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Project Update
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- Опубликовано: 8 авг 2024
- VCF East (link below) is coming up soon, and I’m already way behind schedule, so of course life throws a curveball and puts me out of commission for a few days. So, today, let’s take a short breather and take a look at all the concurrent projects we have going on.
If you’re interested in VCF East, check this link:
www.eventbrite.com/e/vcf-east...
vcfed.org/events/vintage-comp...
Centurion Wiki:
github.com/Nakazoto/Centurion...
If you want to support the channel please hop over to Patreon:
/ usagielectric
Also, we now have some epic shirts for sale!
my-store-11554688.creator-spr...
Come join us on Discord and Twitter!
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / usagielectric
Intro Music adapted from:
Artist: The Runaway Five
Title: The Shinra Shuffle
ocremix.org/remix/OCR01847
Thanks for watching!
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:50 It’s been a tough week
2:47 The main Centurion
6:52 The mini Centurion
9:31 PDP and Rainbow
13:51 Tower of Power
15:52 NABU and 3D printer
18:18 Floating Point Systems FPS-100
20:22 And more
22:50 Sue!
Probably other people will say it, but I’m glad you put your health, family and pets ahead of computers and RUclips. It’s how it should be.
Don't have to say it now: you have said it so well. 😀
1.1 OVERVIEW
The Floating Point Systems, Inc., FPS-100 is a peripheral device that
operates independently but under the direction of a host processor. It
contains its own internal memories and 38-bit floating-point arithmetic
units which are interconnected with multiple data paths to allow
parallel internal data transfers. Its arithmetic units, the floating
adder and floating multiplier, are designed as pipelines (operations are performed in independent stages permitting new operations to begin
before old operations are complete). This parallel processing
capability and pipeline arithmetic permit the FPS-100 to perform high
speed array processing.
Since the FPS-100 is under the direction of a host computer, programs
are normally produced on the host computer and transferred over to the
FPS-100 for execution. The FPS-100 loader (LOD100) uses the object
modules produced by the ASM100 cross assembler and the FTN100 cross compiler and produces the load modules which can be transferred to the
FPS-100 and executed. L0D100 also produces the routines which transfer
the load modules to the FPS-100 and initiate FPS-100 operation.
My cat's have always adhered to the Elton John rules of combat "Saturday nite's alright for fighting". My vet on the other hand sleeps in on sundays like a normal human being. As a result of those experiences I became a tolerably good cat combat medic. Pay close attention to what the vet does. If you clean and patch a wound quickly you'll avoid a lot of problems that develop over the 24-48 hour period till you can get them to the vet. Sometimes you can avoid the vet entirely. What really counts tho is to get them vaccinated against FIV. If you cat is mixing it up with the local thugs it's essential! (PS: all my cats have been chonky black male street/barn cats that I have taken in, so your mileage may vary)
100% agree!
Actually, I just asked my vet to teach me and they were totally ok with it.
If you have first aid training, there isn't much difference between most land mammals.
Giving first aid is really important, so are all vaccinations you can get.
one of the best books I ever read was whilst visiting a vet, an old family friend for some dinner thing. I was about 8? I cant remember what it was called, but it was the encyclopedia Britannica of "How to Vet". The kinda thing a farmer out bush might have if he needs to amputate a goat or do a C-section on a cat. written very no-nonsense 'generic mammal' format, that could be applied to most warm things with a pulse. I'd dealt with cleaning fish and rabbits, but not yet seen any slasher/gore/horror movies, so was pretty OK with the concept of, ya know, meat and organs n stuff.
you'd be surprised what you can do as first aid if you know the basic mechanics of it. you should always get it checked out, but if you get on it ASAP, you can mitigate most of the damage. hopefully ;-).
I wonder if the schematics exist for the Wren controller? It would be a nice thing for the mini-system.
The FPS 100 is a high performance math coprocessor for PDP and VAX systems The TRW chips are the actual floating point math chips. What would be even more interesting is an AP-120B array processor. These are 38-bit 12 MFLOPS array processors which were used extensively for image processing for CT and MRI.
