wanted to keep the board as simple as possible so one could just

wire wrap or point to point it.

It only has a 7474, 7402 and a 7404 as well as the EPROM.

It could easily be done with a GAL or PAL and the EPROM.

I think two schematics showing each would be best.

Dwight



From: cctalk  on behalf of Ali 

Sent: Sunday, November 6, 2016 10:25:16 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: RE: KIM-1 Debugging tool

> I've been making a debugging ROM board to test out the various
>
> parts of the KIM-1. It is based on taking over the KIM at reset
>
> and running test.
>
> So far I've got two test working. One is a basic, is it running test
>
> that just blinks a light on the debug board.
>
> The next is a test of the first 1K of RAM.
>
> A little tricky to do without RAM.
>
> I expect to write some more for the RRIOT ics.
>
> If anyone has interest, they can follow me on the Vintage
>
> Computer Forum or contact me here.
>
> The board has 3 ttl ICs, a 2764/27128 EPROM, a couple
>
> LEDs and a dip switch. Also a few pullup resistors and capacitors.
>
> Dwight


Dwight,

That is a pretty cool project. May I suggest you break it out on VCF into
its own thread so people can more easily follow what is going on? For those
interested in the original thread:
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?52155-KIM-1-No-Action/

-Ali

Re: MACRO11

[Toby Thain]

On 2016-11-07 8:34 AM, Holm Tiffe wrote:

Jörg Hoppe wrote:


Hi,

my version of the MACRO11 cross-assembler for PDP-11 is now on
https://github.com/j-hoppe/MACRO11 .

Among others it fixes the  "JMP Rn is illegal" error on "jmp (rx)" opcode.

Also I added the option "listhex" to produce a binary listing in hex
notation instead of octal.
I found this really necessary when analyzing test programs with a modern
logic analyzer.

Joerg


Thanks.

Could you possible change all the occurences of stricmp() wich is a
mikeysoft-only thing, to the more standard strcasecmp()?


You could do a pull request on github, or if you don't have time, I could.

--Toby



Regards,

Holm

Re: MACRO11

[Holm Tiffe]

Jörg Hoppe wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> my version of the MACRO11 cross-assembler for PDP-11 is now on 
> https://github.com/j-hoppe/MACRO11 .
> 
> Among others it fixes the  "JMP Rn is illegal" error on "jmp (rx)" opcode.
> 
> Also I added the option "listhex" to produce a binary listing in hex 
> notation instead of octal.
> I found this really necessary when analyzing test programs with a modern 
> logic analyzer.
> 
> Joerg

Thanks.

Could you possible change all the occurences of stricmp() wich is a
mikeysoft-only thing, to the more standard strcasecmp()?

Regards,

Holm
-- 
  Technik Service u. Handel Tiffe, www.tsht.de, Holm Tiffe, 
 Freiberger Straße 42, 09600 Oberschöna, USt-Id: DE253710583
i...@tsht.de Fax +49 3731 74200 Tel +49 3731 74222 Mobil: 0172 8790 741

Re: looking for S100 EPROM programmer board.

[allison]

Thanks for your opinion on this board.  I've used it for maybe 25 years
and its does all the 5V Eproms.  Its currently configured for 27256.
It does not do any of the three voltage eproms.

Now a manual would be helpful, your comments are things I already know.
I don't care to unwrap a S100 board with about 18 ICs and 6 voltage
regulators.
If I'm doing that I'll start from scratch.

Info about the bitblaster is of no use.

Allison


On 11/06/2016 11:41 PM, dwight wrote:
> Most of these boards only do one or two types of eproms.
>
> I have a bit blaster that only does 2708/04 EPROMs.
>
> A couple hours on an extender card should be enough to
>
> figure one out, with a 'scope.
>
> They are usually not to complicated.
>
> Some latches for data and address. Some select bits and
>
> something to turn the programming voltage on and off.
>
> If it is intended for multiple EPROM types, there will be a
>
> bunch of resistors to select assorted voltages.
>
> Dwight
>
>
>
> 
> From: cctech  on behalf of allison 
> 
> Sent: Sunday, November 6, 2016 12:46:51 PM
> To: cct...@classiccmp.org
> Subject: looking for S100 EPROM programmer board.
>
>
> I ahve and can't find the manual for a:
>
> Digital research computer S100 EPROM Programmer
>
>
> Any info might help.  Specific info needed is schematic and headers for
> various Eproms.
>
> Allison
>