Re: AlphaServer ES47 partitioning

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

It’s been a very long time since I partitioned an ES47/GS80 (would have been 
whilst I worked for Compaq prior to the HP takeover) but ISTR that the reason 
for the 2P rule was that you couldn’t partition the memory subsystems within a 
dynamic duo. It’s been a long time and I no longer have access to the 
appropriate documentation so I could be recalling incorrectly. I don’t even 
have an ES47 at work anymore to play around with :-(

Huw

> On 14 Feb 2022, at 16:24, cctalk@classiccmp.org wrote:
> 
> Hey guys-
>   Anyone on here know much about the Marvel boxes?  I've had one for years 
> but never had much time to fiddle with it.  I'm looking at the partitioning 
> features.  In particular, the manual says:
> 
> Hard partitions must be on 2P boundaries
> Tru64 only supports hard partitions
> 
>   However, I can confirm that you can definitely create a hard partition with 
> a single CPU.  This got me thinking, and I dug a little deeper into the MBM 
> CLI.  The manual seems to suggest that this is the case, but says that the 
> operating system won't work correctly in that configuration.  Anyone know why 
> not?
> 
>   When you create a hard partition, you specify what type of subpartition the 
> hard partition can contain.  The manual says that only "soft" partitions are 
> officially supported, but the CLI also allows you to create subpartitions of 
> type "firm" and "semi-firm".  Does anyone know what "firm" and "semi-firm" 
> partitions do differently than soft partitions?  And does Tru64 work with any 
> of that, or is all of that OpenVMS-specific stuff?
> 
>   Also, on a side note, I don't suppose anyone here has a rail kit for an 
> ES47 or ES80 they'd like to sell, or an I/O drawer...
> 
> Many thanks in advance!
> 
> -Ben
> 
> 

Re: Origin of "partition" in storage devices

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 1 Feb 2022, at 09:42, cctalk@classiccmp.org wrote:
> 
> A somewhat broader search found the 1984 RT-11 System Release Notes with the 
> following:
> 
> 
> 
> 1.4.2.4 Logical Disk Subsetting Handler (LD) - The logical disk subsetting 
> handler lets you define logical disks, which are subsets of physical disks. 
> You define logical disks by assigning a logical disk unit number to a file on 
> a physical disk. You can then use the logical disk as though it were a 
> physical disk.
> 
> AA-5286F-TC-T1_RT-11_System_Release_Notes_Jul84.pdf (bitsavers.org) 
> 
>   p15/102
> 
> 
> 
> Suggests DEC had not yet adopted the term “partition” for a segment of a disk

From 
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/ultrix-11/2.0/AE-X370C-TC_ULTRIX-11_2.0SPD_Sep84.pdf
 

 it seems that at least one part of Digital used partitions as we now know it 
in September 1984. I wonder if AT Unix Seventh edition also called them 
partitions?

Huw

Re: DEC UNIBUS and use of cassette

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 22 Aug 2021, at 03:49, cctalk@classiccmp.org wrote:
> 
> Yes and no. There is the TA11 Magnetic Tape Cassette System, which used the
> TU60 Dual DECasette Transport (I need to create a page for that in the
> CHWiki), but it uses a special controller card, the TA11 Magnetic Tape
> Cassette controller:

CAPS-11 was the OS for this IIRC.

Huw

Re: I'm sharing a toy

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 8 Aug 2019, at 15:18, Adam Thornton via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> https://mvsevm.fsf.net
> 
> Currently, the TOPS-10 guest account (42,42) and the Unix v7 account dmr have 
> no passwords.

Just logged into TOPS-10 for the first time in many years! Far too much brain 
bit rot but it will encourage me to build up my own RPi emulation setup!

Thanks.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Greetings

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 2 May 2019, at 07:47, Eric Smith via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> The VAX 8600 and 8650 were the last VAX models to have PDP-11 compatibility
> mode, so if the purpose of VMS 4.0 was to support the 8600, I would expect
> it to still contain compatibility mode support. VMS versions at least as
> late as 5.2 still supported the 8600. I don't have firsthand experience, as
> the only 8600 I used ran BSD.