You have so many awesome things going on in your shop! A version of the PDP-11 is interesting to me as it formed the original computer to the DPB-7000 Paintbox from Quantel when it was previewed at NAB in 1981. If your interested there will be a later 1990s Paintbox at VCF that you can try.
You certainly have enough projects! You won't be bored!
poor kitty! I hope she is feeling better... And I hope you and your mouth is feeling better too!
That's the crazy one who collects the old computer circuit boards and somehow gets them to work again
As far as I know the FPS-100 is an array processor that works alongside a PDP-11. It's super osbscure hardware
PS: is not a math coprocessor, but an "array processor" as they call it. Online there are some manuals (for the link editor and the library editor).
You are right. The FPS-100 is an array processor. Back in the late 1980's we had them connected to VAX 11/780's to do the number crunching when processing seismic data.
I believe the AP120 was more of a commercial success than the 100.
@@simon941 Cool to hear. I wonder if it was meant only for DEC minicomputers, or it could be used with other machines, for example the Pyramid 90x.
I once seen a photo online of an FPS-100, but sadly I can't find it anymore.
Early NMR / MRI machines from the mid eighties used an array processor to do the number crunching.
I can’t believe how productive you are. So cool!
Poor kitty, hope they are alright
With all of the projects you have going on, a nice overview like this every once in a while is nice to have. Good luck getting everything ready for VCF! I haven't kept up with the VCF Southwest rumors (or plans?) but maybe it will get a future demo there as well haha
The good news is, you have content for years to come. You do an amazing job with these old machines. Thanks!
Glad kitty is on the mend. I have a few cats and it is inevitable that when they get bitten they get infected wound that you don't see until it bursts. If you can catch it early enough some antibiotics will sort it out quickly but you can't always know. I too got an Ender 3 as a Christmas present to myself -but I haven't really had a chance to use it to full effect. I need to learn how to make 3d models that are printable - it seems to be a steep learning curve!
Very cute cat. So sad it got injured. Speedy recovery.
Dentists and Fighting Cats, I share your pain. (kitty claws must be the sharpest things known to man)
ooh! A Rainbow 100! I worked for DEC right out of college (1986) in the Rainbow group, and my first project was maintaining the DOS utilities for it. Looking forward to seeing it powered up!
Love that your cat is a "boy named Sue" in the literal sense. (Maybe it is spelled "Su," but even if it is, I still say it counts for the sake of the song.) Glad he's getting better!
Look after yourself, glad you are looking after your furry friends, that matters before videos, I can wait!
The DEC Rainbow is an absolutely awesome machine! Been looking for one for a reasonable price for years. Very excited for you!
Should have kept one of the 600 odd purchased at one company that was subsequently sold off.
Western Massachusetts here.
I had one from an auction lot I won back in the mid 90's the floppy drive was wrecked, didn't come with any disks or manuals so I trashed it. Many regrets years later when we can now download disk images.
@tradde11Yessir, I would be interested. Not sure how to PM via RUclips though!
Oh man, I'm still new to a lot of vintage gear but that DEC rainbow is sweet!
Sorry to hear about poor kitty is going through. Makes me wish I could visit VCF - sounds like a super fun and nerdy party :).
FPS100 is interesting, and I love these RAM chips! Gorgeous indeed.
Good luck with these tubes too :). I'm rootin' for ya!
Nice! Thanks for the updates.
Awesome stuff, lots of fun upcoming. I'm so happy that you try to be creative with so of these old things and not just pump out the same 3 projects that everyone else does!
I love that TI99/4A hanging out in the last segment
Glad you are taking care of your animal(s), lots of success with you channel.
Great update; looking forward to your future stuff as usual 👍
When I was a student at Hatfield Polytechnic in the UK we used the PDP11. Glad the computer industry has moved on since this time! Great update today.
Used at City Poly too.
Amongst other PDP11s, I used to mend the PDP11/05 at Rother Valley College in Dinnington. I remember upgrading it with a 1MB memory rack and repairing the power supply on one of the 40MB CDC "washing machine" drives. Back in the days when you could mend stuff.
OMG I just recognized those disks you have on the shelf. We used those at a job I did for the government. Beware, the handles come off! Disk hits floor and is ruined.
