- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Commodore Computer Museum in New Zealand
by Christian Liendo 25 Jan '22

25 Jan '22

Disclaimer: I'm not posting this to ask anyone to donate. In fact I don't know what to think of it. I couldn't find anything else other than this KickStarter that discusses it. I am just sharing it because it is interesting and we have a lot of Commodore enthusiasts here. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/commodoremuseum/commodore-computer-mus…

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This 22-Year-Old Builds Chips in His Parents’ Garage
by Christian Liendo 23 Jan '22

23 Jan '22

I believe this is relevant to this group This 22-Year-Old Builds Chips in His Parents’ Garage Sam Zeloof combines 1970s-era machines with homemade designs. His creations show what’s possible for small-scale silicon tinkerers. https://www.wired.com/story/22-year-old-builds-chips-parents-garage/

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Braving the 20 degree weather for great internet
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Jan '22

22 Jan '22

Doug Crawford, myself, Joe Gilberti, Ken G from VCF and Martin and Neil from CDL all met earlier today at InfoAge. We installed the fiber between CDL (9059) and Building 9032. We also deployed a started a setup for a new IT rack in the 9032. And the brackets for Wi Fi access points in 9032. So when we are done that room will have fantastic wi-fi! The wi-fi in that room has always been terrible, but now that we are halfway done working on getting it done. We will wrap it up at a future work day. Internet and wi-fi has always been sketchy at InfoAge, but slowly, but surely it is becoming fantastic with the transition from cable to fiber. Thanks to Martin and all the other volunteers who have been working on this project for months! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Bell Labs Org Chart
by Christian Liendo 22 Jan '22

22 Jan '22

I had to share this. I'm curious what precision graphics is. https://neil.computer/notes/bell-labs-org-chart/

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Slightly OT, but workshop relevant!
by Martin Flynn 22 Jan '22

22 Jan '22

Three of the first four new benches are assembled! Will setting up the soldering re-work station (Hakko SMD-BGA hot air rework station, Hakko FM-205 De-soldering & Soldering Station, and PanaVise 333 board holders) on a dedicated bench http://compdecon.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/first_bench.jpg http://compdecon.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/bench_drawing.jpg Martin

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Repair Workshop @ System Source - Jan 29 & 30, 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 22 Jan '22

22 Jan '22

Reminding everyone to sign up for the repair workshop at System Source which next weekend 1/29 & 1/30. I'm going and hope that I will see you there! Signup here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wHIQ-T8EnZdNkUWN_f-rG2hApgCEDqwwdjn… <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__docs.google.com_spread…> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/338%0D%0A+Clubhouse+Road,+%0D%0A+Hunt%0D…> The Vintage Computer Federation and the System Source Computer Museum are hosting a vintage computer workshop on Saturday January 29th and Sunday January 30th 2022 at: System Source Computer Museum 338 Clubhouse Road, <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.com_maps_se…> Hunt Valley, MD <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.com_maps_se…> 21031 <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.com_maps_se…> Plenty of free parking, short walk from Baltimore’s light rail (Gilroy Road Stop) ON SATURDAY we will open at 9:00 AM and will lock up by 7:30 PM. ON SUNDAY: We will open at 9:00 AM and lock up at 5:00 PM *Accommodations:* Try https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g41196-Hunt_Valley_Maryland-Hotels.html <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.tripadvisor.com_Ho…> Feel free to talk with others about sharing a room. Food: There are plenty of restaurants within a short drive. We will have a catered Indian buffet on Saturday at cost ($12.00?) and catered Barbecue ($12.00?) on Sunday for those who are interested. We will feature tours of the museum throughout both days and several mini-workshops: · Retrobright workshop (bring your yellowed plastics) · Lots of New vintage computers from the DigiBarn Collection · Hot Metal Typesetting (3500 lb word processor) ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OpenVMS 6.2 DNS Support
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 22 Jan '22

22 Jan '22

Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >I'm sorry to send a message to the VCF Group. >When I send it to VAXman(a)tmesis.org, I get a bounce back. One of googles servers must be on a RBL again. That's be the only reason that the server at .org would have rejected the message. >I was told there is no "$ TCPIP SHOW VERSION" as this is UCX. > >UCX> show version > > DEC TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS AXP Version V4.0 - ECO Level 1 on a >"AlphaStation 200 4/233" running OpenVMS V6.2-1H3 > >UCX> show interface > Packets Interface IP_Addr Network mask Receive >Send MTU WE0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 255.255.254.0 87417308 >84098223 1500 LO0 127.0.0.1 255.0.0.0 >1 1 65535 UCX> Here is a URL for the TCPIP service V6.2 (UCX) http://odl.sysworks.biz/disk$axpdocsep022/network/tcpip42/cmd_ref/6527pro_c… You should find all you need.

