DECtape ancestry

I just read part of the Grant Saviers interview from CHM, where near the end he gives a bit of history of DECtape. In particular, the fact that it was derived from LINCtape though the format details are quite different. A question popped into my mind, prompted by having read Guy Fedorkow's

Re: DF32?

> On Mar 9, 2021, at 8:32 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> Really? The very similar RS64, as well as the RS11, both had a formatter >> device that field service could use to write the timing tracks if they were >> lost. Or, for that matter, if the platter had to be replaced, since

Re: DF32?

> On Mar 9, 2021, at 7:38 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk > wrote: > > > >> On Mar 9, 2021, at 6:53 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk >> wrote: >> >>> So did one you bid over $1500? >> >> Not me. $1k would have been my limit, it's really kind of

Re: DF32?

> On Mar 9, 2021, at 6:53 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> So did one you bid over $1500? > > Not me. $1k would have been my limit, it's really kind of insane to run > something like that. As I put on my old memory hat I remember that the > platter would rust but at least the heads

Re: [simh] RSTS processor identification

> On Mar 5, 2021, at 9:02 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: > > On 2021-03-06 02:33, Paul Koning wrote: > ... >> The explanation I heard for the slow J-11 clock is that the original J-11 >> spec called for it to operate at 20 MHz. When Harris failed to deliver and >> the max useable clock speed

Re: [simh] RSTS processor identification

> On Mar 5, 2021, at 9:15 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >>> Can't run split I/D space on any version of P/OS. Neither does it support >>> supervisor mode. Also, the J11 on the Pro-380 is running a bit on the slow >>> side. Rather sad, but I guess they didn't want to improve the

Re: [simh] RSTS processor identification

> On Mar 7, 2021, at 6:42 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: > > > > On 2021-03-07 23:00, Paul Koning wrote: >>> On Mar 5, 2021, at 9:02 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: >>> >>> On 2021-03-06 02:33, Paul Koning wrote: > ... >>> I would have liked better comms. The USART has such a tiny

Re: [simh] RSTS processor identification

> On Mar 5, 2021, at 9:02 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote: > > On 2021-03-06 02:33, Paul Koning wrote: >>> ... > >> I would have liked better comms. The USART has such a tiny FIFO that you >> can't run it at higher than 9600 bps even with the J-11 CPU. At least not >> with RSTS; perhaps a

Re: [simh] RSTS processor identification

> On Mar 5, 2021, at 7:22 PM, Johnny Billquist via cctalk > wrote: > > ... >> Maybe this weekend I'll hack that SSD floppy thingie and load up the P/OS >> 3.2 disks to see how that works. > > Can't run split I/D space on any version of P/OS. Neither does it support > supervisor mode.

Re: Spelunking the places where files are not

> On Mar 5, 2021, at 5:02 PM, Glen Slick via cctalk > wrote: > > On Fri, Mar 5, 2021 at 1:46 PM Paul Koning via cctalk > wrote: >> >> Yes, RT11 has contiguous files. That actually made it rather unusual. For >> example, while RSTS supports contig

Re: Spelunking the places where files are not

> On Mar 5, 2021, at 4:11 PM, Boris Gimbarzevsky via cctalk > wrote: > > Recovering data from disks was a lot easier 30 years ago when most > filesystems had contiguous files and it was just a matter of finding file > boundaries. Was very glad of this when accidentally wiped first 200

RSTS processor identification

I was just asked some questions about how RSTS identifies your processor type. Since that topic might be of broader interest I figured I'd do some code reading and summarize the logic. In the RSTS initialization code (INIT.SYS), the first step is to identify what your hardware looks like.

