The Molecular SuperMicro 70-32

One of the more interesting microcomputers I used during my career was a Molecular SuperMicro 70-32. This machine had a unique architecture in that it was a file server and client machines and LAN all wrapped in one box. The file server was a 6 mHz Z80 board, and it had an onboard SASI interface (or was this late enough to be SCSI) as well as a floppy interface. Our unit had a QIC-24 tape drive and a 60MB hard drive... the HD was fast for its time. Molecular referred to the file server as the file processor. The client computers were boards that plugged into the bus, and were each 4 mHz Z-80 units. All I/O was through the bus. These client nodes were referred to as the Application Pro- cessors. The Supermicro's main operating system was called N*Star, and provided most of the MP/M-II API/OS calls, but not all of them, and IIRC, it provided some of its own and seemed to have some from another CP/M clone whose name escapes me. You could boot the file processor from the floppy drive into CP/M. The "bus" was actually configured as a network, using CSMA/CA to handle the traffic. It seemed to run just about every CP/M package we could throw at it. However, while I recall spending lots of time customizing a copy of ZCPR/2 for the Televideo TS-803, I don't recall doing this for N*Star, so there may have been some compatiability problems. I think it *did* run Microshell, though (which was my first "brush" with Un*x). N*Star used password-based security, and was apparantly easy to hack. One of the digital electronics instructors at the school who generally played dumb when it came to newer technology still remains the primary candidate for the hacker who made my life miserable. I got some quid pro quo later, but that's another story. Irv Hoff had one or worked on one, as I found a patch for the OS he'd authored whilst playing data recovery mule this weekend. I also recall that someone had a software package running on one that acted just like Compuserve; everything was GO commands and it had forums that worked identically. Has this machine been a subject of discussion on the list before now? Anyone else used one/have one? regards, -doug quebbeman