Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

using command prompt to change to another drive

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Originally posted by xortam
    Hell ... I've still got copies of CPM and such on 8" floppies. ... and don't even get me started talking about the CRAM deck I have. ... or how about the Star Trek game on paper tape from a Cyber machine. I've got so much useless junk lying around here ...
    Do you have a working 8" floppy drive?
    If not, why do you keep them?

    And, what is a CRAM deck?
    chuck
    Chuck
    秋音的爸爸

    Comment


    • #17
      You're just showing off about your age Xortam
      DM says: Crunch with Matrox Users@ClimatePrediction.net

      Comment


      • #18
        Originally posted by xortam
        Hell ... I've still got copies of CPM and such on 8" floppies. ... and don't even get me started talking about the CRAM deck I have. ... or how about the Star Trek game on paper tape from a Cyber machine. I've got so much useless junk lying around here ...
        Hey, I have got CP/M+ lying around on 3" disks (192 KB)...


        Jörg
        pixar
        Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

        Comment


        • #19
          Originally posted by cjolley
          Do you have a working 8" floppy drive?
          If not, why do you keep them? ...
          I did use the phrase "useless junk" didn't I? I've still got trinkets around here from electronics conventions held in the 60's (WESCON).
          ... And, what is a CRAM deck?
          I thought I told you not to get me talking about this. CRAM stands for Card Random Access Machine (the below linked NCR UK site claims 'M' stands for Memory, which is wrong according to what I was told back then). The engineers originally wanted to call it Card Random Access Processor, but it didn't pass marketing. CRAM was an NCR storage device (apparently the first mass storage device as I just learned). Here's a link to a site which shows you the machine and this site describes CRAM a bit. The CRAM shown in the UNO photo doesn't appear near as big as the unit we had. There doesn't seem to be much info Googled on CRAM.

          Originally posted by GNEP
          You're just showing off about your age Xortam
          I'd gladly shave off some years given the chance. But yeah, I've been around computers for quite awhile.

          Originally posted by VJ
          Hey, I have got CP/M+ lying around on 3" disks (192 KB) ...
          You mean those "newer" 3 1/2" disks don't you? Those were exciting when they came out.
          <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

          Comment


          • #20
            Nice CRAM article here .
            interesting
            chuck
            Last edited by cjolley; 26 January 2005, 13:43.
            Chuck
            秋音的爸爸

            Comment


            • #21
              CRAM

              Here's a decent description of CRAM ...
              ... NCR had solved the random access problem by putting 8 metallic rods across the top of a hopper and hanging 256 mylar cards from the rods. The ends of the cards were notched in a very clever way so that each of the 256 cards was individually "addressable" by turning the rods. Programs sent an instruction to the CRAM unit to address a particular card, the unit caused the correct combination of rods to rotate, and the card was dropped down into the hopper where a vacuum grabbed it and pressed it onto a drum which rotated under a Read/Write head. This system gave random access within about 200 milliseconds to nearly a megabyte of data (if my memory serves me correctly), and we thought it was fantastic. ...
              A CRAM deck is simply the stack of 256 mylar cards (each about a foot long maybe), which are stored in a plastic box.
              <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

              Comment


              • #22
                PS and a funny story about them here
                Chuck
                秋音的爸爸

                Comment


                • #23
                  Originally posted by cjolley
                  PS and a funny story about them here
                  Didn't see that. I need to poke around that site some more sometime. Feelin' like an old geezer now.

                  BTW ... the CRAM unit we had must have been about 15 feet wide by 7 feet tall and would sound like a jumbo jet (especially when the Plexiglas doors were opened).
                  Last edited by xortam; 26 January 2005, 21:53.
                  <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by xortam
                    You mean those "newer" 3 1/2" disks don't you? Those were exciting when they came out.
                    Nope, I mean 3" disks, as used by Schneider and some Commodore machines
                    in the late 1980s. They looked a bit like the 3.5" ones (hard plastic
                    casing, disk itself is behind a sliding door), but could hold less than
                    192 KB.

                    (and before anyone asks: no, I don't have a working 3" drive anymore )

                    Jörg
                    pixar
                    Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Originally posted by VJ
                      Nope, I mean 3" disks, as used by Schneider and some Commodore machines
                      in the late 1980s. ...
                      I never ran across those diskettes. Pretty small capacity for 3" at that time.
                      <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        I think those 3" disks were made as a bit of wrong guess at the future of the diskette market by one manufacturer or another, and Commodore and Amstrad (in the UK) bought a bulk lot of the drives and media for certain models of their home computers on the cheap.
                        DM says: Crunch with Matrox Users@ClimatePrediction.net

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Beschreibung und technische Daten zum Amstrad PCW 8256/Schneider Joyce

                          It was 169 KB (unformatted), even worse than I thought...



                          Jörg
                          pixar
                          Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            thanks for that guys, ive just realised how good windows GUI is when messing around at the command prompt nd getting nothing done slowly
                            is a flower best picked in it's prime or greater withered away by time?
                            Talk about a dream, try to make it real.

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              bah. CLI rules
                              Join MURCs Distributed Computing effort for Rosetta@Home and help fight Alzheimers, Cancer, Mad Cow disease and rising oil prices.
                              [...]the pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time. - Veblen

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Workbench forever
                                ASUS P5B-E ;2GB G.Skill DDR2 Ram; C2D6420;lub 3D X1950pro ;SoundBlaster X-Fi;WinXP

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X