Re: Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

> On Feb 25, 2021, at 4:15 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk > wrote: > > On 2/25/21 12:37 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: > >> Interesting... Is this obfuscation documented anywhere (beyond looking at >> SIMH code?) > Not that I know of. Thinking about it some more I think that it was the > massbus device

Re: Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

> On Feb 25, 2021, at 1:43 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > > Oh this is fun stuff. Is there a specification write-up anywhere on the > MASSBUS overall? > > For example I wonder if the RH70 could do a transfer >128kb at a time. ... I don't know the answer to most of your questions,

Re: Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

> On Feb 25, 2021, at 1:30 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk > wrote: > >> From: Paul Koning > >> There's a good reason why the big disks on many DEC machines were Massbus >> devices until MSCP arrived. It's quite clear on Unibus PDP-11s, which >> needed Massbus both for speed and for a cleaner

Re: Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

> On Feb 25, 2021, at 2:40 AM, Eric Smith via cctalk > wrote: > > On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 7:06 AM Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> Yes, the TM02 and TM03 formatters allowed MASSBUS to connect to Pertec >> drives, but I don't think you could run a tape drive and a disk drive on >> the

Re: List your old computer

> On Feb 24, 2021, at 7:01 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 2/24/21 3:11 PM, Pete Turnbull via cctalk wrote: >> On 24/02/2021 23:02, stan via cctalk wrote: >>> By any chance, are you thinking of uptimes.net? >>> Some years ago (early 2000's?) it was tracking systems uptimes. I had

Re: Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

> On Feb 24, 2021, at 7:06 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk > wrote: > >> From: Chris Zach > >> technically the MASSBUS cable is just an extension of the Unibus > > No. > > For one thing, the MASSBUS has no lines for carrying memory addresses. So > there is no way to even build a box that

Re: Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

> On Feb 24, 2021, at 9:06 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> I happen to have a massbus adapter and the cabling with terminator for my >> 11/750, but I never came across any massbus peripherals. Considering the >> price back then and the size for these, they seem nowadays quite rare,

Re: archive of DEC Notes

> On Feb 24, 2021, at 9:08 AM, Antonio Carlini via cctalk > wrote: > > On 24/02/2021 03:26, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote: >> Does anyone have contact information for the proprietor of this site: >> http://www.activityclub.org/decnotes/ >> The site has an index of messages archived

Re: Deciphering an odd floppy disk format.

> On Feb 16, 2021, at 2:38 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk > wrote: > > ... > What is interesting is that it had variable record length. It was specified > during the format process which tracks had what number of records and their > size. The first track always had 40 bytes record since it was

Re: Programming in 1946 - ENIAC's Birthday

> On Feb 15, 2021, at 10:13 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk > wrote: > > > >> On Feb 15, 2021, at 7:23 AM, osi.superboard via cctalk >> wrote: >> >> 75 years ago, February 15, 1946 >> The ENIAC, presented to the public in 1946, is - depending o

Re: Programming in 1946 - ENIAC's Birthday

> On Feb 15, 2021, at 7:23 AM, osi.superboard via cctalk > wrote: > > 75 years ago, February 15, 1946 > The ENIAC, presented to the public in 1946, is - depending on the definition > - the first programmable digital computer in the world. Its first programmers > were primarily women:

Re: Plessey/Dilog DCV54

> On Feb 14, 2021, at 3:30 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk > wrote: > > Has anybody got a DCV54 that they are using? > > I am trying to get one working with David Gasswein's mfm board and > having no luck. > > The controller is working fine with a standard floppy as an RX33, even > boots the

Re: Wanted: Info on Optisys/Optidisk WORM file system

> On Feb 12, 2021, at 3:12 PM, jim stephens via cctalk > wrote: > > > There was a company who made a drive with glass media that a friend of ours > repped for. > > It used a repurposed CD head which was driven hard enough to write their > media. it was sold as being able to be written

Re: Mystery (unusual) 1973 terminal

> On Feb 12, 2021, at 7:50 AM, Jules Richardson via cctalk > wrote: > > > Hi all, > > Hopefully the following link works, but someone over on one of the Facebook > vintage groups has this oddball terminal from 1973 that they've been looking > for any information on: > >

