Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

Oldtimers reminiscing about ancient equipment/software PICS*

Talk about "WhatEVER !"..
Post Reply
Message
Author
rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

Oldtimers reminiscing about ancient equipment/software PICS*

#1 Post by rkawakami » Thu Oct 23, 2008 2:58 am

(This thread was split from: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=68858)

Sounds like a happy ending :) .

Okay, now who here remembers using an ASR33 Teletype, fan-fold paper tape, a Burroughs nixie tube desktop calculator (model # escapes my brain cells) and the Hazeltine 2000 terminal in the mid '70s? :lol:
Last edited by rkawakami on Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

RealBlackStuff
Admin Emeritus
Admin Emeritus
Posts: 23812
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:17 am
Location: Loch Garman, Éire

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Thu Oct 23, 2008 7:53 am

That ASR33 was used with PDP-8 from DEC if I remember correctly.
Wasn't that similar (or the same) as the old telex machines?
I also worked on the old IBM 029 that was mentioned earlier in the thread.

I do remember the rest of them as well, but my memory is a bit hazy in that respect.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

sjthinkpader
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2908
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:29 pm
Location: San Jose, CA

#3 Post by sjthinkpader » Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:19 am

rkawakami wrote:Sounds like a happy ending :) .

Okay, now who here remembers using an ASR33 Teletype, fan-fold paper tape, a Burroughs nixie tube desktop calculator (model # escapes my brain cells) and the Hazeltine 2000 terminal in the mid '70s? :lol:
Yes, a Wang Labs 360/370 nixie tube programmable calculator with a card reader. The cards use a stylus to punch the holes.
T60p 2623-DDU/UXGA IPS/ATI V5200
T60 2623-DCU/SXGA+ IPS/ATI X1400
T43p 2668-H8U/UXGA IPS/ATI V3200
R50p 1832-NU1/UXGA IPS/ATI FireGL T2
X61t 7762-B6U dual touch IPS/64GB SSD
X32 2673-BU6/32GB SSD
755CDV 9545-GBK Transmissive Projection LCD

Kendas
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 6:28 pm
Location: Tucson AZ
Contact:

We'll keep it going along these lines...

#4 Post by Kendas » Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:14 am

Okay.. Burroughs teletype input/output device (ya, the number escapes me too, but I think it was a TC521) with the integrated card reader attached to a Burroughs B3500 main frame connected to about 100 other users using 9600 baud line drivers (short haul modems).

The terminal was only capable of 110 baud printing. After two years we actually were upgraded to a TD832 video terminal that would keep up with the line driver, but we lost the card reader and had to bring card decks to the mainframe 5 miles away.

One other thing is that phone circuit we were also on was "bridged" (shared) with 5 other terminals... This was one of the forerunners to the modern LAN.

Ken
A30 2652-46U (used to be a 2654-BC2 Originally a 2652-35U)
15 inch XVGA 768MB, DVD 1-Dual layer R/W DVD 2 RO, Dock Ultrabay 2k Battery Modem daughter card, 802.11A/B/G...
And anything else I can stuff in.

Any one else here old enough to have used an IBM 029 Keypunch? :}

ArtShapiro
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 663
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:48 am
Location: Lake Forest, CA

#5 Post by ArtShapiro » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:41 pm

Any one else here old enough to have used an IBM 029 Keypunch?
Of course, and Burroughs machines a LOT older than the 3500 you cited.

Art (Unisys, nee Burroughs, employee)

RealBlackStuff
Admin Emeritus
Admin Emeritus
Posts: 23812
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:17 am
Location: Loch Garman, Éire

#6 Post by RealBlackStuff » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:54 pm

Ah, Unisys.
Brings back memories to when they were still Sperry/Univac.
I programmed on the Univac 1100 and later the Unisys 2200.
Remember MASM, DMS, TIP and HVTIP? Not to forget Mapper?
All this was before I changed back to IBM in 1988
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

#7 Post by rkawakami » Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:58 pm

The ASR33 was installed in my high school's computer class and connected via dial-up to the Tymshare BASIC system. The Burroughs machine that I used at Ames was more along the lines of a souped-up, four-function calculator. This was 1972-73. The Hazeltine 2000 experience, along with some IBM Selectric remote terminals, came a little bit later (~1974-75). Those were used for the development of FORTRAN IV programs to perform wind tunnel simulations of various aircraft. During my employment at NASA I also used a series of Hewlett Packard (HP) 9800 desktop programmable calculators (HP9810A, HP9820A, HP9830A), as well as playing some chess games with other remote operators over the ARPANET (early IM user :!:).
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

NorrisCell
Senior Member
Senior Member
Posts: 898
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:41 pm
Location: Las Vegas, NV

#8 Post by NorrisCell » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:20 pm

Most of that stuff was before I was born, so no memories on it.

