- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Data Recovery from Jaz Cartridge
by Jeffrey Brace 26 Feb '20

26 Feb '20

Someone sent me a message requesting data recovery services. If anyone is interested or capable, then I will forward the contact info. Here is the request: I have a friend who needs data recovery for his Iomega *Jaz* Drive -- he has around a dozen 1GB disks. He asked me to help. He has (1) the drive, (2) the “*Jaz Traveller*” adapter, and (3) the cable. He has no software to install. This drive uses a SCSI interface and many people are selling (*gouging*) little SCSI to USB adapters ( Adaptec USB2xchange, Jaz Scsi to USB, and Microtech SCSI to USB) , on ebay and elsewhere for $250-$300 but noone states they were able to see a (say) File Explorer view of the files when they put the USB cable into a modern machine (say Vista, Win 7, Win8, Win10). I don't think that these adapters would work and my friend can't afford $300 for an adapter that might not work. On the other hand, I concluded that since the “*Jaz Traveller*” adapter he does have claims to convert SCSI to the Parallel Printer Port Interface (the shape and number of pins for SCSI is similar to PPP Interface), he has enough equipment to connect the cables to a PPP on a machine which has what I believe is called the guest95.exe Jaz software. This is a standalone app that runs on Windows 95 and reads from the PPP. I do have a Windows 95 machine but I cannot find guest95.exe except on very dark and evil sites where I do not trust that download to be anything but a virus and I cannot risk my machine that way. On one site, I downloaded three .rar files but they were in error with regard to a part being missing. I am thinking perhaps one of your vintage cronies still has a working Jaz Drive and can do this recovery at an affordable price if the disks were shipped to them -- all data would all fit on a $6 SanDisk 32GB thumb drive :- ). -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] [Galactic] Re: Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 26 Feb '20

26 Feb '20

The idea that a FORTRAN board game existed is intriguing. The tag line "Input: Reason Output:Pleasure" is borderline horrifying ...

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ANNOUNCE: VCF East 2020 Kit, R6501Q Single Board Computer
by systems_glitch 26 Feb '20

26 Feb '20

All, After much delay due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, I now have prototypes for this year's VCF East kit project! It's a Rockwell R6501Q single-board computer, which fits with the 6502 theme for this year, but isn't "just another 6502 SBC," of which there are many fine examples available. You can read the particulars on the VCFed Forums: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?73828-ANNOUNCE-VCF-East-2020-Kit-… If you're definitely going to be at VCF East 2020 and will definitely be buying/building a kit, please visit that link and fill out the poll. That'll help me in planning for the workshop. Thanks, Jonathan

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WE WANT YOU! To be a volunteer at VCF EAST 2020!
by Jeffrey Brace 24 Feb '20

24 Feb '20

VCF East is an event accomplished entirely through the volunteer work of our wonderful members like you! We have a need for everything from camera operator, to ticket desk, to docent, to information desk to many other positions. *Not sure how you want to help?* We will work with you to find an opportunity for you to volunteer in a way most meaningful to you. We need reliable, committed people with a widely varied set of skills. Volunteers receive a show pass for the weekend and they can also sleep over in the Sandy area for $25 per night. If you are interested, then please sign up here: Volunteer Registration <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXwPptOjEr4lkiPDcxzO0EwEcqQgaMg1D…> or e-mail me at jeffrey(a)vcfed.org for questions. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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VCF East 2020 Update
by Dean Notarnicola 24 Feb '20

24 Feb '20

The Steering Committee is thrilled to share that planning for VCF East 2020 is off to a running start! With two months until the event, we already have forty exhibitors confirmed with more pending < http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/vcf-east-exhib…>. Our speaker slots are almost entirely filled with exactly one open slot remaining < http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/classes/>. Adding icing to the cake, we are excited to share with you all the wonderful improvements made in the museum. This all combines to make for a packed, exciting and informative VCF East! Ticket pre-sales have started < https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vintage-computer-festival-east-2020-tickets-92…> . Please remember, online pre-purchase gets you in the gate thirty minutes early for priority seating and ticket prices are discounted versus the day of event door price. Online sales end April 20th so don't wait!

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Asus PIII CUSC motherboard drivers needed
by Sentrytv 24 Feb '20

24 Feb '20

Good afternoon to all I'm trying to locate drivers for windows 98SE for an Asus mini PIII motherboard SIS chips on board.(mini/micro tower) I tried their website but no luck with that model. Downloaded a couple others but did not work. Does anybody have a good idea where to get windows/Dos drivers for such a motherboard besides the Asus site? I don't usually come across these old or PC's but I wanted to get this up and running to play some old Star Wars games that I have. That needs windows.(DOS) Everything is on board, sound, video, serial, joystick, parallel, IDE. Please let me know if you have any ideas where to get them, off list is OK. Thank you Mike Sent from: My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device.