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Wanted: Casing for Apple Profile II
by Joseph Giliberti 22 Jan '22

22 Jan '22

Greetings! One of my regular systems in a nicely decked- out Apple //e system, including a working Profile II hard drive. However, an unfortunate fall practically shattered the plastic shell. Might anyone have a dead drive or perhaps just a case which they could spare? Thanks! Joe Giliberti

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Omnitec Accoustic Coupler Manual?
by Jeff G 21 Jan '22

21 Jan '22

Hey all! I have an Omnitec 701 acoustic coupler, with both an RS-232 and TTY jack on the back. Would anyone happen to have any manuals or schematics for this? As far as I can tell its not working, but it may be that I need to get a handshake tone specific to a 300 baud modem to get it to do something. I'd also like to see how it hooks up to a TTY! Thanks, Jeff

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OpenVMS 6.2 DNS Support
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 21 Jan '22

21 Jan '22

Christian Liendo via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >Can someone help me with this. Does OpenVMS 6.2 support DNS/BIND? > >I wm being told the following: > >"Correct the OpenVMS 8.4 support the DNS we are running OpenVMS >V6.2-1H3" > >"It is running older TCP/IP from Digitial call UCX" > >I looked up UCX and I see a DNS config, but I cannot tell if it is >supported in a newer or older version. > >Does anyone know? Yes. Thanks for asking. :P Get the output of this command for starts. $ TCPIP SHOW VERSION

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OT: Vintage Heathkit, Not Computers
by Chris Fala 20 Jan '22

20 Jan '22

I wish I had the discretionary funds to throw at this, even though I would never use it. It's just so pretty! https://www.ebay.com/itm/133994743821

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OpenVMS 6.2 DNS Support
by Christian Liendo 20 Jan '22

20 Jan '22

Can someone help me with this. Does OpenVMS 6.2 support DNS/BIND? I wm being told the following: "Correct the OpenVMS 8.4 support the DNS we are running OpenVMS V6.2-1H3" "It is running older TCP/IP from Digitial call UCX" I looked up UCX and I see a DNS config, but I cannot tell if it is supported in a newer or older version. Does anyone know?

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Bill von Hagen, computer scientist and Pittsburgh punk pioneer, dies at 66
by Christian Liendo 19 Jan '22

19 Jan '22

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/obituaries/2022/01/18/Bill-Von-Hagen-bore… Some people might know him as he too was into vintage computing http://www.vonhagen.org/ Very sad to hear.

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[OT] light bulb collector/museum
by Herb Johnson 19 Jan '22

19 Jan '22

Chris Fala: > To the collector in us all. [link to YouTube video] The cited YouTube clip was from a CBS news feature by David Pogue (that guy who used to host PBS Nova episodes by playing dumb about technology). So Pogue asks the collector, "light bulbs? really?" - because of course modern bulbs are not only dirt-common, but obsolete, and therefore uninteresting twice. The collector starts to explain their historic significance as the video shows various bulbs and sockets and accessories. I stopped watching at that point, I know the drill. Later in the thread, Jeff Jonas suggests the point I was about to make, so I'll join his thread. Vintage "light bulbs" is not a trivial subject or some personal oddity. It was an advanced technology that was initially exciting, became necessary, and then invisible. Just like personal computing. And it happens, it's history relevant to New Jersey where VCFed-Midatlantic resides. In the terminology of vintage computing: the incandescent electric lamp, was the "killer app" for the distribution and personal and industrial use of electrical power at the turn of the 20th century. Edison did much of his electrical work and production in New Jersey. What makes a light bulb even interesting? Electrical distribution didn't exist until around 1900. Why electrically wire up a city, in an era of ZERO commercial or consumer electrical devices? To provide smokeless, fireless, constant illumination; for work and safety and entertainment. Cities were in constant risk from fire, used for heating and cooking and illumination (natural gas, coal, wood, kerosene). And all that smoke filled rooms and cities with haze - and of course created carbon monoxide and gas poisoning. Illumination of streets at night, extended business hours and increased safety. Electric illumination was celebrated as a miracle of modern technology - much like computing was half a century later, and personal computing a century later. It was a centerpiece of expositions (public tech shows). And it was one of many technologies pursued by powerful rich people, who financed the "electrical wizards" of the day - Edison, Tesla, JP Morgan. All this played out in the newspapers of the day (their "information highway"). With electric light to provide a revenue stream and incentive to wire cities, electric motors became a replacement for steam. Later, small electric motors over large steam engines. For awhile, electric cars challenged gasoline cars. And Edison's General Electric and Westinghouse fought the AC/DC "current wars" in courts and newspapers. Remind you of Microsoft vs Apple? There's a few Edison museums in New Jersey, one near Edison NJ (yeah), At East Orange NJ is the Edison National Park (his research facility and nearby his mansion). If you are a techie, and you were thrown back in time to 1900, what research facility would YOU build? Edison beat you to it, in East Orange, go look at it. So. The "light bulb" represents early personal electricity, just as vintage computers represent early personal computing. The YouTube video about light-bulb collecting, "illuminates" what most people today think about common technology turned vintage - "huh?". And it shows what a few people are doing to preserve and curate it. Regards, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] [OT] light bulb collector/museum
by Jeffrey Jonas 18 Jan '22

