Re: Tandem Minicomputers
SII ( system integrators inc, not System Industries Inc) produced a big system for Newspaper editing. Could be over 3000 seats. It used Coyote terminals. IIRC, i think it ran the Guardian operating system. Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 30, 2019, at 09:45, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > >> On 9/30/19 8:57 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: >>> On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote: >>> Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep >>> finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along >>> with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: >>> >>> https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 >>> >>> There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about >>> it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. >>> >>> -j >> Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be the last >> gasp of their technology. >> Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole Tandem >> concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary processors, without >> special hardware. So, their whole reason for being became moot. > > Jimmy Treybig was a master marketeer. I recall that when his offerings > debuted, he equip a guest with a pair of diagonal cutters and instruct > them to pick a wire, any wire and cut it. > > The system would just keep running. > > The old OnSale auction site that featured some really good deals back in > the 1990s was powered by Tandem. > > https://web.archive.org/web/19980212000633/http://www.onsale.com:80/ > > --Chuck > >
Re: Standard Engineering CAMAC crate controller with LSI-11
On 09/30/2019 09:17 PM, Adrian Stoness via cctalk wrote: just a box of boards or a system missing a memoru module? OK, if you are not familiar with it, CAMAC is a standard for data acquisition and control, that has 25-slot powered crates. At the right edge, the last 2 slots are dedicated as controller slots. This was a 3-slot set that could be used as a programmable controller for the CAMAC crate. So, it has 3 CAMAC modules, one of which has the LSI11/2 in it. But, since the LSI11/2 doesn't have memory on board, and the other boards don't seem to have any memory, it seems something is missing. I think there must have been a 4th module that communicated by a ribbon cable across the front. It may still be around here... Jon
Re: HP vintage boards being sold as scrap - WON
Yesterday: >These will go up on my site at http://everist.org/pics/pcbs Then promptly the web hosting server goes down, since this morning of 20190930 Tue in Australia. I don't yet know why, or have any estimate of when it will come back up. Guy
Re: Standard Engineering CAMAC crate controller with LSI-11
just a box of boards or a system missing a memoru module? On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 8:45 PM Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > I have a 3-board set, a Standar Engineering MIK-11/2, which > is a controller for a CAMAC crate, with an LSI-11/2 (M7270) > in it. It also has a serial port in it. I thought there > was a memory that went with it, but I can't seem to find that. > > Anybody have any use for this? > > Jon >
Chabin TLC cables
I have some bundles of Chabin TLC (transmission line cables) from a Memorex 3674 disk control. This is the exact same material used in IBM 360s. It has 18 signal conductors and 36 grounds. They are about 3 feet long, and I have something like 11 of them. Any interest? Jon
Tek 500 pulser modules
I have 3 units of the Pulse Instruments PI-451A programmable pulse driver. One has a note that it is bad. These seem to be general purpose pulse generators, capable of +/- 25 V into 50 Ohms (but that is just from reading the labels on the panel.) Anybody have a use for them? If I had a 500 bin I could probably use them, but I don't. Jon
Standard Engineering CAMAC crate controller with LSI-11
I have a 3-board set, a Standar Engineering MIK-11/2, which is a controller for a CAMAC crate, with an LSI-11/2 (M7270) in it. It also has a serial port in it. I thought there was a memory that went with it, but I can't seem to find that. Anybody have any use for this? Jon
RAMTEK memory boards FTGH
I have 20 RAMTEK memory boards from late '80s frame buffers. They each have 20 TMS4161-20NL video RAM chips on them. The RAMTEK part # is ASSY 510857 Anyone have any interest? Jon
Re: Course materials for MIT 6.031 (c. 1974) scanned