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Museum update
by Adam Michlin 23 Feb '20

23 Feb '20

Hi Everyone, The elves have been hard at work and, as many of you may have seen on the various social media feeds, we have all sorts of new things going on in the museum. New exhibits include: A now working (thanks to member Ian Primus!) Soviet Union era Spectrum ZX clone called the Orel (not "Eagle" as I incorrectly reported recently) donated by member Bill Lange. Working, as long as long as you can figure out the unlabeled Spectrum keyboard commands on the roman/cyrillic keyboard! Insert your own "In Soviet Russia..." joke here. Anyone have a Spectrum ZX Tetris cart they want to donate? A Timex Sinclair 1000 to match up with the aforementioned Spectrum clone. Still don't have the real English ZX working, but one day! A new office display with a pristine DEC Rainbow 100 and *all* the neat toys (beautiful color monitor!) associated with it that boots into MS-DOS and runs a DEC branded word processor. A TI Professional Portable (luggable) running MS-DOS and 123. One of the last CRT based portables with an absolutely amazing color screen A pristine PCJr including a monitor that was in a sealed box (literally brand new). A Panasonic MSX on loan from member Dean Notarnicola adding Japan to our growing list in the international exhibit area of the museum. Speaking of international, a Bulgarian Apple II clone called "Pravetz" was also added to the international exhibit area on loan from member Tony Bogan. A very cool and very rare officially branded Osborne monitor for our Osborne luggable/portable A Zorba CP/M luggable that is filling in for the Superbrain QD (which was just added, as well) while we get quad density disks (TIL!) up and running.. Best of all, all the above are for museum goers to *actively* use. The modem exhibit is almost complete with several USR and Hayes modems. A Telebit modem, an acoustic coupler modem, and an S100 PMMI modem card round out as many facets of the modem world that we can fit in one display case. The video game exhibit has been changed for East to feature only the 6502 (and 65816). Atari 2600 (same one), NES, SNES, and Atari XE with carts in the machines and representative retail boxes. Post East we might put back the archived "Atari 2600 and earlier exhibit", maybe keep this around, or do something entirely different! Suggestions are most enthusiastically welcome! The "All these things on the wall.." exhibit has been archived for return at another date and we have begun the CPU exhibit in large part due to previous work done by member Jeff Jonas. This Is still very much a work in progress and an email will be sent out shortly with what we have, what we expect to be getting, and what we need. Our goal is to bake the lesson of Moore's Law into the entire museum (supremely important to our mission!) to give more flexibility to the exhibit spaces. Member Bill Inderrieden has generously taken the lead on restoring the Wang 4000. We have high hopes it will be running some time very soon but these things, of course, require a methodical approach and patience. There's an ongoing project to get some DEC equipment running some form of VMS for musuem goers spearheaded by member Connor Krukosky. We're also working on getting the CoCo 3 runnings OS/9 with a solid state solution, but would love a donation of a non-working CoCo floppy drive so people can see what it should look like. The Xerox Star still doens't work, but several members are stepping up to come up with solutions. Any leads on a mouse would be golden. A museum by the people, for the people. And reminder of all our social media feeds: https://www.facebook.com/vcfederation/ <https://www.facebook.com/vcfederation/> https://twitter.com/vcfederation <https://twitter.com/vcfederation> https://www.instagram.com/vcfederation/ <https://www.instagram.com/vcfederation/> Best wishes, -Adam --- Adam Michlin Vintage Computer Federation VCF Mid Atlantic Steering Committee Member

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Cisco 2100 series WLAN controller (and rack kit) up for grabs
by Martin Flynn 23 Feb '20

23 Feb '20

Title says it all - there is a Cisco 2100 series WLAN controller (and rack kit) up for grabs. It's sitting on the rear bench in the makerspace, so it you grab it, reply all.

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Some personal updates
by Evan Koblentz 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

Some folks asked what is going on with me. They want to know if I am still in the hobby. The answer is yes. I'm as much of an Apple II fan as ever, and I am definitely going back to Kfest this summer -- can't wait! But I am staying away from VCF events for now, because there are three specific people whom I really don't want to be around. I feel deeply hurt and betrayed by these individuals. One person in particular -- for the record, it's not Jeff Brace -- is someone who, quite frankly, I don't trust * myself * to be in the same room with at this point. I'm a pacifist, but this one person deserves a large bucket of my aggression. Corey, whose friendship I value very much, urged me to do a Lego/computer display at VCF East. I am torn between obliging (because it would be insanely fun) and declining (because of aforementioned certain people.) I'm leaning toward saying no, because it would hurt too much to see people take credit for my work, and to see all the changes of which I do not approve. EK

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Kickstarter: Injection Molded Clear Case for Apple IIe and IIgs
by Adam Michlin 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

As I understand it, from the same people who made the SE/30 clear case and attempted to Kickstart the II/II+ case. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maceffects/injection-molded-clear-case…

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CPU exhibit, reborn
by Jeffrey Jonas 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

Several years ago, I made a CPU exhibit for MARCH mostly demonstrating how the pin count went from 40 (Z80, 8086, 6502 ...) to 64 (wide-body 68000) to hundreds (Pentium, Pentium-Pro, AT&T 32000) to a thousand. It's the "tyranny of numbers" all over again: too many pins to casually prototype (particularly the dreaded ball-grid-array). I never completed the accompanying chart with other stats: year it was introduced, word size, number of transistors, line width, die size, clock speed, CMOS/NMOS/PMOS). I was hoping to correlate it to the systems that used the chip and how so many mfgrs were in the game, particularly with the homebrew & demonstrators (RCA, Motorola, MOS, Zilog, Intel ...) Adam found it in the warehouse, so the exhibit is jump-started! -- jeff jonas

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Parasitic Engineering Altair Clock Fix Kit...
by William Sudbrink 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

Hi, Does anyone happen to have the instructions for this kit? I would really appreciate a scan if you do. Also looking for a 1975ish GE Porta-Color television (borrow, rent or buy) for VCF East. Thanks, Bill Sudbrink

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Impromptu Altair 8800 Demo/workshop Tomorrow 10-1 @kennett classic
by Bill Degnan 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

This will be a local event, by request, but if anyone from VCFed is in the area tomorrow morning come join us, bring your Altair...We'll have three or four on site, how-to load BASIC, how to test the system. https://www.meetup.com/Kennett-Classic/events/268856923/ WE WILL BE CLOSED THIS SATURDAY 2/22 New Exhibit: Salute to the User Group Featuring the Timex Sinclair https://www.kennettclassic.com/the-special-interest-group-sig/ Bill

