Carlos E. R. wrote:

Mine has all the requirements except the parallel port. Parallel port???

Does anyone still use those? ;-) It's been many years since I've had reason to use one. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 10:39 AM, Mark Hounschell wrote:

On 01/19/2012 10:13 AM, James Knott wrote:

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Carlos E. R. wrote:

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Mine has all the requirements except the parallel port. Parallel port???

Does anyone still use those? ;-)

It's been many years since I've had reason to use one.

I just recently went through this. If ya like AMD here is a fairly recent one that has it all.

GA-890FXA-UD5

http://www.gigabyte.us/products/list.aspx?s=42&jid=7&p=2&v=26

This one has it all plus an additional Ethernet port. Unfortunately you'll never find a pci floppy controller that can be used with the kernels /dev/fd0. Everything else you can find PCI cards for. But the above has em all.

Here's a link that works. Sorry. http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3781#ov -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 11:04 AM, James Knott wrote:

Mark Hounschell wrote:

...

Unfortunately you'll never find a pci floppy controller that can be used with the kernels /dev/fd0.

What about a 9 track mag tape drive? Gotta make use of that tar command. ;-)

I'm setting right next to a 9 track tape drive as I write this??? An HP-88780. Mark -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 12:28 PM, James Knott wrote:

Mark Hounschell wrote:

...

...

What about a 9 track mag tape drive? Gotta make use of that tar command. ;-)

I'm setting right next to a 9 track tape drive as I write this??? An HP-88780.

I was thinking more along the lines of something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape

I also have some "experience" with some old giant vacuum 1/2 tape drives but that one was a little before my time. Mark -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 02:43 PM, Per Jessen wrote:

James Knott wrote:

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Mark Hounschell wrote:

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What about a 9 track mag tape drive? Gotta make use of that tar command. ;-)

I'm setting right next to a 9 track tape drive as I write this??? An HP-88780.

I was thinking more along the lines of something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape

Yeah, 1600 or 6250bpi - we had some of those in my first job, but they were very quickly replaced by IBM 3480. Later on in life I worked for THE big tape company in the world.

STC?? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Per Jessen wrote:

James Knott wrote:

...

Mark Hounschell wrote:

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...

What about a 9 track mag tape drive? Gotta make use of that tar command. ;-) I'm setting right next to a 9 track tape drive as I write this??? An HP-88780. I was thinking more along the lines of something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape Yeah, 1600 or 6250bpi - we had some of those in my first job, but they were very quickly replaced by IBM 3480. Later on in life I worked for THE big tape company in the world.

We had a lot of 800 bpi drives and some 1600. There were also some 6250 IIRC, on newer systems. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 08:04 AM, James Knott wrote:

Mark Hounschell wrote:

...

Unfortunately you'll never find a pci floppy controller that can be used with the kernels /dev/fd0.

What about a 9 track mag tape drive? Gotta make use of that tar command. ;-)

This is OT but interesting, I actually ran into some engineers a few years out of college who had never heard of 9-track mag tape! I had to google some photos before they would believe it. I'm dating myself, but I used to use 7-track tape too! It was 200 frames per inch. I remember diagnosing problems with something called Visimag. It was a volatile fluid containing suspended iron particles that the tape would be dipped in. You could then see not only the tracks, but even the individual frames on the tape! BTW, is the opensuse offtopic list still in operation? I looked for the archives the other day but found only a dead link. Regards, Lew -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Tony Alfrey wrote:

It is used to adjust the vertical alignment of the tape head to insure that the set of tracks are centered on the tape.

Actually, skew. You had to line up the tracks so they would be read at the same time. There were write skew adjustment, so the tracks would appear as a straight line across the tape and also read skew, so the data was clocked properly. There was also a coarse mechanical alignment. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 11:07 AM, Mark Hounschell wrote:

You probably meant 200 ips "Inches per second" which is a fast drive. As were those big IBM's. Most normal 9-track tape drives ranged from 45ips in the mid to late 70's to 125ips in the early to late 80's.

