Re: Early '80s Motorola Semiconductor Reference - anyone?

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

I found a few of the databooks here:

https://usermanual.wiki/search.php?q=motorola%20semiconductor%20reference

Randy


From: cctech  on behalf of r.stricklin via 
cctech 
Sent: Saturday, August 7, 2021 5:50 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts 
Subject: Early '80s Motorola Semiconductor Reference - anyone?

Anyone have an early ‘80s Motorola semiconductor reference manual? I am 
attempting to repair a Boschert power supply from ~1983 that is full of 
Motorola parts marked as 1027 (DO-42ish), 1077 (TO-3ish), 1078 (DO-5ish), etc. 
It would be extremely helpful to know their specifications, or ideally how to 
cross-ref them to “standard” parts.


ok
bear.

Re: Grinnell Systems

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

Hi Emanuel,

I remember them well, I was their manufacturer's rep in Houston, and sold 
several to petrochem, NASA and universities.

It was a big ticket item, selling for upwards of 40K when loaded up with all 
the options.

NASA was using it for animation, the petrochem guys for geology visualizations 
in oil exportation.  A bought one for LANDSAT imagery.

I see if I can find some old ads, they were in the IEEE computer graphics mags 
quite a bit.

Randy


From: cctech  on behalf of emanuel stiebler via 
cctech 
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 12:27 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only 
Subject: Grinnell Systems

Hi all,
was just fishing in old memories & graphics systems. We had in the
1980's a big fridge from Grinnell Systems as a frame buffer on a 11/34.

Anybody remember those? Links to any documentation?

Cheers!

Re: Old FORTRAN programs, libraries, graphics

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

Emanuel, I have you covered with FORTRAN graphics.

I have your 3d wireframe, and rendering too with MOVIE.BYU.  The greatest 3D 
and animation package in its day, say late 70's early 80s.

Martin Hepler gave me the latest, I got most of it working, but aaa well 
something took me away.

Let me put it up somewhere.

I also have VERSAPLOT, the Versatec graphics package.  Does one cool thing, 
since they made electrostatic printers.  Its got a Laing Barsky rasterizer in 
it.  You do your plot with all the great stuff, then it generates a vector list 
and rasterizes it for the printer.

Give me a day and I will put it up somewhere.

Randy




From: cctech  on behalf of emanuel stiebler via 
cctech 
Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2020 6:21 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only 
Subject: Old FORTRAN programs, libraries, graphics

Being stuck at home, was musing the idea to look into some graphics
software from the '70's, or early 80's ...

Looking for some wire frames, hidden line removal, 3d graphics...

Any pointers?

View month ago or longer, somebody on this list recovered some large
package of FORTRAN code, and wanted to invest it, but I think it was
posted under a wrong subject, so I can't find it anymore ...

THANKS!

Re: Researching IBM rare equipment from 50s to 80s

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

I worked with an ex-IBMer who told me about this thing.

It was nick-named "The Noodle Snatcher" - with a puff of air it wiggled the mag 
tape and wrapped it around a drum for read/write.

It had a nasty habit of mis-handling the tape.

He told me that during a sales presentation  to a customer, this happened, it 
wrinkled the tape wrapped it around the drum, and then put the crumpled tape 
back in the holder.

The IBM salesman, without missing a beat, said, "and when it finds BAD data..."

From: cctech  on behalf of Jay Jaeger via cctech 

Sent: Friday, December 14, 2018 1:04 PM
To: cctech@classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Researching IBM rare equipment from 50s to 80s

On 12/14/2018 4:41 AM, Peter Van Peborgh via cctech wrote:
> Fellow geeks of more mature vintage,
>
> Do any of you guys know whether it is possible to find out to whom any IBM
> equipment was sold back in the day? (Still chasing IBM 2321 Data Cell - I
> never learn!)
>
> Many thanks,
>
> peter
>

Well, if your intention is to actually find one, can't help.

I do know that Wisconsin DOT had one back in the day, on an IBM 360/50,
but it was gone before I started work there.  I think that I have a
large negative of the beastie lying around somewhere.  No, it is not
stuffed anywhere.  Indeed the building that formerly housed it (and was
home for me during my career) was razed just this year.

In general, even if IBM still had such records, I am sure that they
would not release them, and doubt that they would be indexed in fine
detail such that you could find customers of any particular machine type
(unless they fed them to Watson ;) ).  Leased units would have been
turned back into IBM.  Purchased units would have been mostly traded in
and scrapped.

A Google Search found these instances of customer units (there may well
be more - I stopped after a few pages)

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/datacell.html

https://www.facebook.com/HealthManagementTechnology/photos/ibm-2321-data-cell-drive/132475567020/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IBM2321DataCellAtUMich.jpg




JRJ

Re: Looking for optical grid mouse pad

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

Carmiel you lucky dog!

How come you get TWO Titan's, all I want is ONE.

I had one for about a year after it came out.  I convinced their sales to park 
it in my office next to NASA JSC while we both were entertaining customers.

I did some visualization work using Dore' and AVS.

recently, I have built Dore' on a BSD and Linux box, and got the 'Flag' and 
'Trunk' demos working.