Re: Reading ESDI disks

> On Feb 11, 2021, at 1:46 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 2/11/21 10:22 AM, Jon Elson wrote: > >> No. ESDI is similar to MFM, there is a differential read data pair on >> the 20-pin connector, but the data rate is much higher, 10, 15 or 20 >> MBit/sec, and used a different

Re: Greaseweazle

> On Feb 3, 2021, at 5:37 PM, Peter Corlett via cctalk > wrote: > > On Wed, Feb 03, 2021 at 01:09:50AM -0800, jim stephens via cctalk wrote: >> On 2/2/2021 11:51 PM, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote: >>> The Raspberry Pi Pico has a similar price to the Blue Pill and seems a >>> much better

Re: Greaseweazle

> On Feb 3, 2021, at 1:27 PM, Al Kossow wrote: > > On 2/3/21 10:18 AM, Paul Koning wrote: > >> Fair enough, but that means your real time processing needs to be sufficient >> to know where the tracks are. And if the media are in bad shape, you may in >> fact want to capture each track N

Re: Greaseweazle

> On Feb 3, 2021, at 12:55 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk > wrote: > > On 2/3/21 9:43 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > >> A nice benefit of capturing the raw waveforms and post-processing them is >> that you can do all sorts of very complex processing. If the m

Re: Greaseweazle

> On Feb 3, 2021, at 12:36 PM, Mattis Lind via cctalk > wrote: > >> ... > > So you store a full track worth of data and then write it to the SD-card. > Then move the flux-length data over to a PC and do post processing there, > right? > > Isn't there performance in the CPU to do the actual

Re: Greaseweazle

> On Feb 3, 2021, at 9:53 AM, Mattis Lind wrote: > > Den ons 3 feb. 2021 kl 15:07 skrev Paul Koning via cctalk > : > > ... >> I haven't used RPi at all, since when I looked at it some years ago the SOC >> technical information was secret. Cont

Re: Greaseweazle

> On Feb 3, 2021, at 2:51 AM, Peter Corlett via cctalk > wrote: > > On Tue, Feb 02, 2021 at 09:20:01AM -0800, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > [...] >> When I last proposed the STM32F407, I was met with "Oh, but the Blue Pill >> is cheaper". Okay, use the Blue Pill, but my code won't work

Re: APL\360

> On Feb 1, 2021, at 2:34 PM, Dave Wade G4UGM via cctalk > wrote: > >>> ... >>> I had always been told, "A pint is a pound, the world around." >> >> Aha! Does that mean a pint of water weighs 1lb? >> >> Interesting. I did not know. > > Typical American statement, where "world" means

Re: APL\360

> On Feb 1, 2021, at 2:13 PM, David Bridgham via cctalk > wrote: > > ... > Sure, one can get into the story that our numbers come from Arabic and > Arabic is written right-to-left so in fact they were originally > little-endian and just didn't get flipped around when incorporated into >

Re: RD51 reduced write current signal?

> On Feb 1, 2021, at 2:32 PM, Dennis Boone via cctalk > wrote: > >> I realized I also don't know the RD31 and RD32. > > The rest of the list I found long ago is: > > RD31Seagate ST-225 20 MB > RD32Seagate ST-251 42 MB > RD51Seagate ST-412 10 MB > RD52Quantum Q54031

Re: RD51 reduced write current signal?

> On Feb 1, 2021, at 2:17 PM, Dennis Boone via cctalk > wrote: > >> I've now tracked down analogous manuals for all Pro drives except for >> the RD53, I don't know what kind of drive that is. > > I believe: > > RD53Micropolis 1325 71 MB > RD54Maxtor XT2190 159 MB Thanks. RD54

Re: RD51 reduced write current signal?

> On Feb 1, 2021, at 1:36 PM, Warner Losh wrote: > > > > On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 10:54 AM Paul Koning via cctalk > wrote: > Looking at the DEC Pro documentation there's some ambiguity I'm trying to > figure out. > > The hard drive documentation talks ab

RD51 reduced write current signal?

