> Not a clone, but similar. Max RAM was 768K, came with a Floppy Drive as
> standard (IIRC). Was the first computer to use variable speed disk drive
> (as the early Mac's did as well.) Ran an early version of MS-DOS, I think
>
> And, IIRC, it pre-dated the IBM PC.
Ok, some herstory. There were many machines that ran CP/M-86 before in IBM
PC, one in particular was the Seattle Computer co, running Q-dos which after
a deal with MS would be come MSDOS-1.0 aka PCdos to run on the first PC.
I was running a 8086 system in 1980 that clearly blow the doors off a PC.
It was 8086 not 8088 at 5.0mhz and 16bit wide memory using standard
multibuss cards. By late 81 that machine was 8mhz, and 82 brought a copy of
PC dos to it. Early MSdos could be configured like CP/M. The PC was slow,
clunky, closed and expensive! By time the XT arrived still slow, clunky and
expensive there are several S100 and other systems that were very fast
6/8/10 mhz 8088 or 8086 systems.
At 03:49 PM 6/15/97 -0700, you wrote:
>1979? The Victor 9000 came out in 1985/86 according to previous
>discussions. Indeed it would have been the "technological cutting edge"
>in 1979, and for quite some time as it would have pre-dated the computer
>it was supposed to be semi-compatible with.
My (admittedly faulty) memory puts the Victor 9000 pre-IBM. I remember my
parents considering purchasing one, and being horrified at the specs on the
IBM PC when it came out. I couldn't understand why anyone would buy one
when they could have the Victor 9000 instead.
Maybe I should check some of the docs I've got and see what they say.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Was the Aquarius II compatible with the old Aquarius programs?
Can anyone give me a lead on an Aquarius II?
--
Andy Brobston brobstona(a)wartburg.edu ***NEW URL BELOW***
http://www.wartburg.edu/people/docs/personalPages/BrobstonA/home.html
My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Wartburg College
as a whole.
I finally got a chance to play with my Osborne 1 and must say it is a
nice little system. For its time it was a great product. The software
is very user-friendly and overall the system runs quite nicely. The disk
drives are rather fast. I was making backups of my system disks and it
reads almost 5 tracks per second (but writes at about a rate of 5 seconds
per track).
Hey, my Osborne 1 has serial number A01284. Can anyone beat that?
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
I found these while looking for the docs for my SWTP CT1024 terminal board
that I'm resurecting (it works)
These are available for sale or trade:
SWTP PR40 schematic and wiring drawing (D size sheet two sided)
SWTP MP-S serial interface (SS50, 6800) assembly, schematic
and board views.
Ohiso Scientific sams photofact service manual complete for:
Superboard-II
Model C1P
Model C1PMF
Allison
Well, not a bad weekend for Apple stuff. I visited two swap meets and a
dozen thrifts, and came up with the following stuff (the weird thing is,
all of my traditional good spots were dry, and all the dry ones had good
stuff -- and not only that, these systems weren't complete but instead
all the parts came from different locations!)
- An Apple II
- An Apple II with RAM expansion card, Grappler card, 80 column card
- An Apple /// with ProFile hard disk, second floppy and Monitor ///
- An Apple ///+ with ProFile hard disk, second floppy, serial card, and
a "///+//" Apple II emulation card (!)
- Another ProFile hard disk (that makes 3!)
- Apple /// JOYSTICK !!!!! (egads)
- Two Apple II series joysticks
- Apple II series game paddle set
Plus:
- Three Central Point Copy II Option Boards (copy Apple, Mac, TRS-80,
CP/M formats on PCs)
- Two 8-bit Plus Hard Card 20's
- Silicon Valley ADP50 (run IDE hard drives in an IBM PC)
Kai
Ok, the weekend's not even over, and here's how I did:
101 Online - A neat little terminal with a 9" screen. The keyboard
covers the screen and flips down with the push of a button. It has a
built-in 4800bps modem. It was used to connect to some online service in
California at some time or another. The whole thing is in this cute
10"x10"x10" package - $5
Laser 50 with manuals - $4 (Hi Bill!)
Commodore 64, Commodore 64C (two of 'em, one seems to be this weird clone
since the plastic looks different from the other one and it has no
markings), two 1541 drives, two Star NX-1000C dot matrix printers - All free
Data General One (Model 2) laptop. Two questions: How did the model 2
differ from the model 1? And I didn't get a power supply with this, but
was told by a couple people all it requires is a special three-prong
power cord. The receptacle is an oval with three conductors. Anyone
know about this? - $15
2 Commodore 1541 drives, 2 Commodore 1571 drives - $8
DEC Rainbow 100 with all the trimmings (extra cards, all software and
manuals) - $10
VIC-20 Modem - $1
Commodore 64 user's guide, VIC-20 User's Guide - $1
(the guy I bought this stuff from claims to have 7 PDP-11s and "several"
PDP-8s that he's been hording. Needless to say I threatened him with
great bodily harm if he didn't give me some. We agreed to meet to discuss
the "free taking" of one of each system. He also has lots of other DEC
stuff for sale and for give-away to those who would give it good homes. I
will keep us posted on any late-breaking developments. He also said he
has a Cyber hard drive unit which sounds like the size of a dishwasher as
he described it. I think the model number was 690s or something. I know
I'm way off. If anyone wants this its in California. Apparently he has
tons of mostly DEC stuff he's been collecting from local colleges and
universtities. Again, I'll keep us posted).
And let's see, oh yeah, I'm not done!
ZX-81 with manuals/power supply and...
Victor 9000 and...
IMSAI 8080!
IMSAI MPU-A (Rev 4) 8080A CPU card
IMSAI SIO (Rev 3) Serial card
DCHayes Modem (I am assuming 300baud...S100!)
Disk Jockey 2D/B 8" drive card (and some 8" drive...I forget the
manufacturer)
(4) Digital Research Company Memory Boards (I think each one is 16K)
All manuals/schematics/notes plus some extra IMSAI fron panel overlays
All this from the original owner for $100. What a bargain.
Ok, this guy is cool. First of all, to you guys complaining that you
never get anything good, here's the message I posted on my local forsale
newsgroup which brought about this acquisition:
---BEGIN USENET MESSAGE---
> First edition K&R
I ahve stapled version with bell labs technical report #31 "the C
programming language" by D.M. Richie, and M.E. lesk. october 1975
it has hand scribbles re: tiny C as it was part of communication with
Jon Gibson.
Got it back around 79 while visiting Bell labs homdel on a business call.
No offers acepted as it's my working copy for C and my bible!
Allison
Thought this may be of interest to some of you. His email address should be
Mikeooo1(a)aol.com
Lou
Subj: Aim 65 single board micro
Date: 97-06-16 16:20:52 EDT
From: Mikeooo1
I have several Aim 65's in new condition,a hot item in the 80's it was the
precursor to the pc.Features a single board microprocessor complete with
display,printer,keyboard,power supply,with a 6502 cpu.Fully functional but
also a nice collector's item.
