68kMLA Classic Interface
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| Finally, a LUNCHBOX! | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-03-24 20:19:31 Seller said the package went in the mail Friday and all is well. He didn't even know what I was talking about, but I don't think the "Customer Recall?" subject line showed up at his end. | |
| Posted by: CelGen on 2013-03-24 21:53:01 Or he just shanked you out of your money. | |
| Posted by: uniserver on 2013-03-24 22:03:40 shanked for 15 bucks, doubtful. Messing up his 100% positive feedback wouldn't be worth it. | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-03-25 03:56:48 Not shanked, great communications, he's going to check it out at the PO. He seems more upset than I was, definitely confused about it. | |
Posted by: Bunsen on 2013-03-26 04:07:53awesome awesome awesome! MY GOD those had to of been so expensive!!!!!!! Super cool!Yeah, I shudder to think what they went for originally. If you check out the rear images on the auction, you can see that it's a slot-based system that you load up with specific test interface cards. I would hazard a guess those slots are possibly ISA, electrically and data-wise, if not physically. They could of course be some other industrial slot type altogether. /nitpick/ had to have been /n/ | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-11-05 21:33:35 Update time: I was checking this baby out today to see if I could load Win98 on it for use with a cheap Chinese ROM burner which may show up on my doorstep. No go, or no easy go of it. It ain't DOS or Windows! This box has to be the most industrially 😎 bit of plunder in my collection. There's a BIN for one with fabulous pics of it on eBay right now, it seems like it may be the whole kit: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tekelec-Chameleon-Open-ATM-Network-Analyzer-Telecom-Test-Set-Probe-Cables-Bag-/161125408058 I wonder if it comes with a password, mine needs one. :🙂 What I've found out watching the .TXT scroll by during boot: Computer Model: HMS 486 (Mosquito) HMSystems © 1993 BIOS: American Megatrends 1992 BIOS Settings: Processor: 486DX or 487SX (whatever the heck that means?) Video: VGA/PGA/EGA Memory: 16MB OS: INTERACTIVE UNIX Operating System System V NFS Release 3.2.5 Lachman Associates 1-2 user license Neat stuff: 1) ESDI Controller, I've never had any ESDI stuff! 2) Token Ring Monitor Board Cool beans, I guess I can stash it back under the shelf for now, I'm still not ready to muck about inside this sucker yet. I'll probably upgrade the Dell Pentium from 95 to 98 if I don't lash together another system with a more modern MoBo that's been gathering dust for a while now. edit: oh yeah, the '96 versions of this sucker went for 22k Simoleans! :O edit 2: here's a bunch of crap about it that makes zero sense to me, other than the '94 pricing. 47 large! 8-o technical gobbledegook edit last: Had to hook it up to the Sony MultiSync on the bench, it mirrors the display on the LCD, when I get a chance I'll hook it up to the MAG MultiSync with the resolution/frequency readout panel to see what this BEAST is cranking out. YAWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |) | |
| Posted by: NJRoadfan on 2013-11-06 04:48:38 I'm curious as to what motherboard its using, it is a standard baby-AT form factor case. I would be surprised if it really was ESDI. Any 486 was well into the era of standard IDE drives. Windows 98 will run on it, but more memory is recommended. Otherwise stick with Windows 95. | |
| Posted by: Blinkenlightz on 2013-11-06 06:23:03 OS/2 would be a much better match for that industrial beast than Windows! | |
Posted by: jruschme on 2013-11-06 06:37:08Processor: 486DX or 487SX (whatever the heck that means?)I had to look this one up... Wikipedia has a short blurb on the 487SX. It was aparently a math coprocessor (actually a full CPU replacement) for systems with the i486SX CPU (which had no floating point hardware). Specifically, it was targeted for systems which had soldered 486SX chips and a compatible socket. Blech... I forgot what a mess things were those days. I wonder if the CPU is socketed? If so, you could probably drop in a 486DX/2 for double the speed, double the fun. 🙂 | |
