- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Simpler web domain for VCF
by Evan Koblentz 11 Dec '15

11 Dec '15

We bought vcfed.com and vcfed.org. Both of them forward to vintagecomputerfederation.org ... and they're a lot easier to put on our literature and stuff. :)

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Happy DEC-10 day
by Herb Johnson 10 Dec '15

10 Dec '15

Those who remember the legacy of the PDP-10, DEC-10 and DEC-20 might use this day, to consider what might have been, and what was, for this DEC product line. In the late 1970's I ran a KA-10, the oldest PDP-10, for a university's Artificial Intelligence department. But it was also used for general timesharing access, and many universities ran TOPS-10 and PDP-10 KA's and later KI's and KL's to service many many terminals. These were not small machines, they filled rooms. But a later KS-10 model was a microprogrammed version of the PDP-10 - it was only the size of a very large refrigerator. Compuserve used KS-10's as network controllers, and ran their own OS on 10's to provide their services. But DEC "choked" on developing 36-bit PDP-10 compatible workstations or desktops (some of those engineers went on to form Data General) and DEC produced the VAX line instead. The old PDP-10's were eventually taken out of commercial service; I don't know if any are running commercially today. It's hard to run one "privately" in a basement or garage, but someone likely fires something up in the winter. If anyone knows directly of a PDP-10 out there today, it would be nice to know of it. Happy DEC-10 day! Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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TI 99/4a BlowOut
by william degnan 10 Dec '15

10 Dec '15

Selling off extra guaranteed-to-work (30 days) TI 99 4/a systems - you can customize your order as I have a lot of available inventory. Min order is $49.99 depending on the hardware and software purchased. I will set it all up and make sure it works correctly before shipping. Contact me privately with system quote requests including your address. Assume shipping is = cost + materials. Here are some photos of example systems on hand. http://www.vintagecomputer.net/ti/ti994a/ -- Bill

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Repairs / Next Workshop
by James Garland 10 Dec '15

10 Dec '15

Hello everyone, I've been wondering if there are any plans for having a repair workshop soon. This is probably a bad time to ask about workshops seeing as Festivus is so soon (which I am excited to attend). Anyway, I'm looking for some help on a (probably simple) repair project I've been struggling with for a while. Thanks, James Garland

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Perq 1
by Kenneth Seefried 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

FYI...if you don't already know, the Tony Duell (ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk) in that thread probably knows as much about Perq electronics and repairing them at the component level as most anyone left around. If you're doing Perq repair, he's probably the first person you should reach out to. KJ

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Fabri-Tek MP-12 Industrial Computer
by Kyle Owen 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

