9 Jul
2010
9 Jul
'10
5:03 a.m.
On Mon, 19 Apr 2010, Al Kossow wrote:
If you do decide to scrap it, getting pics of the
components/boards and
noting what the processor was would be of interest.
Ok, so we've rescued the system. It is an MDS 21/40 (it was a 21/20,
built 1979, but has been upgraded around 1982) and came with a couple
of terminals. I expected an interesting CPU of some kind, but no, it's
"just" a Z80 system with currently 384(?) kB of RAM. BUT: the most
impressive thing is the Shugart 4008 hard disk with its clear plasic
cover, really nice to see!
The purpose of the system was data entry and processing. It can be
programmed in MOBOL, the Mohawk Business Oriented Language. It loosely
resembles COBOL but yet is very different.
I've scanned the MOBOL reference manual and the Series 21 operator's
guide. As always they can be found on our FTP server:
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/cm/mds21/
(Al: you may pick up any of the documents on the FTP server for bitsavers)
BTW this system was still running until some months ago! It was used in a
bovine insemination institute (is that the correct term?)...
Christian