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Regular Bio
My
Windows/PC stuff has been moved here
My
OpenVMS (VAX, Alpha, and Itanium) can be found
here
Hi-Tech Businesses in Waterloo Region
(Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge, Ontario, Canada) can be found here
Note: many site links on this page have been replaced with WebRing links
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'68HCxx' WebRing [ Join Ring | Ring Hub | Random | << Previous Site | Next Site >> | List All Sites ] In 2004, Motorola spun off their semiconductor division which is now known as Freescale Semiconductor |
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Visit my (Neil Rieck) Computing BioI designed the electronics and programmed the firmware for three different "ground-source heat-pump applications" for two Canadian companies no longer in business (fortunately for my ego, the demise of these companies had nothing to do with me or my technological contributions).
Visit my (Neil Rieck) Regular Bio
| Code Test | Function |
|---|---|
| 68hc11 cc test 1 | simple data initialize |
| 68hc11 cc test 2 | ascending data initialize |
| 68hc11 cc test 3 | simple top-of-stack math |
The Corporate "Name Game":
| Digital Semiconductor | http://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/ |
| Digital Semiconductor Literature | FTP area including 21264 (EV6). |
| DEC Semiconductor Archive | ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/literature/archives.html |
| DEC Semiconductor Archive | ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/semiconductor/literature/dsc-library.html |
QNX (a.k.a. Quick UNIX) was co-founded by Gordon Bell and Dan Dodge of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Check out QNX if...
- QNX.com
- this is not the same Gordon Bell of VAX/VMS fame
- QNX has flown on the Space Station as well as the International Space Station (ISS)
- you want a high quality industrial strength OS that will run on micros without blowing your budget (was free for non-commercial use; not sure about now)
- you are currently using MS-DOS in any application that doesn't require migration to Windows (and you're nervous about the possibility that Microsoft will stop supporting DOS)
Notes:
- April-2010, Blackberry maker RIM announced the purchase of the QNX Software Systems of Kanata, Ontario, Canada.
- April-2011, RIM's tablet, called The BlackBerry PlayBook, is released with QNX as the OS
- Did Mike Lazaridis (RIM), Gordon Bell (QNX) and Dan Dodge (QNX) know each other when they were engineering students at the University of Waterloo in the early 1980s?
Note:
1) Sun was acquired by Oracle in
Jan-2010 so much information is now outdated but a few tidbits
may still be of some use.
2) Click here to jump to
my 2012 installation notes
| Command | Function |
|---|---|
| man | help |
| w | work display |
| ps -ef | process status display (e=every thing, f=full) |
| ps -ef | more | process status display (one page at a time) |
| ps -ef | grep yada | process status display but only display lines containing "yada" |
| prstat | process status (refreshes every 5 seconds) |
| psrinfo -v | processor info (v=verbose) |
| ls -la | directory of files (l=long, a=all) |
| cat yada | type contents of file "yada" |
| cd yada | change directory to subdirectory "yada" |
| ./yada | execute "yada" |
first read the documentation:
problem #1: You've got Windows on a first hard drive (C) but you don't want to mess around with partitioning it so you install Linux on a second hard drive (D) which you will select via a BIOS boot menu. You finish the Linux installation on the secondary drive but upon first boot from that drive, GRUB can't complete Linux startup.
solution #2: GRUB is meant to be installed on drive C (hd0) which would then be used as a jumping off point to get to D (hd1). But you wanted to keep drives C + D completely separate and so GRUB was installed on drive D (hd1) and referred to it this way by the installation software. When you boot drive D (hd1) directly from the BIOS boot menu, drive D is now known as hd0 which is not correct. What you need to do is modify the GRUB configuration file on drive D like so.
- reboot your installation DVD
- input: linux rescue <enter>
after booting is finished you should be dropped into a command shell- input: cd /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub/
- input: vi grub.conf
use the vi editor to modify all two occurrences of "hd1,0" to "hd0,0"
save the changes, exit from the editor, then rebootNote that GRUB uses platform neutral device names (my drives are actually known as sda and sdb)
Click here www.linuxjournal.com/article/4622 for a really good tutorial on GRUB
Kudos to Oracle for a virtually (no pun) painless experience.
