Friday, November 4, 2022
Friday, September 30, 2022
Friday, September 9, 2022
Paul Cicchetti Entrex Records/History
So, that Frenchtown, NJ auction, from which I acquired our first Entrex 480 system chassis & [some] system boards....Who paid to store these since [what turns out to be] 1981?
His name was Paul Cicchetti.
There's a lot to say about Paul, as we learned from the items we acquired from his storage units auction, but this one thing is the most relevant.
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
How does the Entrex/Nixdorf "Trapezoid" Data/Terminal work?
Well, we don't know yet...but we're working on it.
For starters, here's some context to see how it was advertised:
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Motorola CRT Chassis H Connectors - MATE-N-LOK 1-0480270-0
The power & Composite Video combination connector on the top of the Motorola CRT Chassis for the Entrex Data/Scope Keystation Terminals (Nixdorf 620 & 600-series)
and
Also, similar on the system board:
Friday, September 2, 2022
Polish Advertisement Claim "Entrex is compatible with the Mera 9150"
Thank you, @sergiopl for providing this treasure!
Full translation to English coming soon...
Monday, August 29, 2022
Technical Manual for the Data General Nova 800 - OCR'd
These manuals are on bitsavers here:
But alas, they are not OCR'd (optically character recognized) PDFs.
So, with some magic using ocrmypdf, I'm making OCR'd versions available here. Enjoy!
Then here's a couple extra tangential links for fun:
Friday, August 26, 2022
Entrex Data/Scopes (Nixdorf Keystations) spotted in Belgium on 2ememain.be
My friend Dominique just shared these with me. The story is:
"I also saw an ad for two Entrex terminals two month ago, 40km from my house [in Liedekerke], Unfortunately the person never answered me, It was strange because one of the two terminals was painted red (like in Knight Rider), I kept the pictures for you."
So, can we track down this seller, or these terminals? We will certainly try, indeed!
"The ad was on https://www.2ememain.be
It's a Belgian marketplace, but unfortunately the ad disappeared. I then found the person on facebook by cross-checking information but also no answers. From memory it was in the Antwerp region, in this situation, I can not tell you more alas. It was strange to see this ad anyway, like as a sign, because in fact I have never seen an Entrex terminals ad so close to my house"
At first, I thought that these *might* be the same two keystation/terminals sold in Germany back in March & April 2018, but a quick comparison of any of the tags on the inside shows that they are all completely different machines...
Friday, August 5, 2022
Entrex 480/Nixdorf 620 Data/Scope Keystation (Terminal) Communication Protocol
sergiopl — Sept 3, 2022 at 3:56 AM
On a PC keyboard there is a tiny CPU that creates scan codes for each key, even shift. Then there is a 8051 or something known as keyboard controller that interpret that and send to PC CPU
In Mera/Entrex you only get scan codes generated from EPROM, mixed together with bit flags connected to modifier keys and that is shifted out of the device
All "meaning" of the keys is up to the host
All "meaning" of the keys is up to the host
ashlin4010 — Sept 3, 2022 at 4:03 AM
so how many bits are used for the code and flags? 8 and 2?
sergiopl — Sept 3, 2022 at 4:04 AM
6 bits are keyboard code
3 bits for control character (modifiers)
1 bit to indicate if key is a response to key press or to "read screen character" command
Rest is padding / framing
Those 3 bits are also messed up - they don't cover all possible combinations and some modifier combo has the same bit pattern 😆
If you open polish manual linked above there are two tables with those modifiers
6 bits are keyboard code
3 bits for control character (modifiers)
1 bit to indicate if key is a response to key press or to "read screen character" command
Rest is padding / framing
Those 3 bits are also messed up - they don't cover all possible combinations and some modifier combo has the same bit pattern 😆
If you open polish manual linked above there are two tables with those modifiers
Terminal Connector Pinout:
MBZ = + TERMINAL BUSY
Similarities with the MERA-ELZAB 7951 terminal pinout:
sergiopl — Sept 6, 2022 at 5:11 PM
I think Entrex code also can be said slightly modified Manchester, but I'm not sure if that is really the case. It looks like except clock signal is not interleaved on each half of bit so this is a bit strange
This is also not a NRZ or NRZI code, also similar but not exact.
But in terms of non repeating sequences it matches definition of Manchester
sergiopl — Sept 6, 2022 at 5:13 PM
There you have it: 3270 controller board
Building an IBM 3270 terminal controller_Lobsters - MdEditor
Building an IBM 3270 terminal controller
This is Manchester encoding. As you can see "1" is sent as LoHi. "0" is HiLo
In our case "0" is LL if previous bit was "1", and HL if previous bit was also 0.
"1" is HH if previous bit was 0, LH if previous bit was 1
While it looks similar over the wire sampling point is different and encoding method is also different
But this approach simplifies decoding because you just need to sample at 3/4T and you are done.
Saturday, July 9, 2022
Nixdorf (Entrex) "Trapezoid" 06418 Terminal saved in Austin, TX!
This and other vintage machines were acquired by "SomeComputerGuy", from another guy clearing out a storage unit.
"He does salvage and this is some stuff he had set aside. I asked him repeatedly if he knew anything about where any of it came from, he did not."
We celebrate SomeComputerGuy's find, and are collaborating to reverse-engineer the terminal communication protocols! Thanks for sharing the experience with us!
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Entrex has been added to Bitsavers!
Many thanks to Al Kossow and team for scanning and making available their full collection of Entrex publications. Very rare and unknown, mostly, until now!