I made this post to the Vintage Computer Forum, and some bits and pieces to cctalk, but since Connor brought his to Festivus, I figured I'd share with you all what we've learned about it. And on that note, sorry I couldn't make it up there! It wouldn't have been feasible for me to make it up there for the weekend, considering I had to be back Monday at 8am for a final exam. Apologies to anyone offended by this wall of text. Here are some pictures, first: http://imgur.com/a/oziVX 1. These systems date to 1975 or so, but were used up into the 2000s for controlling movie film developing tanks, as I understand it. Thus, powering them up was as easy as plugging them in...almost. There's no obvious spot for power, but upon removing the cover, it became clear that it would obtain power via the paper tape reader and I/O box with a V.35 connector. So instead, we've hot-wired in a line cord across the transformer in the main box. 120VAC power is transmitted over a straight-through DA-15 connector...kind of scary, but I guess it works. 2. I wrote some very simple code to test the front panel operations. Turns out that while the machine runs, the front panel lights only show what's on the bus, so watching the accumulator is not possible. You can single-step, though. Also, to show how limited the front panel really is: the deposit operation doesn't increment PC automatically. So if you're having to toggle in much, it's address, load, data, load, and repeat. However, if you're clever and not toggling in too many JMP, JSR, SKP, or other such operations that change the PC, you can use single-step to increment the PC. 3. Just the Fabri-Tek by itself is kind of lame. It has no I/O without the paper tape reader and I/O box connected via the DA-15 cable (using a high-speed synchronous serial connection with a bunch of 7400-series shift registers). It also only has 4k of core (and a dash of ROM at the top). The ROM is a very basic paper tape loader, dare I say, even more basic than DEC's RIM loader. It took quite a while for me to fully understand how it worked, but I am finally there now. The ROM's used are 512 by 4 bit bipolar PROMs. It would appear as though when the word is equal to 7777 octal, core is referenced instead. Otherwise, the ROM values are read. Writing to the location does nothing, best I can tell. Here's the disassembly listing of the ROM code: 1 7755 *7755 2 07755 0000 BEGIN, 0 3 07756 7755 TEMP, BEGIN /NOT IN ROM 4 07757 7602 CLA HLT /7602 5 07760 7755 ADDR, BEGIN /7755 STARTING ADDRESS? 6 07761 1360 START, TAD ADDR /1360 GET STARTING ADDRESS? 7 07762 3356 DCA TEMP /3356 SAVE TEMPORARILY 8 07763 6012 LOOP, 6012 /6012 ADVANCE TAPE 9 07764 7106 CLL RTL /7106 10 07765 7006 RTL /7006 11 07766 7006 RTL /7006 ROTATE SO BIT 0 IS IN BIT 7, BIT 4 IN BIT 11, ETC. 12 07767 6015 6015 /6015 READ TAPE AND SKIP 13 07770 5367 JMP .-1 /5367 14 07771 7420 SNL /7420 SKIP IF LINK IS SET (BIT 6 OF PAPER TAPE IS SET) 15 07772 5363 JMP LOOP /5363 16 07773 3756 DCA I TEMP /3756 17 07774 2356 ISZ TEMP /2356 18 07775 5355 JMP BEGIN /5355 19 07776 7776 7776 /NOT IN ROM 20 07777 5361 JMP START /5361 21 $ Notice there are two locations there that are "NOT IN ROM." These are unprogrammed in the PROM, allowing for the system to read and write from core in those locations. Understanding what 6012 and 6015 did were the tricks, though. I wrongfully assumed that the reader was compatible with the high speed reader that DEC used or the IOmec reader, but instead, this has its own instructions. 6012, instead of reading the buffer like on a PC8E, advances the tape one byte. What should've clued me in that this wasn't DEC was that 6015 isn't used on the PC8E except in perhaps very rare circumstances, as it's a combination of clear flag and skip if flag. On the IOmec reader, it skips if the end of tape flag is set. In the Fabri-Tek, 6015 reads the buffer and skips if the reader is ready, apparently. Once that was figured out, it became clear that this was similar to the RIM loader, but only to a point. Starting at 7777, the loader jumps immediately to START, where it loads 7755 into the AC, then deposits into a temporary address. It then advances the tape, clears the link and rotates an empty AC around 6 times. Then it reads the buffer and will jump back to LOOP since the link is not set. It then repeats, advancing the tape, clearing link, rotating accumulator, and reads again. If the first byte it read in had a 1 in the 6th bit, the link will now be 1, causing it to skip. The second byte should only have data in the bottom 6 bits (bits 0 through 5, if you will) so that you don't disturb the upper 6 bits in the AC. This value is then dumped into the address indirectly referenced by TEMP, which as we loaded initially, is still 7755, with the label BEGIN. The temporary address is then incremented and now points to itself: location 7756 contains 7756, and location 7755 contains the word constructed from the first two bytes on the paper tape. Here's where things get funky: the program jumps to 7755 (BEGIN), not 7763 (LOOP) as one might expect. I was very confused; why would it want to jump to the word it just deposited from paper tape? Unless that first word is a jump instruction, you're not going to get very far. Well, that's exactly what I decided to do. Obviously this loader is pretty useless by itself, but maybe I can find a way for it to load a custom BIN loader that will support checksums and other niceties. If the first instruction on paper tape is 5363, you will JMP BEGIN (5355) at location 7775, then JMP LOOP (5363) at location 7755 (BEGIN). That will allow the loader to read another two bytes off the tape, construct them into a word, and deposit into the TEMP location. As you've probably figured out, TEMP holds the pointer to where the next word will be stored. Since TEMP is pointing to TEMP, this next word should be the starting address of your program (minus