February 2016 - vcf-midatlantic

FS: Applied Microsystems EM-188 Intel 8080 8085 Diagnostic Emulator
by Systems Glitch 07 Apr '16

07 Apr '16

link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/272125508235 ** NOTE: This unit is missing the emulator pods! ** Picked it up at either a hamfest or university surplus auction, I don't remember which. I've been searching for 8080 or 8085 pods for this unit for several years. I'm calling it a loss, so it's time to sell it. Perhaps someone has the pods and can make use of it. It does power on, and you can see from the pictures it has six TIL311 displays in it. I believe it also has a number of 6116 2K x 8 static RAMs inside -- I opened it up at one point in the past. This would've been an excellent tool for vintage computer debugging, if I could've found the pods. The emulator lets you observe and control the data and address bus states, as well as internal state of the CPU. If you're going to be at VCF East this year, I can drop it off in person and avoid shipping. That will of course be a *major* consideration if anyone wants to submit Best Offers :) Thanks, Jonathan

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Should the new museum have a name?
by Evan Koblentz 04 Mar '16

04 Mar '16

I was thinking... should our new museum have a formal name, as in, "The XYZ Place, sponsored by the Vintage Computer Federation"...? Or if anyone asks, do we just call it VCF Headquarters? If we do think it should have some name, then what should that name be? I like how Paul Allen's group calls their place a "living" museum. Of course, that word is taken, so we'd need some other word. Maybe "museum" also isn't the right word. Our home at InfoAge is more of a hub and community center for vintage computing in the region. Perhaps, if we give it a name, we should think of a word that reflects this. It would be awesome if the perfect word also started with F to continue our theme of the Vintage Computer Federation owning the Vintage Computer Festival (East/West), Vintage Computer Forum, and Vintage Computer... Funhouse? Fraternity? No, those don't work. Let's hear some suggestions (real ones please; let's not clog the thread with the smart-assery.) I'm thinking that unless we come up with something GREAT, then we should just stick with Vintage Computer Federation as the name for the physical space.

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Pick 34)-ish
by Evan Koblentz 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

Everyone, Good news / bad news about our new museum space. The good news is, as indicated earlier tonight, we found creative ways to make more space for mainframes and minicomputers. :) We also found a way to ** probably ** include the Cray and StorageTek tape robot in the "modern history" exhibit (after all, the computing power and mass storage in your smartphones is rather mind-boggling!) The bad news is, all of the good news means somewhat less space for microcomputers. Here is the 24/48 list from a couple of weeks ago: 1. Scelbi-8H ... Above it: Mark-8 2. IBM 5100 ... Above it: HP-85B 3. MITS Altair 8800 ... Above it: IMSAI 8080 4. SWTPc 6800 ... Above it: ??? 5. Processor Tech SOL-20 ... Above it: 6. TDL Xitan ... Above it: 7. Apple 1 ... Above it: Other SBC 8. Apple 2 ... Above it: //e 9. Commodore PET 2001 ... Above it: ??? 10. TRS-80 Model 1 ... Above it: CoCo 11. Atari 800 ... Above it: 400, ST 12. Heathkit H-89 ... Above it: Zenith Z-100 13. Xerox 860 ... Above it: ??? 14. Sinclair ZX-80, ZX-81, Timex 1000 ... Above it: Amstrad 15. TI-99/4A ... Above it: OSI Challenger 4P 16. IBM 5150 PC ... Above it: PC Jr. 17. Osborne ... Above it: Compaq Portable 18. Commodore 64 ... Above it: VIC-20, 128 19. Apple Lisa ... Above it: Epson QX-10 20. Tandy Model 100, DG One ... Above it: Epson HX-20 (etc.) 21. NEC APC ... Above it: Tandy Model 4 22. Apple Mac 128K ... Above it: Mac Portable 23. Commodore Amiga ... Above it: Sony SMC-70 24. PC clone ... Above it: ??? This does NOT count the pre-kit systems (Dudley PDP-8, etc.) nor the teletype/terminals. It also doesn't count the Computer-of-the-Month exhibit. All of those are already placed in the layout. Here is my shot at reducing it to 17/34. There were some difficult decisions to make! 1. Scelbi-8H ... Above it: Mark-8 2. IBM 5100 ... Above it: HP-85B 3. MITS Altair 8800 ... Above it: IMSAI 8080 4. Processor Tech SOL-20 ... Above it: TDL Xitan 5. Apple 1 ... Above it: KIM-1 6. Apple 2 ... Above it: Apple /// and/or GS 7. Commodore PET 2001 / Atari 800 8. TRS-80 Model 1 ... Above it: Heathkit H-89 9. Xerox 860 ... Above it: NEC APC 10. Sinclair ZX-80 ... Above it: TI-99/4A 11. IBM 5150 PC ... Above it: PC Jr. 12. Osborne ... Above it: Tandy Model 100, DG One 13. Commodore 64 ... Above it: VIC-20 and/or, 128 14. Apple Lisa ... Above it: Epson QX-10 15. Apple Mac 128K ... Above it: Mac Portable 16. Commodore Amiga ... Above it: Sony SMC-70 17. PC clone ... Above it: (Sun 1? Not sure if we have one...) Remember, everything that doesn't make the cut will automatically go into the Computer-of-the-Month rotation. That list (far from comprehensive) includes: NeXT Station Apple //c, ///, IIgs Pockets/Handhelds Franklin/Laser Cromemco Z2H Cromemco System Three Northstar Horizon SWTPc 6800 Tandy CoCo TRS-80 (later models) Atari 400, ST, etc. Sinclair ZX-81, Timex Sinclair 1000, Amstrad PPC 640 OSI Challenger 4P Compaq Portable Epson QX-10 NEC APC Various other laptops/portables "And many more....."