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Repair workshop in Albany?
by Jeffrey Brace 20 Feb '20

20 Feb '20

So with the success of repair workshops at Kennett Classic and System Source which are west and south of InfoAge, I was thinking "Could someone do one further north? Like Albany?" Just a thought to try to plant workshops in different areas that are more convenient for members from different areas. What would be needed is a host location and person to set this up. I could help with a signup list and advertising on the website calendar and VCF list. Any thoughts? Comments? Questions? Ideas? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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System Source February Repair workshop
by Jeffrey Brace 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

The repair workshop at Bob Roswell's System Source in Hunt Valley, MD was a spectacular success! About 25 people the first day and 15 the second (Bob correct my numbers if they seem off). I saw lots of familiar and some new faces there. I loved the museum that Bob has setup there, I encourage everyone to visit the museum because it has rare and interesting exhibits. Lots of good repairing going on and lots of conversations with people about VCF East prep. Sometimes things work better to converse in person. Bob is hoping to do another workshop there next January or February. We will update everyone when we set a date. Anyone else want to chime in on their experience during the past weekend? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] System Source February Repair workshop
by Bill Degnan 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

I got help from Ryan to make an OS/8 disk on the System Source DECMATE, for my DECMATE. Unfortunately I learned I don't have the right cable so I still need one to complete this system. But one step closer! My favorite item at System Source is the Wang LOCI-2. Bill On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 7:43 PM Alexander Pierson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > System Source was great! I'm glad I got a chance to go both days (looked > like Sunday was off the table initially), and to see so many people I only > cross paths with once or twice a year. The contents of that museum are > different from other ones I've seen thus far, and sure, they had a lot of > the common big name machines, but they also had quite a few that I hadn't > ever seen before in person. Related note, they have a Westinghouse 1600 > terminal, which I had never seen before, much less heard of. Have any of > y'all crossed paths with them? > I rewired the rats nest in my OSI Challenger 4P, and added in an A15 I/O > connector board. Fired it up when I got back home and could reassemble the > hardware bits, which you can see here. I was able to compare against the > configuration of Bill Dromgoole's Challenger (which has an A15). I've > never seen so many OSI machines in one place before, and no two were the > same. More pictures on twitter. > Jonathan Sturges and Jeff Salzman were debugging their VIC-20's, and I > hope my input was helpful in their respective repair processes. Had I > thought about it, I would have dragged in some spare VIC parts, tools, and > appropriate documentation. > All in all, it was a blast. I'm glad it was close enough for me to attend > without much hassle. > -Alexander 'Z' Pierson > On Wednesday, February 19, 2020, 02:53:00 PM EST, Ethan O'Toole via > vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > I have a pretty good writeup and info about loading BASIC onto an > Altair, > > and if the cards are the *same port* it will work on the IMSAI as well. > > Assuming a MITS SIO2 or the equivalent settings such as with the > Processor > > Tech SIO card. I don't know all of the details but I have done this many > > different ways on a number of S100 systems, happy to help if I can. > > http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=318 > > http://vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=531 > > Bill > > Hello Bill, > > I have the 88-2SIO board which is supposed to be 100% ALTAIR > compatibile. Off the top of my head the 1st Serial port is at 10H > > Also, I didn't use any kind of loader. I ascii upload it thru the rom > monitor on the 88-2SIO starting at address 0000. Then execute at 0000. > > - Ethan > >

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] [Galactic] Re: Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

Some late responses just came in, so voting continues ... but please vote honestly, and not in response to the early results. This is very critical you know and we don't want to compromise the results of the survey. Mike

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Paul Vixie speaking at NYC BSD User Group
by Christian Liendo 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

Paul is a person who I would consider important to computer history but from a more recent time. https://www.nycbug.org/index?action=view&id=10677 Operating Systems as Dumb Pipes, Dr. Paul Vixie 2020-03-03 @ 18:45 - NYU Tandon Engineering Building (new), 370 Jay St, Room 1013, 10th Floor, Brooklyn (directly across Jay St from National Grid office) Notice: You should RSVP for this meeting at rsvp AT lists.nycbug.org. You should receive an autoresponse email. Your email address is sufficient verification for entry. Abstract This meeting is cosponsored with NYU's Center for Cybersecurity. Apps and servers, especially on the Web, have an agenda which does not include or welcome any interference by any on-path actors such as ISPs, national security or regulation, or third parties from the supply chain or from the Internet core. The way the ideal role of on-path actors is often described by end users or application developers or online service providers is to say, "I just want you to be a dumb pipe". As of 2019, operating system developers and network and edge system administrators are also described this way. DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and HTTP over QUIC(HTTP/3) now bypass the operating system's implementation and configuration of DNS, and bypasses the kernel's implementation of TCP. At the March 2020 NYC*Bug meeting, Dr. Paul Vixie, CEO of Farsight Security, will tell the story of how we got here, and what this trend means for endpoint and network security. FreeBSD and "ipfw" will be used for demonstration. Media Speaker Biography Dr. Paul Vixie is Chairman, CEO and Cofounder of Farsight Security. Dr. Vixie is an internet pioneer. Currently, he is the Chairman, CEO and cofounder of award-winning Farsight Security, Inc. Dr. Vixie was inducted into the internet Hall of Fame in 2014 for work related to DNS and anti-spam technologies. He is the author of open source internet software including BIND 8, and of many internet standards documents concerning DNS and DNSSEC. In addition, he founded the first anti-spam company (MAPS, 1996), the first non-profit internet infrastructure company (ISC, 1994), and the first neutral and commercial internet exchange (PAIX, 1991). In 2018, he cofounded SIE Europe UG, a European data sharing collective to fight cybercrime. Dr. Vixie earned his Ph.D. from Keio University for work related to DNS and DNSSEC in 2010. https://www.farsightsecurity.com/about-farsight-security/team/vixie/