I'm fairly sure it was frames per inch. The more modern "PE" 9-tracks were up in the 6250-FPI range, if memory serves. The 7-track units were used with an incremental data logger that would write 1 frame at a time, the tape was moved with a stepper motor. It was read with a conventional high-speed (sort of) block read transport. The 7-track 200-FPI tapes are mention here: http://www.learn-about-electronics.com/magnetic-tape-storage.html Regards, Lew -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 01:45 PM, Lew Wolfgang pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

On 01/19/2012 08:04 AM, James Knott wrote:

...

Mark Hounschell wrote:

...

Unfortunately you'll never find a pci floppy controller that can be used with the kernels /dev/fd0.

What about a 9 track mag tape drive? Gotta make use of that tar command. ;-)

This is OT but interesting, I actually ran into some engineers a few years out of college who had never heard of 9-track mag tape! I had to google some photos before they would believe it.

I'm dating myself, but I used to use 7-track tape too! It was 200 frames per inch. I remember diagnosing problems with something called Visimag. It was a volatile fluid containing suspended iron particles that the tape would be dipped in. You could then see not only the tracks, but even the individual frames on the tape!

BTW, is the opensuse offtopic list still in operation? I looked for the archives the other day but found only a dead link.

Regards, Lew

I used to deal with not only 9-track but also 9" disks and 300m data packs that required a 3x3x3.5" box for them to run in. FYI: The OT list has no archives, IIANM it never has. -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:

I used to deal with not only 9-track but also 9" disks and 300m data packs that required a 3x3x3.5" box for them to run in.

I don't recall 9" drives, but we had some 14" disk packs, with the "cake box" cover. Depending on model they were about 100, 200 or 300 MB. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:45:07 AM Lew Wolfgang wrote:

On 01/19/2012 08:04 AM, James Knott wrote:

...

Mark Hounschell wrote:

...

Unfortunately you'll never find a pci floppy controller that can be used with the kernels /dev/fd0.> What about a 9 track mag tape drive? Gotta make use of that tar command. ;-) This is OT but interesting, I actually ran into some engineers a few years out of college who had never heard of 9-track mag tape! I had to google some photos before they would believe it.

I'm dating myself, but I used to use 7-track tape too! It was 200 frames per inch. I remember diagnosing problems with something called Visimag. It was a volatile fluid containing suspended iron particles that the tape would be dipped in. You could then see not only the tracks, but even the individual frames on the tape!

BTW, is the opensuse offtopic list still in operation? I looked for the archives the other day but found only a dead link.

Regards, Lew

Your dating your self. Vistamag was start of the art then. How about head per track disks and card readers. -- Russ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 11:55 AM, upscope wrote:

Your dating your self. Vistamag was start of the art then. How about head per track disks and card readers.

At the risk of offending the OT police, I'll offer this: I do remember head-per-track disks, but I didn't work on them. I did work on Hewlett Packard disk transports that had one removable 14-inch platter and one fixed. The voice-coil driven heads on both platters required physical cleaning every month or so! I still have the little aluminum tool I made to make the task a bit easier. This was pre-Winchester technology, of course. I did use punch cards. Indeed, one of our old-fashioned scientists used cards for his FORTRAN code up until 1995 or so. I also was a heavy user of punched paper tape, and remember one sat-nav system that used a PDP-8S computer. This was a 12-bit system with a rows of indicators and a switch register to enter data. The computer didn't have non-volatile memory and the program (no operating system) had to be loaded each time it was turned on. First, a 64-word paper-tape bootstrap program had to be loaded by hand from the switch register. Then you could load the paper tape in the reader of an ASR-33 Teletype. It read the 7-inch diameter roll of tape at 110 baud and would take an hour or so to load. This was the original "Navy Transit" satellite system, that you could consult printed tables to predict when a satellite was due and if it was in the right ascension and elevation to process. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_%28satellite%29 I'll be quiet now. Regards, Lew -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

* James Knott [01-19-12 16:13]:

Lew Wolfgang wrote:

...

I also was a heavy user of punched paper tape, and remember

I also used to work on a PDP-8i.

I guess we might as well go back to arguing politics or religion :^( -- (paka)Patrick Shanahan Plainfield, Indiana, USA HOG # US1244711 http://wahoo.no-ip.org Photo Album: http://wahoo.no-ip.org/gallery2 http://en.opensuse.org openSUSE Community Member Registered Linux User #207535 @ http://linuxcounter.net -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

upscope wrote:

How about head per track disks and card readers.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt with both. Also used to work on card punches too. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 01/19/2012 07:02 AM, Dave Howorth wrote:

...

