Sean Conner writes:
> From a hardware perspective, the 68000 had a 16-bit bus and 24
> physical address lines
Actually 23 address lines to select a 16-bit word in memory, plus UDS
and LDS to select upper byte/lower byte/word.
On 24.05.2016 16:25, David Collins wrote:
Here are the binaries for all the EPROMs on processor PCA for my 7596A.
Wow, that was really quick, thank you so much!
The
PCA part number is 07595-60100 and is different from the one in the manual
which is a 07595-60200 so I assume my PCA is older t
On 05/24/2016 08:48 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
> For sure! The 360/30 was an 8 BIT machine, 8-bit memory, 8-bit data
> paths, etc. Really hobbled the performance, and restricted the
> peripherals that could be attached. The models /22 and /25 had 16-bit
> memory and data paths.
Do you mean the 360/2
The USB-to-1541 interface is really no different than the parport-to-1541
interfaces, other than they use different hardware-level drivers to talk to
the C= 1541.
All of the later CBM floppy drives are (as mentioned) "intelligent
peripherals". They are nothing short of computerized appliances, con
On 05/24/2016 09:29 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 05/24/2016 07:05 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
And the 360/25 had all writeable control store. The control store
was just the top 16 KB of main core memory! To change emulators,
restore from a microprogram crash, etc. you loaded the emulator from
a card de
On 5/24/2016 3:32 PM, Swift Griggs wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Fred Cisin wrote:
(OB_Picky: Due to the overlap of segment and offset, on machines that had 21
address bits, real mode actually had a maximum of 1114096 (10FFF0h) bytes,
instead of 1048576 (10h).
This was always the biggest pu
Worked a couple of years ago, but now won’t power up.
Chris
On 05/24/2016 05:44 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 05/24/2016 02:21 PM, Paul Berger wrote:
The CROS cards used in a 360/30 where the same size as an 80 column
card on purpose so you could you a keypunch machine to program the
microcode.
But I believe that the CROS cards were mylar, no?
On the 360
On 05/24/2016 07:05 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
> And the 360/25 had all writeable control store. The control store
> was just the top 16 KB of main core memory! To change emulators,
> restore from a microprogram crash, etc. you loaded the emulator from
> a card deck!
Yes, a neat little machine, no
On 05/24/2016 02:33 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
On 2016-May-24, at 12:08 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 05/24/2016 11:22 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
On 5/24/16 10:44 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
There was also automated "stapled wire". I forget the name for the
process.
stitch wire
you spot weld to a socket po
On 05/24/2016 02:15 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:08 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
Yes, but there was a trademarked name for the process that slips my
mind. Capable of very high densities.
Multiwire?
No, multiwire is a process where lots of wires are laid down
on a PC board coat
On 05/24/2016 02:13 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
I seem to recall that reworking the 360/30
microprogramming was preferred by tinkerers over the
360/40 was primarily that CROS was easier to work with
than TROS. I don't recall what the RCA Spectrolas used.
And the 360/25 had all writeable control stor
On 05/24/2016 01:22 PM, Al Kossow wrote:
On 5/24/16 10:44 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
There was also automated "stapled wire". I forget the name for the process.
stitch wire
you spot weld to a socket post
No, there was another system made by AMP. The backplane
connectors had rectangular po
On 05/24/2016 12:17 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
A couple of observations.
Taking the PDP-11 as a fairly typical example, the switches are "data" and
"address". While running, the data switches were visible to the software, and could do
something if you wanted to (typically this wasn't done).
Actua
> A fellow has made up a nice adapter to read and write Commodore disks on
> a PC via USB using a 1541 drive.
>
> The thing that jumped out at me is that this is a 5 1/4" drive that
> reads and writes via USB. Anyone want to comment on whether the
> floppies it accesses would be useful other t
On 05/24/2016 11:56 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Jon Elson wrote:
The early PDP-11s had a diode matrix ROM for the boot memory. You could
change the boot code with a wire cutter and soldering iron.
Is that similar to "wire wrap" ? I remember my grandmother talking about
having
On 05/24/2016 11:54 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
Oh and here is a replica of an Apollo launch computer with
a component LED display like I was mentioning:
http://i.imgur.com/bbXZVcx.jpg ... probably too expensive
to embed in a computer system, but still hard to beat for
geek aesthetics. -Swift
Tha
On 2016-05-24 9:30 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 3:09 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
Yes, I examined this in some detail last year after mention on the list, and
wrote it up:
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/corerope/index.html
That's a great write-up! Thanks!