Posted by: olePigeon on 2013-11-06 08:38:21IBM 5155:Hey! My dad had one of those for work. I played Hack & Rogue on it. 🙂 | |
Posted by: Gorgonops on 2013-11-06 09:21:46Update time:I assume it's asking for a password once it's fully booted? You should be able to break into the BIOS and get it to boot from a floppy instead if you want to get DOS or whatnot on it. I am also curious about the "ESDI drive" statement; do you actually see an ESDI controller/drive in it, or is that just what the BIOS says? Some older BIOS-es identified IDE drives in "translating" mode (IE, most of them) as ESDI. If it *is* IDE I'd suggest pulling the disk that has the magical proprietary network sniffer OS on it out and subbing another one for DOS/Windows/whatever. A "deep hacking" solution for getting into the sniffer software *could* be sticking the disk in a Linux machine and seeing if you can mount it; in theory you might be able to edit /etc/passwd to break in, for instance, but I'd image the whole disk to a backup before changing anything on it. (Windows 98 is going to be tough. Does it have a CD-ROM drive, or were you thinking of floppies? A machine that old will probably not boot from a CD-ROM drive, you'll have to make a DOS boot floppy with an appropriate driver/mscdex.exe set up on it. You might be able to find a disk image that'll already work once written to a floppy, otherwise it's time for some semi-arcane DOS hackery) Win98 will run "okay" on a 486DX for something specific like driving an EPROM burner, but you really will want more RAM if at all possible. Keep it off the Internet, though. 😛 | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-11-06 09:24:57 I'll crack the BEAST open and see what I've got here, I've been dying to since it arrived, but there's been no room at all to do it. My apartment looks like somebody tossed a couple of concussion grenades into uni's trailer ATM. That's a tale on its own, let's see: while configuring the Beige_G3 as a temporary replacement for the recently deceased QS'02, after the diagnostics and od said '02, I managed to nuke the '02s big HDD in the large partition hostile G3 in the process. Then I tore up a couple of other setups to re-stuff the Beige with ATA-133, SCSI2 and USB/FW cards so I can back up the borked HDD. As an alternate, I've been setting up the Pismo500 as teh replacement graphics machine on the KVM setup with HP_Maxi in the bedroom, tearing it and the PDQ up after nuking the up Pismo's Classic deprived 10.4.11 trying to upgrade it to 9.2.1 in the process, (thanks again eudi. [😉] ]'> ) finally winding up with the PDQ's 9.2.1 HDD in the Pismo, happily discovering clamshell mode while researching the schiznit out of the hobbled Pismo. It's been an interesting month or so. :🙂 Forgot to mention, I've got to repack and re-stack close twenty different project boxes, finish reconfiguring the dining area HackLab and take the excess furniture and pile of accumulated junk to Goodwill. Luckily I'm bachin' it for the week before Thanksgiving! IOW, it'll be a while before the internal piccie update. :lol: @ NJRoadfan: I'm just going by the scrolling UNIX bootup .TXT and its mention of ESDI. Maybe there was some advantage in using ESDI under UNIX in 1994? More likely this Lunchbox iteration of Tekelec's diagnostic system was developed from an earlier Sewing Machine based system from the ESDI age? Macht nichts für mich, the point of this evolution was configuration of one of my parallel port boxen with Win98 to run the ROM Burner. The only other licenses I have for Windows are 3/3.1, 7 on the Parallel port deprived Pavilion dm1 Netbook. There's the questionable transfer of the Win95 install on the Dell Pentium, but 95 and 7 inconveniently bookend the minimum requirements for said ROM Burner. The dedicated XP-Home3 for HP-Mini is way too new for the old boxen, even if I could manage to hoodwink the restore CD into installing on a different machine. Add to that the very inconvenient loss of my Win98 package and the $60 support manual for it down the storage room whirlpool. The license didn't disappear, I just need to locate that legal backup of the media I vaguely recall making to the cloud ( . . . before it existed . . . erm . . . became popular . . . [}🙂] ]'> ) back in the day. @ Blinkenlightz: OS/2 8-o GAAHHHH!!!!!! I'm unloading my Sun collection rather than delving into yet another Neolithic OS, I gave up on Debian back in the day, I've managed to avoid loading AU/X to this point and there's no freakin' way I'm going to get start playing with OS/2, especially since it won't run the ROM Burner! < wonders if crosses, garlic a/o wooden stakes might lay such evil time-suckers to rest? 