Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On Mon, 5 Aug 2019, Boris Gimbarzevsky wrote: A mere 579 miles from Kamloops. Unfortunately have to talk to my wife who thinks I have too many computers even though I've given away bulk of my DEC stuff. Never got a chance to play around on Alpha as it came out during my Mac days. A mere 1,000km, South I assume since you gave the distance in miles but I don't think you want a 7 foot rack of ES45s in your living room - the power bill, the heat, and the fan noise would wear on you after a while. Without looking it up, I imagine I am about 1,000km the other way from Kamloops. We could meet in the middle, have a beer together, and trade trailers. :) -- Richard Loken VE6BSV: "...underneath those tuques we wear, Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!" ** rllo...@telus.net ** :- Arthur Black
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
Had to give away my Minc system with 2 RLO2 drives and 2 RK03 drives but it did go to a good home. Have a couple of 11/23 systems left but have been in storeage long enough that can't fire them up without first totally going over power supplies as large electrolytics don't age well. My wife is after me to get rid of "old stuff" but it's the most fun to use and easiest to repair. May have to placate her by getting rid of my collection of 80x86 PC's which can now be easily replaced by Propeller systems for data acquisition applications. On 8/5/2019 6:51 PM, Boris Gimbarzevsky via cctalk wrote: A mere 579 miles from Kamloops. Unfortunately have to talk to my wife who thinks I have too many computers even though I've given away bulk of my DEC stuff. Never got a chance to play around on Alpha as it came out during my Mac days. Now why could it not be a nice little PDP 11. Ben.
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On 8/5/19 8:40 PM, ben via cctalk wrote: Now why could it not be a nice little PDP 11. I thought that it could be if it was running emulation software. Or was that more that the VAX-11 could emulate a PDP-11 up to a specific version & hardware combination? (Read: Did this functionality not get carried forward to the Alphas?) -- Grant. . . . unix || die
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On Mon, 5 Aug 2019, ben via cctalk wrote: Now why could it not be a nice little PDP 11. Ben. I once had a pDp11/04 which I let go, it did not seem like much at the time but now I feel differantly. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV: "...underneath those tuques we wear, Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!" ** rllo...@telus.net ** :- Arthur Black
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On 8/5/2019 6:51 PM, Boris Gimbarzevsky via cctalk wrote: A mere 579 miles from Kamloops. Unfortunately have to talk to my wife who thinks I have too many computers even though I've given away bulk of my DEC stuff. Never got a chance to play around on Alpha as it came out during my Mac days. Now why could it not be a nice little PDP 11. Ben.
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
A mere 579 miles from Kamloops. Unfortunately have to talk to my wife who thinks I have too many computers even though I've given away bulk of my DEC stuff. Never got a chance to play around on Alpha as it came out during my Mac days. I have access to 3 ES45s, a DS15, and an RA8000 in a tall blue Compaq rack in Athabasca, Alberta. All the in-service disks were removed but all the spares are available. The box also has the fibre switches used the connect the RA8000 to the servers and the cables, much of the paper documentation, and assorted doodads. It would probably work if plugged in but it has been a year since it was turned off. Athabasca, Alberta is about 1.000km North of the US Montana border and 10,000km from nowhere but it is summer and the weather is nice so we might be able to load this great heavy beast on a trailer and haul it up to a day's drive away if anybody want this stuff. This is rural Alberta so a day's drive is a l-o-n-g way (like 1,000km?). I tried to give this away in early 2019 but the deal fell through. If I don't get a place to send it then I will keep the DS15 and convert the rest of it into scrap metal. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV: "...underneath those tuques we wear, Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!" ** rllo...@telus.net ** :- Arthur Black
Control Data Cyber 960 available