18 Jan '22

Chris Fala noted this interview with a light bulb collector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5EOHEWJCxs My take is that the interviewer was somewhat condescending. Worst of all: no links or information on how to visit the museum in the video or the accompanying text. I was hoping to follow up because I'm curious about other lighting technologies such as The Nernst lamp: didn't require a vacuum! https://edisontechcenter.org/NernstLamps.html The "Moore lamp" refers to a neon bulb used in a Nipkow disk, and long Carbon Dioxide tubes that first lit a NJ store: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_McFarlan_Moore The Cooper-Hewitt mercury lamp was an early technology that photographers loved despite the odd color: http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/M6%20Cooper%20Hewitt.htm Jason Perkins noted > I used to have a collection of burnt out lamps > of all different kinds and sizes. Annoyingly, > I added the pram battery from an original Mac > to the bin at one point, which leaked and off gassed, > ruining all the bases of the lamps. I'm having similar problems with things stored as properly-as-possible. Some plastics, rubber or foam deteriorates into dust, or just cracks when flexed. Equipment rubber feet love to turn into a gooey slime that ruins anything beneath it. I even had a drafting template outgass and destroy all those near it. -- jeff jonas

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Internal Amdahl T-Shirt preservation
by Adam Michlin 17 Jan '22

17 Jan '22

Hi Everyone, As some of you know, my father worked at Amdahl from 1984 to 1993. He held many roles, including Product Planning. Director of Design Automation, and ultimately Director of Storage, before moving on to other things. He has a t-shirt that was produced for internal usage only (it was not traditional swag) that Dean Notarnicola was kind enough to scan and Javier Rivera was kind enough to clean up for reprinting. Javier is also making it available for purchase, although neither Dean nor I receive any funds. I absolutely love Javier's store (check it out even if you aren't interested in Amdahl!) and look at it as my small contribution to support him. My only concern was making sure the history lived on. Here's the t-shirt: https://www.8bittees.com/product/amdahl-5990-tee/ And here's the history behind the shirt in my father's own words (although we're still trying to figure out the significance of the bees): --- The Story of the Amdahl 5990 During the 1970s era it took roughly 7 years from the time a mainframe project was initiated until the product actually shipped to customers. The technology of the time required advancing the semiconductors, then advancing the packaging and cooling, then advancing the architecture based on them, then tuning an operating system to support them and finally going through a tortuous bring-up and test process to assure that the mainframe – at prices ranging from $1 million or so up to perhaps $9-10 million – didn’t fail in embarrassing ways on a customer’s data center. This 7-year cycle applied to both IBM itself and Amdahl, its major plug-compatible competitor, and both knew it. Therefore each felt fairly secure in the competition to market their high end mainframes without fear of any short term surprises. But Amdahl was a partner, both technologically and financially with Fujitsu, a Japanese company. Fujitsu was offering mainframes of its own design under its own brand. They were sold mostly in the Japanese market and didn’t compete with IBM products as directly as Amdahl did. If Fujitsu needed to field a product directly competing with IBM, it offered an Amdahl. Japanese mainframe users often valued fast numerical (floating point) performance for scientific programs, and Fujitsu tended to design with this in mind. By contrast, American users were running more commercially oriented workloads, and IBM was known for designing to this requirement. Amdahl’s key competitive claim was high performance for various workloads including both scientific and commercial. So it came to pass that Fujitsu was well along in developing its next mainframe at a time when Amdahl and IBM were each only a year or two into their 7-year cycle. On a visit to Japan, Amdahl engineers learned about the coming Fujitsu product and decided that with some work to make it meet Amdahl’s “100% IBM plug-compatible” promise, it could compete with IBM in the U.S. And it would be a huge surprise since it would enter the market years before anyone expected a new, higher performance product from Amdahl, or IBM. As a result, it was treated as a top secret within Amdahl and quietly perfected under the code name “Hawk.” As it progressed from an engineering project toward seeing the light of day as a full fledged Amdahl product, it looked more and more promising, and secrecy became more and more critical. At one point as the code name “Hawk” seemed to be leaking, the project name was changed to “Lynx.” The rest is history. Hawk/Lynx was announced and shipped as the Amdahl model 5990. It was a big surprise to IBM and a market success, especially for scientific users. As a memento of the project, participants received a custom T-shirt, a common Silicon Valley tradition. The words on this T-shirt said “Amdahl 5990,” and the image combined a bird of prey – a Hawk – and a Lynx – a relatively large and wild bobcat. And those who had worked on the secret project knew exactly what it referred to. JM: 1/10/2022 --- Best wishes, -Adam