I'm not sure
A fellow has made up a nice adapter to read and write Commodore disks on
a PC via USB using a 1541 drive.
The thing that jumped out at me is that this is a 5 1/4" drive that
reads and writes via USB. Anyone want to comment on whether the
floppies it accesses would be useful other than on th
> On May 24, 2016, at 8:30 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 3:09 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
>> Yes, I examined this in some detail last year after mention on the list, and
>> wrote it up:
>>http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/corerope/index.html
>
> That's a great write-up!
On 24/05/2016 22:41, Glen Slick wrote:
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 2:29 PM, Rod Smallwood
wrote:
Hi
My main system a VAX 4000 Model 500 with a KA680 CPU has just started
halting at test 51 on power up.
Does any body know where I can lay my hands on a spare KA680?
A month ago this one wen
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 3:09 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
> Yes, I examined this in some detail last year after mention on the list, and
> wrote it up:
> http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~hilpert/e/corerope/index.html
That's a great write-up! Thanks!
I'm not sure about how IBM TROS was driven, but the
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Charles Anthony wrote:
> > "Older machines" covers a lot of ground.
>
> Sorry, I should have said "machines from the 50's - 70's which used
> buttons, toggles, rockers or other switches on the front panel"
>
> > Typic
On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 11:03 AM, Josh Dersch
wrote:
*another snip*
> Thanks. Glen sent me his dump and I compared with mine. I have the same
> three differences:
>
> D 02A0 01200880 // 0100F308
> D 02BC 0014688F // FFF4688F
> D 02C0 65B45520 // 65B45500
>
> (commented value
On 2016-05-24 7:44 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 05/24/2016 02:21 PM, Paul Berger wrote:
The CROS cards used in a 360/30 where the same size as an 80 column
card on purpose so you could you a keypunch machine to program the
microcode.
But I believe that the CROS cards were mylar, no?
--Chuck
Ye
> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Mike Ross
> Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 2:15 PM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>
> Subject: Re: VAX-11/730 and Emulex UC17 woes
>
> On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 8:58 AM, Josh Dersch
On 05/24/2016 02:52 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
> So if not Multiwire, perhaps Unilayer. They are similar but visibly
> distinguishable.
Hitachi Chemical still seems to be active in this area:
http://www.hitachi-chemical.com/products_pwb_05.htm
--Chuck
On 05/24/2016 02:21 PM, Paul Berger wrote:
> The CROS cards used in a 360/30 where the same size as an 80 column
> card on purpose so you could you a keypunch machine to program the
> microcode.
But I believe that the CROS cards were mylar, no?
--Chuck
> On May 24, 2016, at 3:10 PM, Swift Griggs wrote:
>
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote:
>> The initial implementation of the A20 gate was implemented by the
>> keyboard controller(!) because it was discovered late in the PC AT
>> development cycle and we couldn?t add more logic to
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote:
> The initial implementation of the A20 gate was implemented by the
> keyboard controller(!) because it was discovered late in the PC AT
> development cycle and we couldn?t add more logic to the board (but we
> could add some wires).
That's very bizz
> On May 24, 2016, at 2:32 PM, Swift Griggs wrote:
>
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Fred Cisin wrote:
>> (OB_Picky: Due to the overlap of segment and offset, on machines that had 21
>> address bits, real mode actually had a maximum of 1114096 (10FFF0h) bytes,
>> instead of 1048576 (10h).
>
> This
On 24 May 2016 4:45 pm, "Ethan Dicks" wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:36 AM, william degnan
wrote:
> > On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:17 AM, j...@cimmeri.com wrote:
> >> B, what was the issue with the core, that you fixed it so fast?
> >
> > I guessed that the G114 was bad based on a hunch.
>
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Sean Caron wrote:
> It's true, modern computers are pretty dull to look at, but you can
> still find some stunning views in the data center from time to time.
Heh, that would be when the sales girls come walking through doing client
tours on Fridays while one of us geeks is
> On May 24, 2016, at 1:29 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
>
> On 22 May 2016 at 04:52, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote:
>> Because the 808x was a 16-bit processor with 1MB physical addressing. I
>> would argue that for the time 808x was brilliant in that most other 16-bit
>> micros only allowed for 64KB physic
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote:
This was always the biggest pustule on the facade of x86 to me. Gate A20
and other chicanery was nasty business. It always struck me as a hardware
hack to work around earlier bad design.
to work around earlier LIMITED design.
