Re: WTB: DEC Rainbow Expansion Memory

[Warner Losh via cctalk]

Found this file on an old Rainbow floppy. It has more detailed data.

http://people.freebsd.org/~imp/RBMEMRY.TXT

Sorry I didn't convert it to HTML...

Warner

On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 7:49 AM, Tapley, Mark via cctalk
 wrote:
> On Apr 13, 2017, at 3:20 PM, Warner Losh via cctalk  
> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 12:00 PM, shad via cctech
>>  wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> I'm in the pretty same condition, I have a Rainbow 100B without memory
>>> expansion.
>>> Not sure however, about the correct board number, which would fit the 100B.
>>> What should I search for?
>>
>> The DEC part numbers for these are PC1XX-AY (128k) and PC1XX-AZ
>> (256k). I'm not sure what the board numbers are, and some auctions
>> list those instead.
>>
>> They are the same board. There's 4 switches on the board. One for each
>> of the 3 banks to select between 64kbit chips and 256kbit chips. You
>> want 4164 or 41256 for the board. It's super easy to upgrade (I bought
>> a AY back in the day and then 18 months later I bought 27 41256 chips
>> and swapped them out in about 10-15 minutes.
>>
>> I'm not sure what the 100A needs. I have no experience with the 100A 
>> hardware.
>>
>> Warner
>
> I”m pretty sure the PC100A takes the same board. I believe I have a 100A set 
> up like that, but I’ll have to check when I get back (from vacation) in a 
> week or so (unless you get a definitive answer before that). Meantime if you 
> spot one of those boards, obviously it would be good to grab it; sounds like 
> there are 100B users on-list who would be happy to give it a home if I’m 
> wrong about it working in the 100A.
>
> Meantime, from my Rainbow Technical Manual copyright 1984 scan (ask, 
> I have a fair number of these documents) which says it refers to model PC100A:
>
> Rainbow Memory Extension Option Installation Guide:EK-PCMKE-IN
>
> …Two versions of the memory extension option are available: a 64 K byte 
> option (part number PC1XX-AA) and a 192K byte option (part number PC1XX-AB). 
> The memory option is installed in the J6 connector …
> …   Both versions of the memory extension option use the same printed 
> circuit board etch and the same type of 6kK x 1 bit memory chips. … the 192K 
> byte version contains twenty-seven 64K x 1 bit chips arranged as three 64K 
> byte memory stacks. ...
>
>
> From my Rainbow Owner’s manual 1st ed. Sept 1983, Appx. C, Table C-1
> …
> 64K byte memory board option:   PC1XX-AC
> 256K byte memory board option:  PC1XX-AD
> 64K byte memory component kit (9 chips) PC1XX-AY
> 256K byte memory component kit (9 chips)PC1XX-AZ
> …
>
> Hope  this helps.

RE: Where/who to donate Sun Ultra 10 in UK?

[Dave Wade G4UGM via cctalk]

Pete
I will be happy to take it. Both my Suns have issues.
Dave
Manchester.

> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Pete Dodd
> via cctalk
> Sent: 18 April 2017 15:53
> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Subject: Where/who to donate Sun Ultra 10 in UK?
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> I'm looking for ideas for passing on an old Sun Ultra 10, which I adopted when
> my old work was going to bin it. I installed Debian, but have the original OS
> media. Unfortunately, 3 moves and 2 kids later my time to tinker is non-
> existent, and my partner has made clear this needs to go before another
> imminent house move. I notice from my last attempt to boot that it now has
> the NVRAM battery problem, which a quick search tells me may be fixable.
> Ideally, I would like to hand it over to someone with more time/motivation
> (for free) rather than sending to the tip, but I'm stuck for ideas. I did get 
> in
> touch with wildfire systems, who said it isn't economically viable for them
> even at zero cost. The Ebay market for these things seems more US-centric
> and registering for an account and dealing with postage is more effort than I
> would like (I live in Sheffield, UK).
> 
> Any ideas gratefully received!
> 
> Thanks,
> Pete

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

[Glen Slick via cctalk]

On Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 10:06 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
>
> As I recall, NT/2K/XP will read PC98 floppies if they're in an Imation
> LS120 Superdrive or in a conforming  USB floppy drive.  I don't know
> about legacy floppy controllers.  It might also work in a Caleb HD144
> drive; I haven't checked that out.

Windows 2000 should be able to read and also low level format the
1024*8*2*77 format on 3.5-inch LS120 and USB floppy drives which
support it. Support would be dependent on the firmware in the drive.

I don't know about any earlier version of Windows NT as that was
before USB support was added and I never looked at that. Support
should have also been carried forward in newer versions of Windows,
but I would not be surprised if it got broken intentionally or
unintentionally somewhere along the way.

There is some code in the Windows sfloppy.sys driver for ATAPI and USB
attached floppy drives which does have hard coded tables of known
geometry formats. Anything outside of those known geometries it would
not be able to format. The sfloppy.sys driver is not involved with
legacy FDC attached floppy drives.

Source code for some version of the Windows sfloppy.sys driver is
available online:
https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-driver-samples/blob/master/storage/sfloppy/src/floppy.c

Where/who to donate Sun Ultra 10 in UK?

[Pete Dodd via cctalk]

Dear All,

I'm looking for ideas for passing on an old Sun Ultra 10, which I adopted
when my old work was going to bin it. I installed Debian, but have the
original OS media. Unfortunately, 3 moves and 2 kids later my time to
tinker is non-existent, and my partner has made clear this needs to go
before another imminent house move. I notice from my last attempt to boot
that it now has the NVRAM battery problem, which a quick search tells me
may be fixable. Ideally, I would like to hand it over to someone with more
time/motivation (for free) rather than sending to the tip, but I'm stuck
for ideas. I did get in touch with wildfire systems, who said it isn't
economically viable for them even at zero cost. The Ebay market for these
things seems more US-centric and registering for an account and dealing
with postage is more effort than I would like (I live in Sheffield, UK).

Any ideas gratefully received!

Thanks,
Pete

RE: Kennedy 9000 Tape Drives, Terminals and Packs

[geneb via cctalk]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2017, Rick Bensene via cctalk wrote:

ATHANA was a magnetic media manufacturer.  They made floppy disks and 
cartridge hard disk drives that were compatible with many vendors' hard 
disk system.


IS.  http://www.athana.com/

g.

--
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ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment
A Multi-Value database for the masses, not the classes.
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Re: Remex Tape Reader - Pre-power up advice?

[Christian Corti via cctalk]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2017, Rod Smallwood wrote:

There are what appear to be 1976 date codes on some caps.

If its that old then replace all and any electrolytic capacitors plus any 
paper based caps.


If they aint bad now they soon will be.


*shaking head*

Sorry, this is just a plain dumb answer. If they are good now, they 
probably will be good in 10 years, too. We never change any caps just 
because of their age.


I suggest: check for electrical safety, then plug it in and try it; after 
all, it's "just" a tape reader with a simple PSU, not a 50s era mainframe.
It will just work, I guess. If there should be a problem with those "big 
caps", you'll see it. But it's much faster and easier to test them 
beforehand (i.e. short or no short) than to foolishly replace everything.


Christian