Re: Q Bus Music Board

[allison]

On 2/23/17 8:25 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:


From: cctalk [cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] on behalf of Noel Chiappa 
[j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 1:49 PM
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Cc: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Q Bus Music Board

 > From: Jim Stephens

 > That A6006 produces a hit in this document
 > ...
 > AAV11-C ANALOG OUTPUT BOARD
 > ...
 > 4 DACs, and a DC-DC converter.

Sounds like it might be a standard analog output board, for lab settings.
I'll bet the music thing is some marketing ploy, like the card game in 'The
Story of Mel'. (What, you haven't read 'The Story of Mel'?!? :-)

 Noel



I think IO have a couple of them but I never heard them play music. :-)

bill


I have two of them and a RT-11 program in macro that can output tones 
and clicks

music is just an extension of that.

To do music (or sounds with an D/A) card its a matter of moving a 
sequence of bytes/words
in a regular periodic rate representing the voltage for instant of the 
wave form.

For tones its a loop with values for amplitude, frequency, and wave shape.
For a simple output card its a matter of changing the state of a single 
bit at the required rate

(flip it once every half millisecond and you get a 1khz tone).

If an PDP-8, 6502, 8080 and many others can do it a pdp-11 and any 
output can.
Hell I've heard Line printers play music and asr33s rattling out a crude 
version of

Jingle bells complete with bell!

Allison

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[ben]

On 2/23/2017 4:36 AM, Tony Duell wrote:

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 8:22 AM, Pontus Pihlgren  wrote:

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 01:49:10PM -0500, Noel Chiappa wrote:


Sounds like it might be a standard analog output board, for lab settings.
I'll bet the music thing is some marketing ploy, like the card game in 'The
Story of Mel'. (What, you haven't read 'The Story of Mel'?!? :-)



But of course I have :)


As have I. In fact I am pretty sure I referenced it in my Ph.D. thesis...

-tony


PDP 8's sound is more fun ... Listen via radio. :)
Ben.

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[Pontus Pihlgren]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 01:25:24PM +, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> I think IO have a couple of them but I never heard them play music. :-)

A couple of A6006 or a couple of Q Bus Music Boards?

(I'm guessing A6006, I think that even I have D/A boards lying 
around)

/P

RE: Q Bus Music Board

[Bill Gunshannon]

From: cctalk [cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] on behalf of Noel Chiappa 
[j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 1:49 PM
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Cc: j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Q Bus Music Board

> From: Jim Stephens

> That A6006 produces a hit in this document
> ...
> AAV11-C ANALOG OUTPUT BOARD
> ...
> 4 DACs, and a DC-DC converter.

Sounds like it might be a standard analog output board, for lab settings.
I'll bet the music thing is some marketing ploy, like the card game in 'The
Story of Mel'. (What, you haven't read 'The Story of Mel'?!? :-)

Noel



I think IO have a couple of them but I never heard them play music. :-)

bill

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[Tony Duell]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 8:22 AM, Pontus Pihlgren  wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 01:49:10PM -0500, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>>
>> Sounds like it might be a standard analog output board, for lab settings.
>> I'll bet the music thing is some marketing ploy, like the card game in 'The
>> Story of Mel'. (What, you haven't read 'The Story of Mel'?!? :-)
>>
>
> But of course I have :)

As have I. In fact I am pretty sure I referenced it in my Ph.D. thesis...

-tony

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[Noel Chiappa]

> From: Jim Stephens

> That A6006 produces a hit in this document
> ...
> AAV11-C ANALOG OUTPUT BOARD
> ...
> 4 DACs, and a DC-DC converter.

Sounds like it might be a standard analog output board, for lab settings.
I'll bet the music thing is some marketing ploy, like the card game in 'The
Story of Mel'. (What, you haven't read 'The Story of Mel'?!? :-)

Noel

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[Pontus Pihlgren]

On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 11:02:08PM -0800, jim stephens wrote:
>
> That A6006 produces a hit in this document
> 
> http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/qbus/EB-23144-18_QbusIntrfs_1983.pdf
> 
> AAV11-C ANALOG OUTPUT BOARD
> 
> Table 1, document page 18, PDF page 28 for the index entry
> AAV11-C document page 37 PDF page 47 for the description
> 
> Interesting board,  4 DACs, and a DC-DC converter.
> 


Definitely something else.

Thank you,
Pontus.

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[jim stephens]

On 2/21/2017 11:17 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:

It certainly looks like a DEC document numbering scheme. In the ebay
auction it was decsribed a an "A6006 Analog output board". I think that
is something entirely different, or is it related?

Thank you for shedding some light on it.

