How to reproduce the DEC cabinets' grey colour paint?
Hello list, does anybody of you know colour codes or the mixture to obtain the grey paint that DEC used for their early H960 cabinet side panels as well as for their later cabinet from the 80s and 90s like the H9A10 or H9A15? Some of my cabinets have scratches and I would like to cosmetically fix this. I thought I remember some discussions about DEC paint some years ago but I couldn't find anything helpful in my archives except for discussions about colours for DEC's classic front panels. Any pointers are very much appreciated. Thanks, Pierre - http://www.digitalheritage.de
Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
On 7/13/2022 3:02 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: Does anyone know anything about this card? Especially curious is the daughtercard connector: is it just for RAM expansion or is the daughtercard necessary for card operation? Daughtercard almost looks like a Pro memory board, but those were 16 bit and only 256kw in size if I recall. That's can't be enough to do anything useful. The standard ones, yes, but the connector and address wires supported up to a MW per board, perhaps even 2. It's mentioned in the Pro technical manual. I thought about building such a beast, never did. I actually did design and build such a board, and yes, it supports up to 2 MB (on the PC380 only). But the connector on the eBay board can't be a connector for a DEC Professional RAM daughtercard because it's the wrong gender and has too many positions. The DEC Pro RAM daughtercards also have header sockets, not pins, and they either have 40 positions (PC325/PC350) or 48 positions (PC380). The eBay board seems to have a connector with 2x32 = 64 positions. --Bjoren
Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
> On Jul 12, 2022, at 3:48 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> Recently eBay seller smhelectronics261 posted a very interesting prototype >> board: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295087630609 >> The description is "Dec Digital PRO 350/380 Professional Microvax II Proto >> 54-16707 Collectors", and the board art mentions "MICROVAX SOFTCARD." > > Well, that is a weird concept. Maybe they were gunning to make the absolutely > slowest Vax system ever, the MV1 just wasn't enough of a challenge > >> Does anyone know anything about this card? Especially curious is the >> daughtercard connector: is it just for RAM expansion or is the daughtercard >> necessary for card operation? > > Daughtercard almost looks like a Pro memory board, but those were 16 bit and > only 256kw in size if I recall. That's can't be enough to do anything useful. The standard ones, yes, but the connector and address wires supported up to a MW per board, perhaps even 2. It's mentioned in the Pro technical manual. I thought about building such a beast, never did. paul
Re: MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
Recently eBay seller smhelectronics261 posted a very interesting prototype board: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295087630609 The description is "Dec Digital PRO 350/380 Professional Microvax II Proto 54-16707 Collectors", and the board art mentions "MICROVAX SOFTCARD." Well, that is a weird concept. Maybe they were gunning to make the absolutely slowest Vax system ever, the MV1 just wasn't enough of a challenge Does anyone know anything about this card? Especially curious is the daughtercard connector: is it just for RAM expansion or is the daughtercard necessary for card operation? Daughtercard almost looks like a Pro memory board, but those were 16 bit and only 256kw in size if I recall. That's can't be enough to do anything useful. I'll be bidding on the board, but given how pricey CTI boards have gotten recently (a DECNA card from the same seller recently sold for $422.99), I probably won't win. If the winner of the auction reads this, could they please contact me? I'd like to collect an image of the boot ROM from the board, if possible. I might drop a bid on it, but that's one of those serious "what the hell would I do with it" sort of things. I still can't believe that DEC would try to run Microvax code on a system like the Pro with a hard drive controller which was slower than a literal snail Maybe DEC had an RQDX3 or ESDI CTI controller with real DMA somewhere in the works?
