• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

What did I do to my PDP-8 today.

That RESORC output looks odd. Your 6 RL drives appear to be named BM, BN, BO, DM, DN, and DO instead of RL0A, RL0B, RL0C, RL2A, RL2B, and RL2C. Also four of the six are showing as revision A.
vrs42 said:
I notice they all do. Is that a requirement for a 4.0 driver??
Click to expand...
Dataplan made changes to a lot of the drivers. If they made a change then it looks like they made the version M. I haven't looked closely enough to be certain that is globally true. So who is Dataplan GMBH? They must have licensed OS/8 in order to make their own release. It looks like currently they offer IT and Cloud services.
 
Bill Cattey may know this version, because he writes that OS/8V3D is from the sources from Willem van der Mark. (https://tangentsoft.com/pidp8i/dir?ci=tip&name=media/os8)
The sources are here: http://www.vandermark.ch/pdp8/index.php?n=Software.OS8?from=PDP8.OS8, V3D and V40 nearby.

I have two pdp8/m in combination with TU-56M and RK05 coming from DataPlan.They came from different sources. Both from smaller engineer offices. I would like to show the Data Plan logo on a Teleprint 390 (ASR-33 inside):

IMG_4740.jpg

If anybody is interested in the V40 floppy that came with my 8/a, the RX-01 image is here at the bottom of the page:

https://retrobyte.de/facts-links.html

There is the original Image (like I got it) and the modified with handlers and tools.

regards,
Volker
 
Hi Volker -

That's quite a handsome enclosure for the Teleprint 390. If you can, please post photos with the top open. I'm impressed with the amount of work they did to re-package the ASR-33. Do the 8/M machines also have special front panels with the Dataplan logo or are they the standard DEC version?

Do you know more about Dataplan in the 1980 time period, when they were selling this equipment?

Thanks -
 
jackrubin said:
Do you know more about Dataplan in the 1980 time period, when they were selling this equipment?
Click to expand...
A big part of my collection came from Gerold Pauler. His father bought a 8/m and there is a lot of paper, letters, contracts. Once I have this documents moved to my house, I will have a closer look at this paperwork. Maybe I find pricelists and catalogs from Data Plan.
Gerold told me the story, that his father bought the pdp8/m with TU-56M, RK05, some typewriter for around 150.000DM in middle of the 70's. He also bought the biggest Porsche you could get at that time, it was 38.000DM.
There was no logo at the racks or pdp8/m from Dataplan. I'm still not ready with getting my RK05's running, but hope to find some interesting things there about Data Plan. Somewhere I heard something about a Data Plan branded FOCAL.
 
@jack, thanks for the kind words. Gerold gave me also the URL pdp8.de and I'm thinking about what to do in future with this. I'm collecting and taking pictures for this. I made his blog static, because he used some outdated software for this. But like always, I'm missing time for all the repair of hardware, to renovate my house and learning so much stuff here.... It's regrettable that Gerold lost his interest.

To get the osbootloader on my floppy I scamped the trivial solution to poke the short or long bootloader code into core at runtime. This compiles in PAL8 and can be saved as SV. This is not very satisfying, but it works, as example for the short os8helploader:

/bootloader os8diskserver
*0200
CLA CLL
TAD S30
DCA 30
TAD S31
DCA 31
TAD S32
DCA 32
TAD S33
DCA 33
TAD S34
DCA 34
TAD S35
DCA 35
TAD S36
DCA 36
TAD S37
DCA 37
TAD S40
DCA 40
JMP 30
S30, 6416
S31, 3000
S32, 2031
S33, 6401
S34, 5033
S35, 6406
S36, 7012
S37, 7010
S40, 5031
$


Best wishes,
Volker
 
I think you could just create a BOOTSD.SV with =0030 from this source:
Code: 
SKRB=6406
SKSF= 6401
STLS= 6416
/BEGINNING OF HAND TOGGLED CODE
*30
GO,     STLS            /SEND A ZERO TO  WAKE UP THE SERVER FOR BOOTING
BOOT1,  DCA 0           /STORE ADDRESS.  MODIFIED BY THE ISZ THAT FOLLOWS
GETCH,  ISZ .-1         /BUMP STORE ADDRESS
        SKSF            /SKIP IF SERVER HAS SENT US A CHARACTER
        JMP .-1         /WAIT FOR A CHARACTER
        SKRB            /READ THE CHARACTER
PTCHME, RTR             /MOVE BITS INTO POSITION
        RAR
        JMP BOOT1       /GO DO NEXT ONE
/END OF HAND TOGGLED CODE
$
(mostly copy-pasted from helpbt.pal) and get a similar effect.

The older boot loader straight from booloader.pal would be more compatible with old versions of os8diskserver, though. That might be important when creating a single tool (like BOOT/SD) for everyone.

Vince
 
Hmmm, I don't get this to work. The same as with the other loaders I tried. The code will not go to *30 in a running OS/8 session. And moving it to *200 also not works. What am I missing?
 
Thanks for help here. So I was able to integrate the os8diskbootloader into BOOT. I took the long bootcode of os8diskserver and put it in bootv4.pa from OS/78.
You can find the code and a bootable floppy image here:

https://retrobyte.de/boot.sv.html

I testet it with simh only. Hope it will work with my 8/a also, but I will need some days to get there.

Volker
 
Finished removing the foam adhesive goo from the 8/e cover.

I wiped off the goo gone with isopropyl alcohol. Inside looks good. The outside turned the paper towel black and affected the paint. It is difficult to imagine that they used different paint on the inside and outside. Perhaps light exposure has broken down the paint?

Took the rest of the cards out of the 8/e. The CPU cards were out already. I need a better way to store them. They are currently in a bankers box.

Started building a 3D model of the H800W connector block. I have two of these new in box. They are single sided connectors for the Flipchips cards. I started doing this in order to make a better way to store my flipchip modules.
 
DougIngraham said:
Took the rest of the cards out of the 8/e. The CPU cards were out already. I need a better way to store them. They are currently in a bankers box.
Click to expand...
I store my M8xxxx modules in these bags...

Amazon.com: Daarcin 30pcs 11.8x15.7in(30x40cm) Anti Static Bags, ESD Bags Resealable Large Size for Motherboard HDD and Electronic Device,Anti-static Bags for Graphics Card : Everything Else

Amazon.com: Daarcin 30pcs 11.8x15.7in(30x40cm) Anti Static Bags, ESD Bags Resealable Large Size for Motherboard HDD and Electronic Device,Anti-static Bags for Graphics Card : Everything Else
www.amazon.com
and then put the board in the bag in a Pendaflex folder hanging in a file cabinet. Only one board per Pendaflex.
The ESD bag is a good size but the bypass caps kind of get hung up on the zip-lock thing when the board goes in or out of the ESD bag if you align the long edge of the board with the short edge of the bag. Just have to use a little care or rotate the board in the bag.
 
Last edited:
DougIngraham said:
Started building a 3D model of the H800W connector block. I have two of these new in box. They are single sided connectors for the Flipchips cards. I started doing this in order to make a better way to store my flipchip modules.
Click to expand...
I just took some MDF and ran it over the table saw to cut a kerf every 1/2". The boards drop into the slots with similar spacing to that of a backplane, but without the insertion force. If I had it to do over, I might cut the kerf a little deeper, so that the boards would be more upright. OTOH, at the depth they are, the boards can be tilted forward and backward a bit, which helps when trying to find a specific one.

I live in the Northwestern USA, so it's not arid, nor super humid (at least indoors). So I don't have to worry too hard about static or about corrosion.

Vince
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top