On 9/30/2019 2:43 PM, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: See Chapter 3, pg. 249 in the PDF. - Josh I only read THE TABLE OF CONTENTS... I was not expecting a bunch of files all in one big PDF. I view all my PDFs on my tablet, the screen size fits better than the WIDE SCREEN CinemaScope* format of todays PC's. I'll download it and view it later. Ben. *Well heading in that direction,
Re: Course materials for MIT 6.031 (c. 1974) scanned
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 2:29 PM Noel Chiappa via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > From: Josh Dersch > > > descriptions of the PDP-11/45 DELPHI system > > ... > > moves on to Algol and LISP > > I later became the 'owner' of that PDP-11/45 (our group at LCS traded an > -11/40, which EECS wanted for their DECSystem-20, for it). > > That Algol and LISP were later moved to Unix V6 when the group that had > done > DELPHI converted to Unix. I have both - alas, the source for the Algol has > been lost. :-( > Very cool. Any idea what ultimately happened to that 11/45? Are the Algol and LISP available anywhere? Thanks! Josh > > Noel >
Re: Course materials for MIT 6.031 (c. 1974) scanned
> On Sep 30, 2019, at 4:39 PM, ben via cctalk wrote: > > A quick look, nothing is said about Algol, did you mean Assembler? > what I see is interesting is that LISP is on a 11. I allways thought > LISP only ran on BIGGER machines. > Ben. From what I heard fairly recently, some early LISP implementations were on quite small machines. One was the PDP-8 (see http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/other/) and that same page also mentions LISP for the ZEBRA -- a Dutch machine, with 33 bit words. I think another was the Electrologica X1, another Dutch machine, like the ZEBRA from 1958, with 27 bit words and a base configuration of 4k words of core memory. I may be off; if it wasn't the X1, it would be the X8, from 1968, also 27 bits but more likely to be seen with 32 k or so of memory. A lot of things can be done in small amounts of memory if you work at it, though admittedly most who have that skill probably also have white hair. :-) For example, the world's first ALGOL compiler -- a full language compiler, not a subset -- ran on an EL-X1 with 4k words of memory. And it was built by 2 people, in 6 months. Now admittedly one of those two was E.W.Dijkstra... paul
Re: Course materials for MIT 6.031 (c. 1974) scanned
> From: Josh Dersch > descriptions of the PDP-11/45 DELPHI system > ... > moves on to Algol and LISP I later became the 'owner' of that PDP-11/45 (our group at LCS traded an -11/40, which EECS wanted for their DECSystem-20, for it). That Algol and LISP were later moved to Unix V6 when the group that had done DELPHI converted to Unix. I have both - alas, the source for the Algol has been lost. :-( Noel
Re: Course materials for MIT 6.031 (c. 1974) scanned
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 1:39 PM ben via cctalk wrote: > On 9/30/2019 12:50 PM, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > > Thought someone here might find this interesting; I have a binder of > > materials describing the entire course (descriptions of the PDP-11/45 > > DELPHI system, readings, coursework, quizzes, exams (with answers)) for > MIT > > 6.031 "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Languages", 1974. > > > > > http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/scans/mit/MIT%206.031%20Structure%20And%20Interpretation%20Of%20Computer%20Languages%201974.pdf > > > > > > It starts with PDP-11 assembly language, moves on to Algol and LISP and > is > > over a thousand pages of material. Get studying! > > > > - Josh > > > > A quick look, nothing is said about Algol, did you mean Assembler? > what I see is interesting is that LISP is on a 11. I allways thought > LISP only ran on BIGGER machines. > Ben. > See Chapter 3, pg. 249 in the PDF. - Josh
Re: Course materials for MIT 6.031 (c. 1974) scanned
On 9/30/2019 12:50 PM, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: Thought someone here might find this interesting; I have a binder of materials describing the entire course (descriptions of the PDP-11/45 DELPHI system, readings, coursework, quizzes, exams (with answers)) for MIT 6.031 "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Languages", 1974. http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/scans/mit/MIT%206.031%20Structure%20And%20Interpretation%20Of%20Computer%20Languages%201974.pdf It starts with PDP-11 assembly language, moves on to Algol and LISP and is over a thousand pages of material. Get studying! - Josh A quick look, nothing is said about Algol, did you mean Assembler? what I see is interesting is that LISP is on a 11. I allways thought LISP only ran on BIGGER machines. Ben.
