> From: Christian Corti
> I have a similar setup with our 11/34. .. It's not the fastest system,
> and the kernel uses overlays like crazy ;-) ... I still have to add the
> cache and FPP boards and see how that improves the performance.
The cache should help some, but the FPP, pro
> From: Jim Stephens
> I just ran across a sale on epay by a guy who thought you could pull
> the processor chip off the board and sell each in separate auctions.
There are a lot of idiotz out there.
I ran into one who'd removed a group of boards from (probably) an -11/40, and
then s
> From: Jim Stephens
> The fellow responded and as I had suspected had never seen anything
> this old before and had thought that the parts were separable.
> ...
> Also he is going to hopefully share photos of the entire pile and I'll
> try to help him market the parts in t
> From: Anders Nelson
> Heavens, why are the bit positions in descending order right to left in
> that PCM-12?
Numbering bits in descending order from right to left (AKA increasing order
from left to right) used to be the standard - IBM S/360, PDP-10, etc, etc
all did it that way.
Another eBait wonder:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/182597510806
The listing says "Local pick-up only", and it's in Denver, Colorado. Someone
should really save this (although the chances of finding all the boards to go
with it is pretty slim).
Noel
> From: Warner Losh
> Will it fit in a pickup truck?
Should fit into most 4-wheeled transport devices (except a new Ford GT, those
supposedly only have 2 cubic feet or so of storage :-).
Noel
> From: Paul Koning
> For some definition of "standard". ... other machines of that time or
earlier
> numbered bits according to the power of 2 they represent, i.e., the
"current
> standard".
Well, the vast majority of computers 'back then' numbered bits (and byes)
from left to
> From: Marc Howard
> Although I can find the RK11D users manual on the web there doesn't
> appear to be print set (schematics) out there. Does this exist
> somewhere under a non-obvious name?
??? I just did a quick Google for 'RK11-D" (note quotes), and it turned up:
http://ma
So I have some G-series Flip Chips that I don't have a use for, and I hope
someone out there does. If so, I'd like to trade them for something I _do_
have a use for - e.g. M-series FCs.
Alas, according to the "Spare Module Handbook", these seem to be pretty
exotic, but maybe I'll luck out. They ar
> From: Marc Howard
> I need (1) of the 8/32 x 1 3/8 captive screws that are at either end of
> a unibus backplane to mount it to the chassis.
You don't _have_ to use the special captive screws - quite a few of the
backplanes I've got were mounted with ordinary screws.
Noel
> From: Adrian Graham
> Completely by chance one of the programme managers for STC at the time
> found all my postings ... in a last ditch attempt to give his stash of
> goodies away before he put them all in the local recycling.
> This means that not only do I now have two unu
> From: Jay Jaeger
> Fortunately, I do have some, and will scan them in
Yesss! Thank you!
> I will do the usual 400DPI / tiffs
I've found that for engineering drawings, 600 dpi is better; the prints often
contain very small writing (pin numbers, etc) which are sometimes hard to rea
> From: Steven Malikoff
> I acquired an RC11 flip chip set
Do you mean literally this (just the cards), or did you mean a complete RC11
(including the backplane)? The Flip Chips do turn up (the ones I put up a
post about a few days back are RC11 chips), but the backplanes are rara aves
in
> From: Toby Thain
> And a lot is as-new or perfectly okay.
Ditto that.
Both my ADF A4 page scanner and my A3 scanner (a professional grade Epson)
came off eBay (the latter for a minimal amount of money - that pro scanner is
a multi-$K unit, for which I think I paid the princely sum of $
> From: Brent Hilpert
>> The trimpot on the board says to me that the clock is most likely a
>> simple RC affair.
> There's a 7493 (4-bit counter) on the board as well, which looks to
> have connections to the dip switches beside it, in all likelihood the
> baud rate divid
> From: Brent Hilpert
> I don't expect anyone was making boards like this expecting to get the
> target timing from fixed/off-the-shelf component values
Right, that comment was more directed to the discussion here about baud rate
variation.
> There are two trimpots on the board,
> From: Eric Christopherson
>> On Mon, Jun 19, 2017, william degnan via cctech wrote:
>> [Command + ~] is a system reset.