I just received a pile of goodies from BT Federal, the last remaining bit of Control Data. Part of the goodies included a complete set of spare CPU boards for a Cyber 960. This means my extra Cy960 is surplus to my needs - I bought it strictly as a source of spare parts. So it needs to go. The world is not all DEC and IBM. Play around with machine that has Seymour's fingerprints all over it. This is an ex-Florida Light and Power box. Mind you, this is a serious machine. It sucks a lot of power, and weighs a lot. 5000 pounds total in three cabinets. Completely over engineered. See the cray-cyber guys website for more specs. This is the CPU only - no disks or tapes, but I could include a DI with it (sort of a channel attached comms box for connecting terminals, printers, and networks). I think the cray-cyber guys are working on getting an emulator working for disk and tape. Software and docs are very available. No goofy license needed. Anyway, available pretty much immediately. Located in the Hudson Valley of NY. Serious machine, so serious inquiries only, please (off list). -- Will
mid-range IBM systems [was RE: IBM Series/1]
From: Jay West Sent: Monday, August 05, 2019 10:38 AM > I used to run a system at Anheuser-Busch in the late 80's, ISTR it was a > 4331, 4341, or 4381. The 4331, 4361 and 4341 are slightly more than waist high. The 4381 is a high-boy cabinet. Rich Rich Alderson Sr. Systems Engineer Living Computers: Museum + Labs 2245 1st Ave S Seattle, WA 98134 http://www.LivingComputers.org/
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On 8/5/19 12:50 PM, Mark Linimon via cctalk wrote: On Mon, Aug 05, 2019 at 10:39:01AM -0600, Richard Loken via cctalk wrote: Athabasca, Alberta is about 1.000km North of the US Montana border and 10,000km from nowhere And 2,248 miles from my house, according to Google Maps :-) I'll bet it would be a pretty road trip but I think I'll have to pass ... I have been most of the way there. Passenger in an RV from Seattle to Edson, AB and back and I have flown to Edmonton and driven to Edson. It is pretty, particularly when someone else is driving. I live around 10 miles from Seth, so it the same 14-15 hour trip that he would have. The Bay Area is closer. And I have no room anyway. But so tempting. alan
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On Mon, Aug 05, 2019 at 10:39:01AM -0600, Richard Loken via cctalk wrote: > Athabasca, Alberta is about 1.000km North of the US Montana border > and 10,000km from nowhere And 2,248 miles from my house, according to Google Maps :-) I'll bet it would be a pretty road trip but I think I'll have to pass ... mcl
Re: MULTIPROCESSING FOR THE IMPOVERISHED Part 1: a 6809 Uniprocessor
On 8/5/2019 1:40 AM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote: Ben said Where are all the articles about a TTL designed computer? Yes I know about (Homebuilt CPUs ring) but that is mostly today. What about the Late 70's and Early 80's? Well there's the EDUC-8, based on the PDP-8 instruction set and was published from 1974 to 1975 by Electronics Australia magazine, followed by a number of articles on building peripherals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDUC-8 I saw that a few times but I never could find the link again. I have all the original magazine issues for it, but you can get them all in book form from Silicon Chip magazine these days https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Shop/3 I suspect you can't get the PCB's any more and the card edge connectors. Steve. The Amateur Computer Club magazines gave me just what I was looking for as they had prices listed for the chips sold at the time. I noticed several people were finding very old machines for a song, (1972-1977) did that happen also here in America? Ben.
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
> On Aug 5, 2019, at 1:03 PM, Seth Morabito via cctalk > wrote: > > I'm tempted, but... I don't know where I'd put it. I'm clean out of room for > a whole rack :( Seth, you just need to think about this objectively. Alphaserver rack ….. refrigerator. Which will give you more pleasure in the long run? Glad to help out there. :-) > I do hope someone rescues it. Seriously, *SO* strongly seconded… San Antonio is a long way from Athabasca. Sigh. - Mark
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On Mon, Aug 5, 2019, at 9:39 AM, Richard Loken via cctalk wrote: > I have access to 3 ES45s, a DS15, and an RA8000 in a tall blue Compaq rack > in Athabasca, Alberta. All the in-service disks were removed but all the > spares are available. The box also has the fibre switches used the connect > the RA8000 to the servers and the cables, much of the paper documentation, > and assorted doodads. It would probably work if plugged in but it has been > a year since it was turned off. That's a really impressively beefy Alpha setup. I just did the math, and Athabasca is about a 14 hour drive from here in Seattle. I'm tempted, but... I don't know where I'd put it. I'm clean out of room for a whole rack :( I do hope someone rescues it. Consider this a *nudge* to the group. If you have space, and means of transport, this is really worth picking up, so please go get it! -Seth -- Seth Morabito Poulsbo, WA w...@loomcom.com
RE: IBM Series/1