Let me know how you are coming, and the moment you run out of space for one of 
these, let me know.

Randy

From: cctech  on behalf of Camiel Vanderhoeven 
via cctech 
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2018 8:24 AM
To: cctech
Subject: Looking for optical grid mouse pad

Hello everyone,



A week ago, I took possession of a second Ardent Titan graphics supercomputer, 
and unlike the other Titan, this one is almost complete. There is one tiny bit 
missing, and that is a mouse pad. The mouse used with this systems is a Mouse 
Systems M4 variant (M4Q), and it does not appear to be a normal serial mouse. 
So, if anyone has one of those reflective mousepads with a grid of fine blue 
and grey lines that they don’t need, I’d be very happy to have it.



I have tried to print my own mousepad, but the mouse only works in the y 
direction on it.



For those who want to know, the Titan is outfitted as follows:



2 x Titan P3 vector processors (using a MIPS R3000 for scalar operations)

2 x 64 MB main memory

Extended G2 Graphics

3 Maxtor 760 MB disks

QIC-120 tapedrive

19” trinitron monitor with stereo bezel and 3d glasses

Keyboard, mouse, knob box



Titan OS 4.2 installed (plus version 3.0, 4.1, and 4.2 installation tapes)
Dore, AVS, and PHIGS+ graphics environments

Vectorizing FORTRAN compiler with LINPACK, EISPACK, and FFT libraries

Matlab-Pro 3.5 (the Titan was the only computer ever that had Matlab as part of 
its bundled programs)

Biodesign Biograf 3.0 molecular modeling application



All bits and pieces, and all software appears to work.



Camiel

Re: Convex C220 lives

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

Hi Carmiel,


What did you do with the Ardent (Stardent).


That's where all your great benchmark demos are.  The Dore' system, the 'Flag' 
demo.


If you want Fortran, I have been working on MOVIE.BYU, a dusty deck, but I have 
almost got there.  It is wireframe and rendered poly animation.  It is 
currently barking at some float to integer in gfortran for the whole thing to 
come together, but I have the TITLE (3d wireframe of ASCII text working).


Thanks to



From: cctech  on behalf of Peter Allan via 
cctech 
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 12:02 PM
To: camiel.vanderhoe...@vmssoftware.com; cctech@classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: Convex C220 lives

Hi Camiel,

Nice to hear that you have the Convex C220 up and running.

Regarding things to run on it, starting with LINPACK is probably a good
idea. However, in term of what they were actually used for back in the
1980's, I know that they were popular with the radio astronomy community,
starting with the Convex C1. The package called AIPS (Astronomical Image
Processing System) was the most popular way of processing data from
multi-antenna telescopes like the VLA in New Mexico.

AIPS (written in Fortran) is now known as AIPS Classic, to distinguish it
from AIPS++ (written in C++) which was developed in the 1990's. There is
plenty of information about it on the internet. If you have any difficulty
getting the code, let me know as I might be able to help.

AIPS is very portable; before the era of the mini-supers, it ran on a lot
of VAXen (yeah!!) amongst other things.

Cheers

Peter Allan


> -Original Message-
>From: Camiel Vanderhoeven 
>To: cctech 
>Subject: Convex C220 lives
>Message-ID: 
>Content-Type: text/plain;   charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
>For a change, rather than a request for help, here?s a success story: I
>managed to bring a Convex C220 (dual vector CPU mini supercomputer from
>1988) back to life. Both CPUs are working, but I?m running with a single
>CPU because of the power it draws with two CPUs. Next challenges: the
>Convex C1, and quad vector processor C240 (not before I?ve upgraded the
>power feed).
>
>Running ConvexOS 11.5.1, it has FORTRAN 7.0.1 installed; I ran a little
>benchmark, and with a single CPU the system clocks in at 49.1 MFLOPS on a
>big multiply-add loop (advertised peak performance was 50 MFLOPS per CPU).
>
>Getting the system to the state where it is now was quite a journey
>(though nowhere near as bad as it might have been). If you?re interested
>in the details, I have a (somewhat long) report of my work on my website;
>if you go to http://www.vaxbarn.com/index.php/other-bits/603-convex-c220,
[https://www.vaxbarn.com//images/convex/1/1.png]

Convex C220
www.vaxbarn.com
VAXBARN: Camiel Vanderhoeven's computer collection


>there are some links at the bottom that have much more details, as well as
>photos of the system and the boards.
>
>Now I?m looking for some FORTRAN code that would typically have run on
>this kind of computer so I can show people what this kind of system was
>used for.
>
>Camiel

Re: Old manuals (Univac, IBM, Burroughs, Teletype)

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

Hi Todd,


I have a Model 33, what do you want for those manuals?


Thanks,


Randy



From: cctech  on behalf of Todd Pisek via cctech 

Sent: Tuesday, April 4, 2017 2:00 PM
To: cctech@classiccmp.org
Subject: Old manuals (Univac, IBM, Burroughs, Teletype)

Spring cleaning has unearthed manuals I no longer need (not clear if I ever 
needed them ... ).