> Just out of curiosity: do you mean the shift key gets held down too?
> If not, it would write it as Command + `.
I found the syntax slightly confusing.
So, Paul A lent me a set of these (thanks Paul!) so I could scan them in (they
are not currently available online).
Howwever, there's a problem. The last page in the set contains the circuit
diagram for the M7248 BBSY Repeater card (the heart of the whole device, since
the DB11-A uses BBSY to deci
> From: Al Kossow
Hey, thanks for all the effort to help...
> which has the schematic
> they have been there for over three years
$@#&($^@(*$&^! That's what I get for trusting Google; I tried searching
for '"DB11-A" prints' and '"DB11-A" drawings' and got nothing ... except for
a
> From: Josh Dersch
> I pulled the ... bootstrap boards from slot 3 ... The BOOT button
> causes the RUN light to momentarily flash, but that's about it.
That's not too surprising. The way booting works with the M9301 boot card (not
sure if you know this already; if you do, apologies
> From: Josh Dersch
>> Now I'm confused. There is no cable from the front panel to the CPU in
>> a standard 11/34? (There's one from the front panel to the backplane;
>> another from the front panel to the M9301; and another from the
>> programmer's front panel [if present] to
> From: Noel Chiappa
> (One cable carries uclock, the other uPC data.)
Minor goof there; the low bits of the uPC are in one cable, along with the
"Manual Clock Enable" and "Manual Clock" signals; the other cable carries the
high bit/bits (depending on whether it's a KD11-E or KD11-EA) of
> From: Jerry Weiss
> So it would appear the upgrade board makes provisions for both
> situations.
I'm not sure that the two situations that the upgrade board supports are in
fact different, from its point of view. (Assuming that the two situations you
refer to are the two different c
> From: Josh Dersch
> There's a 20-pin header on the CPU upgrade board which connects to the
> front panel. ... the programmer's panel loses most of its functionality
> .. but the HALT/SS and BOOT switches are functional with the cable
> connected. ... With the 20-pin cable fro
> From: Al Kossow
> You need moving air, though.
> I'm not sure how you do that well in a TK50 style cartridge.
Hmm, maybe not? I start with the need for moving air - which I do not
dispute, just wondering what the needed effect is. I don't think it can be
removing out-gassed material
> From: Fritz Mueller
> A question for Noel if he's listening here
You rang? :-)
> how did you obtain your YB listing
I plugged one in, and ran a small program that dumped the contents to the
serial port.
> would you consider it reliable?
Reasonably. If there was bit-rot in th
> From: Noel Chiappa
>> I may also have a go at writing a program I can toggle in to read the
>> contents of my failing M9301 and dump them out over the console serial
>> to enable a systematic comparison
> Let me find the one I wrote, and upload it.
Here you go:
http://an
> From: Fritz Mueller
> Even better news: I was subsequently able to dump the contents of my
> M9301-YB, and found they do indeed exactly match the contents ...
> posted in [the] M9301-YB disassembly.
Excellent news!
When I get as chance, I'l do more work on the disassembly (and
> From: William Degnan
> what is the memory range
That's in the disassembly page:
http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/pdp11/ROMs/M9301-YB.mac
765000-765776 and 773000-773776
> can you post the ROM dump so I can compare on my end?
Well, the contents are in that page too, but her
> From: Ed Groenenberg
> Re-purposed art or vandalism?
Given that the keyboard was at one point there (in the images), but has now
apparently been sold separate, clearly the latter...
Noel
> From: Mark Tapley
> Next stop, I'll pull the cover off the machine and see whether I can
> spot any spilled battery electrolyte from the old battery or anything
> else suspicious looking on the logic board in that area
It probably wouldn't hurt to clean that area with a Q-tip di
> From: Liam Proven
> I confess to much trepidation at the hate for keyboard collectors, as I
> am one.
> ...
> We're not _all_ evil, you know.
Unfortunately, the percentage who _are_ willing to chop up original machines,
leaving them non-functional (as in this case), is suffi
> From: Fritz Mueller
> I'm in need of cabling and a distribution panel for a DEC DZ11 serial
> mux
Here ya go:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321225351590
They'd probably take $30 each...