/P

That A6006 produces a hit in this document

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/qbus/EB-23144-18_QbusIntrfs_1983.pdf

AAV11-C ANALOG OUTPUT BOARD

Table 1, document page 18, PDF page 28 for the index entry
AAV11-C document page 37 PDF page 47 for the description

Interesting board,  4 DACs, and a DC-DC converter.

Thanks
Jim

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[Adrian Stoness]

decworld was decus related?  i know my father went to one of these
conferences back in the day and won the rainbow100 door prize that they
shipped to him all the way to the remote bush of northern manitoba.

On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 1:17 PM, Pontus Pihlgren 
wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 12:28:55PM -0500, allison wrote:
> >
> > The board was called Gigilo.
>
> Ah, another keyword to look for.
>
> > I have one and last I tried it it was operational I also have a minor
> chunk
> > of code to do
> > some music under RT11.   Currently deeply buried and not in my easy
> search
> > path.
>
> Is both code and hardware burried? Preserving the software for reference
> might be valuable should I ever find the hardware.
>
> > It was as believed at the time I worked for DEC that it was developed
> > internally for
> > things like DECworld.   Its never been clear if it was for QBUS PDP-11
> use
> > or MicroVAX.
>
> I see, uhm.. what is/was DECworld?
>
> > The number on the handle was the handle part number and not relevant to
> any
> > product.
>
> Ah, that explains the odd format (not an M-number).
>
> > The AY-3 are the sound generator chips as it does two channels of sound.
> > The EY-0105e may be a document (spec or drawing).
>
> It certainly looks like a DEC document numbering scheme. In the ebay
> auction it was decsribed a an "A6006 Analog output board". I think that
> is something entirely different, or is it related?
>
> Thank you for shedding some light on it.
>
> /P
>

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[Pontus Pihlgren]

On Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 12:28:55PM -0500, allison wrote:
>
> The board was called Gigilo.

Ah, another keyword to look for.

> I have one and last I tried it it was operational I also have a minor chunk
> of code to do
> some music under RT11.   Currently deeply buried and not in my easy search
> path.

Is both code and hardware burried? Preserving the software for reference 
might be valuable should I ever find the hardware.

> It was as believed at the time I worked for DEC that it was developed
> internally for
> things like DECworld.   Its never been clear if it was for QBUS PDP-11 use
> or MicroVAX.

I see, uhm.. what is/was DECworld?

> The number on the handle was the handle part number and not relevant to any
> product.

Ah, that explains the odd format (not an M-number).

> The AY-3 are the sound generator chips as it does two channels of sound.
> The EY-0105e may be a document (spec or drawing).

It certainly looks like a DEC document numbering scheme. In the ebay 
auction it was decsribed a an "A6006 Analog output board". I think that 
is something entirely different, or is it related?

Thank you for shedding some light on it.

/P

Re: Q Bus Music Board

[allison]

On 2/21/17 9:17 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:

Hi

This has been discussed on this mailinglist before (back in -95 and
-03). But with very little information came out of that.

I'm curious about the "Q Bus Music Board" that DEC made. What system was
it used in, what software was available that took advantage of it, how
would you program it?

All I know is from the cctalk threads and a few pictures from an ebay
auction, with missleading description, that I missed out on. The number
on the green handle is "93 08036" and on the PCB there is the number
"EY-0105E-MS-0101" and it looks like it has two AY-3-8192 synthesiser
chips.

So, does anyone know anything more?

And if anyone has one they could part with, I'd be interested.

Kind Regards,
Pontus.


The board was called Gigilo.

I have one and last I tried it it was operational I also have a minor 
chunk of code to do
some music under RT11.   Currently deeply buried and not in my easy 
search path.


It was as believed at the time I worked for DEC that it was developed 
internally for
things like DECworld.   Its never been clear if it was for QBUS PDP-11 
use or MicroVAX.
I don't think it was ever made in quantity and mine is a unit that was 
floating around

terminal and printers engineering in a random 11/23 that I still have.

The number on the handle was the handle part number and not relevant to 
any product.

The AY-3 are the sound generator chips as it does two channels of sound.
The EY-0105e may be a document (spec or drawing).

Allison

Q Bus Music Board

[Pontus Pihlgren]

Hi

This has been discussed on this mailinglist before (back in -95 and 
-03). But with very little information came out of that.

I'm curious about the "Q Bus Music Board" that DEC made. What system was 
it used in, what software was available that took advantage of it, how 
would you program it?

All I know is from the cctalk threads and a few pictures from an ebay 
auction, with missleading description, that I missed out on. The number 
on the green handle is "93 08036" and on the PCB there is the number 
"EY-0105E-MS-0101" and it looks like it has two AY-3-8192 synthesiser 
chips.

So, does anyone know anything more? 

And if anyone has one they could part with, I'd be interested.

Kind Regards,
Pontus.