Is there a search engine/page for PC motherboards where I can find motherboards by properties, eg. floppy, serial port, parallel port, IDE port support?

Currently it is hard to find a motherboard that supports these devices and browsing specifications one by one for all modern motherboards would be tedious. I don't know of a search engine (that's a statement of my ignorance rather than an assertion that there is no such engine). But I'd have

Istvan Gabor wrote: thought you would be likely to have more success if you looked for addon cards or USB devices etc for these devices rather than trying to find them on the motherboard. I recently bought a Gigabyte P45T-ES3G which will do what you're looking for. I got it from Newegg. It supports 64 GB quad core cpu and 16 GB ram. Also bought a Foxconn G41MXE with slightly lower specs, and 8 GB ram. Both have built-in sound. These are not the latest possible mobos, but, like you, I wanted the capability of using some of the older equipment with it.

--doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

2012. január 19. 16:53 napon David Haller írta:

Hello,

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012, Istvan Gabor wrote:

...

Is there a search engine/page for PC motherboards where I can find motherboards by properties, eg. floppy, serial port, parallel port, IDE port support?

To some extent (all in german, but the descriptions are pretty selfexplanatory using standard names): http://geizhals.de http://geizhals.at

Thank you all for the suggestions. The Gigabyte mobos your mentioned look OK. The historical comments are also interesting. I did not work with such old hardwares but I used in the mid 90s a Colorado tape driver in DOS. As for the addon cards, most of the new mobos I've seen has only 1 PCI slot, that is I should choose between a floppy, serial, or parallel port PCI card. And yes, I use these old ports: parallel for my workhorse old printer, serial for my fax modem, and floppy for loading diagnostic tools like SeaTools etc. Thanks again, Istvan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Istvan Gabor wrote:

2012. január 19. 16:53 napon David Haller írta:

...

Hello,

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012, Istvan Gabor wrote:

...

Is there a search engine/page for PC motherboards where I can find motherboards by properties, eg. floppy, serial port, parallel port, IDE port support?

To some extent (all in german, but the descriptions are pretty selfexplanatory using standard names): http://geizhals.de http://geizhals.at

Thank you all for the suggestions. The Gigabyte mobos your mentioned look OK. The historical comments are also interesting. I did not work with such old hardwares but I used in the mid 90s a Colorado tape driver in DOS. As for the addon cards, most of the new mobos I've seen has only 1 PCI slot, that is I should choose between a floppy, serial, or parallel port PCI card. And yes, I use these old ports: parallel for my workhorse old printer, serial for my fax modem, and floppy for loading diagnostic tools like SeaTools etc.

Diagnostic tools such as seatools can often be loaded onto a USB stick or CDROM too. Serial ports are also available via USB, although with some restrictions iirc. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (5.6°C) -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Istvan Gabor wrote:

2012. január 19. 16:53 napon David Haller írta:

...

Hello,

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012, Istvan Gabor wrote:

...

Is there a search engine/page for PC motherboards where I can find motherboards by properties, eg. floppy, serial port, parallel port, IDE port support? To some extent (all in german, but the descriptions are pretty selfexplanatory using standard names): http://geizhals.de http://geizhals.at

Thank you all for the suggestions. The Gigabyte mobos your mentioned look OK. The historical comments are also interesting. I did not work with such old hardwares but I used in the mid 90s a Colorado tape driver in DOS. As for the addon cards, most of the new mobos I've seen has only 1 PCI slot, that is I should choose between a floppy, serial, or parallel port PCI card. And yes, I use these old ports: parallel for my workhorse old printer, serial for my fax modem, and floppy for loading diagnostic tools like SeaTools etc.

Thanks again,

Istvan

What about USB connected floppy? You should be able to boot from one of those. Also, why bother with floppies these days? Wouldn't bootable USB device or CD be better? Also, if you get an external USB floppy drive, it can be used with multiple computers. I have one here, that I bought with a ThinkPad, a few years ago. However, it took me a while to find a floppy to put in it to test with. ;-) When I plugged in the USB floppy, it appeared at /dev/sdb and I was able to mount it, when there was a floppy in it. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org