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
On 9/30/2019 9:39 AM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote: On 2019-09-30 1:27 p.m., Diane Bruce via cctalk wrote: On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 10:57:25AM -0500, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote: Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. -j Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be the last gasp of their technology. I remember hearing that the credit/debit card database we were talking to was a Royal Bank Tandem in Toronto when I was first involved with Point of Sale protocols. All of the Canadian banks used Tandem systems to front end the Interact it was part of the initial plan for that system. Paul. Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary processors, without special hardware. So, their whole reason for being became moot. Indeed. Yes I suspect anything that HP may flog as nonstop these days would be a high availability cluster which would probably include shared storage. SAN has made shared storage trivial and even allows you to spread the nodes in the cluster geographically. When I first encountered HA cluster the shared storage was parallel SCSI with an initiator in each system. The first that aloowed you to spread the nodes enough to have them in different building used IBM's SSA, a predecessor of SAN, to connect the storage. In the early 2000s, I visited the HP site which had the developers for the Tandem product, VMS HP/UX. They were using our ICE for development of the Itanium versions of VMS and for HP/UX. I don't think there was any plan to support the Nonstop in such a fashion, but the developers were all there @ the same Cupertino site. As to developing something to do a useful version of TAL and Nonstop w/o any specialized hardware, I don't think so. We had a system which was used for a port of the Ultimate / Pick system to Tandem, which was eventually shutdown and abandoned, but going the other way, to run TAL in any useful manner without the checkpointing would be pretty much useless. And Stratus is still there with financial industry using it heavily. The Tandem method used a checkpointing comparison method which had to use TAL as the basic platform. Periodically comparisons would be performed, but there was more than a little computing between comparison checkpoints. And the voting out of a failed unit was done by hardware. Stratus used a bus version. so they could have hardware pulled and their loss was in a few microseconds. For the realtime trader guys Stratus always won over Tandem. but where there was no need, either platform was excellent as pointed out for recovering and continuing after a failure. Also, I don't know if Tandem had it, but Stratus had serial connections and gizmos which would allow Session protection on a terminal. you could cut one or the other connection from your computer (required 2) and not miss a beat on a terminal. If the terminal went black though there were not as many options. thanks Jim Jon Diane Paul.
Course materials for MIT 6.031 (c. 1974) scanned
Thought someone here might find this interesting; I have a binder of materials describing the entire course (descriptions of the PDP-11/45 DELPHI system, readings, coursework, quizzes, exams (with answers)) for MIT 6.031 "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Languages", 1974. http://yahozna.dyndns.org/scratch/scans/mit/MIT%206.031%20Structure%20And%20Interpretation%20Of%20Computer%20Languages%201974.pdf It starts with PDP-11 assembly language, moves on to Algol and LISP and is over a thousand pages of material. Get studying! - Josh
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
On 9/30/19 10:44 AM, Wayne S wrote: > SII ( system integrators inc, not System Industries Inc) produced a big > system for Newspaper editing. Could be over 3000 seats. It used Coyote > terminals. IIRC, i think it ran the Guardian operating system. > At the time, I wondered if the name had been swiped from "The Forbin Project" film. --Chuck
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
On 9/30/19 8:57 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote: >> Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep >> finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along >> with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: >> >> https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 >> >> There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about >> it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. >> >> -j >> > Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be the last > gasp of their technology. > Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole Tandem > concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary processors, without > special hardware. So, their whole reason for being became moot. Jimmy Treybig was a master marketeer. I recall that when his offerings debuted, he equip a guest with a pair of diagonal cutters and instruct them to pick a wire, any wire and cut it. The system would just keep running. The old OnSale auction site that featured some really good deals back in the 1990s was powered by Tandem. https://web.archive.org/web/19980212000633/http://www.onsale.com:80/ --Chuck
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
On 2019-09-30 1:27 p.m., Diane Bruce via cctalk wrote: On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 10:57:25AM -0500, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote: Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. -j Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be the last gasp of their technology. I remember hearing that the credit/debit card database we were talking to was a Royal Bank Tandem in Toronto when I was first involved with Point of Sale protocols. All of the Canadian banks used Tandem systems to front end the Interact it was part of the initial plan for that system. Paul. Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary processors, without special hardware. So, their whole reason for being became moot. Indeed. Yes I suspect anything that HP may flog as nonstop these days would be a high availability cluster which would probably include shared storage. SAN has made shared storage trivial and even allows you to spread the nodes in the cluster geographically. When I first encountered HA cluster the shared storage was parallel SCSI with an initiator in each system. The first that aloowed you to spread the nodes enough to have them in different building used IBM's SSA, a predecessor of SAN, to connect the storage. Jon Diane Paul.