Links:
Technologies
that helped promote 'UNIX on PDP' (which led to the Internet)
Internet Diagrams (to see the dominance of DEC hardware)
| Internet Block Diagram | Notes |
|---|---|
| ARPANET Logical Map, April 1971 | |
| ARPANET Logical Map, September 1973 |
|
| ARPANET Logical Map, January 1975 |
|
| ARPANET Logical Map, March 1977 |
|
| ARPANET Logical Map, March 1979 |
|
| rfc801 from 1981 |
|
| diagram from 1986 |
|
Other Links
How "UNIX on VAX" helped promote TCP/IP
Java vs. JavaScript
Links:
| Microsoft Windows CD-ROM | Directory |
|---|---|
| Win95 | E:\other\oldmsdos |
| Win98 | E:\tools\oldmsdos |
| Win98SE | E:\tools\oldmsdos |
| WinME | E:\tools\oldmsdos |
Modern BASIC compilers for Windows + Linux:
Other BASIC Links:
Suggestions to people maintaining/reviving BASIC compilers for smaller platforms:
According to Wikipedia, BASIC was designed in 1964. The main problem with BASIC compilers nearly a half century later is there are more differences than similarities. The following suggestions come from HP Basic for OpenVMS. Here is a link to their documentation files:
Suggestion #1
All programs (applications) need a mechanism to signal success/fail/whatever to the calling program or script. By default, many BASIC programs signal 0 (if UNIX) or 1 (if OpenVMS) when the END statement is encountered.Suggestion #2ENDSome BASIC compilers allow the programmer to exit with a signal like this:END exit_code% ! this code is sent back to the callerwhile others do it like this:END PROGRAM exit_code% ! this code is sent back to the caller
Anyone who has used C++ will be familiar with the exception handling
statements: try, throw, catch. Anyone
who ever used BASIC would be
familiar with the statement ON ERROR GOTO. However, not many
BASIC programmers know that some BASIC compilers also support C++ style
exception handling which looks like this:on error goto common_trap ! old school exception handling
...
when error in ! works like try
input "input a number?", junk% !
if junk% = 999 then !
cause error 52 ! works like throw
end if !
status% = 0 ! all is well
use ! works like catch
status% = err !
end when !
select status !
case 0 ! no error
case 50 ! data format error
case 51 ! integer error of overflow
case 52 ! illegal number
case 151 ! EOF
case else !
end select !
...
common_trap:
print "error "+ str$(err)
print "line "+ str$(erl)
print "text "+ ert$(err)
input input "hit <enter> to exit"; junk$
fini:
end !
Suggestion #3
All BASIC compilers should use a standard method to modify compiler
action. For example, HP BASIC uses the OPTION statement to require every
variable to be declared.1000 option type=explicit ! all variables must be declared (catches programmer typos)
declare long i%, j% !
if i > 0 then ! this line will throw a compile-time error
...
end if !
Suggestion #4
All BASIC compliers need a standardized way to do ISAM file i/o (sequential, relative, indexed). While it is true that HP-BASIC requires a layered product called Record Management Services (click here to see some demos), UNIX offered similar capabilities through products like:
Wouldn't it be cool if these BASIC's had built-in extensions for ISAM plug-ins and/or relational products like MySQL
Click
Eagle Lander 3D to download
a really cool Apollo Lunar Lander simulator for Windows.
The short Apollo 11
short mission is free but $25 will get you additional missions and much
more functionality. Features: authentic LM cockpit with 9
functional panel switches; FDAI (8-ball) display; real LM landing
computer displays; mission-specific surface details and radio chatter;
keyboard and joy-stick support.Booting
DOS 3.3 was so neat. It checked to see which BASIC ROMS were
installed...| Product Name | BASIC ROMs |
|---|---|
| Apple ][ | Integer BASIC |
| Apple ][+ | FP BASIC |
I have always been opposed to protection-cracking and piracy. However, we now need to learn the skills of 1980 crackers in order to bypass and remove copy protection. This is the only way that many 1980s-based software packages (including games and compilers) will be able to run on these 30-year-old museum pieces.
No Form Of Magnetic Recording Will Last Forever!
p.s. I don't own any of these cracker cards or
software. However, I've seen them all on eBay at one time or
another. If you buy a card without the required software,
you might be able to use these binaries:
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/
<<<<<----- free Apple-2 software
- EDD 4 (essential data duplicator) card
- EDD4 Plus by Utilico Microware
- EDD IV Docs
- A2Info.Net: Hardware (with pictures)
- A2Info.Net: EDD Plus Card by Utilico Microware
- A2Info.Net: Wildcard by East Side Software
- A2Info.Net: Wildcard Plus by East Side Software
- A2Info.Net: Wildcard 2 by Central Point Software
- SNAPSHOT card review - Hardcore Computist - Issue 1
- Wildcard / Replay
- www.apple2.org.za - Applications (includes "Cracking Techniques 1983")
- Note: Locksmith is a software-only "track and nibble copier"
Moved to: OpenVMS Notes: Cryptography
Anders
E. Zonst is a retired aerospace engineer who authored two really good
books each covering DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) and
FFT (Fast Fourier
Transform).
The
second book is titled Understanding FFT Applications
(1997/2004)In essence, ISO-9000 requires you to:In effect, ISO 9000 up to now (but not including the Year 2000 standard which is just now getting out to the world) can be thought of as a BASIC, ENTRY-LEVEL quality program. It only consists of the basic stuff, nothing that would excite your financial people, or delight your customer base.
- Say what you do
- Do what you say
- Record what you did
- Check on the results
- Act on the difference
There is NO requirement to:Six Sigma is a data-driven approach to process improvement aimed at the near-elimination of defects from every product, process and transaction. The purpose of Six Sigma is to gain BREAKTHROUGH knowledge on how to improve processes to do things BETTER, FASTER, and at LOWER COST. Six Sigma improvements must provide TANGIBLE BUSINESS RESULTS in the form of cost savings that are directly traceable to the bottom line. ISO 9000 doesn't even begin to look at the bottom line.