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Off Topic But Relatable
by Jason Perkins 16 Jan '22

16 Jan '22

I used to have a collection of burnt out lamps of all different kinds and sizes. Annoyingly, I added the pram battery from an original Mac to the bin at one point, which leaked and off gassed, ruining all the bases of the lamps. -J On Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 1:35 PM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > At least this guy had the bright idea of collecting bulbs! > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Jan 16, 2022, at 12:25 PM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > To the collector in us all. > > > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5EOHEWJCxs > > -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085 Sent from my iPhone

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Totally Worth it
by Bill Degnan 16 Jan '22

16 Jan '22

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313742149778 For $60 you too can have no idea what you just bought.

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Off Topic But Relatable
by Chris Fala 16 Jan '22

16 Jan '22

To the collector in us all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5EOHEWJCxs

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Flyers and paraphernalia from Vintage Computer Festival Past
by Jeffrey Brace 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

I'm looking for flyers, program books and other paraphernalia from Vintage Computer Festivals. I have them from the past 5 years, I'm looking to preserve the history of the show and the organization. The organization has been around 17 years and hopefully for a long time so it's a good idea to preserve the history for posterity. The founders had no idea of what the organization would become and how long it would last. I'm hoping that those who have been around "since the beginning" can send me a scan of items. If you have anything, then please let me know privately and we will take it from there. Thanks! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] GTE XT 300 - Information
by jsalzman＠gmail.com 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

If they just scanned the document today, then it won't be available for download until tomorrow at the earliest. On Fri, Jan 14, 2022, 7:36 PM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > OK. CHM was able to find the manual and now it is online: > https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102638857 > > No option to download, unless I'm doing something wrong (a given :). > > >

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GTE XT 300 - Information
by Jeffrey Brace 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

Someone is looking for information on the GTE XT 300 computer. Here is an ad for it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19OfZY5biuA4acft4Y5jQdt8uakpPsm-d/view?usp=… If anyone has any more info, then please let me know. Thanks! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Add-on card edge fingers for mock S-100 boards
by Herb Johnson 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

> Jonathan Chapman > > retrobrewcomputers.org > > Their boards are high-quality modern production with proper hard gold edge plating ... It wasn't clear if they (Goodman) is offering what they call "unbuffered" or "plain" S-100 prototype boards. The buffered board is apparently expected to be memory or I/O, not a processor board or bus-controlling board such as a new-designed 8080 board as Joe Giliberti may be considering. And without detailing the differences, there's different flavors of S-100 bus; Joe may desire the earliest kind for IMSAI/MITS operation. Prices at "auction" for old-stock S-100 prototype boards with no layouts, as old stock commercial products, seem to be in the $25-$50 range plus shipping. The newly produced bare boards at retrobrew, seem to be in that range also. The cheapest possible least-desired old S-100 cards touch that range also, as I've observed. Thus I'd call that range "the bottom" for S-100 boards of any sort. And it's hard to find S-100 connectors below $10 a pop, for that matter, they are often more. It's not appreciated, that S-100 PC mount connectors came in two pin-widths between the two rows. Different brands of backplanes used one or the other. It's a gotcha to buy the wrong width connectors for a particular unpopulated backplane. So much for "standard" S-100. ;) Regards, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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S-100 protoboards
by Herb Johnson 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

>> It's not appreciated, that S-100 PC mount >> connectors came in two pin-widths between the two rows. Different brands >> of backplanes used one or the other. It's a gotcha to buy the wrong >> width connectors for a particular unpopulated backplane. >> >> Regards, Herb Johnson > > It was my understanding that only the Altair backplane had a different row > spacing for it's connectors. Everything that I have seen since (IMSAI, > Ithaca, TEI, CompuPro, Cromemco) used the same .250 row spacing. > > Regards, Jeff Well, maybe I didn't state the situation clearly. It takes a little longer to do so, I didn't want to go off on details, on side issues to another topic that has already ended. So I'll make a simple point. There's all kinds of 100 pin connectors one might buy, which won't likely be labeled "S-100". You have to measure the pin spacing anyway - which for all S-100 cards is 8 pins per inch. .125 inches apart. So you may as well, check *your particular motherboard* that you are buying connectors for, *just* to be sure the the particular connectors you are buying, match the pin row-width also. That will be, whateverthehell it is, because there were any number of S-100 card-producers, who made backplanes, with whatever connectors they purchased. Just check all your measurements, to avoid getting the wrong part. That's all I was saying. It's factually been a problem. Regards again, Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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Minerva's Machine - women and computing
by Herb Johnson 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