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 10:57:25AM -0500, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote: > > Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep > > finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along > > with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: > > > > https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 > > > > There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about > > it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. > > > > -j > > > Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be > the last gasp of their technology. I remember hearing that the credit/debit card database we were talking to was a Royal Bank Tandem in Toronto when I was first involved with Point of Sale protocols. > Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole > Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary > processors, without special hardware. So, their whole > reason for being became moot. Indeed. > > Jon Diane -- - d...@freebsd.org d...@db.net http://www.db.net/~db
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
On 9/29/19 10:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote: There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. I think HP(E) acquired (what as left of) Tandem. I think that HP(E) still sells and supports NonStop equipment today. I'm guessing that NonStop is about as common as IBM mainframes. Maybe slightly less so. Common? No. So obscure that no one knows / cars about it? Nope. -- Grant. . . . unix || die
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
sön 2019-09-29 klockan 23:46 -0500 skrev Jason T via cctalk: > Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep > finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along > with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: > > https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 > > There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about > it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. > > -j Where in the world ? did you have the passwords and so on so you didn't need to crack it (which i hope is NOT easy.)
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote: Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. -j Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be the last gasp of their technology. Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary processors, without special hardware. So, their whole reason for being became moot. Jon
Re: IBM 5110 transformer?
Really good point. Thanks! I will check with my friend. /Mattis Den mån 30 sep. 2019 kl 16:46 skrev Paul Berger via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org>: > > On 2019-09-30 3:44 a.m., Mattis Lind via cctalk wrote: > > A friend of mine is trying to repair a IBM 5110. He is convinced that the > > transformer is bad. > > > > Anyone knows the spec of the transformer? > > > > Someone that has a spare? > > > > Looking into the tech documentation tell me that the machine requires +/- > > 5V and +/- 12 V and also +8.5V > > > > A very rough guesstimate based on the number of wires from the PSU to the > > backplane would give 20A 5V, 4A +12V, 4A +8.5V, 1A -5V and 1A -12V. > > > > Anyone with a better guess? > > > > /Mattis > > Does this transformer has a resonant capacitor on it? They where very > common on IBM power supplies from that time period and if the capacitor > goes short you will not get any output from the transformer. This is a > lesson I learned as a green service rep 40 years ago after lugging in a > very heavy transformer for a machine. > > Paul. > >
Re: IBM 5110 transformer?
On 2019-09-30 3:44 a.m., Mattis Lind via cctalk wrote: A friend of mine is trying to repair a IBM 5110. He is convinced that the transformer is bad. Anyone knows the spec of the transformer? Someone that has a spare? Looking into the tech documentation tell me that the machine requires +/- 5V and +/- 12 V and also +8.5V A very rough guesstimate based on the number of wires from the PSU to the backplane would give 20A 5V, 4A +12V, 4A +8.5V, 1A -5V and 1A -12V. Anyone with a better guess? /Mattis Does this transformer has a resonant capacitor on it? They where very common on IBM power supplies from that time period and if the capacitor goes short you will not get any output from the transformer. This is a lesson I learned as a green service rep 40 years ago after lugging in a very heavy transformer for a machine. Paul.
Re: IBM 5110 transformer?