- Continually improve the process
- To discover and reduce/eliminate sources of variation
- To actively promote employee involvement
xxx---xxx---xxx---xxx---xxx---xxx---xxx---xxx
Quote from a blog posting by: Narasimha Mylavarapu
Six Sigma is a registered service mark and trademark of Motorola, Inc. Motorola has reported over US$17 billion in savings from Six Sigma to date.
What is Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a methodology to manage process variations that cause defects and to systematically work towards managing variation to eliminate those defects.
Six Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving towards six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process -- from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service.
Objective:
The objective of Six Sigma Quality is to reduce process output variation so that on a long term basis, which is the customer's aggregate experience with our process over time, this will result in no more than 3.4 defect Parts Per Million (PPM) opportunities (or 3.4 Defects Per Million Opportunities – DPMO).
Simply Six Sigma objective can be defined as to deliver high performance, reliability, and value to the end customer.
Who Started This?
The process was pioneered by Bill Smith at Motorola in 1986 and was originally defined as a below 3.4 Defects Per (one) Million Opportunities (DPMO), or put another way, a methodology of controlling a process to the point of ± six sigma (standard deviations) from a centerline. Six Sigma has now grown beyond defect control.
In addition to the Motorola, companies which also adopted six sigma methodologies early-on and continue to practice it today, are Honeywell International (previously know as Allied Signal) and General Electric (introduced by Jack Welch). The two companies have reported to have saved literally billions of dollars thanks to the aggressive implementation and daily practice of six sigma methodologies.
Recent six sigma trends lies in the advancement of the technology with integrating to TRIZ for inventive problem solving and product design
What are the costs and savings of Six Sigma?
Many people say that it takes money to make money. In the world of Six Sigma quality, the saying also holds true: it takes money to save money using the Six Sigma quality methodology. You can't expect to significantly reduce costs and increase sales using Six Sigma without investing in training, organizational infrastructure and culture evolution.
Sure you can reduce costs and increase sales in a localized area of a business using the Six Sigma quality methodology -- and you can probably do it inexpensively by hiring an ex-Motorola or GE Black Belt. I like to think of that scenario as a "get rich quick" application of Six Sigma. But is it going to last when a manager is promoted to a different area or leaves the company? Probably not. If you want to produce a culture shift within your organization, a shift that causes every employee to think about how their actions impact the customer and to communicate within the business using a consistent language, it's going to require a resource commitment. It takes money to save money.
I was tired of reading web pages or hearing people say:
"Companies of all types and sizes are in the midst of a quality revolution. GE saved $12 billion over five years and added $1 to its earnings per share. Honeywell (AlliedSignal) recorded more than $800 million in savings."
"GE produces annual benefits of over $2.5 billion across the organization from Six Sigma."
"Motorola reduced manufacturing costs by $1.4 billion from 1987-1994."
"Six Sigma reportedly saved Motorola $15 billion over the last 11 years."
The above quotations may in fact be true, but pulling the numbers out of the context of the organization's revenues does nothing to help a company figure out if Six Sigma is right for them.
What is the process sigma calculation formula?
Defects Per Million Opportunities (DPMO) = (Total Defects / Total Opportunities) * 1,000,000
Defects (%) = (Total Defects / Total Opportunities)* 100%
Yield (%) = 100 - %Defects
Process Sigma (type this formula into Excel): =NORMSINV(1-(total defects / total opportunities))+1.5
Be sure to include the Equals (=) sign. This will give you your process sigma (or sigma capability) assuming the 1.5 sigma shift.
For example if you type this into Excel, =NORMSINV(1-100/1000000)+1.5 you will get 5.22 for your Process Sigma.
Why Six Sigma and ISO 9000 as a quality system?
In essence, ISO 9000 requires you to: * Say what you do * Do what you say * Record what you did * Check on the results * Act on the difference
In effect, ISO 9000 up to now(but not including the Year 2000 standard which is just now getting out to the world)can be thought of a BASIC, ENTRY-LEVEL quality program. It only consists of the basic stuff, nothing that would excite your financial people, or delight your customer base.
There is NO requirement to: * Continually improve the process * To discover and reduce/eliminate sources of variation * To actively promote employee involvement
Six Sigma is a data-driven approach to process improvement aimed at the near-elimination of defects from every product, process and transaction. The purpose of Six Sigma is to gain BREAKTHROUGH knowledge on how to improve processes to do things BETTER, FASTER, and at LOWER COST. Six Sigma improvements must provide TANGIBLE BUSINESS RESULTS in the form of cost savings that are directly traceable to the bottom line. ISO 9000 doesn't even begin to look at the bottom line.
Hi Friend Sorry for stopping. I think the Information which I provided regarding Six sigma is just make you aware of that and there is a lot to know about it.
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'68HCxx' WebRing [ Join Ring | Ring Hub | Random | << Previous Site | Next Site >> | List All Sites ] In 2004, Motorola spun off their semiconductor division which is now known as Freescale Semiconductor |
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Neil Rieck
Kitchener - Waterloo - Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
