Re: Glass memory?

[Joshua Rice via cctalk]

From: "steven--- via cctech" 
Paul and others said
What if you can't make ICs any more? Or rather, what level of IC
fabrication would it be possible to construct from scratch?
For semiconductors, you'd start with machinery to make ultra-pure 
materials (silicon, I'd assume).  A Czochralski crystal growing machine 
to make
the cylinders of pure mono-crystal silicon from which wafers are sliced. 
Polishing machinery.  Wafer coating machines.  Wafer steppers.  Etching,
metal coating, diffusion, etc. most of which also require very 
pure and often exotic ingredients.  (I remember being amazed to read 
that
chlorine trifluoride is used as a cleaner in the semiconductor industry. 
Look up the properties of that compound, it will blow your mind.)

Which brings to mind the amazing work of Sam Zeloof:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zeloof+z1+chip 




It really depends on how "from scratch" we have to go. In a more real 
world scenario where the ability to make large, low density MSI chips in 
the micrometer scale is somehow lost through scrapping and ignorance, 
recreating the machines required to make them on an industrial scale 
shouldn't cost a huge amount. It's proof, that if someone can make these 
chips in his garage on a shoestring budget, a few hundred grand should 
be able to recreate the technology in order to reproduce them 
industrially. Obviously there'd be an iterative process, much like 
happened in history, to shrink the die process if you were indeed trying 
to get smaller.


However, if we had some sort of massive scale Carrington event (or 
larger) that fried every IC ever made, things would definitely take a 
step back. I imagine that the large crystal-growing tanks themselves 
would be fine, but the control gear etc would be truly sent back to the 
dark ages. It might take 5 years or more to re-engineer all the control 
gear to work in an electricity-free (or at least IC free) world, with 
many other things like food, water and fuel supplies taking precedence. 
Then there's the task of re-engineering the IC production from paper 
copies of research papers and documentation (no internet, remember), 
which could prove rather difficult to duplicate and distribute without 
photocopiers. We'd essentially be taken back to the early 60's when it 
came to IC production, having to re-engineer everything from scratch. 
Much of the non-electronic machinery and R would still be available, 
so i imagine getting back to where we are now would only take 20 or 30 
years, instead of 60, but it would still be a long and iterative process 
which would be likely hampered by the whole "end-of-the-world 
Armageddon" thing the Carrington-scale event would have caused. I 
imagine most people would be worried about putting food in their bellies 
and keeping warm, rather than worrying about getting their Exchange 
server working.


I think i may have overthought this.

Josh Rice

RCA COSMAC MS2000 MicroDisk Development System

[Joshua Rice via cctalk]

Hi all,  

I’ve recently come across something i’ve soon realised really quite unusual. An 
RCA MS2000 MicroDisk Development System. 

I’m very green to the COSMAC scene, with this being my first 1802 machine. I’m 
very interested in knowing the pitfalls i may come across in restoring such a 
machine. I’ve had a quick cursory look over the machine, and it seems to be 
complete, with 2 RAM/ROM cards, CPU card, FDC and a (3rd party?) ROM programmer 
board, along with the PSU and floppy disk drives.

It’s my understanding that these are pretty similar to the RCA Microboard 
development systems, which i believe are also pretty similar to the ELF 
“homebrew” microcomputer this group revolves around. I’ve found some manuals on 
bitsavers,, a website on the Microboard system, along with disk images on the 
Emma02 emulator website, so I have a reasonable undertanding over what this 
actually is.

I have a week off work next week, so am planning on taking my time on 
disassembling and checking the unit over next week.

I’ll endevour to upload some pictures of said machine when i tear it apart.

Thanks, 

Josh Rice

Lecture: A tour of Update's new premises, 2022-04-09, 19:00

[Anke Stüber via cctalk]

Hi all,

you're invited to the Update computer club[0] public lecture series
"Updateringar"[1]!