Holy cow! A nabu and a 3d printer. Wow! So generous.
Looking forward to meeting you at VCF. I hope to have some time to show you around the campus and chat with you about an idea I have for our museum. Chris F.
yoooo a Rainbow? Nice! I got one of those off facebook marketplace a few years ago looking for PC compatibles. It was a fascinating find, though the lack of compatibility was a bit disappointing
It will run Word Processing and mainly we bought a Rainbow for Lotus 123 usage, one of my clever computer chaps (And ladies) managed to send the output of 123 processes to input to unix / informix on the PDP 11
It could be upgraded to 896kiB of RAM, which was a bit more than the 640kiB limit of your standard Microsoft compatible.
I got into an argument with a Microsoft representative over this very issue. He had come to tell us about the wonders of this new thing called OS/2, and he said it would get around the 640kiB limit of MS-DOS. I told him it wasn’t a DOS limit, it was a hardware limit, and we had this machine upstairs, which was running MS-DOS, to prove the point.
So much to look forward to.
I absolutely love the idea of having some true DIY hardware for the Centurion.
Nice work on everything. You clearly have better time management skills than I do. On the FPS100, those TRW chips are almost certainly multipliers, IIRC.
Yayy Centurion application sw 😁 Very much looking forward to that, and, well all of the rest too 😂 But take care & don't burn yourself out with YT 🤗
Sounds like it’s been a week where 'real life' has had to take priority! But you can’t neglect such things for the sake of RUclips.
The update was rather interesting, regardless. Centurions, PDPs, the valve computer. Thee FPS100 'mystery' to unravel - the webpage shown in the background that appeared to have a section, ‘acquisition by Cray' alone whets the appetite to find out more.
Many thanks for the updates!
This is so wonderful. Thank you 😊😊
Your place is starting to look like a typical computer room from the 70-80's! I remember writing FORTRAN programs for the VAX during the early 80's. We had to use a keypunch to make a big stack of punch cards.
Fun Fact: That's the main reason why BASIC was invented. It was because the computer was mostly just sitting around doing nothing due to having to book time, punch the cards or tapes and stuff like that which collectively made it hard to even get to use the computer. BASIC meant that the computer could service dozens of users at the same time, and anyone could use it at any time. You also didn't have to learn a complicated and somewhat esoteric language such as FORTRAN. Side Note: We like to think of BASIC as an interpreted language, but the first BASIC was compiled.
How do you find time for all those projects? Amazing work !
Definitely looking forward to VCF east! Sounds like it's going to be pretty amazing.
Dave's garage is on the hunt for a nice pdp 11 system,, might be worth a email .
Poor kitty. I bet he's saying, "Does anyone else feel like a martini?" LOL
Great update video! I am looking forward to see your continued amazing progress.
Yup, he'll probably invite Alinity's cat over for a drink...😆
Awwww, poor kitty!
Really interested to see what it is you are potentially trading the BA23 Chassis for. You sound super excited about it so it's got to be good.
Could you use the DEC Rainbow and NABU with both the PDP/VAX-11 kit and the Centurion as a sort of whole-house mock enterprise network of modern and retro computers talking to old minicomputers? I think that would be so cool! Maybe even integrating it with home automation tech…
“Hey guys, check out my new lighting! It’s powered by a 70’s computer the size of a small fridge. Cool, right??”
Now you just need to get the Centurion and the PDP talking to each other. 😉
FPS 100 was an early version of an array processor meant to be hooked up to something like a PDP-11. Maybe a Fairchild Electric product. I don't recall what the backplane was I vaguely remember seeing one at Schlumberger-Doll in Danbury CT.
Assuming you're willing to go fully or semi-custom on the tape interface, try using some band-pass filters right after your read preamp and write dac so that you can have multiple bits going out/in at once, and have those bits decoded/encoded by a 7:4/4:7/whatever it is ECC circuit. Audio tape was abandoned fairly early in the 80s because it would have intermittent errors, but by starting with some simple hardware error correction stuff (and what I just described is _very_ simple, you get 4 data bits and 3 ECC bits, and the ECC is generated with just additions), you should have a good starting point for some sort of software (or even better, plug-in upgrade) rolling-window (or other) error correction system.