Looking at the DEC Pro documentation there's some ambiguity I'm trying to figure out. The hard drive documentation talks about the "reduced write current" signal. In one place it's explicitly described as relevant to the RD50 only. But later on in the RD50/RD51 chapter the signal is

Re: APL\360

> On Jan 29, 2021, at 12:12 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 1/29/21 6:27 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > >> True, although right to left is not a natural way to read mathematical >> formulas. The reason APL uses right to left is that the de

Re: APL\360

> On Jan 29, 2021, at 7:27 AM, Gavin Scott via cctalk > wrote: > > On Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 6:11 AM Peter Corlett via cctalk > wrote: >> Secondly, beyond BODMAS, the meaning and precedence of random symbols is >> unclear to casual readers. > > An issue that plagues other operator-rich

Re: DDCMP sync?

> On Jan 27, 2021, at 4:05 AM, Mattis Lind wrote: > > > > Den tis 26 jan. 2021 kl 22:39 skrev Paul Koning : > > ... >> I looked a bit at that Weact thing but got lost in the fulminating about >> "pirated" copies. Seriously? Open source designs are meant to be copied; >> "pirated" is a

Re: DDCMP sync?

> On Jan 26, 2021, at 2:35 PM, Mattis Lind wrote: > > > Hello Paul, > > ... > >> The framing is different but no harder, I think. And I was thinking of >> leaving the protocol state machine to the host, so the microcontroller would >> only do framing -- deliver completed good frames

Re: DDCMP sync?

> On Jan 26, 2021, at 1:24 PM, Peter Coghlan via cctalk > wrote: > > I wrote: >> >>> >>> The other option would be synchronous links, which would enable connections >>> to DMC11 or the like at speeds up to 1 Mb/s. But synchronous comm devices >>> that connect to modern computers aren't so

DDCMP sync?

In playing with DECnet I built a DDCMP implementation which deals with a byte stream, normally from a UART. So that works nicely with async link DDCMP as found in RSX and several other operating systems. But the speed is limited. The other option would be synchronous links, which would enable

Re: DEC Pro operating systems and MFM emulator

> On Jan 24, 2021, at 11:54 AM, Warner Losh via cctalk > wrote: > > On Sun, Jan 24, 2021 at 9:53 AM Cameron Kaiser via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > 2. Venix: panic at boot, "Bad access number". That doesn't mean >> anything > to me. I wonder if the issue is that

Re: DEC Pro operating systems and MFM emulator

> On Jan 23, 2021, at 4:00 PM, Cameron Kaiser wrote: > 2. Venix: panic at boot, "Bad access number". That doesn't mean anything to me. I wonder if the issue is that Venix doesn't support the 380. >>> >>> The Venix image is special. Venix doesn't support more than 16 sectors >>>

Re: DEC Pro operating systems and MFM emulator

> On Jan 23, 2021, at 1:54 PM, Warner Losh wrote: > > > > On Sat, Jan 23, 2021, 11:47 AM Paul Koning via cctalk > wrote: > The question was asked (I misplaced the note) if the OS images that are on > the Xhomer website work with David Gesswein's MFM emulator on

DEC Pro operating systems and MFM emulator

The question was asked (I misplaced the note) if the OS images that are on the Xhomer website work with David Gesswein's MFM emulator on real hardware. You can turn these into emulator data files, provided you have the latest ext2emu tool that's part of David's software (as of 1/19/2021). The

Re: DEC Pro 3xx archives

> On Jan 22, 2021, at 10:32 AM, Paul Koning wrote: > > ... > Now I have two additional questions. > > 2. The Xhomer P/OS image has Pro/DECnet installed, it seems, but it doesn't > work. I see the floppies (5 of them) but no information on how to use them. > Any information on Pro/DECnet

Re: DEC Pro 3xx archives

> On Jan 22, 2021, at 11:28 AM, Bjoren Davis via cctalk > wrote: > > I had no problem expanding disk 177-20. > > I did it on a Linux system using wteledisk (which I got from > https://github.com/jmechnich/wteledsk.git) using this script: ... Thanks for the pointer. That tools did the