When:  2022-04-09, 19:00 CEST 
Where: https://bbb.cryptoparty.se/b/upd-0mo-m2u-aq8

A tour of Update's new premises 
In December and January 2021/2022 Update moved out of the Uppsala 
University IT department's basement into rooms of its own (thanks again
to all our volumteers who put in a huge effort!). The new premises offer
150 m² of space for Update's collection and activities, with a dedicated
area for exhibitions. What has happened since the move? With this online
tour we invite you to take a peek into our new home and at what we've
been working on in the last couple of months. We will give you an
insight into current and future projects and show off some of our
collection items.
Bjarni Juliusson, Anke Stüber (Update)

The lecture is free and open to everyone.

Don't want to miss upcoming events? Subscribe to our low-traffic
announcement list here[2]!

Hope to see you there,
Anke

[0] https://www.dfupdate.se/en/
[1] https://wiki.dfupdate.se/projekt:updateringar
[2] https://lists.dfupdate.se/postorius/lists/announce.lists.dfupdate.se

Re: Short PDP-8 Memory Test...

[Lyle Bickley via cctalk]

Hi Mike,

I consider myself fortunate. I have a PDP-8/E, PDP-8/E with a PDP-8/M Front
Panel and a PDP-8/M. My PDP-8/E has an RK05 HDD, RX02 dual FDD and VC8E XY
with HP1311 XY Display, Extended Math, 32KW core, etc. 

I used to have a huge running PDP-12 with Dual TU56, TC08 w/TU55, Dual disk
RF08, 9-Trk tape, PTR/PTP which I donated to the CHM. It'll probably never see
the light of day :(

Best,
Lyle
--

On Wed, 6 Apr 2022 20:31:41 -0500
Mike Katz  wrote:

> Another PDP-8E?  You are very lucky :)
> 
> On 4/6/2022 1:06 PM, Lyle Bickley via cctalk wrote:
> > I recently acquired another PDP-8/E and wanted to test basic CPU functions
> > and memory before I added peripherals. There are some available short
> > "memory tests" online, but most don't have have the flexibility to test
> > multiple data patterns by design.
> >
> > The test below does a classic checkerboard type test - and permits easy
> > modification of the data pattern used in testing.
> > ---
> > # Easy to enter, short memory test for PDP-8 systems
> > # prior to adding peripheral equipment.
> > # by Lyle Bickley
> > #
> > # Location 21 initially contains a zero. Therefore the
> > # memory test is  and  in alternate locations.
> > # Changing this location to 7070 will test 7070 and
> > # 0707 in alternate locations. Changing it to 5252 will
> > # test 5252 and 2525, etc.
> >
> >  7300 CLA CLL
> > 0001 1022 TAD 22
> > 0002 3023 DCA 23
> > 0003 7300 CLA CLL
> > 0004 1021 TAD 21
> > 0005 7040 CMA
> > 0006 3021 DCA 21
> > 0007 1021 TAD 21
> > 0010 3423 DCA I 23
> > 0011 1021 TAD 21
> > 0012 7041 CMA IAC
> > 0013 1423 TAD I 23
> > 0014 7440 SZA
> > 0015 7402 HLT (ERROR - AC SHOWS FAIL)
> > 0016 2023 ISZ 23
> > 0017 5003 JMP 3 (INC LOCATION AND LOOP)
> > 0020 5000 JMP 0 (START OVER)
> > 0021  (0=ALT  AND )
> > 0022 0025 (LOCATION TO START TEST - MAKE ODD)
> > 0023  (LOCATION BEING TESTED)
> > ---
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Lyle  
> 



-- 
73   NM6Y
Bickley Consulting West
https://bickleywest.com

"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"

Bob Lucky

[Jim Brain via cctalk]

I don't remember seeing this here, and not sure how many of you read his 
articles, but:


https://spectrum.ieee.org/bob-lucky-obituary


--
Jim Brain
br...@jbrain.com  
www.jbrain.com

Re: Bob Lucky

[Curious Marc via cctalk]

Thanks for the link. I met him when I was at Bell Labs. He was an outstanding 
technology speaker and writer, with a great sense of humor. His columns were 
hilarious and right in target. A written form of Dilbert for the technologist.
Marc

> On Apr 7, 2022, at 10:41 AM, Jim Brain via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> I don't remember seeing this here, and not sure how many of you read his 
> articles, but:
> 
> https://spectrum.ieee.org/bob-lucky-obituary
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jim Brain
> br...@jbrain.com  www.jbrain.com

