trailing-edge.combitsavers.org

Bitsavers' Software Archive Bitsavers' Computing Archive Bitsavers' Communications Archive Bitsavers' Components Archive Bitsavers' Test Equipment Archive Bitsavers' Magazine Archive 2020-08-08 Welcome to 's new home Read-only rsync access no longer requires registration. A HUGE thank you to Jay West for hosting bitsavers for 20 years Contact me at the adr below if you are a mirror site having any problems with the new configuration. --Al As of Aug, 2020 there are over 113000 files including over 5 million text pages in the archive. Bitsavers Updates RSS RSS feeds for bitsavers updates is available bits communications components pdf test_equipment Twitter bitsavers' twitter feed Active Mirrors Web bitsavers.computerhistory.org bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de bitsavers.trailing-edge.com www.bighole.nl University of Kent ftpmirror.your.org FTP bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de University of Kent ftpmirror.your.org RSYNC ftpmirror.your.org Archive Indexing Index files are at the top level of each category heirarchy: IndexByDate.txt is updated each time an indexed document is added to the archive. Snapshots/Mirrors Jul 2004 shapshot of pdp-11.trailing-edge.com Jan 2005 shapshot of simh.trailing-edge.com Jun 2012 snapshot of simh.trailing-edge.com scans from the University of Queensland The PDF Document Format Documents here are kept in a minimal subset of PDF format, just using it as a container for lossless Group 4 fax compression (ITU-T recommendation T.6) images. Contributions are normally post-processed by tools to put them in exactly this format, so that all of the documents here are the same and can be burst at some point in the future when OCR technology is mature enough to do a good job of recognition. Documents were scanned using a Ricoh IS520 30ppm duplex production scanner from the late 90's through 2007. Conversion to higher performance Kodak DS 2500D scanning occured in July, 2007. The 2500D is an OEM version of the Panasonic KV-S2055 scanner. In 2008, the Kodak was replaced by a Panasonic KV-S3065W, which is capable of color 600dpi scanning, and has the capability to scan sheets several feet long. Post-processing is done using Lemkesoft's Graphic Converter TIFF to PDF conversion is done using Eric Smith's tumble The preferred form for any contributed text scan is as a collection of lossless Group 4 fax compression (ITU-T recommendation T.6) images saved as TIFF files with a minium scan resolution of 400 dpi. Lower scan resolutions produce noticable artifacts if a page needs to be straightened in post-processing. Lossy compression formats, such as JPEG, should NEVER be used to save pages of text, since the compression format destroys edge resolution and contrast would make it difficult to OCR in the future. Document Scanning Station Tape processing over the years These were taken in rooms that no longer exist at CHM, ca. 2006. The rooms were demolished when the Revolution exhibit was built and are roughly where the gift shop and orientation theatre are now. You can see the four XServe RAIDs that are finally being retired in 2019. Where does the source material come from? Most of the documents are from my personal collection that I have either bought or been given over the course of many decades in the computer industry, or have been loaned to me for scanning. I have a VERY large backlog of material to scan and don't actively sollicit material to work on. If I do decide to scan something from a donor I will return it if requested. Unless it is a very rare document I probably won't accept something that requires manual scanning, since scanning time in my day is limited. I do not personally archive any paper that has been scanned. The scanning process I use is destructive. Bindings are removed and paper is recycled. Original documents that are still in good condition may be donated to the Computer History Museum for archiving, depending on if they are within CHM's collecting scope. The CHM running lot number for my donated documents is X6512.2012 This project was started to downsize my collection of paper in the early 90's and continues to be its primary purpose. and.. the site looks this way for a reason, to leave it static and easy to mirror, so don't remind me that it looks like it's from 1995 at bitsavers dot org...