Re: DEC Pro 3xx archives

Will try that tool. I tried the alternate copy Warner mentioned, same result. "dskid" tells me that dsklib thinks of this particular file as a 40 track 8 sector image, not 80 track 10 sectors as it's supposed to be and all the other are. paul > On Jan 22, 2021, at 11:28 AM, Bjoren

Re: DEC Pro 3xx archives

> On Jan 21, 2021, at 11:20 PM, Warner Losh wrote: > > Hey Paul... > > This is really helpful. I've had to deal with those archives for the Rainbow > stuff I do and have some additional caveats below I thought I'd share... Thanks for that information. Part of my motivation is that I

DEC Pro 3xx archives

I recently ran into an archive of various Pro 300 items, mostly from DECUS I believe. That includes a full P/OS 3.2 distribution including (!) DECnet/Pro if I saw that right. It's at ftp://ftp.update.uu.se/pub/professional/ What makes things somewhat painful is that it's LHA compressed

Re: David Gesswein's MFM emulator on the DEC Professional

> On Jan 20, 2021, at 8:24 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> David pointed out #3 is incorrect. I was thinking of totem-pole drivers, >> but the drivers in the MFM interface are all open collector. So the usage >> conflict between RD52 using "drive sel 4" as an output vs. the

Re: David Gesswein's MFM emulator on the DEC Professional

> On Jan 17, 2021, at 1:35 PM, Paul Koning wrote: > > > >> On Jan 16, 2021, at 5:32 PM, Paul Koning wrote: >> >> I just completed a set of tests of David's MFM emulator on my Pro 380. >> >> Summary: everything works right. Very impressive device. My compliments to >> David for an

Re: David Gesswein's MFM emulator on the DEC Professional

> On Jan 17, 2021, at 2:12 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk > wrote: > > On Sun, 17 Jan 2021, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: >> 2. RD50s are odd; they use pin 32, which is normally drive select 4, as an >> output to indicate "I am an RD50". The software looks f

Re: David Gesswein's MFM emulator on the DEC Professional

> On Jan 16, 2021, at 5:32 PM, Paul Koning wrote: > > I just completed a set of tests of David's MFM emulator on my Pro 380. > > Summary: everything works right. Very impressive device. My compliments to > David for an amazing piece of engineering. > > Details: ... Some more details.

David Gesswein's MFM emulator on the DEC Professional

I just completed a set of tests of David's MFM emulator on my Pro 380. Summary: everything works right. Very impressive device. My compliments to David for an amazing piece of engineering. Details: 1. I built and tested it (rev C board) per the instructions and all that worked nicely. A

Re: DEC Pro hard drive formatter

disk and go > during the install. Likewise I don't know if you can have multiple hard disks > in P/OS so that's a pain in the tail. > > Boot from floppies and just init the raw disk. > > C > > > On 1/14/2021 11:39 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: >> I'm won

Re: APL\360

> On Jan 15, 2021, at 7:33 PM, Norman Jaffe via cctalk > wrote: > > I have found that the ideal combination of languages to learn early are APL, > Simula, LISP and Smalltalk. > I was lucky enough to have started programming when that was possible. Interesting. My first was ALGOL 60.

Re: APL\360

> On Jan 15, 2021, at 6:41 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk > wrote: > >>> There are some flaws in our educational system. >>> Such as directing learning so rigidly that students are discouraged from >>> exploring. > > On Fri, 15 Jan 2021, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: >> Even worse when they

Re: APL\360

> On Jan 14, 2021, at 10:55 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk > wrote: > > On Thu, 14 Jan 2021, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: >> It's a different world from BASIC, for sure. >> >> Neil maintained that its strength lay in thinking about things in a >> non-scalar way. I'll give him that--programming

APL\360

I was just poking around the computerhistory.org website, searching for Knuth stuff. The second or third hit when I search for "Knuth" is this one: https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-apl-programming-language-source-code/ . It's not just about APL, it actually has a downloadable copy of the