one; there's an ISZ TEMP prior to the deposit of the next data word). Now we're onto something! You can keep loading data sequentially with this manner. But how do you stop? Well, if you want, you can put some unpunched trailing tape which will never deposit anything since bit 6 isn't punched, or you can put your code up at the very top of the 4k field such that your last instruction overwrites location 7755 with a HLT or JMP instruction; when the loader issues JMP BEGIN, it will now be jumping to your new instruction that you loaded at 7755, letting you break out of the loader. Now there's an idea for the BIN loader! The BIN loader is generally put right under the RIM loader anyways, so the last instruction on the tape could be a JMP to a HLT instruction immediately before the normal start of the BIN loader. See that location near the top: 7776? It never got used. I decided to use it for the BIN loader; turns out DEC did too. 7777 was the starting address for the BIN loader (similar to here, it jumps to the actual start of the program), but unfortunately, that part's in ROM, so it can't be (easily) changed. The CLA HLT instruction at 7757 was never really used either, but that's alright. Not very important, best I can tell. I've since written a simple C program (available upon request) that reads a DEC BIN or RIM tape and outputs a Fabri-Tek RIM format tape, adding the required JMP LOOP instruction and organizing the data so that the sequential loader puts it in the right spot; sure beats editing tapes by hand in a hex editor. I've found I can't mix hex and octal in my head very easily. These tapes are best edited in an octal editor, which I haven't really found. My workaround is a Vim script that converts the buffer from binary to octal digits and back. A little tedious, but not too bad. 4. All this to say, here's the custom BIN loader I wrote based on DEC's original BIN loader: 1 /BIN LOADER FOR FABRITEK 2 /KYLE OWEN - 4 DEC 2015 3 4 7653 *7653 5 07653 0000 SWITCH, 0 6 07654 0000 CHAR, 0 7 07655 0000 CHKSUM, 0 8 07656 0000 ORIGIN, 0 9 10 07657 0000 BEGG, 0 11 07660 3253 DCA SWITCH 12 07661 4304 JMS READ /GET CHAR 13 07662 1317 TAD M376 /TEST FOR 377, SUBTRACT 376 14 07663 7750 SPA SNA CLA /DON'T SKIP IF BIT 0 IS SET 15 07664 5270 JMP .+4 16 07665 2253 ISZ SWITCH /YES, COMPLEMENT SWITCH 17 07666 7040 CMA 18 07667 5260 JMP BEGG+1 19 07670 1253 TAD SWITCH /NOT 377 20 07671 7640 SZA CLA /IS SWITCH SET? 21 07672 5261 JMP BEGG+2 /YES, IGNORE 22 07673 1254 TAD CHAR /NO, TEST FOR CODE 23 07674 0313 AND MASK /TYPES 24 07675 1343 TAD M200 25 07676 7510 SPA 26 07677 2257 ISZ BEGG /DATA OR ORIGIN 27 07700 7750 SPA SNA CLA 28 07701 5657 JMP I BEGG /DATA, ORIGIN OR L/T 29 07702 7402 HLT /IF FIELD SETTING, HALT! 30 07703 5320 JMP BEGIN 31 32 07704 0000 READ, 0 33 07705 6012 6012 34 07706 6015 6015 35 07707 5306 JMP .-1 36 07710 3254 DCA CHAR 37 07711 1254 TAD CHAR 38 07712 5704 JMP I READ 39 07713 0300 MASK, 300 40 41 07714 4345 BEND, JMS ASSEMB 42 07715 7041 CIA 43 07716 1255 TAD CHKSUM 44 07717 7402 M376, HLT 45 07720 4257 BEGIN, JMS BEGG 46 07721 5320 JMP .-1 47 48 07722 3255 GO, DCA CHKSUM 49 07723 1254 TAD CHAR 50 07724 3376 DCA WORD1 51 07725 4304 JMS READ 52 07726 3354 DCA WORD2 53 07727 4257 JMS BEGG 54 07730 5314 JMP BEND 55 07731 4345 JMS ASSEMB 56 07732 7420 SNL 57 07733 5341 JMP MEMFLD 58 59 07734 3256 DCA ORIGIN 60 07735 1376 CHEX, TAD WORD1 61 07736 1354 TAD WORD2 62 07737 1255 TAD CHKSUM 63 07740 5322 JMP GO 64 65 07741 3656 MEMFLD, DCA I ORIGIN 66 07742 2256 ISZ ORIGIN 67 07743 7600 M200, 7600 68 07744 5335 JMP CHEX 69 07745 0000 ASSEMB, 0 70 07746 1376 TAD WORD1 71 07747 7106 CLL RTL 72 07750 7006 RTL 73 07751 7006 RTL 74 07752 1354 TAD WORD2 75 07753 5745 JMP I ASSEMB 76 77 7776 WORD1=7776 78 07754 0000 WORD2, 0 79 80 7755 *7755 81 07755 5317 JMP BEGIN-1 82 83 $ I opted to keep some of DEC's comments, but got lazy when retyping out parts and didn't include all of them. DEC did a very nice job with this loader; it's very efficient. I made it more efficient by stripping the field support (the Fabri-Tek may never get extended memory, or at least not anytime soon). There's also only a high-speed reader here, so I stripped the low-speed code as well. The process for loading the BIN loader is super simple: load the tape into the reader, reset the Fabri-Tek to clear AC, load 7777 into PC and run. The BIN loader is quickly loaded, and upon completion, the loader jumps to the HLT instruction prior to the start of the BIN loader. Take out the BIN loader tape, put in a BIN-formatted tape, and run. When the trailer is encountered, the checksum is verified in AC (should show zero), and you should be ready to roll with your newly-loaded program. 5. We also deciphered some more instructions for the I/O box: 6052 and 6053 read the buttons and switch on the front of the reader box. 6070 through 6073 allow you to turn on the seven 7-segment displays on the front of the unit. Each instruction except the lasts updates two at a time. They use a 7442 to drive the displays, so you only get 0-9, garbage, and blank. Too bad they're not connected directly to shift registers so that you could turn on individual segments and make some letters too. 6074 writes to 8 open-collector outputs on the back, and 6075 controls two relays. We've seen potential references to device code 06 and other potential instructions for 05 and 07, but further investigation is required before we can determine what they do. Think that's about it for now...trying to track down a V.35 connector so I can feel a bit better about the power situation, and eventually I'll port my SPI-controlled LED string program to the machine so I can have something to impress my family members with in a couple of weeks. Big thanks to Connor for his help in reverse engineering parts of the hardware for better understanding of the system, and for dumping the ROMs, among other things! Kyle