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Bert Sutherland and Larry Tesler died this week
by Jeffrey Brace 19 Feb '20

19 Feb '20

It has been reported that these two people who were involved with some important vintage computing history have died. Burt Sutherland was a manager at Bolt, Baranek and Newman which helped develop ARPANET, at Xerox PARC and later at Sun Microsystems. He participated in the creation of Smalltalk, Java and Internet. Larry Tesler had worked at Xerox PARC, Apple, Amazon and Yahoo!He was a proponent of human-computer action and modeless software. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Ram testing / surface mount soldering at SS?
by Jason Perkins 18 Feb '20

18 Feb '20

I've got a laptop ram card with some bad ram on it I'd like to fix up next weeked. I got some standard 30 pin SIMMs with the same type of chip. I don't have any systems which use 30 pin SIMMs, so no way to test them. Does someone have a way to test these rams, and / or help me do the surface mount soldering to move them onto the laptop's card? Thanks! -- Jason Perkins 313 355 0085

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

Sure! About $70 per roll, and we have 20+ candidates there. ;-0 MIke On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 1:26 PM Adam Michlin <adam.michlin(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > Umm.. can we do them all? Pretty please? Too much awesomeness to choose > from! > > On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 1:05 PM Michael Brutman <michael(a)vcfed.org> wrote: > >> I'm trying to break the impasse on stickers ... I know, it's very >> critical that we solve this problem. >> >> Here is a link to a quick survey that I'd like you to take. The idea is >> simple; if you like an idea click on the corresponding check box. If you >> don't like it, leave it alone. >> >> https://forms.gle/oS6Jv6Wvi78j4Fst8 >> >> Vote just once please; we're not enforcing it. We'll leave voting open >> for two or three days. The most popular sticker candidates might be turned >> into stickers. >> >> >> Thanks, >> Mike >> >

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Repair Workshops March 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

March 7 & 8, 2020: Wall, NJ (InfoAge) - CDL Hackerspace building 9059: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DySkGulduRUxJuPwK2RUEdP_yKD8YiDEn7K… > March 28: Kennett Square, PA. at Bill Degnan's Kennett Classic Let him know that you are coming: Website: <https://www.kennettclassic.com/> -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Your critical thinking skills and opinion needed: Stickers!
by Michael Brutman 17 Feb '20

17 Feb '20

I'm trying to break the impasse on stickers ... I know, it's very critical that we solve this problem. Here is a link to a quick survey that I'd like you to take. The idea is simple; if you like an idea click on the corresponding check box. If you don't like it, leave it alone. https://forms.gle/oS6Jv6Wvi78j4Fst8 Vote just once please; we're not enforcing it. We'll leave voting open for two or three days. The most popular sticker candidates might be turned into stickers. Thanks, Mike

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Retro technology at CDL
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 16 Feb '20

16 Feb '20

Neil Cherry via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> writes: > >On 2/15/20 9:47 PM, Martin Flynn via vcf-midatlantic wrote: > The CDL >PBX thinks it's 1981 again as it allows calls between our M43 (4320AAA) >> Teletype in the CDL and other ASCII machines on site using the >historically correct > area codes of 510, 610, and 910. > >??? - Wasn't NJ just 201 and 609? I recall Great Adventure having a 201 >number despite being in Jackson. The jamesburg exchange office was in >609 which meant Monroe Twp was split into 609 and 201. Jackson had been 201. Then, 908 was created and Jackson was put in that area code. Soon thereafter, 732 was created and Jackson was again move into that new code. I stopped having business cards printed as it seemed that every time I had new cards printed, the area code was changed. ;) 609 was, as you're probably aware, split too. 609 and 856. There are serveral other area code now for NJ but I believe those are set aside mostly for mobile assignment.

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Retro technology at CDL
by Martin Flynn 15 Feb '20

15 Feb '20

The CDL PBX thinks it's 1981 again as it allows calls between our M43 (4320AAA) Teletype in the CDL and other ASCII machines on site using the historically correct area codes of 510, 610, and 910. Martin

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Happy 74th Birthday ENIAC
by Brian L. Stuart 15 Feb '20

15 Feb '20

On this, the 74th anniversary of the unveiling of the ENIAC, I've decided to post a couple of things I've been working on. The first is the 3D model of the ENIAC mentioned before. It's designed using brlcad, from the Ballistics Research Lab. It just seemed too appropriate to model it using the tool devleoped where it lived. The thingiverse link is: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4164825 The second thing is a draft of a chapter from a book I'm in the very early stages of. It describes the basic circuit designs used in the ENIAC with SPICE simulations of them. The layout and formatting are based on the old Army Technical Manuals of the time. http://cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/eniac/ch1.pdf Enjoy, BLS

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Repair Workshops February 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 14 Feb '20