Re: DEC Pro hard drive formatter

> On Jan 14, 2021, at 1:42 PM, Chris Zach wrote: > > ... > Is there a hardware emulator that can emulate RX50's from images to a Pro? > Been wondering that... Perhaps David Gesswein's MFM emulator could be modified to do that. You might ask him. I don't think it does so out of the box,

Re: DEC Pro hard drive formatter

a pain in the tail. > > Boot from floppies and just init the raw disk. > > C > > > On 1/14/2021 11:39 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: >> I'm wondering how to do hard drive formatting, which is likely to be needed >> when working with emulated disks in David Gess

DEC Pro hard drive formatter

I'm wondering how to do hard drive formatting, which is likely to be needed when working with emulated disks in David Gesswein's MFM emulator. As far as I can tell, RT-11 can do this. At least I have a source code printout for such a formatter. But while I can find a hard drive image of RT

Re: Got DSM-11 running, any manuals online?

> On Jan 9, 2021, at 4:55 PM, David Gesswein via cctalk > wrote: > > On Sat, Jan 09, 2021 at 01:06:19PM -0700, Warner Losh wrote: >> >> DEC standard 144 of any help? >>

Re: Got DSM-11 running, any manuals online?

> On Jan 8, 2021, at 8:57 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk > wrote: > > On Fri, Jan 8, 2021 at 6:17 PM Paul Koning wrote: > >> Yes, but also to hide bad blocks. So the difference between a raw sector >> dump and a SIMH container file is, minimally, the spare sectors. What that >> looks like

Re: Got DSM-11 running, any manuals online?

> On Jan 8, 2021, at 2:57 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk > wrote: > > On Thu, Jan 7, 2021 at 7:38 PM Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> Oddly enough SIMH seems to read a raw RQDX1/2 disk pretty well. >> > > That's good to know, but not really all that odd. Arguably the main purpose > of MSCP

Re: Got DSM-11 running, any manuals online?

> On Jan 7, 2021, at 9:38 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > > Well, with Dave's help we got the DSM-11 disk to boot on SIMH. Oddly enough > SIMH seems to read a raw RQDX1/2 disk pretty well. > > ... > > The problem is I don't remember how to use it anymore. Is there a PDF of the >

Re: Dec RQDX: What kind of chips on it?

> On Jan 5, 2021, at 11:00 AM, Warner Losh wrote: > > > > On Tue, Jan 5, 2021, 7:20 AM Paul Koning via cctalk > wrote: > ... >> As for floppies, the RX50 format is the same for all PDP-11/VAX systems. >> Unlike hard drives, Pro floppies

Re: Dec RQDX: What kind of chips on it?

> On Jan 5, 2021, at 6:56 AM, Joshua Rice via cctalk > wrote: > > These links may help: > > http://decvax.50megs.com/doc/rqdx/rqdx.html > > ... > There’s definitely incompatabilities between the RQDX2 and RQDX3. They > shouldn’t be assumed to

Re: Dec RQDX: What kind of chips on it?

> On Jan 4, 2021, at 7:04 PM, Warner Losh via cctalk > wrote: > > On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 3:40 PM Chris Zach via cctalk > wrote: > >> Can someone check to see if a RQDX2 used the Western Digital chips to >> interface to MFM drives? Reason I'm asking is the MFM emulator can >> identify an

Re: Rod Coleman's personal history of founding, building & running SAGE

> On Jan 4, 2021, at 11:00 AM, emanuel stiebler via cctalk > wrote: > > On 2021-01-02 22:34, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: >> On Sat, 2 Jan 2021, Liam via cctalk wrote: >>> I'm not really familiar with SAGE machines. They were not as >>> well-known in the UK, I think, being upmarket from

Re: Keyboard storage (Alan Perry)