IFF 64K is reasonable for yo
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 3:28 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 05/24/2016 12:15 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
>> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:08 PM, Chuck Guzis
>> wrote:
>>> Yes, but there was a trademarked name for the process that slips
>>> my mind. Capable of very high densities.
>>
>> Multiwire?
>
> That so
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote:
It probably still impressed the suits when they walked the data center.
I've done data center tours with row after row of HP or Dell x86 servers
and it's not much to look at.
-Swift
It's true, modern computers are pretty dull to look at, but you ca
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 2:29 PM, Rod Smallwood
wrote:
> Hi
>
> My main system a VAX 4000 Model 500 with a KA680 CPU has just started
> halting at test 51 on power up.
>
> Does any body know where I can lay my hands on a spare KA680?
>
A month ago this one went by cheap enough on eBay at $50 t
It was thus said that the Great Fred Cisin once stated:
> On 22 May 2016 at 04:52, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote:
> >Because the 808x was a 16-bit processor with 1MB physical addressing. I
> >would argue that for the time 808x was brilliant in that most other 16-bit
> >micros only allowed for 64KB physi
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Fred Cisin wrote:
> (OB_Picky: Due to the overlap of segment and offset, on machines that had 21
> address bits, real mode actually had a maximum of 1114096 (10FFF0h) bytes,
> instead of 1048576 (10h).
This was always the biggest pustule on the facade of x86 to me. Gate A
Hi
My main system a VAX 4000 Model 500 with a KA680 CPU has just
started halting at test 51 on power up.
Does any body know where I can lay my hands on a spare KA680?
Rod
On 2016-05-24 4:13 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 05/24/2016 11:39 AM, Eric Smith wrote:
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:25 PM, Paul Koning
wrote:
On May 24, 2016, at 2:07 PM, Chuck Guzis
wrote: ...and the "transformer" ROS used on the 360/40 (and
others).
You mean "Core rope memory"?
IBM's TROS and
It was thus said that the Great Liam Proven once stated:
> On 22 May 2016 at 04:52, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote:
> > Because the 808x was a 16-bit processor with 1MB physical addressing. I
> > would argue that for the time 808x was brilliant in that most other 16-bit
> > micros only allowed for 64KB p
On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 8:58 AM, Josh Dersch
wrote:
> Interesting, the UC17 has the same firmware version (G143R) on the label of
> the EPROM. I wonder if the contents are identical. Could you send me a dump
> of your ROM so I can compare?
>
>>
>> I dumped the memory for this code from the VA
On 22 May 2016 at 04:52, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote:
Because the 808x was a 16-bit processor with 1MB physical addressing. I
would argue that for the time 808x was brilliant in that most other 16-bit
micros only allowed for 64KB physical.
Whether 8088 was an "8 bit" or "16 bit" processor depends
On 2016-May-24, at 1:49 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:49 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
>> We were discussing this last year, perhaps I'm being pedantic but I would
>> note that while, as you say, there is commonality of principle in use of
>> induction and the selective weave to r
Without an MMU or a segmentation scheme, 16-bits = 64K.
The 68000 is not a 16-bit processor, it's 32-bit, and exposed (ISTR) a 24-bit
address.
20-bits = 1M addresses, 24-bits = 16M addresses.
You're confusing data bus width (8-bit) with address bus width (16-bit).
- Original Message -
> -Original Message-
> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Glen Slick
> Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 12:48 PM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
>
> Subject: Re: VAX-11/730 and Emulex UC17 woes
>
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:27 PM, Josh Ders
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:49 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
> We were discussing this last year, perhaps I'm being pedantic but I would
> note that while, as you say, there is commonality of principle in use of
> induction and the selective weave to represent the data, TROS and core rope
> (of the so
Here's a link to the files I have. I'll update this with the additional
images from Ethan when they are available and put a front end to the files
in the museum.
http://www.hpmuseum.net/software/7595Afirmware.zip
David Collins
-Original Message-
From: David Collins [mailto:davidk.col
> On 5/24/2016 12:15 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
>> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:08 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>>> Yes, but there was a trademarked name for the process that slips my
>>> mind. Capable of very high densities.
>>
>> Multiwire?