14 Feb '20

February 15 & 16, 2020: Hunt Valley, MD at Bob Roswell's System Source: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cVBh27hzT1P53BCorZXcK3cZQVwPtwWLLX6… > The Vintage Computer Federation and the System Source Computer Museum are hosting a vintage computer workshop on Saturday February 15th and Sunday February 16th 2020 at: System Source Computer Museum 338 Clubhouse Road, Hunt Valley, MD 21031 Plenty of free parking, short walk from Baltimore’s light rail (Gilroy Road Stop) We will open at 10AM on Saturday February 15th, 2020 and will lock up by midnight. We will open at 10AM on Sunday February 16h and lock up at 6:00PM Accommodations: Try https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g41196-Hunt_Valley_Maryland-Hotels.html Feel free to talk with others about sharing a room. Food: There are plenty of restaurants within a short drive. We will have catered Indian buffet on Saturday at cost ($12.00?) and catered Barbecue ($12.00?) on Sunday for those who sign up. We will feature tours of the museum throughout both days and several mini-workshops: - Retrobright workshop (bring your yellowed plastics) - Pre-industrial computing class - Learn to use a slide rule, and various types of Abaci - Hot Metal Typesetting (3500 lb word processor) If you need a machine to work on, please let me know. We have lots of computers awaiting restoration! If you have unusual needs, (220 Volts, fork lift, etc please email Bob Roswell at museum(a)syssrc.com Bob Roswell broswell(a)syssrc.com https://museum.syssrc.com 410-771-5544 x 4336 Here is the signup sheet: < https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cVBh27hzT1P53BCorZXcK3cZQVwPtwWLLX6… > ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President Vintage Computer Federation

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Scans of David Ahl's DEC EDU newsletter
by Jeffrey Brace 13 Feb '20

13 Feb '20

Someone asked me if we have any copies of DEC's EDU Newsletter which came before Creative Computing. She only found one copy on bitsavers: https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_deceducatiigitalEDU7Newsletter1973_11… Does anyone know if copies of this newsletter exist as scans or hardcopies? Do you think that asking on CCtalk would be helpful? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt
by Adam Michlin 13 Feb '20

13 Feb '20

Hi Everyone, VCF is working on a historical exhibit of CPUs (not really support chips at this point). Literally just the CPUs. What should we have at the bare minimum? 4004, 8008, 8088, 8086, 6502, Z80, 6800, 6809...? What should we have if we have more space? 80x86, 680x0, Sparc, MIPS, Power, Alpha, ARM, Itanium...? Modern CPUs (to some degree) aren't out of the question, either, as we're hoping to show the progression of Moore's Law from the 4004 (2,300 transistors) to present day maybe, for example, a AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (at 9,890,000,000 transistors). Thoughts? I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of important CPUs. -Adam

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt
by Neil Cherry 12 Feb '20

12 Feb '20

Tony, you just reminded me ... A hugely important processor in the history of processors the 6501. It's really too bad you won't get one to display and if you do it needs to be guarded. 6800 ($300+ as I recall) -> 6501 (sued into oblivion by Motorola) -> 6502 (for less than $30). Remmeber $300 is was more than I made in a week in 1980 (35 hours). So jump that back to 1975, that's quite a bit of money for just the CPU. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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The Print Shop for the C64 - known working copy?
by Jeffrey Brace 12 Feb '20

12 Feb '20

Hello, I setup The Print Shop for the C64 in the museum with the original disk, but it locked after successful test print in the printer setup part. I tried two cracked versions, but they didn't have the setup part in the menu or didn't work. Does someone have a known working copy? Can you send it as a .d64? I will be at the System Source repair workshop this weekend if that helps deliver a real floppy disk. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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CRT Repair (OT Modern $$)
by Bill Degnan 12 Feb '20

12 Feb '20

Hi - I have a Dream Authentics arcade with a faulty CRT. It was purchased new about 12 years ago. Click .. click .. click then nothing. The inbound signal from the computer is ok, problem is with the CRT. If you're in the Philadelphia area (Kennett Square is 30 mins south) let me know. Will pay fair wage for on-site repair. The CRT itself is open in the back once you remove the arcade back cover. Contact me off list through vintagecomputer.net/contact.cfm Thanks Bill

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Fortran Board Game
by Herb Johnson 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

Adam, I'll risk my ignorance of this particular 1970's board game, to speak up. Without going on about the history of board games; There were any number of "computer" card-game or board-game products in the 1970's and 80's, also earlier - why is this one any better than any other? Why is this worth $300? I'm not a game-collector, and I certainly don't take an eBay description at face value. But I know FORTRAN, and I don't see much "FORTRAN" about this game, from the eBay auction photos. I dont' want to give Adam a hard time, if he was simply excited to see such a thing and was sharing his excitement. But I'm left confused by statement like "we really need this... this is a real thing". Does the VCFed Museum now solicit board-games about computers? If so the local thrift stores will produce them; please provide some guidance if you want donations. Do not pass GO, do not pay $300. 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 retrotechnology DOT info

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Oh noes, wikipedia might be wrong :-0
by Jeffrey Jonas 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

I was looking up the "first" 32 bit CPU chip. Ummm, 1980 is before 1982 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_FOCUS The Hewlett-Packard FOCUS microprocessor, launched in 1982, was the first commercial, single chip, fully 32-bit microprocessor available on the market. [I guess "fully 32 bit" is the key phrase: 32 bit external interface?] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68000 The original MC68000 was fabricated using an HMOS process with a 3.5 um feature size. Formally introduced in September 1979, initial samples were released in February 1980, with production chips available over the counter in November. Once again, "Who Was First" is a vague and dangerous question. I'd love to see a "Who's On First" variation about "first" computers, with ENIAC on first :-) I agree with defining a focus for the CPU exhibit. Certainly the 8 bit processors are a natural grouping. Or just the processors of the 70s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor_chronology

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt
by Jeffrey Jonas 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