I seem to recall that there was a software implementation of compatibility mode 
to allow PDP-11 code to be run on VAX hardware that didn’t have it natively.

At one stage I used to manage a very eclectic mix of VAX systems, including 
11-780, 11-785, 8650, 8700, 8800, 8820, 8840, 6300, 6600, 7740.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Greetings

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 29 Apr 2019, at 21:47, allison via cctech  wrote:
>> 
> You are limited to what the VAX-11/780 system had for peripherals and
> typically under 8MB ram (it maxed at 16mb).

I know later 780s (probably with an upgraded memory controller) supported 64MB 
of memory.

I have used VMS 1.6 and started managing VMS systems around the 2.4 timeframe.

I haven’t looked but does the simh 11/780 also provide PDP-11 compatibility 
mode? You used to run a very large amount of -11 code in VMS 1.x..

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: VCF/PNW Exhibit & Trip Report - The Old Calculator Museum

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

Wow - a LOCI-2 - now that brings back some good memories - nearly 50 years 
since I last used one :-(

> On 28 Mar 2019, at 08:56, Rick Bensene via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> 
> The Old Calculator Museum exhibit consisted of a Wang LOCI-2 and punched
> card readers (1st and 2nd-generation card readers), 

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Portable terminals

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 11 Sep 2018, at 18:23, Liam Proven via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 at 21:02, Ali via cctalk  wrote:
> 
>> p.s. The caveat is of course if you get something like the Gemini. That 
>> looks like a very nice machine but at 599 British pounds I rather get a Sony 
>> UX series and have a real PC or the HP LX200. The key, at least for me, is 
>> finding a no name Android tablet w/ the basics that runs Android 7 or above 
>> at that $50 to $75 price point.
> 
> Oh, yes, for a terminal emulator, it's total overkill.
> 

I think if I was in need of a portable vt100 terminal I’d use either my Raspad 
(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/35410622/raspad-raspberry-pi-tablet-for-your-creative-proje/posts)
 for full out Geek mode or (far more reliable) a small Chromebook as long as I 
can get a serial to USB adapter to work. Chromebooks have long battery life and 
are reasonably cheap. Also come in various sizes (my current one is a 15” as I 
need a large screen to see things…).

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Visiting Boston - Classic computer recommendations

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

I’m in Boston MA (technically Canton) for the next three weeks (April 29 to May 
19). Looking for recommendations on classic computer/classic car/sailing things 
of interest to do on the weekends.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Looking for opinions...

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 28 Mar 2018, at 18:59, Paul Anderson via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> There are probably no perfect answers to this problem. I am looking for
> opinions, not criticism. I do not want to start arguments, nor get anyone
> here, especially Jay, pissed off.

I too have a large stack of microfiche. These are mostly DEC KI-10 stuff - I’ve 
looked at a few of the fiche but there are probably a 1000 or so.

I too would like some advice...

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Slightly OT: Computer internals book recommendations

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 19 Nov 2017, at 10:57, Eric Christopherson via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> Basically, I'm looking for a certain book (although really any book in
> the same vein would satisfy), which was on computer system architecture,
> organization, etc.; it talked about the usual boolean logic, assembly
> programming in some fictitious instruction set, an overview of two
> actual architectures (I think at that time they were 32-bit x86 and
> 64-bit POWER). The other thing I remember very specifically was there
> was a place near the back (probably an appendix) that talked about
> one or more specific buses (I think at least PCI was there), with timing
> diagrams to tell you what was actually going back and forth between the
> bus and CPU.
> 

Sounds like either 

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by David Patterson and John 
Hennessy

Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface by David 
Patterson and John Hennessy

I see there’s a MIPS edition of the second book. My copy of the second book has 
Hennessy as the first author.

