#vcfexxi

[commodorez]

One of the most important activities at VCF East is the Saturday night visit to the Silverball museum to play some pinball and arcade games. I always make a beeline for the original Asteroids arcade cabinet.

[commodorez]

Ham Radio and PCs – Jeffrey Golas

"When amateur radio operators got bored of calling cq using their voice, they opted to find new ways of using their radio stations to communicate with others. Explore hardware and software used by amateur radio operators to include their computers into their amateur radio stations."

That ASR-32 teletype is the rare baudot version of the venerable ASR-33. Also, I think that's the first time I've seen SSTV decided at a VCF before.

[commodorez]

Pittsburgh Classic Mac Lab – Scott Baret

"The Pittsburgh Classic Mac Lab is an operational lab that transports all who visit back to 1992. Used in a multitude of settings, the Mac Lab helps children explore and learn using proven programs while letting adults take a trip back in time. From playing Oregon Trail over a network to drawing in Kid Pix to munching factors in Number Munchers, there’s a little something for everyone in the lab."

[commodorez]

HP 2113E minicomputer and 87XM micro – Mike Loewen

"The HP 2113E minicomputer from 1976 was part of the second series of 21MX machines, and used semiconductor RAM instead of core memory. The system on display has a 2748B high speed paper tape reader (500cps) which is used to load software into RAM. Paper tape BASIC will be loaded, after which BASIC programs can be loaded from the interpreter. A 2645A terminal is used for communication. Also on display is an 87XM personal computer from 1983 with dual diskette drives. The 87MX has built in BASIC with graphics capability."

I spent some time programming in BASIC on the HP2113E (which is a model in the HP 1000 line), but before I could Mike had to load BASIC into RAM first. He had a cleaver method of rewinding the tape using a power drill.

[commodorez]

Computing for Small Businesses – Dave Shevett

"The 80s saw the first generation of kids raised on home computers bringing their skills and energy and talents into small businesses. Teaching Dad how to use a word processor or the old accountant how to use a spreadsheet became the sea-change of the silicon revolution. This exhibit will explore some of the early examples of using home computers for work, such as accounting, word processing, and small business operations. We will also look at some of the machines that the larger corporations like AT&T and DEC brought out to try and fill this new market for small, affordable, easy to use computers."

[commodorez]

Making the Mainframe Personal with the P/390 – Classical Computing Laboratory at IBM Poughkeepsie

"Throughout the 1970s and 1990s, IBM sought ways to develop a desktop computer with capabilities of running mainframe software. A number of attempts existed, ranging from the original IBM 5100 Portable Computer to the IBM PC/370 and AT/370 personal computers. By the early 1990s, IBM had developed a line of “personal mainframe” workstations: commodity desktop servers with the inclusion of a real mainframe processor. These systems allowed traditional mainframe operating systems like MVS, VSE, and VM/CMS to be run alongside an OS/2 or AIX host.

We will be demonstrating an IBM PC Server 330 System/390 from October 1996. Our unit is equipped with a 200 MHz Pentium Pro processor, 200 MB of host RAM (70ns ECC DIMM), a P/390 processor card, and a bus-and-tag I/O adapter. The host runs OS/2 Warp 4 Advanced Server. The P/390 card gives the mainframe environment 128 MB of RAM, and an additional 64 MB of host memory is dedicated to the P/390 environment as a memory cache. It will be connected to an IBM 3174 establishment controller, an IBM 3279 color terminal, and an IBM 4224 line printer.

Besides showing off the hardware, we will be providing a live demonstration of a VM/ESA 2.4.0 mutiprogramming environment, including applications such as OfficeVision, BASIC/VM, the IBM High Level Assembler, user-developed games, and even a banner-making program! We will also allow for VCF attendees to connect to our system over WiFi from their own laptops, tablets, or phones."

I tried out space invaders in block mode on a 3720-type terminal, which is... wild. It was never really designed for that style of interactivity.

[commodorez]

Roadkill from the rise of the PC – David Gesswein, Janet Walz

This was a mix of Ohio Scientific equipment and a TI Professional PC, both machines that were left in the dust by computer market forces.The TI Professional PC was not 100% IBM compatible, so it didn't pan out, even if it did have a powerful graphics output.

Meanwhile, David's Challenger II featured a unique OSI-560Z processor lab, a board that allowed the user to have a Z80, or 6100 processor, which was a PDP-8 on a chip. This machine could be seen running FOCAL, and playing a PDP-8 specific game while the 6502 was busy running other software -- at the same time on the same computer.

[commodorez]

Ohio Scientific Inc. – 50 year anniversary

Crawford Griffith, Bill Sudbrink, Bill Dromgoole, Bill Degnan

This was one of the big anchor exhibits celebrating 50 years of OSI. They had borrowed an OSI-300 and original Challenger from Bill Sudbrink (who sadly could not attend this year), a second OSI-300 from Bill Dromgoole, and a Challenger 1P-MF and Challenger III from Crawford Griffith. An excellent array of OSI machines!