On 2016-May-24, at 1:26 PM, jwsmobile wrote:
> We bought a Multi
On 22 May 2016 at 04:52, Guy Sotomayor Jr wrote:
> Because the 808x was a 16-bit processor with 1MB physical addressing. I
> would argue that for the time 808x was brilliant in that most other 16-bit
> micros only allowed for 64KB physical.
Er, hang on. I'm not sure if my knowledge isn't good e
Hello,
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 10:24 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 23 May 2016 at 13:25, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:
>> On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 2:00 PM, Mattis Lind wrote:
>>>
>>> Isn't it possible to run dosemu on FreeBSD? I use imdv in dosemu on Linux.
>>
>> Unfortunately, dosemu only works on i3
We bought a Multiwire job on our clone of the Microdata 1600 and the
tech it used, I think, was welded wires laid in muck that was soft.
They would fab up a firm carrier board with all the thru-holes set, then
put down a soft pliable layer of epoxy(??). They would weld one of the
wires to an
On 23 May 2016 at 13:25, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:
> On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 2:00 PM, Mattis Lind wrote:
>>
>> Isn't it possible to run dosemu on FreeBSD? I use imdv in dosemu on Linux.
>
> Unfortunately, dosemu only works on i386, not amd64.
Is that a *BSD thing? I run DOSemu on both my x86-64
On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 7:27 AM, Josh Dersch
wrote:
> Hi all --
>
> I'm working on restoring a VAX-11/730 at the museum and things have been
> going pretty well thus far. I've been bootstrapping the console and
> diagnostics from simulated TU58 (images from:
> https://github.com/NF6X/VAX-11-73
I realised the attachments wouldn't show in the general email but I figured the
only people who needed the binaries right now were the original posters who got
them directly from the email.
I'll put up the binaries of my EPROMs and the ones of yours when you post them
as downloads in the muse
The IBM 1800 was a much simpler machine than the IBM 360/370, yet it had a
pretty complex front panel -
http://www.dvq.com/1800/photos/paneln.JPG
... since not all of the registers could be displayed at the same time .
- Original Message -
From: "Paul Berger"
To: cctalk@classiccmp.or
On 2016-May-24, at 11:39 AM, Eric Smith wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:25 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
>>> On May 24, 2016, at 2:07 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>>> ...and the "transformer" ROS used on the 360/40 (and others).
>> You mean "Core rope memory"?
>
> IBM's TROS and Core Rope Memory use the
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:27 PM, Josh Dersch
wrote:
> Hi all --
>
> I'm working on restoring a VAX-11/730 at the museum and things have been
> going pretty well thus far. I've been bootstrapping the console and
> diagnostics from simulated TU58 (images from:
> https://github.com/NF6X/VAX-11-7
On 05/24/2016 12:15 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:08 PM, Chuck Guzis
> wrote:
>> Yes, but there was a trademarked name for the process that slips
>> my mind. Capable of very high densities.
>
>
> Multiwire?
That sounds familiar!
--Chuck
On 05/24/2016 12:18 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
> EL (Electro-luminescent) is another technology that more-directly
> excites the phosphor with an AC supply. No vacuum bottle or hot
> filament. Nowhere near as prevalent as VF.
You still see them in military/aerospace applications. Planar used to be
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 10:00 AM, Charles Anthony <
charles.unix@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Swift Griggs
> wrote:
>
>>
>> It probably still impressed the suits when they walked the data center.
>> I've done data center tours with row after row of HP or Dell x86 s
On 2016-May-24, at 12:08 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 05/24/2016 11:22 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
>>
>> On 5/24/16 10:44 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>>
>>> There was also automated "stapled wire". I forget the name for the
>>> process.
>>
>> stitch wire
>>
>> you spot weld to a socket post
>
> Yes, but t
Hi all --
I'm working on restoring a VAX-11/730 at the museum and things have been going
pretty well thus far. I've been bootstrapping the console and diagnostics from
simulated TU58 (images from: https://github.com/NF6X/VAX-11-730-Console-v57).
All of the TU58-based diagnostics are passing.
On 2016-May-24, at 11:58 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Marc Howard wrote:
>> Those aren't LED's on the Apollo display. They are EL's (Electro
>> Luminescent displays). Each segment of each digit was controlled by a
>> relay. They astronauts eventually got use to the tinkling s
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 1:08 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> Yes, but there was a trademarked name for the process that slips my
> mind. Capable of very high densities.