Time for a re-read - it’s been a while since I read both of them.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Cloning A Hard Disk Over The Network Using Ultrix

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 21 Oct 2017, at 21:40, Rob Jarratt via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I have a couple of hard disks I want to make dd copies of. I have Ultrix
> running on my DECstation 5000/240 with the disk I want to clone attached to
> it. The trouble is that I don't have enough disk space on the machine to
> clone the disk and then grab the image using FTP. I have been trying to find
> a way to pipe the dd output over the network to a SIMH Ultrix machine that
> has plenty of disk space. I tried piping dd into rcp, but rcp doesn't seem
> to take input from standard input. I have looked at cpio, but that too
> appears not to accept input from standard input.
> 
> 
> 
> Unix is not my strong point. Are there any other ways I could pipe the dd
> output across the network to a machine that has enough disk space?

netcat (nc) is the usual tool to do this on Unix type systems. Whether it’s 
available for Ultrix I don’t know but it may ‘just compile’.

If not, it’s not hard to write two simple programs to read from stdin and 
output to a TCP/IP socket on another host and the second to read from the 
socket and output to stdout.

If I had to write the programs I’d either google for an example to copy or have 
a read of Stevens “TCP/IP illustrated” book series - the only risk of reading 
them (there are 3 volumes) is that you can spend 6 months just learning and not 
doing :-)'

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Alphastation 500

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 16 Oct 2017, at 23:49, Bryan Everly via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I have a Dec Alphastation 500 that is missing the drive cover door
> (it's a piece of plastic about a foot long that covers the CDROM drive
> and the floppy drive) that is hinged.  It's a minor nit (the machine
> itself works great - I'm running OpenBSD on it) but if anyone knows
> where I can pick one up, I'd love to make the machine look a bit more
> presentable.

Sorry, I don’t have one but this is a very common issue with all the systems 
that had that type of door. Not the best designed piece of plastic.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: DEC Alpha 3000 and OpenVMS 8.4

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 13 Oct 2017, at 18:15, Peter Coghlan via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I also have at least one 4GB disk (RZ28 or RZ29? I can't remember) which
> works fine once it gets going but needs a tap or a quick twist to get
> it going when it is trying to spin up.  Not too practical for installing
> in a machine with the cover on though.

RZ28 - 2G
RZ29 - 4G

More useless information clattering around in my brain :-(

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Extracting files off “unknown” 8 inch disks. Any thoughts…

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 7 May 2017, at 06:21, Jerry Weiss via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> I stand corrected.  It appears that the handwritten label has a ODS1 style 
> numerical UIC.
> 
> The printed directory may not actually be from the floppy media itself.  It is
> hierarchical.   So perhaps it is from some ODS2 media that is holding the 
> files 
> that are being transferred to/from the Floppy. 


That’s certainly the way I read it.

The SAVE command most probably is a locally written command or DCL procedure 
invoked by a symbol that does the magic of copying the files to the floppy.

The OpenVMS EXCHANGE command is the most likely tool used to transfer the data. 
As it’s name implies, it is designed to move data to and from foreign systems 
(where foreign in this context is most often a PDP-11 :-))

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green" 

Re: Extracting files off “unknown” 8 inch disks. Any thoughts…

[Huw Davies via cctalk]

> On 5 May 2017, at 07:41, Terry Stewart via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> 4. How likely is it that disks from a 1985 VAX is in some weird proprietary
> format OTHER than VMS?

It has been a very long time since I had a VAX-11/780 to play with but as other 
people have mentioned the format is much more likely to be RT-11 than ODS-2.

You mentioned that you had a directory listing of one or more of the floppies.

Can you scan one (or type it up)? The layout of the directory listing should 
give a clue to the on-disk format.

Huw Davies   | e-mail: huw.dav...@kerberos.davies.net.au
Melbourne| "If soccer was meant to be played in the
Australia| air, the sky would be painted green"