> George Washington University has it in their library which is over in the > City. West Chester PA has it, WVU. One in Allentown as well. > > If you can't find it anywhere I might be able to reach out to GWU about > what it takes for a non-student to check it out ... There's something called "inter-library loan" that most local public libraries and universities support. Typically your local tax dollars pay for the library services you get (once you register). Contact your local library system for details. They will perform the loan request, obtain the item for your pickup, and return it when you return the item to the local library. Regards, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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Minerva's Machine - women and computing
by Jeffrey Jonas 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

In 1995, the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and others funded a documentary: Minerva's Machine: Women and Computing. The Amazon VHS is out of stock. Is there any other copy or reference?

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My current inventory
by Joseph Giliberti 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

Greetings! First off, I apologize if I'm flooding the list with my project so say the word and I'll try and condense things. Based on feedback from many of you, I've decided to start off in the form factor of a single board computer. Once the basic machine is running, I can start thinking about expansion. Here are my basic plans for the system: - The computer will be constructed on the prototype board offered to me by Bill Dudley - Basic I/O will be via hexadecimal keypad and numeric display. This will likely mount as a daughter board on top of the prototype board, leaving clearance for components underneath and connected via a ribbon cable - Contained in ROM will be a machine language monitor and some version of TinyBASIC - The machine will have either four or eight kB of SRAM - The machine will have an audio cassette interface utilizing the Kansas City standard for program storage - The machine will have either a serial or current loop interface for communication with a video terminal or teletype Once the machine is established and I am comfortable with it, I can move on to things like more RAM and a floppy disk controller. My current component inventory, not including TTL and passive components, includes: - (1)C8080A - (1)C8212 - (1)C8214 - (2)C8216 - (1)C8228 - (2)C8238 - (1)C8255 - (3)C2112A - (4)2716DC 2kx8 EPROM - (39)P2114 1kx4 SRAM At this point, I'll stay quiet for a bit and let other projects occupy my time, whilst continuing to study and gain knowledge. TIA Joe Giliberti

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changing my bus route
by Joseph Giliberti 13 Jan '22

13 Jan '22

Greetings! I was initially planning on setting up my mid-late 70's 8080 computer on wire-wrapped S-100 boards. However, I found that S-100 prototype boards are very expensive. Bill Dudley suggested I use a standalone prototype board that he had, but it has limited real estate for things like memory and disk control circuitry. It has an expansion connector, but it is a proprietary connector. After some research, I think I may have found the solution: Intel's Multibus. For one thing, wire wrap prototyping boards have more area and are readily available (and inexpensive.) A multibus power supply puts out standard voltages which do not require regulators on each card. Is this the ideal solution that I'm thinking it is, or am I overlooking something? TIA Joe Giliberti

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What IC Do I Have Here?
by Joseph Giliberti 13 Jan '22

13 Jan '22

Greetings! AY-5-4007A I actually have five of them. I'm assuming based on the part number that they were made by General Instruments. They are 40 pin 0.6 inch dual in-line units with a white ceramic case and not-gold pins. All five I have are dated the fourth week of 1974. I can find no references to this exact part number. There is a known AY-5-4007D, which is a 24 pin seven segment display driver. I would guess that a indicates the first in a series. Along that line, I'm thinking they might be bit-slice ALU chips, but that's just a wild guess. Regardless of what they turn out to be, I have absolutely no use for them, so let me know privately if you would like to take them off my hands. TIA Joe Giliberti

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changing my bus route
by Herb Johnson 13 Jan '22