Here's the list:

Univac an/uyk-7 theory & diagrams
Univac federal systems Technical Bulletins (1973)

IBM 1620&1622 CE manuals & complete system diagrams (vol 1,2, & 3)
IBM 3031 theory of ops diagrams (vol 1-5)
IBM 129 card punch CE & ald diagrams
IBM 3275 ald diagrams (2 vols)

Burroughs Global Memory schematics & flow diagrams

Teletype 33 teletypewriter (ksr & asr) technical manuals and parts list

--- Todd

Re: Ardent Titan

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

Hi Torfinn,


It was in FreeBSD ports, in graphics but they removed it (why?).


I saved it, its pretty extensive, including manuals.  Any suggestions where to 
put it up (I have microsoft onedrive)


Does Al at bitsavers want it?


Randy



From: cctech <cctech-boun...@classiccmp.org> on behalf of Torfinn Ingolfsen via 
cctech <cctech@classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2017 10:31 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Ardent Titan

Hello,

On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 8:07 AM, Randy Dawson via cctech
<cctech@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> Kubota (who purchased Stardent) put the rendering software, Dore' in the 
> public domain.  I have built it here under FreeBSD on a PC; it was in the 
> ports system for a while, and without to much messing with,
> I got the demos running (FLAG, a flag blowing in the wind, with controls for 
> wind speed and direction, controlled by the knob box) are still impressive.

Interesting. Is the source for Dore still available? I did a quick
search with Google, but didn't find anything.

Have a nice day.
--
Regards,
Torfinn Ingolfsen

Re: Ardent Titan

[Randy Dawson via cctech]

Hi Camiel,


First let me say you are one lucky guy.


I had one of these in my office for a few months, after their demo in Houston 
we were in constant contact to promote and sell them.

Ardent, later Stardent supplied the hardware and we ported an application to 
show at the Offshore Technology Conference, in our booth.

Great guys, and it got a lot of interest - it was a 3D model of downhole pipe 
exhibiting corrosion, 100K rendered polygons and you could swing it around in 
realtime, very impressive hardware for the 80's.


I have maintained my interest, they dissolved in spite of a very impressive 
machine.  The visualization pipeline was spun off as a separate company, AVS.


Kubota (who purchased Stardent) put the rendering software, Dore' in the public 
domain.  I have built it here under FreeBSD on a PC; it was in the ports system 
for a while, and without to much messing with, I got the demos running (FLAG, a 
flag blowing in the wind, with controls for wind speed and direction, 
controlled by the knob box) are still impressive.


Let me know how you come along, I really want to see you bring this up.  I can 
certainly copy Dore' over to you.


Another great resource, is the story of the machine itself.  It was a 
promotional book given to prospective clients, but a very detailed and well 
written book:


The Architecture of Supercomputers, Titan a Case Study

Daniel P. Siewiorek, Philip John Koopman, Jr.

ISBN 0-12-6430-60-8


I see its on Amazon:


https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Supercomputers-Titan-Case-Study/dp/1483246590



Good luck, and keep in touch on how this is coming.


Regards,


Randy Dawson

The Architecture of Supercomputers: Titan, a Case Study 
...
www.amazon.com
The Architecture of Supercomputers: Titan, A Case Study describes the 
architecture of the first member of an entirely new computing class, the 
graphic supercomputing ...










From: cctech  on behalf of Camiel Vanderhoeven 
via cctech 
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2017 8:24 AM
To: cctech@classiccmp.org
Subject: Ardent Titan

Last Friday, I finally received a shipment of 1980's minisupercomputers
from the US that I've been working on since September. One of the systems
is an Ardent Titan, which to my knowledge was the first (mini-)
supercomputer to come with an integrated high-end graphics subsystem
(1280x1024@60Hz, hardware spheres, antialiasing, and cast shadows).

After careful checking, I powered it on yesterday, and got as far as
trying to boot it; unfortunately, the harddisk does not contain the OS,
but I'm trying to get access to an installation tape. There's a full
writeup about my efforts this weekend on my website:
http://www.vaxbarn.com/index.php/42-repair/576-ardent-titan-power-on
[http://www.vaxbarn.com/images/ardent/titan/a_02.jpg]

Ardent Titan 
power-on
www.vaxbarn.com
VAXBARN: Camiel Vanderhoeven's computer collection


A description with some pictures of the Ardent can be found here:
http://www.vaxbarn.com/index.php/other-bits/565-ardent-titan
Ardent Titan - 
VAXBARN
www.vaxbarn.com
This Ardent Titan is one of the systems donated by a Stanford University 
professor. They are currently being shipped to me, so I have not been able to 
inspect these ...


Uncrating pictures are here:
http://www.vaxbarn.com/index.php/41-acquisitions/575-supercomputers-have-ar
[http://www.vaxbarn.com/images/acq/convex4/20170310_140351.jpg]

Supercomputers have 
arrived
www.vaxbarn.com
VAXBARN: Camiel Vanderhoeven's computer collection


rived

Anyone who knows anything about these machines, please contact me! Also,
if you have access to installation tapes, manuals, brochures, anything
related to these systems, please let me know.

Kind regards,
Camiel Vanderhoeven