The DZ11 originally shipped with the H317-E 16-port EIA Distribution Panel
(which supported two se
> From: Fritz Mueller
> the heads are accumulating dust and oxide in places that are hard see
> and get to
Sorry, I don't follow this - where are you thinking of?
> I'm looking for some advice/calibration from the community here.
Hmm, we had to do this once BITD (we had a bad he
So, back in December I put out a call for help on CH Wiki content:
> looking at the list of 'wanted pages' on the Computer History' wiki:
>http://gunkies.org/wiki/Special:WantedPages
> the top page or so of entries are all about various Vaxen.
> Is there a volunteer our there
> From: Fritz Mueller
> Perhaps it is time to find/train a younger apprentice :-)
'Yes, my master!' :-)
> If anybody has a decent picture of a clean/fresh RK05 head, I would
> appreciate seeing it
Here ya go:
http://gunkies.org/wiki/File:RK05Head.jpg
That head (NOS) came ou
> is that crucifix-shaped area of low reflection the thing you're speaking
> of? It's only visible in reflected light, not direct light; I'm not sure
> what it is, perhaps crystals oriented in a different direction from the
> rest of the head?
Now that I look again, you can see it
So for those who aren't up to writing text, if images are 'your thing', we
could definitely use you! E.g I have added a large number of PDP-11-related
pages, but I'm mostly too lazy to do images, and there are dozens of pages
which need them.
Again, if you'd like an account, let me know, and I can
So, I've been collecting images of 'Multics' 'front' panels from around the
Internet, intending to do a gallery.
(I should explain that, in common with mainframes of that era, a Multics
system had a variety of different kinds of boxes - CPUs, memories, etc - but
also others, intended to support th
> From: Ed Sharpe
> from what I was told, many versions of machines by Big H were used to
> run multics over the span of time.
Yes, it appears from what I can find that there were basically three
different Honeywell machines that ran Multics:
- the 6180 - the one the LCM has the pan
> From: Dave Wade
>> All CPU's were upgradable on site to any other model. There wasn't
>> really any difference between the models
Yes and no, is my impression. I got the impression from my recent reading
that the addition of the Appending Unit used to create the Multics segmented
me
> From: Jim Stephens
> I have a collection of photographs of some here, including my panel.
Yes, I've had a look through all them, thanks for saving them!
To say a bit more about what each one is (as best I can work out), let me
start with the one labelled "The whole group" (which will
> From: Pontus Pihlgren pontus at Update.UU.SE
> On Thu, Jul 27, 2017 at 06:06:05PM +0200, Mattis Lind wrote:
> I am a bit curious about what the rest of the low cabinet was used >
> for.
I have an -11/44 which has a BA11-K mounted below the CPU.
Noel
> From: Dave Wade
> three generations so transistor (600?), TTL (6000, L66, DPS100/200/300)
> and MOS (some of the DPS8) systems had different panels.
I've never seen mention of a Multics DPS100/200/300 machine, so maybe they
skipped Multics support in that generation?
> From:
> From: Charles Anthony
> Gah. I saw a picture of one somewhere recently, but I can't remember
> where.
Are you thinking of this one:
http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/SysConKAPanel.jpg
Meter closeup here:
http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/tech/jpg/SysConMeter.jpg
Noe
> From: Chuck Guzis
> Nope, this wasn't a minicomputer.
You're the first person I've heard call a KA10 a 'minicomputer'! :-)
Noel
> From: Charles Anthony
> Configuration+Panel+WHITE:
> Hard to read the writing, but I think it is a SCU configuration panel.
Good catch! I'm still trying to get confirmation (THVV couldn't help),
but I think you may well be right.
The picture of the MIT 6180:
http://www.multician
>> From: Charles Anthony
>> Configuration+Panel+WHITE:
>> Hard to read the writing, but I think it is a SCU configuration panel.
> I'm still trying to get confirmation (THVV couldn't help), but I think
> you may well be right.
It _is_ an SCU; see:
http://www.bitsavers.org/
> From: Pontus Pihlgren
> I gather it's for a KA10.