13 Jan '22

[A lot of old-school tech chatter today!] Discussion of Multibus vs S-100 bus Joe apparently missed both Jeff's message about retrobrew computers, and my message on auction-site prices for S-100 boards. On price S-100 boards will be cheaper than Multibus (except collectables). I imagine he's caught up now. And a S-100 board of 5 X 10 inches is an awful lot of space. Multibus is about 6 X 12: whadda gonna do with either size? It's a lot of chips, especially modern chips. Jonathan makes the point: do something with something, then see where you go next. You don't have to start with your destination design, in fact it's advisable to start simpler and make your mistakes early. I'm relatively active in vintage Multibus. Certainly enough to agree with Jonathan Chapman's assessment of Multibus. It's a little more complicated than S-100 and IEEE-696. It can get a lot MORE complicated because these were used in complex industrial settings and industrial products (as were some S-100 systems). As David Guesswein suggests, there's not widespread vintage interests in Multibus, as those who worked on Multibus have aged-out of the vintage computing discussion. Also Multibus was an industrial product, whereas S-100 was both industrial and popular-computing in its lifetime. Essentially S-100 was the cheaper alternative to Multibus. Today there's a somewhat private Google group who have revived Intel-based Multibus development systems. https://groups.google.com/g/intel-devsys Otherwise a Web search may find various Multibus pages and sites with information (including mine). I'm not aware of all that many, but i don't engage much with many online discussion groups. If you find more activity online about Multibus, let me know! So discussion about Multibus that I'm aware of, quickly becomes discussions with engineers of decades of experience in programming or hardware design, about fairly busy systems that performed control or ran 20th century operating systems. I get intimidated, and I know some stuff. But the early bussed stuff - Multibus or S-100 bus or say STDbus - is approachable for the technically minded. Jon Chapman has revived the old OSI bussed systems and one 8080 multibus board. There's SWTPC, the SS-50 bus, with some revived new boards by corshamtech.com, that's a 6800 6809 classic bus. Busses get more obscure from there. There's many points of entry, for people who want to design up something at the vintage processor-chip level. and for each kind of "entry", there's of course people who have been there and know what's went on. But some of these are pretty complicated and busy, with lots of legacy stuff that can be intimidating or simply not of interest. Others are simpler: the single-board stuff was intended to be simpler and introductory. As I and others said: Joe, where you start may not be where you end up. There's good reason to make a few simpler things first, then more complicated things later. from the experience of doing so, you'll know what to look for and what's of interest to you in the next step. Put another way: I've had lots of people contact me (I have some reputation in the S-100 world) about their "ultimate S-100 system" who never got there. One reason may be, they didn't get enough prior experience on simpler systems or projects, and so were not able to "get traction" on critical S-100 concepts or complexities or about CP/M (the predominant OS for S-100). So they gave up. Regards, Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net

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Memories of 1977
by Joseph Giliberti 12 Jan '22

12 Jan '22

Greetings! I'm still in planning stages for my homebrew computer and one of my goals is to keep it period appropriate. Part of that is not using any parts or technologies introduced later than 1977. I want my computer to have at least 32k of SRAM. So, by the end of 1977, what was the densest chip commonly available which I won't have to go bonkers trying to locate? Thanks Joe Giliberti

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Females in computing list: VCF East 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Jan '22

12 Jan '22

This is the list of female speakers that I have contacted or will contact. If you have any other suggestions that are not on this list, then please let me know. Margaret Morabito Jeri Ellsworth Quinn Dunki Cynthia Solomon - LOGO Carol Shaw - Mary Allen Wilkes - Linc 8 programmer Limor Fried - Ada Fruit Dona Bailey - Centipede programmer Burger Becky (Rebecca Heinmann) - Apple 2 programmer - Margaret Hamilton - Kim Swift - Rebecca Mercuri - STEM Radio technology classes for females Atari women - Mar Hicks - https://marhicks.com/ Betsy Ahl - Editor of Creative Computing Magazine Roberta Williams - Co-founder of Sierra Online ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Females in computing list: VCF East 2022
by Jeffrey Jonas 12 Jan '22

12 Jan '22

Grace Hopper, the Eniac programmers and "Secret Rosies" are fascinating people but I fear many cannot appear because they're no longer living :-0 However, Melissa Pierce's documentary "Born with Curiosity: The Story of Grace Murray Hopper" seems to be a work in progress, with a stage-show https://bornwithcuriosity.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Pierce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjx49LtuSFY -- jeff jonas

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Females in computing list: VCF East 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Jan '22