Here's the collection:
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/entrex/
reference CHM collection
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102734247
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102734247
Also Nixdorf has had a collection there since May 2019.
Of particular interest to us here:
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And found in a "Pertec" subfolder of bitsavers:
"Nixdorf is so intent on dumping the Entrex name that they're gradually replacing nameplates on their installed equipment. However, changing the name hasn't improved the product. It is still an Entrex with all its inherited inefficiencies. The 600 Series operating system (DPEX) is not a truly new design, but it has a few capabilities (such as 80 Series (ADEX) operating system). In an effort to keep 80 Series software upward migratable, the DPEX operating system was forced to retain many of the years old, keypunch replacement, design and programming concepts inherent in the older systems.
Nixdorf has been successful in selling as benefits "Features" we believe are shortcomings...."
And see ENTREX SYSTEM STANDARD JOB DEFINITION on PDF page 15
---------------------
It contains a REALLY interesting real-life case use of the Entrex System!
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Nixdorf 620 System in Bremen, Germany - Acquired & Saved!
We were thrilled to acquire this and take delivery! Now we just need to find a way to get it from it's holding place in The Netherlands to the central USA...we're working on that, and we have great friends in Europe to help!
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Conversation with former Entrex technician Bob Rooney
Thu, Apr 7, 2022 at 1:22 PM <robert rooney> wrote:
Hi,
Sorry it’s taken so long for me to respond. Just came across your site again. It sure brings back a lot of good memories!!!
I started at Entrex in Burlington Mass in the summer of 1974 (summer job between jr and sr years of high school. I then went back to work for them in May 1975 and stayed until June 2000!!
Yup, Entrex to Nixdorf to Siemens Nixdorf and Siemens. They whole time working on the 280, 480, 600, 655 systems. Each a successor to the prior system.
Roles:
Summer 1974 assembling data scopes and recently introduced data terminals
May 1975 back to work in the wave solder room - a single person hell hole! If you can imagine, hot greasy, messy, etc.
That didn’t last long when a friend from the board test department started to show me TTL logic diagrams and I soon started troubleshooting circuits boards for many of the boards in the system and terminals down to the component level.
1977 Promoted to group leader of the data terminal assembly line – they wanted a tech to man the department because they were having too many failures in the field on new installs.
1979 Moved on to the ‘staging test dept’ where systems were configured with all the components (except the data terminals) the customer ordered and we would run them through tests, and alignments of tape and disk drives, etc. let them run a few days before moving them to the shipping dock.
Aside from the mentioned systems I also got to work on the Nixdorf made systems we sold in the US: 8850 8860 8870 8890
1982 Moved the ‘national support group’ where I provided hardware support for the x80 600s and 8850 systems to the US customers.
1984 Moved to the software side of ‘national support group’ Supporting the DPEX operating system and some DIDOS o.s. DIDOS was the German version of DPEX.
1987 As Unix started to make inroads and customers no longer wanted proprietary systems DPEX was ported to UNIX as an application called DCPA. It ran on Siemens-Nixdorf RM risc based servers and also x86 servers – using SCO Unix, Unixware,
I had a big hand in developing the applications to convert the DPEX- based customer libraries (their editor programs) and data; output it all to tape and read it back into the Unix servers. There were hundreds of customers that needed this done.
1998 things started to slow down and they were actually letting people work from home at that time through a dial-up connection. Colleagues were laid off, etc. I was able to re-locate to my house.
I actually had two 8850s at my house and an array of Siemens PCs. X86 servers where shipped to my house for staging, installing DCPA, and creating conversion tapes.
June 2000 worked slowed and they were looking for volunteers for a lay off.
Oct start at Lucent which became Alcatel-lucent and then Nokia. Stayed until let go in Jan. 2018.
About 10 years ago I scrapped all the equipment.
Please feel free to fire away; I’ll try to answer anything I can.
Have a great day,
Bob
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Nixdorf 620 Terminals (Entrex Data/Scope) spotted on reddit...in Denmark? Or Australia?
January 23, 2022
So, does NoResponsibility3745 own them? Do they intend to preserve them? Sell them? What is the status? Well, since Jan 23, NoResponsibility3745 has been silent, so we may never know. I have sent NoResponsibility3745 a direct message, as well as left a reply in the reddit post thread.
Hopefully we will hear an update someday soon, and these terminals can be preserved and/or restored. And maybe even reunited with one of our restored systems to run their proprietary communication once again!
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/sashmt/what_am_i_looking_at_here/
------------------------------------
Update: Based on this recent reddit post from January 17, 2023, it appears that NoResponsibility3745 is from Denmark, and currently lives in Australia:
Jeg er en 21 årige dansk-australia som har boet i Danmark i 4 år og er lige flyttet tilbage til Australien nu her for et par måneder siden.
I am a 21 year old Danish-Australian who has lived in Denmark for 4 years and just moved back to Australia a couple of months ago.
So, were these Nixdorf/Entrex "Data/Scope" Terminals in Denmark, or Australia? Based on the timeline, the original post was made on January 23, 2022. This post is from January 17, 2023, and by the sentence above, it sounds like NoResponsibility3745 was in Denmark from ~2019 to Oct-Nov 2022. Following this logic, NoResponsibility3745 would have been in Denmark at the time that the original post was made to Reddit. So, were they indeed in Denmark? Are they still? We continue to hold out hope that they can be found...
All of my messages and replies to NoResponsibility3745 on reddit have yet gone unanswered. I'd still love to hear from you, NoResponsibility3745, so please reply if you ever have a chance, thanks so much!
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