Yes, the MIT-DM machine.(MIT-AI had an MIT-built - I think - paging box that
was mostly program-compatible with the one on MIT-DM, but had an extra bit of
physical page number, so supported 4 'mobies' of physical memory instead of 2;
I d
So Antonio donated a whole bunch of VAX articles to the Computer History
wiki, with the result that many of the top items on the 'Wanted Pages' list:
http://gunkies.org/wiki/Special:WantedPages
are now DEC terminals, and PDP-8's. I know we have a few aficionados of those
around - anyone up for
Lot of 6; UK only, I think
http://www.ebay.com/itm/253056726492
Noel
> From: Al Kossow
> For what it's worth, I've been seeing sellers cancel orders after the
> fact a LOT this year.
Any guesses as to what's going on?
Noel
> From: Guy Sotomayor Jr
> Having several different Unibus board designs in various stages .. I can
> tell you that producing a *reliable* Unibus board is *not* going to be
> cheap.
Why not? Just the size, gold-plated fingers, and transceiver chips, or is
there more?
Noel
> From: Christian Corti
> I don't like the idea of CF or SD at all. I'd pretty much prefer PATA
> or SATA, because ... Real drives are also much more reliable than flash
> drives,
I found this interesting/troubling, because Dave Bridgham and I decided to
use SD cards, after I init
> From: Paul Koning
>> do industrial SD cards exist?
> If you have a ready-made SD interface, these cards work nicely. If you
> need to build one from scratch it gets tricky, because the interface is
> fairly high speed serial (packet based) signaling, and the
> initializa
> From: Al Kossow
> but it looks like they are going EOL
Is that just this particular product (individual SD/etc products seem to go
out all the time, as new and bigger ones come out), or industrial SD cards in
general? I hope not that latter, that would blow a large hole in out strategy!
> From: Emanuel Stiebler
> If I would do it again, it would be USB only with some sd-card slots.
Exactly our plan (although the USB is left until after we get the SD running).
> USB with 480MHz is fast enough
I think our plan was to skip that speed, and go with the next one down, on
> From: Al Kossow
> The issue would be things like the swap partition on a unix disk or
> whatever the equivalent is under RSX
Which is why, as I mentioned, that we're including the ability to have
virtual disks which store their data in RAM, not on permanent storage - their
contents
> From: Emanuel Stiebler
>> on the grounds that the analog part at that speed would be too tricky
>> for us.
> No, it isn't.
You _are_ talking to two people who are so clueless about analog that we
didn't bother putting ground lines between each pair of signal lines in a
cable...
> From: David Bridgham dab at froghouse.org
> I'm going to have enough fun with trying to implement the USB stack in
> the FPGA
ISTR discussing putting a PDP-11 into the FPGA (there are Verilog PDP-11's
available), so we could write our USB code in C (I'd use the Unix V6 compiler
to
> From: Ian S. King
> Those keys are common across nearly all DEC machines prior to the ones
> that started using plastic keys. XX2247 is the code.
Someone on eBait is selling replicas for not wholly unreasonable amounts of
money:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142118132040
Noel
> From: Philipp Hachtmann
> The DEC stuff was designed quite wrong-insertion resistant.
> ...
> I did it. Once. It leads to impressive fireworks on many boards.
I managed to plug in an M9301 backwards, once. Luckily, most of the other
boards came through OK (I think I lost one chi
> From: Pete Lancashire
> if the seller wont ship, will s/he take them to a pack and ship outfit ?
It's even easier than that. I have used PakMail:
https://www.pakmail.com/
a fair amount, and have been very pleased with their service and pricing;
they generally offer a pick-up servic
> From: Mattis Lind
> I have some big format DEC drawings that is much bigger than the
> standard 11x17 drawings that most others are.
> ...
> Since I cannot do this myself I need to go to a professional scanning
> service and pay for it.
The other option (which is what I
> From: Jerry Weiss
> If there is an option to start at track 1 or skip the first 30 (?)
> blocks, that might work.