I used to run a system at Anheuser-Busch in the late 80's, ISTR it was a 4331, 4341, or 4381. Under VM/370, It ran SMI's (Systems Management, Inc) Pick/370 OS. IBM terminals could attach direct or via an establishment controller, but dumb serial terminals could connect via the series/1's which acted as a front end processor/aggregator (via a Micom switch that just let you select the Pick/370 machine or one of the many Pr1me's about One Busch Place). There was also a standalone series/1 next to it, which ran CDI's (forget the company name) implementation of Pick for the Series/1. They used this for connecting a bunch of serial ports to timeclocks throughout the plant. Workers coming in and out hit these and there was some Pick/BASIC code that comprised a time & attendance system. Data capture from the timeclocks involved the full character set which normal Pick I/O had issues with, so I wrote a program in Pick Assembler to deal with that and pass sanitized/escaped data back to the host. My most distinct memory of this is the simultaneously cute and annoying 'BLEET' sound that each button on the front panel (membrane keypad) made. Fun Times. J
Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
I have access to 3 ES45s, a DS15, and an RA8000 in a tall blue Compaq rack in Athabasca, Alberta. All the in-service disks were removed but all the spares are available. The box also has the fibre switches used the connect the RA8000 to the servers and the cables, much of the paper documentation, and assorted doodads. It would probably work if plugged in but it has been a year since it was turned off. Athabasca, Alberta is about 1.000km North of the US Montana border and 10,000km from nowhere but it is summer and the weather is nice so we might be able to load this great heavy beast on a trailer and haul it up to a day's drive away if anybody want this stuff. This is rural Alberta so a day's drive is a l-o-n-g way (like 1,000km?). I tried to give this away in early 2019 but the deal fell through. If I don't get a place to send it then I will keep the DS15 and convert the rest of it into scrap metal. -- Richard Loken VE6BSV: "...underneath those tuques we wear, Athabasca, Alberta Canada : our heads are naked!" ** rllo...@telus.net ** :- Arthur Black
Needed: instruction manual for AVA 103C
I just picked up an AVA Model 103C Floppy Exerciser. While it has a few quick tips silkscreened on the bottom of it, I think it would be helpful to have the full manual. I've done a fair bit of googling, but all I've turned up is several repair manuals for other equipment, suggesting the 103C as the ideal tool for testing and repairing their gear. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Various Mac PowerPC, Dec and Sun equipment available in Houston TX
The clearing continues... I have several system that are free to anyone who wants them before they get tossed. Local pick up gets preference but I'll ship if you are willing to pay for UPS packing and shipping. None of the systems have been powered on in several years and the DEC and Sun equipment is incomplete, see notes below. All systems are as is and include base system only, no monitors, keyboards, etc. All of the Macs came from a company that did audio/video production work. I believe these were mostly used to record and edit audio in a recording studio though some may have been used in their art department for graphics work. Systems include: Mac PowerPC 9600/300 Five Mac PowerPC G4s (Couple of the systems have cases modded for rack mounting) The DEC equipment is as follows: MicroVAX 3100 - No idea what is inside or condition. Case has an opening where it appears a tape or removable drive once was installed but is no longer there. DEC Storage Expansion - Believe this went with the MicroVAX above but not sure, no idea what all is inside or condition. And finally the Sun: Sun SparcStation 5 - No idea condition of what is inside, probably incomplete or missing components but no idea. All the above are offered free for local pickup or you pay to have them packed and shipped. Located in Houston, TX. Contact me off list if you have any questions or want to arrange pickup. Best, David Williams www.trailingedge.com
Re: MULTIPROCESSING FOR THE IMPOVERISHED Part 1: a 6809 Uniprocessor
Ben said > Where are all the articles about a TTL designed computer? > Yes I know about (Homebuilt CPUs ring) but that is mostly > today. What about the Late 70's and Early 80's? Well there's the EDUC-8, based on the PDP-8 instruction set and was published from 1974 to 1975 by Electronics Australia magazine, followed by a number of articles on building peripherals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDUC-8 I have all the original magazine issues for it, but you can get them all in book form from Silicon Chip magazine these days https://www.siliconchip.com.au/Shop/3 Steve.