Den mån 30 sep. 2019 kl 15:37 skrev dwight : > Is it a switcher or an AC? > Good old transfomer. He could probably find something suitable if the specs were known. Or replace it with switchers at least for testing the machine. But still it would be great to know the specs. > A custom transformer is going to be quite expensive. About the only way is > to cannibalize another machine. > Dwight > /Mattis > > -- > *From:* cctalk on behalf of Mattis Lind > via cctalk > *Sent:* Sunday, September 29, 2019 11:44 PM > *To:* General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> > *Subject:* IBM 5110 transformer? > > A friend of mine is trying to repair a IBM 5110. He is convinced that the > transformer is bad. > > Anyone knows the spec of the transformer? > > Someone that has a spare? > > Looking into the tech documentation tell me that the machine requires +/- > 5V and +/- 12 V and also +8.5V > > A very rough guesstimate based on the number of wires from the PSU to the > backplane would give 20A 5V, 4A +12V, 4A +8.5V, 1A -5V and 1A -12V. > > Anyone with a better guess? > > /Mattis >
Re: IBM 5110 transformer?
Is it a switcher or an AC? A custom transformer is going to be quite expensive. About the only way is to cannibalize another machine. Dwight From: cctalk on behalf of Mattis Lind via cctalk Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2019 11:44 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: IBM 5110 transformer? A friend of mine is trying to repair a IBM 5110. He is convinced that the transformer is bad. Anyone knows the spec of the transformer? Someone that has a spare? Looking into the tech documentation tell me that the machine requires +/- 5V and +/- 12 V and also +8.5V A very rough guesstimate based on the number of wires from the PSU to the backplane would give 20A 5V, 4A +12V, 4A +8.5V, 1A -5V and 1A -12V. Anyone with a better guess? /Mattis
IBM 5110 transformer?
A friend of mine is trying to repair a IBM 5110. He is convinced that the transformer is bad. Anyone knows the spec of the transformer? Someone that has a spare? Looking into the tech documentation tell me that the machine requires +/- 5V and +/- 12 V and also +8.5V A very rough guesstimate based on the number of wires from the PSU to the backplane would give 20A 5V, 4A +12V, 4A +8.5V, 1A -5V and 1A -12V. Anyone with a better guess? /Mattis
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
Their UK office was on the lower floor of a building I used to visit in High Wycombe circa 1980 Rod On 30/09/2019 07:02, Joseph S. Barrera III via cctalk wrote: Not obscure at all, at least not to me. I worked for Jim Gray circa 1996 - 1999 and he worked for Tandem during the NonStop era which informed his knowledge of fault-tolerance that helped him advise the Windows NT Clustering team. Don't toss it!!! If you can't find On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 9:46 PM Jason T via cctalk wrote: Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. -j --
Re: HP vintage boards being sold as scrap - WON
On Sep 29, 2019, at 19:32, Guy Dunphy via cctalk wrote: > > At 10:03 PM 27/09/2019 -0500, JRJ wrote: >> Thanks for the tip. (Part of not recognizing that is that I had never >> made the connection between the 2108B/2112B and the "1000" series >> before, until I read about it in this thread, and did some poking >> around. The HP's have not been one of my priorities in over a couple of >> decades, and most of of that focus was on my older HP2114B.) >> >> JRJ > > That's always mystified me too. "1000 series" for model numbers like 2108B, > 2112B, 2113E, etc. > Weird corporate thinking. Maybe too much printed material with "1000" on to > change? > Or some other company had trademarked "2000 series” ? “2000” was occupied by the timeshared BASIC system product line. -Frank McConnell
Re: Tandem Minicomputers
Not obscure at all, at least not to me. I worked for Jim Gray circa 1996 - 1999 and he worked for Tandem during the NonStop era which informed his knowledge of fault-tolerance that helped him advise the Windows NT Clustering team. Don't toss it!!! If you can't find On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 9:46 PM Jason T via cctalk wrote: > Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep > finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along > with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends: > > https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8 > > There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about > it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy. > > -j >