How about the Texas Instruments TI-99 home video game system/ computer from 1980? Voice synthesizer, gigantic coax converter, plus more pixelated games that you could ever possibly want. Hunt the Wumpus? Anyone?
Cell phones are my specialty. Got questions? Ask away.

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

#9 Post by rkawakami » Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:44 pm

I remember that one but never used it. Bought a Fairchild Channel F video game, around late 1976. Worked at the Exetron division so I got the employee discount. System was based on an F8 microprocessor and used swappable game cartridges containing even more pixelated games (we're talking somewhere around 100 x 60 pixels on a TV screen) using a fragile 8-way controller.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

Kendas
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2006 6:28 pm
Location: Tucson AZ
Contact:

#10 Post by Kendas » Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:34 pm

rkawakami wrote:During my employment at NASA I also used a series of Hewlett Packard (HP) 9800 desktop programmable calculators (HP9810A, HP9820A, HP9830A), as well as playing some chess games with other remote operators over the ARPANET (early IM user :!:).
Well! Remote chess, somebody else that had a user ID instead of a name... Not quite back as far as ARPANET though. Uncle Sugar had me on DARPANET... I keep telling youngsters that the my first e-mail address that they would recognize was something real close to kens@af.mil and we were using smileys (emoticons youngens) long before they were born. ;--) Danged editor, can't put a "valid" smiley in... Editor changes it to an emoticon. :--(

I miss my Commodore SX64 too (laughingly called a "portable")... It was the first computer my wife and I had at home. Didn't want a computer at home before since I used one at work all the time and didn't want to have to explain the same things over again to the wife and kids.
A30 2652-46U (used to be a 2654-BC2 Originally a 2652-35U)
15 inch XVGA 768MB, DVD 1-Dual layer R/W DVD 2 RO, Dock Ultrabay 2k Battery Modem daughter card, 802.11A/B/G...
And anything else I can stuff in.

Any one else here old enough to have used an IBM 029 Keypunch? :}

bill bolton
Admin Emeritus
Admin Emeritus
Posts: 3848
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:09 am
Location: Sydney, Australia - Best Address on Earth!

Re: Oldtimers reminiscing about ancient equipment/software

#11 Post by bill bolton » Fri Oct 24, 2008 4:36 pm

rkawakami wrote:Okay, now who here remembers using an ASR33 Teletype, fan-fold paper tape
I learned to program BASIC on a Data General Nova system with ASR-33 terminals, back in the early 1970s. I still have the punch tape for the first working BASIC program I wrote!

After mastering BASIC, I moved on to FORTRAN, with punch cards run on an overnight batch process... much more tedious to program than interactive BASIC, but also capable of a much faster run time processing!

Cheers,

Bill B.

sjthinkpader
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2908
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:29 pm
Location: San Jose, CA

#12 Post by sjthinkpader » Fri Oct 24, 2008 9:17 pm

NorrisCell wrote:Most of that stuff was before I was born, so no memories on it.

How about the Texas Instruments TI-99 home video game system/ computer from 1980? Voice synthesizer, gigantic coax converter, plus more pixelated games that you could ever possibly want. Hunt the Wumpus? Anyone?
Yes, worked on that program too and still should have a full system in the garage complete with plug in card cage. The real useful piece out of that system was a composite video monitor that I used many years after the computer itself was laid up. The pixelated characters were called sprites.

After TI, went to work on the short lived Timex/Sinclair system and that was the end of my computer design career. The main PCB of the Timex TS-2068 was checked by hand with a set of color pencils.
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/compute ... ts2068.htm
The RGB monitor out of this system was also in use many years after the computer was laid up until the analog VGA monitors came along.

Here is an interesting summary of a TI calculator collection.
http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/texas/calc.htm
T60p 2623-DDU/UXGA IPS/ATI V5200
T60 2623-DCU/SXGA+ IPS/ATI X1400
T43p 2668-H8U/UXGA IPS/ATI V3200
R50p 1832-NU1/UXGA IPS/ATI FireGL T2
X61t 7762-B6U dual touch IPS/64GB SSD
X32 2673-BU6/32GB SSD
755CDV 9545-GBK Transmissive Projection LCD

syrenab
Freshman Member
Posts: 93
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:21 pm
Location: New Jersey,Monroe
Contact:

#13 Post by syrenab » Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:35 am

About 1983 I bought a Panasonic "Portable" - It weighed about 30 lbs, cost about $2500 - DOS 2.1 on 5 1/4"floppy, second floppy for applications and work. built in 9" green screen (80 x 25 characters) and thermal printer - 64 K Ram.