My animated reply to Chris Liendo: > Sun Microsystems SPARC Processor > Using an unproven new architecture, this processor put Sun Microsystems on the map I believe the HP Spectrum RISC chip came first: Citing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PA-RISC The architecture was introduced on 26 February 1986, when the HP 3000 Series 930 and HP 9000 Model 840 computers were launched featuring the first implementation, the TS1 > Microchip Technology PIC 16C84 Microcontroller > Adding easily reprogrammable onboard memory > to store software revolutionized microcontrollers I worked at General Instruments' Hicksville facility around 1982. Here are some mementos http://ferretronix.com/tech/chips/index.html such as info about the first PIC chips http://ferretronix.com/tech/chips/gi_product_guide_1982_3.jpg They were VERY EXPENSIVE to use, requiring a cross assembler and development tools, programmer, emulator for debugging, etc. They were ROM only. The UV-EPROM ones came later. I'd say the flash/eeprom ones REALLY made things hobbyist friendly. No more pulling the chip to UV erase it, program it using a dedicated programmer, inserting it into the circuit only to find a program debug and repeat the entire cycle. Wikipiedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIC_microcontrollers links to https://www.eetimes.com/microchip-offering-flash-at-otp-prices/# Microchip offering flash at OTP prices By Darrell Dunn 08.31.2001 Having established itself as a major supplier in the microcontroller market over the past decade by pioneering the use of one-time-programmable (OTP) devices, Microchip Technology Inc. today hopes to usher in a new era with devices based on a new process technology the company believes will provide the advantages of flash memory at OTP prices. "We're trying to move flash into mainstream applications," said Greg Robinson, product marketing manager at Microchip in Chandler, Ariz. "We changed the entire paradigm of the 8-bit market with OTPs and now with our new cell we can bring flash into consumer types of applications as we eliminate the traditional flash disadvantages of cost and programming time."

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Fortran Board Game
by Adam Michlin 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

This is not a joke. We need this for the musuem: https://www.ebay.com/itm/SEALED-Fortran-Computer-Board-Game-VTG-1973-Orda-P… Well, OK, not really need... but still... And, yes, it is a real thing. -Adam

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Vic-20 Switch
by corey cohen 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

So does anyone have a part number for a correct replacement switch. If they go bad, maybe we need to buy a few for the museum’s Vic-20’s that work. corey cohen uǝɥoɔ ʎǝɹoɔ Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 10, 2020, at 12:31 PM, Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > <mime-attachment>

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Blinken lights for the Pidp8 ?
by Neil Cherry 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

I finally found the missing chip for my PIDP8 (I thought it was a ULN chip, it's not). And I've be successful at running advent on it (yea). I recall someone mentioning that there was one program that was a program that would basically exercise the display while it was running. Does anyone recall which program that might be? I won't have time to dig into the PIDP8 and actually learn to properly load from the display. At least not for a few more months. Thanks -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry(a)linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies

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OT: Seeking information on a 2006 Dell XPS 700 in Jet Black
by Bob Shuster 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

We discovered this beast in cleaning out a relative’s house. It appears to have never been powered on - still has the plastic wrap on it as does the display. My initial evaluation was that this 2006 PC was worthless in 2020, but in thinking about it now I’m not so sure since it seems kind of unique. Does anyone know anything about this? Does it have any value today - and/or is anyone interested in it? Please contact me off-list, no need to clog this with OT discussions! Thanks. - Bob

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Vic-20 Switch
by Bill Degnan 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

you have 10,000 vic 20's just transplant a nicely-working switch from dead machine. :-) On Mon, Feb 10, 2020 at 10:24 AM Sentrytv via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > Lubricating a switch should help > > Sent from: > My extremely complicated, hand held electronic device. > > > On Feb 10, 2020, at 9:01 AM, Chris Fala via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > > > > This is a common failure. Not sure if it is fixable, perhaps with > lubrication, I never tried. Replacement is an option. > > > > > > > > > >> On Feb 10, 2020, at 7:09 AM, Jeffrey Brace via vcf-midatlantic < > vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: > >> > > > > The museum's vic-20 power on switch is difficult to turn on and off. Is > > this a common issue with the vic-20? Is there a way to make it easier to > > turn on and off like the C64 power switch? > > > > -- > > ========================================= > > Jeff Brace > > Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner > > Vintage Computer Federation > > http://www.vcfed.org/ > > jeffrey(a)vcfed.org > >

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Vic-20 Switch
by Jeffrey Brace 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

The museum's vic-20 power on switch is difficult to turn on and off. Is this a common issue with the vic-20? Is there a way to make it easier to turn on and off like the C64 power switch? -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Online ticket sales for VCFe 2020 have begun!
by Dean Notarnicola 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

Online ticket sales have begun, exclusively on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vintage-computer-festival-east-2020-tickets-92… Advance ticket purchase on Evenbrite gets you in 30 minutes early (8:30 am) so you can claim a spot for keynotes, classes, sales or other events. Ticket prices are higher at the door the days of the event and do not start unitl 9:00 am, so buy ahead and get in early! *Advance ticket sales close at end of day Monday April 20th, so don't wait!*

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Last workshop report
by David Gesswein 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