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] SIX WEEKS to VCF East exhibit DEADLINE - April 1st
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 03 Mar '16

03 Mar '16

Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic writes: >There are only SIX weeks until the VCF East exhibit registration >deadline. > >They're going to go very fast. > >Register your exhibits now. > >Not doing so makes life extremely difficult for us. We waste a lot of >time chasing down people who we know usually exhibit, and we delay >ordering the table rental, arranging the layout, and other things. > >Reg link: > >http://www.vcfed.org/registration/east_exhibitor_register-online.php FYI, I think you should configure the server to NOT display directory content unless it's really necessary. See: http://www.vcfed.org/registration/ if you don't understand what I'm referring to.

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Gift letters for the Museum furniture donations
by Corey Cohen 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

To everyone who donated to the museum for our new furniture this year. I was having some email problems with all the domain DNS changes and didn't hit send on the gift letters for 2016. I have not forgotten you and also expect that starting January 2017 I will be generating a donation summary for each benefactor anyway and sending it out annually. I know that makes life easier since you will have all your donations in one place in one PDF. As far as I am aware I did get all the gift letters out for 2015. If I missed one, please contact me off list at corey(a)vcfed.org Keep an eye in your emails later this week for a PDF of the donation letters since January 1st 2016. Sorry for any delays or confusion, Thanks, Corey corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ

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LINC pioneer Wesley Clark passes
by Herb Johnson 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/business/wesley-a-clark-made-computing-pe… As an owner of a piece of a LINC, I've corresponded with the LINC engineers, who to this day work on or support the remaining LINCs in various collections. It's sad to hear that Wesley Clark passed away recently at 88. The NYT article notes his involvement with Whirlwind and SAGE and other notable computers of the 1950's. He will be missed. Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preservation of 1970's computing email: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com alternate: herbjohnson ATT retrotechnology DOTT info

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Should the new museum have a name?
by Bob Aviles 01 Mar '16

01 Mar '16

Hi, I was thinking the same thing, people will think it just American systems. Bobby On Sunday, February 28, 2016 6:46 AM, Ben Greenfield via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: With America in the name would we reject foreign computers? Could we exhibit Nixdorf's? On Feb 27, 2016, at 10:37 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: >>> Museum of American Computer Heritage > > Museum or American Retro Computer Heritage.... we could call it MARCH. > > Oh, wait....

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Next workshop... or not?
by Evan Koblentz 29 Feb '16

29 Feb '16

Guys, the next workshop is supposed to be two weeks from now. Other weekends in March are unavailable or too close to VCF East. Would anybody attend in two weeks from now or should we cancel it?

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New museum setup report
by Evan Koblentz 29 Feb '16

29 Feb '16

Changed the subject line because the old museum move report is complete. :) - Remember when we discussed "pick 25" for the microcomputer exhibit? Turns out only 20(ish) will fit. It was too cramped with 25 shelving units. I will start a separate thread (later tonight) about which systems to not (initially) display. - The five units that won't fit in the micro exhibit will not go to waste. We discovered the many of the parts can be reconfigured for a perfect fit in the workshop/classroom corner. Score! - Jeff J. and I finished assembing all but one shelving unit (for which we need a part that's arriving this week.) - Jeff J. and I also found a great way to fit the Univac exhibit without making the aisles too claustrophobic. We might even be able to fit more of the Univac than planned! We also transferred one of the Univac i/o consoles (the only remotely "small" component) onto a stronger and better-sized pallet to make it uniform with the other components. Another thing we got done is we found a good way to cover the front of the pallets that will be easy, basically free, and look good. - Next museum build day is probably next Sunday. We'll finalize it during the week.

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Museum move is DONE!
by Evan Koblentz 28 Feb '16

28 Feb '16

We devoted 10am-5pm today to finishing the move out of our old museum space. InfoAge's forklift, Jon C.'s operater+safety skills, and a whole team of VCF nerds-turned-schleppers made the job easy. Now we're back in conventional workshop mode. :)

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