Date : Sun, 05 Mar 2006 01:07:37 +0000
From : Fragula <fragula@...>
Subject: Re: Warning: Sad case on list!
Hi Jules!
Jules Richardson wrote:
> Blimey! I remember you well - around ten years ago, you gave me an awful
> lot of useful advice regarding a Cambridge Workstation that I'd slowly
> been putting back together from bits.
<gulp> Sure it was me?... Nobody was injured, right? and you're not
looking to sue? ;-)
> You sound like the sort of person we need over at Bletchley...
Uhhh.. You mean as a groundskeeper, in the park, no? ;->
Oh.. the Museum.. My idea of heaven, but sadly I don't think they would
put up with me for long. I'd be wanting to rebuild Collosus, using
original spec components, then soup it up a bit by replacing the stock
valves with Nuvistors. (Y'all remember Nuvistors, right? <evil grin>)
and paint it with lurid purple hammerite. (y'all got /customised/ beebs,
right?)
[Now at this point, I'll assume that nobody here actually believes that
a grown man would actually paint a computer in metallic purple and gold,
and grin quietly.]
> I know the seller locally, so I definitely know he'd give an honest
> description on the auction. Given that the unit initialises OK then all
> the basic CPU, TUBE comms, and at least some of the memory's happy.
Idd.. That's good enough.. RAM is cheap these days.. (Yeah, i just
bought a load of 41256-12's on Ebay for a tenner. But some lucky gimboid
outbid me for a Hybrid Music 2000, 4000 and 5000 setup. The RAM might
come in handy for clocking
<NMI>
Which Reminds me, who remembers the general formula for clock cycles vs
DRAM access cycles, more specifically for the 80186?
Standard issue are 150nS, which is summit like 6.6MHz if you allow for a
fetch for every clock cycle. Yet the 80186 runs at 10MHz. Now I know
this is wrong, but i can't remember why.
The excuse for lousy memory I offer is that these days I do routers and
switches for a living, and working with Certain Internetwork Systems Can
Obliterate the memory, make you long sighted, make the stomach grow
disproportionately to the body, make the hair fall out, joints ache, and
lower libido, among other things.
(ohh.. and i didn't mention the wife or kids...)
RTS
some poor, unsuspecting old 1980s computer) i.e. I gather some people
still use Amigas LOL! ;-/ Ah.. Erm.. I found three in the attic.. No
idea how they got there, but the attic is mine, therefore they are mine,
so I reserve the right to Ebay them.
The 32016 2P doesn't do a RAM check.. In fact I can't think of any Acorn
machine that does, can I? The Atom doesn't. I had to write my own. its
one of the few things the PDP-11 does better. But then it does take an
aeon or two to boot.
> Ooh - what? :-)
Well.. Theres them Amigas for starters. An original 1970s Intel
development board with probably the whole 8xxx range of chips on it,
PSU, keyboard, and LED display (it does stuff too, but I've no idea
what...) all screwed to a nice metal base. A MGT Sam Coupe, and
Camputers Lynx, a TRS-80 Model 4 with 3 disk drives and IIRC 128K of RAM
and two processors (probably Z80s) A box of Vic-20s and 64s, a box of
Sinclairs, Some Atari 400/800s, with a disk drive IIRC, a stack of Apple
IIs with disk drives, a Mac (one of the very first, this one I will keep
I think, an SE, a "test engineering" Quadra, mobo for a powermac
6-something, an SE-30 in a funny housing, a box of a box of Orics of
various flavours (Oric=Tangerine so in the box with a Tanbug-1 , same as
AIM-65 i think. That has a neato orange hex keypad, and the optional
keyboard, and if memory serves me right, cassette and graphics options.
The guts of a MicroVAX-II, that, apart from the fact that the BA23
chassis was badly bent, and the GRP sleeve destroyed, when it was thrown
into the skip, seems to have survived with no more damage to the actual
computer than the power connector being ripped off the hard disk. I
might have to do a mod to my MicroPDP-11/23 so it can handle the 4 meg
of RAM from the VAX, otherways I'll flog it off for spares so some real
VAX fan can keep their baby going. That way the wife can't complain so
much when I fill the house with more beeb stuff. "But Honey, this is
just THREE more second processors, I just sold SIX whole computers! ;->
<IRQ>
BTW, the missing second processor from recent mentionings. Flight
Electronics did a TM-424 or similar 2p with 25K of RAM, did they not? I
might have some tech blurb on it somewhere. It wasn't marketed to the
home/business brigade as a second processor, it was an eval/dev Kit for
Transputer engineers. that only worked with a BBC Micro, they did a
similar thing for the 68K. Probably read first about it in Wireless
world in the mid 80s, and sent off for the info pack. Telephonically
priced IIRC,
Now just don't get me started about Maggie flogging INMOS off to the
yanks for a few shiny beads. The only compensation I can take is that
the kickback dollars (which must have been massive!) have probably found
their way back into the economy through nursing, diapers etc. by now.
RTS
> It was that ACW along with an ARM Evaluation kit many moons ago that got
> me started in the Acorn collecting game; I tend to only keep an eye out
> for the really oddball stuff in order to preserve it nowadays though
> (the count of Acorns is getting close to 50, and enough is enough! :-)
Fifty! Strewth! And I though I had problems (counts fingers/toes.. I
think I'm on about a dozen Acorns, mostly Model Bs with various
different kits aboard.
I still have my ACW, its still working, but the monitor needs a good
cleaning and realigning, though its still technically usable. Sometime
find a decent, reliable, economically priced and suitably expendable
repair person to adjust. (I HATE HT!) But it really needs ear defenders,
and can warm the little windowless "dressing room" annexe off my
bedroom, where the ACW and a few other select devices live, to an
unbearable temperature in less time than the laws of physics indicates
is possible from a single 13A socket. Its as bad as the PDP-11. Worse
really, as at least you get the chill factor from the stiff cyclone the
PDP's fan array sets up.
Right. One last tinker with the model B before bed. Cheese wedge opening
ceremony tomorrow.
Cheers!
M.