4 years later I got a real portable (only 14 lbs!) -Zenith Supersport 286 - 80C88 processor, with 640k RAM. It had one 3.5" 720k floppy drive, and a 20mb hard drive, monochrome 10" LCD display.
syrenab
-------------------------------------------

T43 - (PentM 1.73GHz, 1024RAM, 75GB HDD, 14.1XGA, WiFi, CD-RW/DVD, XP-Pro)
T42 - 512MB RAM - 40GB 5400rpm HDD - 14.1XGA, CD-RW/DVD, XP PRO

rkawakami
Admin
Admin
Posts: 10327
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:26 am
Location: San Jose, CA 95120 USA
Contact:

#14 Post by rkawakami » Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:37 pm

syrenab wrote:4 years later I got a real portable (only 14 lbs!) -Zenith Supersport 286 - 80C88 processor, with 640k RAM. It had one 3.5" 720k floppy drive, and a 20mb hard drive, monochrome 10" LCD display.
Then this should bring back some memories:

Image Image Both images are clickable for a full-size [1536x2048 ~1.2MB] version)

Picture on the left shows today's date (after having to set it in CMOS since the battery went dead many years ago). The one on the right is the output from a CPU speed test. It's showing that the system is equivalent to a 11Mhz IBM AT :!: . I've had it in storage for the last 7 or 8 years. I'm shocked that the hard drive is still working, although it's making more noise than what I last remember.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

dorronto
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 2282
Joined: Fri May 14, 2004 7:12 am
Location: Hallstead PA. USA

#15 Post by dorronto » Sun Nov 09, 2008 7:07 am

I worked with Radio Shack back in the early 80's...

How about the Model I, two piece contraption before the new Model III. One piece and huge.............

The Color Computer??

Would you believe the portable Model 100. :wink:

Ah memories..............

Ron
IBM Lenovo X1 Carbon (1st) / T61 / iPad Pro 12.9 (2016) / iPad 10.5 (2017) / Surface Pro 3

syrenab
Freshman Member
Posts: 93
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:21 pm
Location: New Jersey,Monroe
Contact:

#16 Post by syrenab » Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:36 am

Truly amazing that your Zenith Supersport is still working!
The keyboard was a lot better than on most modern portables (laptops).
I sold mine about seven years ago. It was still working at the time after traveling all over the Caribbean on my sailboat. Zenith built solid equipment!
Bill
syrenab
-------------------------------------------

T43 - (PentM 1.73GHz, 1024RAM, 75GB HDD, 14.1XGA, WiFi, CD-RW/DVD, XP-Pro)
T42 - 512MB RAM - 40GB 5400rpm HDD - 14.1XGA, CD-RW/DVD, XP PRO

BillMorrow
*Senior* Admin
*Senior* Admin
Posts: 7612
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2004 9:40 pm
Location: San Francisco -> Florida -> Georgia
Contact:

#17 Post by BillMorrow » Sun Nov 09, 2008 8:23 pm

ok, i have an h/p business partner II that is 20 years old and i still use it..

i have the last IBM daisey wheel typewriter and a TTY of some sort hiding in a box..
it is one of the last..
what i WANT is a KSR of some sort..
with a paper roll..

i have an AlphaMicro AM1000, one of the first alpha micro discrete single board computers AND 4 (yes FOUR) 2-televideo (755) and 2-Wyse 50+ semi dumb terminals..
what we called a glass TTY back when palo alto tiny basic was the best hobbyist language available..
and well after the final meeting of the homebrew computer club on el camino real in palo alto..

are we talking about those ancient dinosaurs that we still HAVE or that we once used..?

i built two S-100 buss micro-computers..
a polymorphic systems (based in santa barbara i think) poly 88 and an IMSAI (based in san leandro) 8080 (http://www.imsai.net/) for a pic of one of these beasts..

and FWIW i threw out, in my last move from florida, an original slightly modified racal vadic 300 baud modem..
modem, manual and power supply..
modified because a friend modified the EPROM so it could dial out (i think)..


please bear in mind, guys, that i have socks older than many of y'all.. :)
Bill Morrow, kept by parrots :parrot: & cockatoos
Sysop - forum.thinkpads.com