I feel ya on the dentist thing... I didn't go for over 10 years.
Awww... poor kitty 😿
I just recently took my own Nabu out of the box and started looking at it; I am way later to the game than I wanted, but since I had to wait over two weeks for delivery when the hype was going on, I thought I might as well proceed at my own pace and do my own thing in reverse engineering it. Oh, BTW: check the fan before you turn it on: mine was binding up in the housing. Seems to be an occasional QC issue.
With the 3D printer, you're going to want to put that somewhere that has good thermal stability. ie: Not a 100 degree in the summer, 30 in the winter garage space. Especially during prints, temp swings in the environment (drafts, etc) can screw with your prints.
Wow, a DEC Rainbow... I was doing software dev at the time they came out, and I got to play with one of the first ones in the UK.
You may have just begun a new collaborative hobby. :)
@@liquidsonly Hehe, sadly I can't remember much about it.
I wish I could multitask like you can. I have lots of things on the go, but I can’t Jim back and forward between them.
An interesting variant on the DEC Rainbow that I once encountered was the VAX Console. I came across it as an accessory to a VAX 8530, and a necessary one to get it to boot. It looks nearly identical to the Rainbow, but has special interface hardware, and ran something called the DEC Professional Operating System (POS). (It also took a lot of Usenet sleuthing back in the day to track down, after getting that 8530 and wanting to get it working.)
That’s a DEC Professional you’ve got there. POS was a variant of RSX-11, and its CPU is a PDP-11.
Imagine the rainbow after a retrobright 😏
Chrome glasses and flanel shirt and here come's legit 80's computing!
Is that a Bridgeport EZTrak? I have a Bridgeport Romi lathe which uses the same basic control, the DX32. SBC on an ISA backplane, mmmm mid-nineties goodness.
Your mill looks a LOT like my old YCM-40, except for the color. 3D printing is a great addition for fixturing for traditional machining as well, I've made plenty of setups easily that way.
Oh no! The cone of shame! Get well soon kitty.
Can't wait to see the printer
I’m a fan but pleased to see most of the comments are about the 😽
Dada dum da da dum da da dum dum 🎵🎶🎵🎶
Supposedly, there's a version of Windows 1.0 that runs on the Rainbow. I wonder how hard that would be to get running. I know the Rainbow already required a special version of MS-DOS due to hardware differences from the IBM PC.
Any chance the FPS100 is just a S-100 buss? That might explain why it wasn't saved as it would be easy enough to replace.
3D Printing: Additive manufacturing / Traditional machining: Subtractive manufacturing
I still think vacuum forming or similar is better for plastic than 3D printing as such, though with 3D enables voids inside structures , and should be able to build round a core solid too thus speeding up some of the time print.
16:28 -- damn that is a good looking machine. I could picture a bunch of hackers using that to get into the Feds' mainframe in some 1980s pre-Hackers-era film...
awesome projects coming down the pipeline, Maybe about 5 years of video content potential there. Glad kitty is ok, my cat always comes to visit when I am workin on my projects.
hope your kitty recovers fast
Kitties always come before youtube. I got screwed up teeth too and no fun either comes with age.
If I were you, I'd take the disc out of a pack and put it in to replace the fixed disk. There is usually no difference between the two disks.
For me, that would be best, because then you don't have to take anything in and out, carrying dust.
The cat comes first! We can wait!
Welcome to the RabbitHole of 3D Printing \o/
Holy heck, is that a DEC LK201? That's a keyboard which not only has its own Wikipedia page but also a Compose key, and it's pretty much the reason inverted T arrow keys became the standard.
A Compose key is a standard X11 feature, available for example on Linux systems. You can use it to type a wide variety of Unicode characters without needing a special keyboard: for example, compose-lessthan-doublequote for “ and compose-greaterthan-doublequote for ”, compose-o-o for ° and so on.
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 Sure, but on my Linux system using a standard keyboard, I need to map Compose (e.g. to Right Win) and just hope that no other software wants to use that key specifically (which has thankfully proved true thus far). If you have a keyboard with a separate physical Compose key out of the box, that's a plus since you don't need to map it. Of course, the LK201 doesn't have Win or Menu keys either, so swings and roundabouts.
