Telephony
My own contribution to keeping 'classic' telephone equipment alive is that I have a fully functional 1A2 key telephone system installed here at the house. If you don't have any idea what '1A2' or 'Key System' means, then you can either E-mail me or visit the web pages of two very well-known telephone collector's associations.
Telephone Collectors International features a monthly newsletter and many shows/conventions throughout the year.
The Antique Telephone Collectors Association is a similar organization. Their newsletter devotes a large chunk of space to members buy/sell ads. This makes it a good source for older gear.
Here are some others I've found that have outstanding histories of the former Bell System and Northern Telecom (Canada's answer to Western Electric), sound bytes, technical data, and Lord only knows what else.
A Memorial to the Bell System - An overview of Bell System history, plus loads of sound bytes and links.
A Tribute to the Telephone - Run by the same fellow who does the Bell System Memorial site above. More focused on the telephone itself than the Bell companies. Has some great links to technical data and schematics for various phones.
This site, known as Technick.net, has loads of do-it-yourself electronic projects, including telephone circuits. WARNING: If you're not skilled with basic electronics design, to the point that you're comfortable turning a schematic and parts list into a working unit, I would not suggest attempting to build what you find there.
Tomi Engdahl's Technology Page, now hosted on ePanorama.net, is another excellent collection of telephony technical info and projects. Keep your pop-up blockers loaded and ready when visiting the ePanorama site, though. They'll throw all kinds of crap your way otherwise.
Don Hurter took a tour, back in December of 1995, of a PacBell C.O. in San Francisco. He gives a very detailed description, now hosted on the Bell System Memorial web site, of the whole event (regrettably, no pictures). This is a must-read for anyone interested in central offices.
The Vintage Telephone Equipment Museum is a must-see stop for any technoid visiting the Seattle area. It's a full-blown telephone and telecommunications museum housed in a still-in-service central office building near Tukwila. Their interactive exhibits include fully-functional panel, Step-by-Step, and No. 5 Crossbar switches.
General hours are Tuesdays from 08:30 - 14:00 local, other days by appointment.
The PhoneTrips site was created by those known to some as "Phone Phreaks." Contrary to all the negative press terms like "Hacker" and "Phreak" have gotten, the honest truth is that they're all individuals, just like any of us, and the media stereotypes about them are often as phony and misleading as a nine-dollar bill (mainly because the truth is too boring to make good press copy).
In fact, in the eyes of the popular press, anyone who likes to dig into electronic equipment or computer code, in an effort to understand how it works and how to fix it if something breaks, would be promptly branded a "hacker" by the popular press.
The truth is that I have better things I choose to do with my time than cheat payphones, or try to get free long-distance calls, and so do the guys who run PhoneTrips. Check it out for yourself.
Private Line is a website that has to be seen and read to be appreciated. Its author has extensive write-ups on cellphone history, how telephone equipment works, and lots of other techie-trivia.
AT&T's Customer Information Center can still supply Bell System Practices, Circuit Descriptions, and Schematic Drawings of just about any of the legacy telephone gear as well as current items. Although the prices for the group collections are excessive, individual BSP sections are priced very reasonably.
DEC MicroVAX/VAXStation FAQs and info
FreeBSD -- The Berkeley Systems Division Free Unix info page. My own Internet presence, and this site, would not exist if it were not for FreeBSD (I'm in the process of transitioning everything to FreeBSD due to hardware platform changes).
NetBSD -- An offshoot of FreeBSD and another free Unix version. This is the one to go to if you're looking for a good Unix OS for VAXen, Amiga, 68K-based systems, etc.
DEC Boot PROM files -- This is my local mirror of a site run by Don North, AK6DM. It contains Intel hex code, source code, and assembly files for most of the boot PROMs used by the DEC M9312 card. Those of you who are 'Classic' computing folk will know exactly what this means.
The only changes I made to the page, since Don did such a nice job of layout and tabling with the file listings, was to add some information of my own on device programmers. I also corrected one or two minor grammatical errors. Other than that, what you see is a mirror of Don's site.
In short, there will never be a link to Intel's page(s) from mine.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) -- It has been my experience that AMD's CPU chips run consistently cooler and faster than their Intel counterparts, besides being (considerably in some cases) less expensive. Check out the details on their Pentium-equivalent chips. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Adaptec -- Be careful about buying SCSI adapters from them nowadays. They have become, to my eyes, largely overpriced and undervalued, and far more marketing-driven than engineering-driven. They have, in essence, become the Microsoft of the SCSI adapter world.
American Megatrends (AMI) -- Yes, the same people that make system BIOS also make (and made, in times past) some mean motherboards. They may be pricier than others, but they have the best technical support I've ever encountered.
BusLogic -- An alternate choice for SCSI host adapters. Bought out by Mylex some years ago, and then Mylex was subsequently bought out by LSI Logic (also known as NCR). Fortunately, and unlike Adaptec, LSI kept all the old legacy drivers and files alive on their FTP site.
DPT -- Distributed Processing Technology. They used to be one of the top makers of high-performance SCSI host adapters and RAID cards. Unfortunately, they were bought out by Adaptec some years ago, and have degenerated accordingly. Their older stuff is still worthwhile, but I would be very leery of their post-merger products. There may still be some drivers and BIOS/firmware update files available from Adaptec's legacy FTP site, but don't count on it.
The MCA Militia -- This is a site dedicated to technical data and support files for IBM's once-very-popular PS/2 line of computers (and don't you even THINK of confusing it with the Sony PlagueStation!).
Initio Corp. - Once a manufacturer of some outstanding SCSI host adapters (the company was started by a bunch of former Adaptec engineers, frustrated with their ex-employer's change of focus), now they've cut their product line to just a handful of IEEE-1394 (Firewire) and SCSI ASIC chips. Although they no longer make host adapters that I know of, support files and manuals for their entire product line can be found by clicking here.
Roy Tellason has a neat page that, among other things, has a huge list of part numbers and datasheets for discrete semiconductors and IC's alike. Enjoy!
NIST -- National Institute of Standards and Technology. An all-around interesting site, well worth a visit (formerly the National Bureau of Standards).
No Starch Press -- Publishers of many good technical books. Check 'em out!
Powell's Books - One of the biggest, best, and oldest new/used booksellers on the west coast. They have an entire separate (from their main building) bookstore devoted to every technical subject imaginable, from Atmospheric Science to the Z80 microcontroller (and beyond).
Though it can cost more to implement than the more popular 'IDE' or 'ATAPI' interface, I've always believed the extra cost to be well worth the investment. SCSI is far more flexible and powerful than any IDE/EIDE setup, no matter how "enhanced," and is still the interface of choice for servers and high-end workstations.
For more details on this wonderfully robust and versatile I/O subsystem, click here. You'll be taken straight to Gary Field's official SCSI FAQ and Game Rules site.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION...
This section, I think, will always bear an 'Under Construction' logo. You can E-mail me if you have suggestions for additions or updates. Thanks!
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