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Fabri-Tek MP-12 Industrial Computer
by Herb Johnson 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

Kyle, always good to hear from you. About the size and depth of your post, I'll comment but frankly policy is up to the listserv moderator Evan not me. My own comment is: content preservation and distribution is best served thru a Web site, not an email list. That's my 20th century point of view which I do not apologize for. That aside, you've shown good work to deconstruct the Fabritek implementation of the PDP-8. Your description needs no further comment, um, that's a good thing. ;) Neil Cherry and I had the pleasure to work with Connor at the event, on his Fabritek, which is not able to read from his reader. We with Conner, based on oscilloscope readings, determined the reader was getting serial clock and data/control bits, but not returning any data. But the reader was responding to IOT's out to the reader to display octal values or operate the reader. This suggests serial output from the reader is a good place to start looking. Kyle (and Connor), contact me privately about more information on the Fabritek, in the usual way. Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preservation of 1970's computing email: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com alternate: herbjohnson ATT retrotechnology DOTT info

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Perq 1
by william degnan 09 Dec '15

09 Dec '15

Here is a message from CCTECH about the Perq 1 keyboard and mouse. For whomever it is who attempts to repair the FKAMARCH Perq 1, save this info... Bill > >> I rescued one for VCFederation museum two years ago. > http://vintagecomputer.net/perq/ > I was just looking at it this weekend. It needs a keyboard and mouse I > believe. I remember there was a guy in Texas who had a few, never heard > the full story though. > That's a PERQ 1 (or 1a, the difference is in the CPU board), The keyboard and pointing device for a PERQ2 series machine are very different. > The PERQ1 uses a standard Summagraphics Bit Pad 1 as the 'mouse'. It has to be the GPIB version, and connects to the GPIB port on the PERQ. There was going to be a special mouse known as the 'Kriz tablet' but AFAIK it never existed. > The keyboard is an 8 bit parallel interface with strobe. IIRC it's essentially the ASCII code on the bottom 7 bits and the top bit is the ctrl key. Also in the keyboard are the reset button (which IIRC just grounds a line on the connector) and the DDS (diagnostic display) which is a 3 digit decimal counter cleared by the reset button and incremented by a signal from the processor, The machine will run without a DDS, but it's a lot harder to figure out why it doesn't boot. > Basically what I am saying is that while it is nice to have the right parts, there are going to be workarounds if you can't get them > -tony (Duell)

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] Hoodies, part 2
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Ian Primus via vcf-midatlantic writes: >On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 3:49 PM, Brian Schenkenberger via vcf-midatlantic ><vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote: > >>>Cut off the hood, sew the neck back together. :) > >> Isn't that a hardware modification? > >An unsupported configuration. ;) You might understand my disdain of the hood more than others. I don't like the fact that my ponytail would fill the hood if it was left hanging at the back. It's an uncomfortable feeling. I once worked for a company and they gave out hoodies (with the company logo) as a Chritmas present. I did not like how it felt when worn so I cut it up for car polishing rags.

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] COFFEE MUGS
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 08 Dec '15

08 Dec '15

Duane via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Evan > >I like heavy mugs like these: > > >https://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/custom-mugs/cuppajo-diner-mug.htm > >Duane I'd prefer a beer mugh or etched pint glass would be even better. ;)

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