*
She was not what you would call refined,
She was not what you would call unrefined,
She was the type of person who kept a parrot.
~~~Mark Twain~~~

tylerwylie
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 475
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:40 pm
Location: Champaign, IL
Contact:

#18 Post by tylerwylie » Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:18 pm

BillMorrow wrote:ok, i have an h/p business partner II that is 20 years old and i still use it..

i have the last IBM daisey wheel typewriter and a TTY of some sort hiding in a box..
it is one of the last..
what i WANT is a KSR of some sort..
with a paper roll..

i have an AlphaMicro AM1000, one of the first alpha micro discrete single board computers AND 4 (yes FOUR) 2-televideo (755) and 2-Wyse 50+ semi dumb terminals..
what we called a glass TTY back when palo alto tiny basic was the best hobbyist language available..
and well after the final meeting of the homebrew computer club on el camino real in palo alto..

are we talking about those ancient dinosaurs that we still HAVE or that we once used..?

i built two S-100 buss micro-computers..
a polymorphic systems (based in santa barbara i think) poly 88 and an IMSAI (based in san leandro) 8080 (http://www.imsai.net/) for a pic of one of these beasts..

and FWIW i threw out, in my last move from florida, an original slightly modified racal vadic 300 baud modem..
modem, manual and power supply..
modified because a friend modified the EPROM so it could dial out (i think)..


please bear in mind, guys, that i have socks older than many of y'all.. :)
I've always wanted to grab a really really old server, put a very efficient PSU in it, and throw unix on there and do something fun with it, but it's hard to justify over a 40$ Buffalo with a 220mhz proc and over 8mb of flash/16mb of RAM running DD-WRT :(
Samuel Adams wrote:The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.

Beaver
Sophomore Member
Posts: 171
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:40 pm
Location: Brno, Czech Republic

#19 Post by Beaver » Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:54 am

Well, I am searching for someone who will donate some old pSeries to me :D I failed to emulate the Power platform on regular X86 hardware and so there is no way how to run an AIX at home without IBM server.
IBM T40p 2373-CG6, Pentium M 1.5 GHz, 1024 MB RAM, 40GB HDD, 14.1" TFT, ATI FireGL 9000 64 MB
Dual boot WinXP + Fedora Core 10

killer
ThinkPadder
ThinkPadder
Posts: 1483
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 5:26 am
Location: West Sussex, UK

#20 Post by killer » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:53 am

Regarding old equipment; when I started work with IBM in Birmingham in 1967, I used an 082 sorter and a 557 interpreter. In 1968 I moved from data preparation into the computer room. We had a 1401 with 16k of memory. It took up an emormous amount of floor space. It used to read a card, process the data, and print a line ... then read the next card, etc. Then we received a 360 model 30 and we thought it was cutting-edge technology until the model 40 arrived. Then we received a model 50 as well.
It seems a long way back now. 8)
T540p Win 7 Pro 64

X1 Carbon Win 7 Pro 64 for my wife.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Dogs must be carried on the escalator. Where can I find a dog?

Rob Mayercik
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 284
Joined: Tue Sep 28, 2004 6:50 am
Location: NJ, U.S.A.

#21 Post by Rob Mayercik » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:56 am

NorrisCell wrote:How about the Texas Instruments TI-99 home video game system/ computer from 1980? Voice synthesizer, gigantic coax converter, plus more pixelated games that you could ever possibly want. Hunt the Wumpus? Anyone?
My dad brought home a 99/4A one night in 1980, and it's still in the basement to this day. Haven't powered it up in a long time, but last time I did, it was fully functional, and with the exception of the TI LOGO II cartridge, every last piece of commercial software still worked. I whiled away many a happy hour playing Parsec, Moon Patrol, Pole Position, TI Invaders, Car Wars, etc. Strangely enough, I have never actually used the thing with the RF Modulator (the coax converter you mention) hooked to a color TV - only ever hooked it up to an old 9-inch Zenith B/W portable. Some day I'm gonna drag that classy-looking old beast out (we had the nice one with the black keyboard and the brushed stainless outer shell) and play some color Parsec.

The TI was eventually retired to storage when my folks "upgraded" to a couple of Apple IICs, which eventually got aftermarket memory expansion to 1MB (one of the memory boards even allowed us to boot off a special disk into CP/M). We used a Scribe and both types of Imagewriter printers with those.

Played with Commodores (C64, C128) and TRS-80s (models II, III, and IV) at school - even have a box somewhere that has about 7 disks full of trs-80 games that likely don't work any more.

I learned to type in high school on an IBM PS2/25 running OS/2 (I think), even used an original IBM PC in a lab in college - it was an intel-based microprocessor lab; and some years back someone's senior design was some breakout/breadboard box that allowed you to jack directly into the bus on the thing or something, and we did a bunch of little projects using it. The old IBMs (complete with the steel-cased model "M" keyboards) were booted off MSDOS 6 diskettes, and each used InterSrv/InterLink (!!!) to access the hard drive of a 486DX2/66 PC sitting next to it for additional storage space. We did all our programming with MASM.

My first PC was my 486 in college - a DEC slimline desktop model that I overclocked from 33MHz to 40MHz. Worked good, as did the DEC Multijet 1000 inkjet printer though the rollers on the sheet feeder add-on eventually clogged up with dust - still want to clean that up some day, the printer still seems to work, and might be fun as a basic line printer for a PC devoted to Fax duty or for a Linux build.

Rob
T61p 8891-CTO
TP600 2645-45u (Upgraded to PII-400)

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Off-Topic Stuff”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 41 guests