Re: RCA COSMAC MS2000 MicroDisk Development System

[Will Cooke via cctalk]

> On 04/07/2022 2:50 PM Joshua Rice via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I’ve recently come across something i’ve soon realised really quite unusual. 
> An RCA MS2000 MicroDisk Development System.
> 
> I’m very green to the COSMAC scene, with this being my first 1802 machine. 
> I’m very interested in knowing the pitfalls i may come across in restoring 
> such a machine. I’ve had a quick cursory look over the machine, and it seems 
> to be complete, with 2 RAM/ROM cards, CPU card, FDC and a (3rd party?) ROM 
> programmer board, along with the PSU and floppy disk drives.
> 
> It’s my understanding that these are pretty similar to the RCA Microboard 
> development systems, which i believe are also pretty similar to the ELF 
> “homebrew” microcomputer this group revolves around. I’ve found some manuals 
> on bitsavers,, a website on the Microboard system, along with disk images on 
> the Emma02 emulator website, so I have a reasonable undertanding over what 
> this actually is.
> 
> I have a week off work next week, so am planning on taking my time on 
> disassembling and checking the unit over next week.
> 
> I’ll endevour to upload some pictures of said machine when i tear it apart.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Josh Rice

I recommend asking about it on the forum at http://cosmacelf.com/

Will

Re: RCA COSMAC MS2000 MicroDisk Development System

[Bill Degnan via cctalk]

This one is from 1975 just before the Altair 8800
https://www.vintagecomputer.net/rca/COSMAC/EDN_COSMAC_Microkit.jpg

...but I bet yours is more like 1976-77.  What is the CPU type 1802 or
something else?

BIll

On Thu, Apr 7, 2022 at 5:54 PM geneb via cctalk  wrote:
>
> On Thu, 7 Apr 2022, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I’ve recently come across something i’ve soon realised really quite 
> > unusual. An RCA MS2000 MicroDisk Development System.
> >
> Does it look like this?
> https://i.imgur.com/Q96sRhE.jpg
>
> Nice find!
>
>
> g.
>
> --
> Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
> http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
> http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
> Some people collect things for a hobby.  Geeks collect hobbies.
>
> ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
> A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
> http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

Re: RCA COSMAC MS2000 MicroDisk Development System

[geneb via cctalk]

On Thu, 7 Apr 2022, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote:


Hi all,

I’ve recently come across something i’ve soon realised really quite unusual. An 
RCA MS2000 MicroDisk Development System.


Does it look like this?
https://i.imgur.com/Q96sRhE.jpg

Nice find!


g.

--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby.  Geeks collect hobbies.

ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

Re: Any CodeWright users: still have patch installers?

[J. David Bryan via cctalk]

On Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 17:52, Daniel Moniz via cctech wrote:

> This is a long shot, but on the off chance anyone else on the list
> shares some of my particular weirdnesses, anyone got a line on the
> *patches* for Embarcadero (nee Borland (nee Starbase (nee Premia)
> CodeWright? 
> 
> I have the latest version Embarcadero sold (and maybe still sells?) as
> of not all that long ago -- 7.5 -- but it's basically patch level 3
> (e.g., 7.5.3) instead of patch level 5 (e.g., 7.5.5). I'm hoping
> someone has the patch installers squirreled away somewhere, and that I
> can find that person. 

I'm a 27-year-and-counting Codewright user, and I use it daily.  I still 
think it's a terrific editor.

I'm still on version 5.0d, but I thought I had picked up all of the patches 
from there through 7.5 against the day that I was going to upgrade.  I was 
looking periodically to see if they had fixed two crash bugs that are in 
5.0, and I kept waiting -- too long, as it turned out, as it was pulled 
from the market before I could buy the upgrade.

In any event, I looked around here, and apparently I have a full set of 
release notes and a full set of user's guides through 7.5, but no patch 
files except for the ones for 5.0.

Sorry I couldn't help, but I wanted to let you know that there is at least 
one other "weird" person out here who understands your affliction.

  -- Dave