> On Dec 22, 2020, at 6:41 PM, Raymond Robinson via cctech > wrote: > > Hi Alan, > > I go to my local shopping center. > The fish shop there, has the fish delivered in white foam boxes. > Some are long with lids. > I go dumpster diving and collect them. > They are suitable for keyboards, >

Re: tty and video displays

> On Dec 14, 2020, at 9:26 AM, emanuel stiebler via cctalk > wrote: > > On 2020-12-14 05:41, Brent Hilpert via cctalk wrote: >> On 2020-Dec-14, at 1:26 AM, ben via cctalk wrote: >>> Often for data input one could use over strike characters for input. Not EQ >>> might be = BS | Did any video

Re: when was memory "above" the terminal screen invented?

> On Dec 13, 2020, at 9:37 PM, Stan Sieler via cctalk > wrote: > > Hi, > > First, apologies if I asked this years ago (I've searched my archives, no > hits :) > > When was the concept of memory "above" the screen invented for terminals? > > I.e., previously displayed data that had

Re: Atari ST diskettes

> On Dec 7, 2020, at 3:17 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 12/7/20 11:50 AM, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote: > >> One of my friends changed the tables in a 1620 to do octal arithmetic, >> for telemetry processing. >> >> Speaking of those tables, do you remember why the 1620 was

Re: Atari ST diskettes

> On Dec 7, 2020, at 2:50 PM, Van Snyder via cctalk > wrote: > >> ... > > One of my friends changed the tables in a 1620 to do octal arithmetic, > for telemetry processing. > > Speaking of those tables, do you remember why the 1620 was called > CADET? Not because it was a "beginner's" or

Re: Atari ST diskettes

> On Dec 7, 2020, at 1:32 PM, Van Snyder via cctalk > wrote: > > On Mon, 2020-12-07 at 12:42 +0100, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: >> On Mon, 7 Dec 2020 at 12:28, Maciej W. Rozycki >> wrote: >>> Well, I guess for some anything that does not require you to >>> toggle inthe boot loader or

Re: Help needed identifying old MFM drives from the excavation

> On Dec 7, 2020, at 12:00 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 12/7/20 8:21 AM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: >> >> Wow. 14"!! last time I saw one of those was on the Apollo that used >> to warm my house in the winter time. > ... > For a long time, the CDC 808 disk drive was

Re: Fire-Sale PDP-11 update (and request for parts)

> On Dec 5, 2020, at 1:41 AM, Josh Dersch via cctalk > wrote: > > Thought you folks might be interested in a quick update on my folly here. > > At the beginning of November I drove down to the bay area to pick up the > two fire-damaged PDP-11 systems -- a PDP-11/70 and a PDP-11/45. (I also

Re: Votrax Type N Talk or PSS, Intextalker, Microvox

In response to the question about real-world applications of Votrax: My exposure to the Votrax was on a version of it (probably rather early -- 1977 I think) that was a small box connected as an add-on peripheral to the PLATO system terminals. The programming system included an API (set of

Re: Problems with FORT and ALGOL in TSS/8

> On Dec 4, 2020, at 12:38 AM, Josh Dersch via cctalk > wrote: > > On Thu, Dec 3, 2020 at 6:13 PM Kevin Jordan via cctalk < > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > >> ... >> The problem we're experiencing with ALGOL appears to be a glaring compiler >> bug, but the compiler was distributed widely

Re: LCD screen repair

> On Nov 18, 2020, at 4:53 AM, rice43 via cctalk wrote: > > > Whilst i have no experience replacing Apple G4 displays, LCD replacement in > general is fairly easy. For starters, you're 100% going to need a new panel, > preferably a like-for-like, though it's entirely possible you could

Re: The best hard drives??

> On Nov 18, 2020, at 5:56 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > Tangential to this, I've long wondered about some things relating to > SSDs. Are there any solid figures on their retention period after years > of being unpowered? > > The reason I ask is that I've long been in the habit

Re: The best hard drives??