It's worse than that; there is 'logical' and 'physical' block order, and the
two are quite different (blocks are scattered arount the disk in order to do
rotational opt
> From: Al Kossow
> just sold for $1600
Well, it is from a limited edition of 20, it does not appear to be in print
other than that, and this page:
http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/
makes it sound like the family are unlikely to release it...
Hi, all, just got one of these in a group of stuff, and I have no LA30, and
thus no need for it. Anyone out there have an LA30? :-)
Noel
I don't know how common these are, but here's one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/192280586656
Noel
> Every H960 and H967 should have one. I think They came standard.
When new, yes and when was the last time you bought a new H960? :-)
Several of the ones I found came without kickplates; I figured others might be
in the same boat.
Noel
> On Aug 19, 2017, at 11:08 AM, Jon Elson wrote:
> Currently $676, but I suspect will go higher.
_Much_ higher. The TU56 alone is worth several US$K. I'd look for
the whole thing to go for _at least_ US$3K.
Noel
> From: Rob Jarratt
> I have just written a new blog post
> the comparators are not producing valid output, the input signals are
> varying abave and below the reference voltage, but the outputs never
change.
Don't forget that when the output of chip A is wrong, that might be c
> From: Anders Nelson
> This is crazy, how is this auction not at $5k already at least?
"Patience, grasshopper"! :-)
With these big-budget, rare, items, the real action is always in the last few
seconds. I remember a PDP-11/40 that went from, like $2K (don't recall the
exact number, too
> From: Tim Shoppa
> IEEE Annals of the History of Computing just published (in past few
> months) Paul McJones article "In Search of the Original Fortran Compiler".
Congratulations to Paul and everyone who helped in this magnificant effort.
To bad they couldn't find a copy of the or
> From: Douglas Taylor
> I think to do it I would need 2 boxes, one with a 16 bit backplane and
> the other with a 22 bit backplane.
You could do what I did in the box I have for running LSI-11's in: when I
upgraded the backplane from Q18 to Q22, I put in a 4-switch DIP pack, and ran
> From: Jerry Weiss
> The processor will probably halt due to non-existent memory address.
No, it'll take a NXM trap (through 4); what happens then depends on what the
trap handler is set to - if anything.
> However, a P entered in ODT will attempt to continue the bootstrap.
See abo
> From: Brent Hilpert
> I have wondered just how much influence the latent theory that was
> around influenced the practical implementors of calculating machinery
> ...
> My impression is the implementors at the time arrived at stored-program
> machines far more out of prac
Hi, does anyone have any spare "pivot bushings" for the DEC H9xx series
cabinets (H950, H960, etc)? (These are the short pieces with a conical top
which fit over the hinge pins, at the bottom.) I need at least one to hang a
back door which I have.
If nobody has any, they'd be easy to machine, so I
> does anyone have any spare "pivot bushings" for the DEC H9xx series
> cabinets (H950, H960, etc)? (These are the short pieces with a conical
> top which fit over the hinge pins, at the bottom.)
> ...
> I could also use some more of the pins (particularly the kind with the
> From: Charles Dickman
> Is pin AA == pin 1 or pin 40 ?
> ...
> Did DEC have an accepted mapping between the alphabet and numbers?
http://gunkies.org/wiki/DEC_asynchronous_serial_line_pinout
Noel
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 7:14 AM, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:
> Unfortunately, I don't have space for such a large system.
I hope someone can take this system, to prevent its being scapped!
Noel
> From: Aaron Jackson
> a PDP-11/73, M8192 CPU, two M8067 RAM, M7195 ... While playing in ODT,
> the console completely stopped responding.
> ...
> The CPU shows 1000, which I believe is fine, and means it's in ODT. The
> SLU card has . I've had a Google and I believe t
> one option ... is to buy spare boards so you can board-swap to localize
> the problem to one board.
> ...