@@ropersonline I use Caps Lock for my Compose key.
@@lawrencedoliveiro9104 I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if literally dozens of us CapsLock-Ctrl switchers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
IF you can show the 11/44 with Rainbow Terminal being able to write to local Rainbow storage that would be great (something I never figured out how to do). Also beware of MS-DOS on the 8088 and CP/M on the Z80 abilities to screw up files on any fixed disc etc on a rainbow HDD (or twin floppy A and B drives as the syntax for source drive filename to destination drive / filename is reversed in DOS ( ask me how I found out the bad way I suppose with better information I MIGHT have got file contents back as some DOS commands (did CP/M) just re-wrote the Filename Location name and lookup table pointers without changing the physical binary contents unless the disc were otherwise full, but I didnt know that in 1985)
Let me guess.
CP/M:
PIP «dst» = «src»
DOS:
COPY «src» «dst»
Fun fact: CP/M copied a lot of things from DEC OSes. That included the name of the PIP command.
The DEC 750S was a brilliant system that I got to use at night classes at a technical training center near to me which will soon be flattened or turned into apartments I don't know.
I'm glad your cat's okay🐈
Yep. that's the only thing I'm here for too. :) Also the computer stuff. Probably.
@@liquidsonly well of course the computer stuff too😉
Truly feel for you! Awesome update though! Make life happend, chanel will survive!
Would you consider working on the printer next? We've seen a lot on discs which I know are important but I'm curious how the printer works. Standard dot matrix or some kind of band or line printer?
I'm not sure about the key switch on the mini.... just doesn't seem like a real Centurion if you're not there, using lock picks to switch it on. ;)
the FPS-100 is designed to process IEEE754 float, doubles and Long doubles and might be used in conjunction with another computer more akin to a INTEL 8087 or an INTEL 80387
It would be cool to go to VCF and see your Wang, unfortunately travel is no-go for me this year.
Not sorry for the Wang joke, it was just too hard to keep down.
To fix the Phoenix, had you considered using the disk packs and realigning the servo disk ??? Used to use this trick on the 9" FSD and the Larks.
Noticed you are missing something in your Ti chain. I have a Peripheral Expansion Box to donate, if you want it. I'm going to VCF East if you want to pick it up.
>every retro youtuber that gets popular
Oh no, my house is a museum now.
I bet those trw chips are hardware multipliers .
TRW made some multipliers in that time frame
hi i have a cat my self she's a in doors one yes they can have it out big time
likely we have the nhs in the uk and it helps big time i had 7 big one the molers at the back wish one's out cost zero money
i can tell all i don't mind the needles i had 3 just of one out was deep down
so beware i was very unlucks
Awwwww, poor kitty.
@usagielectric I've found the FPS100 loader document
What about that third centurion terminal you got hold of?
Poor kitty...but cats are tough. OH, and get better yourself.
What about getting help to build a tape drive with a Rotary head that means that you can use old new stock VHS tapes or BETA tapes depending on the mechanism.
data recovery device for crashed discs. could be possible to defragment and restore lost data in software
Basically you're saying that you are getting snowed under. Understandable.
As grateful as you are. You have to cut loose a few projects and be an expert in one.
It's more sustainable for you and probably makes for better RUclips content.
poor kitty
I’ve got some PCBs in development for the NABU that you might be interested in… I just tried to DM you on Twitter about it, but it seems you’ve got DMs from people that you aren’t following turned off…
Anyway - one puts an Arduino Nano on the NABU’s expansion bus, another is a SPI interface with an optional full-duplex parallel port, and the last one is an ESP32 board that (once proper firmware for the ESP32 is written) will allow the NABU to boot without a PC hooked up.
Is 'David' Dave Plummer? He was looking for PDP11 stuff.
That NABU needs a Cable Network Interface unit or it won't even boot up as you will only get the error cannot access network boot aborted.
👍
you sir might need a vacation you maybe to buzzy
I know there are no mentions in this video, but what do you plan to do about the PC-8001?