😛 > I've barely scratched the surface of ubuntu and I've been running it for over four years on HP_Mini for cripe's sake! @ jr: cool beans! maybe if I can score a DX-2 this would run '98 acceptably for my purposes. I've got 32MB of PC RAM sitting on the old Rocket . . . . . . and I'll go pretty far out of my way to keep that friggin' DIMENSION XPS D333 off my electronics bench. Blech! 😛 I also like NJR's suggestion of a possible, if highly unlikely, Baby-AT refurb, but the config is all wrong. the BEAST is a cutting edge eight slot (seven accessible) chassis for a $47k industrial workstation. PCI came out in '93 so it's unlikely to be ISA and I've always wanted a Dual Voodoo-2 gaming rig. [😀] ]'> | |
Posted by: jruschme on 2013-11-06 10:05:16and I'll go pretty far out of my way to keep that friggin' DIMENSION XPS D333 off my electronics bench. Blech!Well, that would be a modern era system, though big and without the charm of the lunchbox. It's pretty much the alternate universe counterpart to your beige G3. Digression: my favorite of that era was the Dimension L-series; small, almost cute, with a look like a correctly proportioned 6400. Personally, I think you need to find yourself one of the old C-series Latitudes (P-III based) or something like a ThinkPad 600E or 600X. If I had to guess, ESDI vs. IDE was probably about performance. It's possible the drive is still IDE since, IIRC, a lot of older disk drivers just treated MFM/ESDI/IDE all the same (emulation of some early WD controller). | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-11-06 10:15:02 Oh, the case is just fine, that's why I bought the turd . . . possible stealth PExBOX. :lol: | |
Posted by: Gorgonops on 2013-11-06 10:32:13It's possible the drive is still IDE since, IIRC, a lot of older disk drivers just treated MFM/ESDI/IDE all the same (emulation of some early WD controller).I'd bet three shiny new nickels it's IDE. ESDI was pretty much dead meat by the 486 era. (And yes, from a software standpoint IDE looks basically like a ESDI drive, both of which emulate (with extensions) the WD1003 used in the original IBM AT.) | |
| Posted by: NJRoadfan on 2013-11-06 18:32:47 AT motherboards have 8 slots 😎 ATX motherboards only have 7. | |
| Posted by: markyb86 on 2013-11-06 21:10:55 I've got a Pentium 3 gateway laptop laying around if you want a small machine that will boot 98 with a parallel port? | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-11-06 22:08:26 Thanks for the offer, comrade, but I can probably snag something suitable for less than the cost of shipping at a thrift in the area. What I'd really like to do is get the Tekelec or a nice Mobo I snagged off eBay a couple of years back up and running. | |
| Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2013-11-07 10:32:59 Well, I cleaned off a work surface to take some pics for the bigmess . . . . . . and curiosity got the best of me. :lol: I victimized myself with some sloppy thinking, was a bit disappointed that it's not PCI. It was actually the custom DSP and I/O cards that made this baby a heavy duty, high dollar diagnostics workstation. So it made exactly zero sense for Tekelec to have switched over to a PCI Architecture when simply downsizing the Chameleon Open from an AT Sewing Machine to to the Lunchbox form factor.   Nine slot passive backplane and a really nifty, upgradeable socketed 486 SBC in there though! [😀] ]'>  Three empty SIMM slots for what I hope to heck isn't custom RAM modules. It's odd that there doesn't appear to be a ninthe chip for parity, but the SIMM is undoubtedly meant only for the OS, the DSP and I/O cards would have any necessary memory on their own side of the AT Bus. What kind of upgrades are available for that CPU socket, jr? [😉] ]'> | |
| Posted by: uniserver on 2013-11-07 10:42:16 Dunno brother, I'd say it looks like that card don't fit too good in der… lol | |
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