> start with another serial card
Also, if you get a working serial card to use for a console, and you get a
working system as a result, you can then use that ensenble to try
> From: Aaron Jackson
> This is an 11/23+ chassis and the power supply seems very large, but
> reasonably easy to trace. I thought I'd ask first if anyone has any
> tips on how to debug this
Err, exactly which power supply is this - an H786, or an H7861? If so, there
are prints av
> DEC also has excellent 'Technical Manuals' for both, which clearly
> explain how the circuitry works (although alas, the BA11-N Tech Manual
> is not [yet] online
Argh, my memory is failing me. The BA11-S technical info is in the "PDP-11/23B
Mounting Box Technical Manual", EK-23BMB-TM
> From: Rob Jarratt
> I have just tried accessing Manx at manx-docs.org, but it seems to have
> disappeared. Anyone know what has happened to it?
It moved. Now at:
https://vt100.net/manx/
Noel
> From: systems_glitch
> get a DLV11 and set it up as SLU0 for TU58
I think you meant SLU1, no? That's the standard for the TU58 (SLU0 is the
console).
Noel
> From: Rod Smallwood
> I do not know the correct addresses or vectors I need so I can't set
> them.
> ...
> State like this for each and every jumper required
Sorry, too busy to type all that out. Jumper it for 776500/300.
Noel
> From: Vincent Slyngstad
> Aaron's website seems to be working for me
Anyone who still has access to it should down-load the entire thing promptly.
Noel
> From: Jack Harper
> I HATE and LOATHE bloatware - e.g., so much MicroSoft stuff.
Some of us consider contemporary Linux/etc bloatware.
Noel
> From: Tomasz Rolak
>> Anyone who still has access to it should down-load the entire thing
promptly.
> I am
> wget -r -np -nc -U lynx -w 2 -l 0 http://pdp-8.org/
> right now.
Did you get it all? Anyone else download it?
Noel
So I have a Hallicrafters S-85 receiver which was my wife's father's, and just
arrived (he passed away, and they are cleaning out his basement):
http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/jpg/tech/HallicraftersF.jpg
http://ana-3.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/jpg/tech/HallicraftersB.jpg
I'm not into radios at all, so I
> From: sandy hamlet
> There are a couple of ham radio sites that you could post on.
> ...
> You probably don't want to ship the SX101 as it it is quite heavy.
I don't think he wants to get rid of his, he was enquiring about getting one
more (from me). :-)
The unit has been spoke
> From: Kip Koon
> f I were to have to decide on just one model DEC PDP system to run in a
> DEC Emulator, which one would be the most useful, versatile and has the
> most software available for it?
To echo what others have said, when you say 'emulator', do you mean hardware
(the
> From: Kip Koon
> I was initially thinking of a strictly software only solution
Whatever you eventually do in the way of hardware, it might be a good idea to
start with this. You can get familiar with whatever OS you decide to go with,
and get used to its tools, get to know the instructi
So, you have an RK05 drive, but you're missing the slides to mount it?
Your troubles are over (sort of :-).
It turns out the slide DEC used was the General Devices 'Chassis Trak'
C-230-S-122 (22") - and those are still available (e.g. from Newark). They're
somewhat pricey - the -124 (24") is sligh
Hey all, I've been doing research on Multics front panels, which it turns out
are slightly different from those on the Honeywell 6000 series machines which
ran GCOS, and are often confused with them.
So, I've put together a Web page about them:
Multics and Related 6000 Series Front Panels
htt
> From: "Rob Jarratt"
> Thanks for this info Noel.
Sure; I figured it would be useful to someone, glad to know it was.
> So it sounds like I would need the C-230-S-124. ... My metalworking
> abilities are limited.
If you don't want to have to do any mods, the C-230-S-122 is a st
> From: "Rob Jarratt"
> I misread your email as suggesting that the 124 was more suitable than
> the 122
No, it's just cheaper (at the moment), and can be made to work.
> My H960 is not very accessible but I attempted to measure it front back
> and it may be 25". Do you know
> From: Kip Koon
> I tend to get emulation and simulation a bit confused.
You and me both!
I think part of the problem is that there is no generally-agreed-upon
definition of the two terms.
I like this one a lot, though:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1584617/simulator-or-emul
Does anyone know who does this site:
http://decmuseum.org/index.html
I looked, and didn't see anything in the site itself, and doing a 'whois'
didn't turn up anything useful.
The site has some really nice PDP-5 photos which I was wondering if that
person could/would put in the public domain, s
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