> On Nov 18, 2020, at 4:53 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk > wrote: > > On Wed, 18 Nov 2020, Ethan O'Toole via cctalk wrote: Do you think that we can get back to the original question?? >>> Knowing this list, that won't happen. >> >> HGST! > > I apologize to Al for S/N ratio. > > I

Re: WTB: AUI cables

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 7:07 PM, Grant Taylor via cctalk > wrote: > > On 11/17/20 3:05 PM, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: >> That's true for either kind. Also remember to put the terminators only at >> the ends. I've seen magazine articles showing a terminator i

Re: WTB: AUI cables

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 4:57 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 11/17/20 1:03 PM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: > >> Agony? Considering the alternatives to compare it to at the time >> not really much agony. > > (Sorry for the blank response, but my email client has moved the

Re: AUI cables

untwisted) > joystick extension cable. Ultimately, I found the actual bulkhead cable, but > mine worked just fine. Granted, it was only 1-foot long, but untwisted > probably wouldn't matter for a short length as Paul mentioned. > > Rich > > > On 11/17/20, 2:46 PM, "ccta

Re: WTB: AUI cables

> On Nov 17, 2020, at 11:12 AM, Grant Taylor via cctalk > wrote: > > Hi, > > Does anyone have any AUI cables for 10Base5 that they would be willing to > sell? > > I'm looking for a couple of them 1-2 meters long. I will eventually* need > them for my 10Base5 / Thicknet / Hosepipe

Re: Strange magtape anecdote

> On Oct 27, 2020, at 11:08 AM, Dave Wade G4UGM via cctalk > wrote: > > ... > I remember when doing standby power generator tests we had to remember to > off-line all the drives at end of job, other wise they all tried to rewind at > the same time > .. and the generator could

Re: non-shunting jumpers?

> On Oct 22, 2020, at 3:27 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk > wrote: > > On 10/22/20 12:14 PM, Vincent Slyngstad via cctalk wrote: > >> I'd worry that not just the jumper pins can be shorted, and whether what >> was really needed was a proper enclosure. If not, then what I'd do is >> probably to

Re: college study

> On Oct 13, 2020, at 6:36 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk > wrote: > > On Wed, 14 Oct 2020 at 00:19, Fred Cisin via cctalk > wrote: >> >> Do you want the degree? >> Or do you want to LEARN? > > Fair! > > Both. I like learning. Partly it's the good influence of my late father, and I said

Re: college study

> On Oct 13, 2020, at 2:50 PM, Cindy Croxton via cctalk > wrote: > > ... > My college friend says Wow, that is a LOT of work! > > Is there an expectation now that being educated is NOT a lot of work? It depends. In sciences, people understand that it's a lot of work. In what Robert

Re: Old mainframes in Finland

> On Oct 8, 2020, at 12:08 PM, Jim Manley via cctalk > wrote: > > If you try to access the paper describing the 2017 - 2018 restoration work, > you soon crash into an academic publication paywall, but if you're > persistent enough, as my frugal, self-funded computing and robotics > students

Re: Old mainframes in Finland

> On Oct 7, 2020, at 8:05 PM, Adrian Stoness via cctalk > wrote: > > cool collection nice to see a honeywell h316 in minty shape. > > still never ever seen any phillips around witch also did a rebadge of the > h316 in red Was that the P9200? I remember the one at the Evoluon in

Re: Remote job submission from PDP-11

> On Oct 7, 2020, at 11:00 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > ... > >> At least in the 2780 emulation case, where BISYNC protocol handling is in >> software and the serial ports just are raw byte pipes. > > Yes, Bisync is just a stream of raw bytes, but ISTR the COM5025 (the > common 1970s USART

Re: Remote job submission from PDP-11

> On Oct 7, 2020, at 12:06 PM, Glen Slick via cctalk > wrote: > > ... > I was curious about this DEC M8704 DMS11-DA that sold cheap a few days > ago. It has eight SMC COM5025 "Multi-Protocol Universal Synchronous > Receiver/Transmitter USYNR/T" chips: > >

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