Executive summary: I checked out the two 3B1's in the museum. One had hardware mods to allow more and larger disks and is functional though the drive doesn't want to reliably spin up. The second has a motherboard fault. I also updated the image on the 3B1 in the Museum and added a USB cable hidden behind the center expansion board cover to allow easier updates to the disk image. Due to the rain and the filler work running long the Xerox 8010 didn't get that much work done. It appears to have a hardware fault though was running some. Fault may just be with the control panel. The hard drive wouldn't spin properly, likely loose belt. The second Xerox was not investigated at all. TLDR: The plan was to mostly work on the Xerox 8010 Star/Dandelion but we decided to not try to move it in the heavy rains Saturday so I did more 3B1 work. I checked out the two 3B1's in the warehouse and removed the batteries from both. The first one with sticker NCR SN 02233914 on the side was interesting. The motherboard had been modifed to the P5.1 motherboard configuration. This change was under development when AT&T killed the UNIX PC line. The last software supported it but the updated motherboard was not shipped. P5.1 increases the number of heads supported from 8 to 16. The hard disk controller chip was also changed to the WD2010 which allows the number of cylinders to be increased from 1024. The chip supports 2048 but the operating system limit is 1400. It also had the modification to support a second hard drive. You can see the grill for one of the fans had been cut down to allow the cables for the second drive to exit the case for an external drive at some point. The fan was reinstalled and no cables are present for the external drive. Currently it is configured with a single DEC RD54 hard drive. The drive capacity is 152 MB vs the standard configuration of 67 MB. I removed the RD54 to backup with my reader. It initially didn't want to spin up but with some light hits to spin it around the spindle axes it spun up and I was able to read the drive. The MSB for the head was put in the sector number byte since the WD2010 only supports 8 heads. I hadn't run across a machine with the P5.1 mods so had to fix my 3B1 decoding to match. The drive label had 42 defects listed. I found 7 sectors with read errors, the first 5 matching sectors in the defect list. The machine has 2 MB on the motherboard and a 2 MB memory expansion board so has the maximum amount of memory supported. It also has a floppy tape drive expansion board and cable with it. I forgot to dig around on the shelf rack to see if the drive was around. May be good to see if the drive is around so it can be kept together with the computer. This machine had the battery holder installed. I removed the BR2325 battery. You likely can install a BR2330 to get a little longer life. BR2330 is the battery I have in the museum 3B1. After I put everything back together the computer was running but the hard drive wasn't spinning up. Likely the drive is unhappy. I didn't open it back up to check that I got the power plug fully seated. I also did not test the floppy drive. This machine is more tricked out than the one in the museum except for not having the DOS expansion board. I haven't looked that much at the disk image. It does have some things I haven't seem before, a CAD program and an office suite Smart Software System with wordprocessor, database, spreadsheet, and spellchecker. It had noticable usage by one user and a couple other accounts. A few pictures here http://www.pdp8online.com/3b1/vcf-p5.1/pics.shtml The second 3B1 is labeled 370429065 on the bottom. I was able to read the drive but it had 50 bad sectors and got worse with further read attempts. The drive didn't sound too bad. It's possible that the drive is useable with a reformat. The system files were similar to the previous machine and it only had one user account with no significant content so I didn't try harder to recover the bad sectors. This machine does not complete its power on diagnostics. It has one green LED lit which indicates that the video ram failed its test. I did not try to fix the fault. This machine still had the soldered in battery so I cut it out. It was a CR2430. It has a dual serial port expansion board installed without memory installed so only has the 2 MB on the motherboard. I opened the museum 3B1 and ran a USB cable from the emulator with the end tucked above the center expansion slot memory board. It can be accessed by removing the center slot cover. It is a USB-C connector. I updated the image with some more demo software. Some of the additions are it has BASIC, Logo, gcc, Microsoft Word & Multiplan, simple hello world in C, BASIC, and Logo, a ~10 line Logo program which draws a tree and the software to use the DOS coprocessor board. I need to write up a description of how to use the stuff installed. I demoed at the workday. Connor was working on a VAX which didn't want to boot. We used my mfm board to verify that the RD54 drive wasn't going ready. Comparing to the 3B1 RD54 it sounded like the heads were stuck. He opened the drive and it had a deteriorating rubber stop for the heads that was likely preventing them from moving. It was a blue rubber ring on the bottom plate of the drive and reasonably accessible. He removed as much of it as he could and the heads properly went through the startup sequence. I tried to read the drive with my mfm board and it had an excessive number of read errors to be useful. I did verify it was a VMS disk. It appears to have the problem commonly seen where the head stack is out of alignment. Some of the heads are so far out of alignment you read the data from the next cylinder. Drive may be recoverable with methods like this. http://www.pdp8online.com/mfm/head_servo/ Connor pulled 2 more RD54's from warehouse machines to try to get a good image for the emulator in case we can't get one formatted by the VAX. One drive wouldn't work, I think stuck heads again. The other was readable. It was from a PDP-11, possibly a 73. It is RT-11 with KASTLE SYSTEMS building monitoring software. Only a few hours were left when I got to the Xerox 8010. I pulled the boards and power to the hard drive and verified the power supply voltages were within specification. I also inspected for anything suspicious. For some reason the floppy drive power and data cables were disconnected. I released the spindle and head shipping locks on the hard drive and verified the spindle would turn. I hooked up my mfm board and tried to read the drive. The drive barely spun. I think the belt is slipping. I didn't have time to remove the drive from the machine to work on further. We installed the cards and powered on the machine after Connor found the power button hiding behind a cover. As previously reported the diagnostic display counted from 0 to 10 repeatedly. If I understand the documentation, the machine is supposed to cycle through these codes when the alt boot button is pressed and you release it when the code matches the operation you wish to perform. I played with the button but it still always went though the 0-10 sequence. It is reading the button as always depressed. The reset button next to it did function. The hard drive power is currently disabled and the shipping locks installed. The floppy power and data cables were reconnected. The machine is missing its castors. They need to be replaced. It still needs cleaning. The one I was working on one of the side panels is broken at the bootom. I think the other machine had a good side panel. Their is some rust but the machine looks in reasonable condition. I did not do any testing on the second machine.