12 Jan '22

On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 10:59 AM Brian L. Stuart via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Good point, Bill, and it brings to mind Kathy Kleiman who > has done a great deal of research on the group of women > who became the first programmers of the ENIAC. She > conducted interviews with them while they were still living > and she has produced a short-form documentary film > about them. While I wouldn't want to speak for her, I'm > pretty sure she'd be happy to give a talk and a screening > of the film. > Wow! Great suggestion Brian! I didn't know about her, but she would be a great candidate for a speaker at our show. I will contact her. > BLS > > > > > > > On Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 01:02:28 PM UTC, Bill Degnan via > vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > > > *Living* pioneers of computing.who would draw a reasonable crowd as a > keynote speaker? Not so easy. Picking a high level manager at a software > company who happens to be a woman is not going to be on the same level as > past keynote speakers and it kind of looks like you're more trying to fill > the slot with someone who checks the box "woman" before you realized the > obvious problem.of your category choice. > > Consider finding an expert on the history of women in computing, regardless > of their demographic characteristics, who can give a good informative talk > on the subject of "women in computing". A good speaker who knows the > subject. This way you can *cover them all* with >respect<. Find an author > of a good book on the subject. Find a historian. > > Having this discussuon like this on an open forum? Wouldnt you want to > keep this kind of debate within management until you finalized your plans? > > Bill > Former.v.p. vcfed > > On Wed, Jan 12, 2022, 5:34 AM Mark Whittington via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > Margaret Hamilton > > > > On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 5:24 AM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic < > > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > > Grace Hopper, Gina Smith. > > > > > > > > > > > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Females in computing list: VCF East 2022
by Mark Whittington 12 Jan '22

12 Jan '22

Margaret Hamilton On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 5:24 AM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Grace Hopper, Gina Smith. > > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Females in computing list: VCF East 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Jan '22

12 Jan '22

On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 5:24 AM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Grace Hopper, Gina Smith. > Great suggestions!

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retro vacuum tube computer and circuits
by Jeffrey Jonas 11 Jan '22

11 Jan '22

Usagi Electric makes tube systems Usagi Electric - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/c/Nakazoto/videos> such as Vacuum Tube Computer P.22 – Processor Finished! - YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9oB-6963DU> -- jeff jonas

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Add-on card edge fingers for mock S-100 boards
by Joseph Giliberti 10 Jan '22

10 Jan '22

Greetings, I've been making basic design plans for my 8080- based homebrew computer. I want to build the system using the S-100 standard so that I could potentially add on commercially-built boards later. I've decided on wire-wrap board construction since the connections are solid and resistant to damage or corrosion. Plus it just looks so damn cool! I figure I can use plain perfboard to make the cards, but I need some way of grafting card-edge fingers onto the board and wrap them into the circuit, allowing me to connect to card to a standard S-100 backplane. Is there a premade part in existence to accomplish this, of will this be a project in and of itself? Thanks Everyone! Joe Giliberti

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Another great workshop this weekend 1/8 & 1/9, 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Jan '22

10 Jan '22

This past weekend there was a smaller turnout due to the cold and snowy weather, but we still got a lot of stuff done and enjoyed ourselves in a safe way. Jeff Salzman worked on TRS-80 and Commodore PET 4032 stuff. Ian worked on TVs and a Oscilloscope. Connor worked on a lot of various things CJ worked on TVs and other items. Ryan B worked don a Macintosh SE Gregg worked on an emulator. Perhaps they can elaborate on what they did. I took care of some maintenance stuff in the musem. Not sure what others were working on. So the next repair workshop is @ System Source Jan 29 & 30. Next e-mail will give details. ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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VCF East 2022 Flyer - Draft 2
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Jan '22

10 Jan '22

Here is a slightly edited version of the Commodore 64 version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tQJOKAWjdNKlaiAlhOp1YbDU7M5dTZt2/view?usp=… By the way, it's Drew Notarnicola making the fyer. He always does a great job of doing the flyers for us and did an excellent job with the program book this year! ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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VCF East 2022 Flyer - Draft
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Jan '22

10 Jan '22

Please take a look and let me know what you think of each of the flyers. Which do you prefer? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19Wt8BfCK7kcjgURUzdHfUcQcGe2vPgjO?us… ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Blackberry is finally at end-of-life
by Jeffrey Jonas 10 Jan '22

10 Jan '22

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59859817 Why BlackBerry held the tiny keys to my heartThis topic relates to vintage computers for many reasons 1) RIM (Research In Motion) did wonderful ergonomics on the Blackberry. Despite being so tiny, the full QWERTY keyboard was easy to use with just your thumbs, and the clicking scroll wheel was sufficient to navigate the GUI. I abhor touch-screen phones because there's no way to type-ahead, and my finger is opaque: I'm blocking the screen when interacting with it. 2) The tail wagging the dog: RIM was a trusted business communications tools due to the secure back-end. It was ultra-reliable from end to end 3) Like today's "cloud based services", the device has little value operating stand-alone. Once the server is gone, the device is mostly useless. -- jeffrey jonas

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semi OT: London cellphone exhibit
by Jeffrey Jonas 10 Jan '22

10 Jan '22

Of possible interest: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-59432930 Mobile phone museum celebrates ugly and iconic phones More than 2,000 old and iconic mobile phones are being showcased in a new online museum. The Mobile Phone Museum was set up by industry analyst Ben Wood who had collected thousands of phones as a hobby. BBC Click's Chris Fox went to the launch event in London and went hands-on with some of the oldest and "ugliest" devices in the collection.