Re: Vintage Computing Hosting [Was: List migration]
On Mon, Jul 11, 2022 at 10:25 AM Jonathan Chapman via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > We do hosting for a few other hobbyists, and Andy Meyer has his Sony > SMC-70 pages on users.glitchwrks.com subdomain: > > http://users.glitchwrks.com/~ahm/smc70/ > > Not really advertised as a service, just one of those things where a few > friends have needed a place to host a few things! > > Thanks, > Jonathan > Yah, basically me too. Bill
MicroVAX CTI (DEC Professional) card
Hello Classic fans, Recently eBay seller smhelectronics261 posted a very interesting prototype board: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295087630609 The description is "Dec Digital PRO 350/380 Professional Microvax II Proto 54-16707 Collectors", and the board art mentions "MICROVAX SOFTCARD." Does anyone know anything about this card? Especially curious is the daughtercard connector: is it just for RAM expansion or is the daughtercard necessary for card operation? The photographs are fuzzy, but the more recent chip date I can see is 8536 (on one of the QFPs). This puts the board in the time period of the MicroVAX II development. The internal "MicroVAX Business Plan" (http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/610/memos/Microvax_Business_Plan_Dec83.pdf) mentions a "Meteor" project (p. 11). It describes Meteor as: Meteor is Digital's first single-user MicroVAX product. Developed within Low End Engineering, the product is positioned as a strong competitor in the low end, technical/scientific and the high end office/business graphics workstation market. Meteor should be an effective follow-on product to the Professional Series and high end VAX/Seahorse workstations. Although not a replacement product per se, Meteor represents a clear migration path for PRO users upward in functionality, and for VAX Workstation applications downward to a lower cost, single user design. Does anyone know if this board is Meteor? I'll be bidding on the board, but given how pricey CTI boards have gotten recently (a DECNA card from the same seller recently sold for $422.99), I probably won't win. If the winner of the auction reads this, could they please contact me? I'd like to collect an image of the boot ROM from the board, if possible. Thanks. --Bjoren
RE: Information on Trend UTR 700 Paper Tape Reader and Facit 4060 Punch
It is a UDR 700, my dyslexia and why I did not find your posts from 2020. A copy of the user manual would be very much apreciated, as would info on the unibus interface. However, I'm quite happy to interface to the back of the reader "I think". I shall eMail you privately details of an FTP site you could upload to. Martin -Original Message- From: Tony Duell [mailto:ard.p850...@gmail.com] Sent: 12 July 2022 04:45 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Cc: Martin Bishop Subject: Re: Information on Trend UTR 700 Paper Tape Reader and Facit 4060 Punch On Mon, Jul 11, 2022 at 7:32 AM Martin Bishop via cctalk wrote: > > Google turns up very little specific information on either of these devices, > e.g. nil return from bit savers. > > The best leads I have are: > - The UTR 700 was badge engineered by Ferranti into FM1600B systems, one of > which fetched up at the Centre for Computer History, Cambridge, England; > perhaps with documentation. Also, as it was used in government systems some > maintenance documentation may have fetched up in the PRO, at Kew. Are you sure it's a UTR700 and not a UDR700? The latter is a 'UniDirectional Reader' running at 700 characters/second. I've seen them badge-engeered 'Solartron' too. I also have a Unibus interface for them. If it is a UDR700, I have the 'user' manual which includes full schematics, parts lists, alignment data, etc. I did offer this to bitsavers along with the manual for the HSR500 (bidirectional, 500 cps) but they weren't interested. Unfortunately the manual is nearly 140MBytes (my scanner software is very inefficient!) so too large to post or e-mail, but I can snail-mail a CD-ROM or memory stick with it on. -tony
RE: Xerox 800 Word Processor 1974 promo film
In a search I found a digital brochure for the Xerox 800. The text is in Dutch. The text can be highlighted therefore I think it can be then sent to a translator. https://classic.technology/xerox-800/ Don Resor From: Eric Smith Sent: Monday, July 11, 2022 11:56 AM To: D. Resor ; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: Xerox 800 Word Processor 1974 promo film Anyone know what's inside the Xerox 800? There seems to be little information online about any of the 800 series other than the 820. Based on the year of introduction of the 800, and allowing for time prior to that spent in development, I'm guessing that it's not microprocessor-based. (Whereas the 820 is.) Eric On Sat, Jul 2, 2022, 03:50 D. Resor via cctalk mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: This video just popped up in my YT view. It was posted a couple days ago. At the end of the video, a recap of several Xerox computer products are shown. XEROX Word Processing Machines & Computers 1975 (Xerox 800 vintage promo film) https://youtu.be/Zkl80BAiaIw Computer History Archive Don Resor