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Museum Report 2020-02-09 February 9, 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

I started setting up The PrintShop with the C64 in the 80's bedroom exhibit. Found the original box and disks. Going to have a Star Gemini NX-10 working to print out samples for visitors. A decent amount of visitors. I started training a new docent named Dennis and hope to have him up to speed and in the rotation soon. I started out by hazing him and made him figure out how to turn all the 2 dozen different machines which can be tricky as they are in different spots, some have switches, some are power buttons, etc. -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Museum Report 2020-02-08 February 8, 2020
by Jeffrey Brace 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

About two dozen people came through the museum with medium interest. It is interesting to show off all the improvements to the museum. Tony and Adam were there all day working on various museum and warehouse stuff. Things are really looking great in the museum. Come stop by and see what all the cool new stuff that is happening! -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt
by Adam Michlin 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

LOL. Well, MIPS was just an ivory tower academic design... <duck and cover> (for the record for everyone, I heart MIPS and I teach MIPS... ) On 2/9/2020 1:27 PM, Andrew Diller wrote: > My outrageous claim: I think a whole exhibit dedicated to just MIPS evolution... it's a fascinating arch and one that counts as a classic 90's UNIX powerhouse. > > But of course, that is just my opinion.... > > > Bare Min should include: MIPS R3k, R4k, R5k, R10k, R12k, R14k and the R16k. > > There is a good case to be made that MIPS pushed the boundaries of RISC evolution in the 90's and if it weren't for the Itanium disaster would be a strong contender nowadays... > > -andy > >> On Feb 9, 2020, at 11:45 AM, Adam Michlin via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: >> >> Hi Everyone, >> >> VCF is working on a historical exhibit of CPUs (not really support chips at this point). Literally just the CPUs. >> >> What should we have at the bare minimum? 4004, 8008, 8088, 8086, 6502, Z80, 6800, 6809...? >

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Macworld EXPO NY 2000
by Peter Fletcher 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

In July of 2000, my friend Joe and I attended Macworld NY. We saw the introduction of the G4 Cube, iMovie 2, and OS X. On stage we saw Steve Jobs, Gregory Hines, and Douglas Adams and we had the privilege to meet Sinbad on the show floor. Sadly Steve, Gregory, and Douglas have all since passed away. Sinbad thankfully is still alive and well. I stumbled upon my old Canon Mini DV camera in February of 2020 and this footage was on one of the tapes. It just seemed right to use iMovie 2 to import and edit the video. My old Power Mac G4 was also used to import and edit. Video here : https://youtu.be/SVKUgkT8wuA <https://youtu.be/SVKUgkT8wuA> -Pete

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt
by Dave McGuire 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

On 2/9/20 2:20 PM, Andrew Diller wrote: >> <voice accent="irish"> >> A man after me own heart! >> </voice> >> > > I read that as > > > <voice accent="Spongebob-Pirate-Narrator"> > A man after me own heart! > </voice> coffee -> keyboard -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

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Re: vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 21, Issue 9
by Burning Image 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

I would suggest adding the 1802, 2650, 6100 / 6120. and SC/MP. Best regards, Cory Sickles On Sunday, February 9, 2020, 12:01:37 PM EST, <vcf-midatlantic-request(a)lists.vcfed.org> wrote: Send vcf-midatlantic mailing list submissions to vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.vcfed.org/mailman/listinfo/vcf-midatlantic or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to vcf-midatlantic-request(a)lists.vcfed.org You can reach the person managing the list at vcf-midatlantic-owner(a)lists.vcfed.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of vcf-midatlantic digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt (Adam Michlin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2020 11:45:37 -0500 From: Adam Michlin <amichlin(a)swerlin.com> To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] Working on a historical microprocessor exhibt Message-ID: <e873e0db-612f-2e6f-dde3-cbd43002ae54(a)swerlin.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Hi Everyone, VCF is working on a historical exhibit of CPUs (not really support chips at this point). Literally just the CPUs. What should we have at the bare minimum? 4004, 8008, 8088, 8086, 6502, Z80, 6800, 6809...? What should we have if we have more space? 80x86, 680x0, Sparc, MIPS, Power, Alpha, ARM, Itanium...? Modern CPUs (to some degree) aren't out of the question, either, as we're hoping to show the progression of Moore's Law from the 4004 (2,300 transistors) to present day maybe, for example, a AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (at 9,890,000,000 transistors). Thoughts? I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of important CPUs. ?????????? -Adam End of vcf-midatlantic Digest, Vol 21, Issue 9 **********************************************

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ISA BIOS extension board?
by Richard Cini 07 Feb '20

07 Feb '20

All – I have an old 486 “shoe box”/industrial PC from 1994 that I want to toss a larger hard drive in to use with some Windows 3.11 experiments I’m doing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have LBA BIOS extensions, so I’m capped at 540MB. I have one from WD, but it’s kind of creaky. So, I pulled out a 1.2G drive I had and installed OnTrack 9.57 which works fine. However, I feel kind of funny relying on the software wedge because you need to make custom boot diskettes, etc. So, I was looking for an ISA card with the LBA BIOS extensions. I know they made them years ago, but I don’t know exactly what they are called, so I’m not having much success in locating one. There may be other options like using an XT-IDE (if it does LBA; can’t tell) or maybe a different IDE card. Problem is that space is very limited (only 3 slots) and it has to be a low/short card to avoid interfering with the CPU fan. Any other suggestions/advice welcome. Right now I’m going to run with the 540MB drive I have, but I would like to find a better solution. Thanks! Rich -- Rich Cini http://www.classiccmp.org/cini http://www.classiccmp.org/altair32

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