Multiwire?
On 05/24/2016 11:39 AM, Eric Smith wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:25 PM, Paul Koning
> wrote:
>>> On May 24, 2016, at 2:07 PM, Chuck Guzis
>>> wrote: ...and the "transformer" ROS used on the 360/40 (and
>>> others).
>> You mean "Core rope memory"?
>
> IBM's TROS and Core Rope Memory use the
On 05/24/2016 11:22 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
>
>
> On 5/24/16 10:44 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>
>> There was also automated "stapled wire". I forget the name for the
>> process.
>>
>
> stitch wire
>
> you spot weld to a socket post
Yes, but there was a trademarked name for the process that slips
I used to have a notebook of toggle in programs for the PDP8s and PDP11s,
but it seems to be lost forever.
Not being a software person it takes me hours to write and debug the
simplest routines. Is there a site with a list of toggle in maintenance
programs?
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 11:23 AM, Charl
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:58 PM, Swift Griggs wrote:
> Is that the same as the EL that was used in the 1980's on lots of old
> stereo gear ? Ie.. you'd hit rewind and some little backlit
> glass-and-silkscreen template would say "Rewind" in blue or green or etc..
Those were typically vacuum fluo
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Marc Howard wrote:
> Those aren't LED's on the Apollo display. They are EL's (Electro
> Luminescent displays). Each segment of each digit was controlled by a
> relay. They astronauts eventually got use to the tinkling sound of the
> relays.
Is that the same as the EL tha
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Brent Hilpert wrote:
> I think one of the most impressive front panels is that of the IBM 360/91:
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/36091.html
Ha! I was looking at that and I said to myself "This looks like something
that'd have been at NASA during the Apoll
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:25 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
>> On May 24, 2016, at 2:07 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>> ...and the "transformer" ROS used on the 360/40 (and others).
> You mean "Core rope memory"?
IBM's TROS and Core Rope Memory use the same principle, but the
physical construction is signifi
> On May 24, 2016, at 2:07 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>
> On 05/24/2016 11:00 AM, jwsmobile wrote:
>
>> Diode boards were one form of read only storage in systems. Another
>> was the IBM and other's capacitance system.
>
> ...and the "transformer" ROS used on the 360/40 (and others).
You mean "C
On 5/24/16 10:44 AM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> There was also automated "stapled wire". I forget the name for the process.
>
stitch wire
you spot weld to a socket post
It was thus said that the Great Swift Griggs once stated:
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Charles Anthony wrote:
> > The data switches would be examined by the operating system during boot
> > to enable debugging (pause at certain points during boot, eg).
>
> I wish OS's still had something like this som
On 05/24/2016 11:00 AM, jwsmobile wrote:
> Diode boards were one form of read only storage in systems. Another
> was the IBM and other's capacitance system.
...and the "transformer" ROS used on the 360/40 (and others).
--Chuck
It was thus said that the Great Swift Griggs once stated:
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, william degnan wrote:
> > Here's a power point pres I did at VCF-E4, this will get you started.
> > Using Altair 680b front panel in basic terms is covered a few slides in.
> > http://vintagecomputer.net/vcf4/How_to_
On 5/24/2016 9:56 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Jon Elson wrote:
The early PDP-11s had a diode matrix ROM for the boot memory. You could
change the boot code with a wire cutter and soldering iron.
Is that similar to "wire wrap" ? I remember my grandmother talking about
having
On 05/24/2016 10:25 AM, Charles Anthony wrote:
> Very good for prototyping, automated wirewrapping was for some
> production.
There was also automated "stapled wire". I forget the name for the process.
I still prototype projects where I'm not entirely sure of what I'm after
using wirewrap. It
Those aren't LED's on the Apollo display. They are EL's (Electro
Luminescent displays). Each segment of each digit was controlled by a
relay. They astronauts eventually got use to the tinkling sound of the
relays.
In fact the entire console panel of the command module was a giant EL,
covered mo
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 9:56 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Jon Elson wrote:
> > The early PDP-11s had a diode matrix ROM for the boot memory. You could
> > change the boot code with a wire cutter and soldering iron.
>
> Is that similar to "wire wrap" ? I remember my grandmother
On 2016-May-24, at 9:34 AM, William Donzelli wrote:
>> The improved reliablity of LSI logic over discrete and SSI, and the creation
>> of ROM chips of reasonable capacity (to hold the bootstrap or a monitor),
>> would bring about the demise of the blinkenlight front panel.