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System Source Repair Workshop 1/29 & 1/30, 2022
by Jeffrey Brace 09 Jan '22

09 Jan '22

We will be having a January Repair Workshop at System Source. Signup here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wHIQ-T8EnZdNkUWN_f-rG2hApgCEDqwwdjn… <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__docs.google.com_spread…> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/338%0D%0A+Clubhouse+Road,+%0D%0A+Hunt%0D…> The Vintage Computer Federation and the System Source Computer Museum are hosting a vintage computer workshop on Saturday January 29th and Sunday January 30th 2022 at: System Source Computer Museum 338 Clubhouse Road, <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.com_maps_se…> Hunt Valley, MD <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.com_maps_se…> 21031 <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.google.com_maps_se…> Plenty of free parking, short walk from Baltimore’s light rail (Gilroy Road Stop) ON SATURDAY we will open at 9:00 AM and will lock up by 7:30 PM. ON SUNDAY: We will open at 9:00 AM and lock up at 5:00 PM *Accommodations:* Try https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g41196-Hunt_Valley_Maryland-Hotels.html <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.tripadvisor.com_Ho…> Feel free to talk with others about sharing a room. Food: There are plenty of restaurants within a short drive. We will have a catered Indian buffet on Saturday at cost ($12.00?) and catered Barbecue ($12.00?) on Sunday for those who are interested. We will feature tours of the museum throughout both days and several mini- workshops: · Retrobright workshop (bring your yellowed plastics) · Lots of New vintage computers from the DigiBarn Collection · Hot Metal Typesetting (3500 lb word processor)

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] VCF East 2022 Flyer - Draft
by Jameel Akari 09 Jan '22

09 Jan '22

I like the idea of the one with the kid playing on the Apple ][ - that it’s interactive and for everyone - but there’s something about the photo that isn’t quite perfect. I like the clean aesthetic of the C64 one but it’s not terribly exciting if you don’t know at a glance what it is. Between the two as is, I’d pick the Apple+kid one. -- Jameel Akari > On Jan 9, 2022, at 4:48 PM, Jonathan Sturges via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > From: Jonathan Sturges <jonathansturges(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: VCF East 2022 Flyer - Draft > Date: January 9, 2022 at 4:48:10 PM EST > To: "vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org" <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> > > > >> Please take a look and let me know what you think of each of the flyers. >> Which do you prefer? > >> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19Wt8BfCK7kcjgURUzdHfUcQcGe2vPgjO?us… > > Jeff, > Both are good but the first is better in my view because it reinforces that there's interactive activities. > > -Jonathan > > >

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Re: VCF East 2022 Flyer - Draft
by Jonathan Sturges 09 Jan '22

09 Jan '22

> Please take a look and let me know what you think of each of the flyers. > Which do you prefer? > https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19Wt8BfCK7kcjgURUzdHfUcQcGe2vPgjO?us… Jeff, Both are good but the first is better in my view because it reinforces that there's interactive activities. -Jonathan

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VCF Swap Meet Updated Flyer 2022 February
by Jeffrey Brace 08 Jan '22

08 Jan '22

Tony made the flyer Contrya (better). See this link for the improved flyer: https://vcfed.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/VCF_Swap_Meet_2_26_2022_LQ.… ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Repair workshop is still on for this weekend
by Jeffrey Brace 07 Jan '22

07 Jan '22

There was about 3 to 5 inches of snow this morning, but all the roads are clear. I just caution everyone to be aware of icy conditions as the snow melts and refreezes at night. ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] C64 is also 40 this year
by Christian Liendo 07 Jan '22

07 Jan '22

I got my C64 at Crazy Eddies, the first one was broken and be broght it back and they gave me a new one. I remember sometime in 1992 there was a place that was selling them in the box for like $15. On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 9:28 AM skogkatt007--- via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > My first C64 was a hand me down, from a friend. Before long I bought a 1541c? Then the bread bin 64 gave up the ghost. I got some tax money and bought my first IBM compatible. While waiting for it to arrive I drove to Penn Station and bought a 64c in the basement.

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Astral 2000 Computer Info
by Jeffrey Brace 07 Jan '22

07 Jan '22

Anyone have any info in Astral Computer? Someone is inquiring. Here is a picture: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cSmMCRI9Dp1uMwHZCVX8IFGbibnhFwmT/view?usp=… -- ========================================= Jeff Brace VCF National Board Member Chairman & Vice President Vintage Computer Festival East Show-runner VCF Mid-Atlantic Executive Director Vintage Computer Federation is a 501c3 charity http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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