>> Note that only a co
On 2016-05-24 1:54 PM, Swift Griggs wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Charles Anthony wrote:
Honeywell 6180 display panels:
http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/03/honeywell-6180-system-maintenance-panel.html
Holy rocker switch, Batman! Is that all for one machine? That looks like a
man-machine inter
On 2016-May-24, at 9:54 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
> On Tue, 24 May 2016, Charles Anthony wrote:
>> Honeywell 6180 display panels:
>> http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/03/honeywell-6180-system-maintenance-panel.html
>
> Holy rocker switch, Batman! Is that all for one machine? That looks like a
>
A couple of observations.
Taking the PDP-11 as a fairly typical example, the switches are "data" and
"address". While running, the data switches were visible to the software, and
could do something if you wanted to (typically this wasn't done). When
stopped, you could set an address in the ad
The switches on, say, an IBM 1401 and 1620 were negligible. The lights
could tell a lot about the state of the system, however.
The CDC 6000-7000-STAR, etc. had no switches or lights.There was a
"deadstart panel" with a matrix of toggle switches whose contents were
initially used to start the
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 9:34 AM, William Donzelli
wrote:
> > The improved reliablity of LSI logic over discrete and SSI, and the
> creation of ROM chips of reasonable capacity (to hold the bootstrap or a
> monitor), would bring about the demise of the blinkenlight front panel.
> > Note that only
>>> The PDP-5 I did a fair bit of work on needed a bootstrap program
>>> loaded in from switches, it had no internal ROM for that.
>> How long did it usually take to do it?
> We had contests, I think some people got under 15 seconds.
> All from memory, of course!
I don't think I ever used a PDP-5,
On 5/24/16 9:34 AM, William Donzelli wrote:
> The demise was really about money. All those lights, switches, wiring,
> metalwork, etc. for a full panel was EXPENSIVE.
>
And the functionality could be replaced by scan chains connected to a small
computer
so you still had all the visibility w/o
On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
>
> It probably still impressed the suits when they walked the data center.
> I've done data center tours with row after row of HP or Dell x86 servers
> and it's not much to look at.
>
>
Definitely.
Several OSes would show distinctive 'idle' p
Most early machines had core memory. If they hadn't crashed
crashed it, the bootstrap was still in memory. I crash my
core regularly.
Dwight
From: cctalk on behalf of Swift Griggs
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 9:54:17 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic a
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Jon Elson wrote:
> The early PDP-11s had a diode matrix ROM for the boot memory. You could
> change the boot code with a wire cutter and soldering iron.
Is that similar to "wire wrap" ? I remember my grandmother talking about
having to snip wires connected to diodes. I thin
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Charles Anthony wrote:
> Honeywell 6180 display panels:
> http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2016/03/honeywell-6180-system-maintenance-panel.html
Holy rocker switch, Batman! Is that all for one machine? That looks like a
man-machine interface to run a nuclear power plant or som
I wrote:
> Swift Griggs wrote:
> > Machine Language Using a Program Listing Using Toggle Switches".
> > That's pretty hard core. I'm surprised they didn't at least use
> > component displays with LEDs to show the values rather than
> > reading it straight off some blinkenlights.
>
> It's much easi
On 05/24/2016 11:34 AM, William Donzelli wrote:
The improved reliablity of LSI logic over discrete and SSI, and the creation of
ROM chips of reasonable capacity (to hold the bootstrap or a monitor), would
bring about the demise of the blinkenlight front panel.
Note that only a couple of the fi
On 05/24/2016 11:32 AM, Swift Griggs wrote:
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Jon Elson wrote:
The PDP-5 I did a fair bit of work on needed a bootstrap program loaded
in from switches, it had no internal ROM for that.
How long did it usually take to do it?
We had contests, I think some people got under 15 s
Swift Griggs wrote:
> Machine Language Using a Program Listing Using Toggle Switches". That's
> pretty hard core. I'm surprised they didn't at least use component
> displays with LEDs to show the values rather than reading it straight
> off some blinkenlights.
It's much easier to tell if you have
On Tue, 24 May 2016, Charles Anthony wrote:
> "Older machines" covers a lot of ground.
Sorry, I should have said "machines from the 50's - 70's which used
buttons, toggles, rockers or other switches on the front panel"
> Typically, there was a set of data switches (0/1 toggles) that could be
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