1 Sep
1999
1 Sep
'99
4:57 p.m.
There's no doubt that there were several really good CP/M machines out there
but I suppose when you say CP/M "machine" you're not referring to the boxes
built to order by the dealers. These were often S-100 boxes with Cromemco
boards, running 5-6 MHz using ultra-fast PERSCI 8" floppies and PRIAM or
similarly big and expensive hard disks. Soldier of Fortune magazine had two
boxes built with Systems Group boards, in CCS mainframes and using KONAN
SMC-100 adapters to their CDC Lark SMD drives.
Unquestionably, if you're looking for a computer "brand" it would have to
be
either a Kaypro or, of course, the Apple-II, with a Z-80 card, 16K memory
add-on, SVA 8" drive controller, and the VIDEX or similar 24x80 display
board. You could actually use that for useful work. At the age I'd reached
by 1980, (35) I was still able to read the Kaypro display, however, but the
full-sized one normally used with the Apple][ was easier to use. In any
case, I read somewhere that there were as many Apple ][ machines running
CP/M as any other single system.
I never learned to like them, though . . .
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim <DD950(a)prodigy.net>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 10:35 PM
Subject: Re: Best CP/M machine?
No Doubt about it, you need a Kaypro.
They came with just about all the software you would need to run a small
office, Wordstar, DataStar, DB2, Basic and the list went on.
They were very reliable. I used mine right up until 1991. The Kaypro 2X I
had bought in 1984 ran WordStar faster than the IBM Xt's.
As they were the portables of the day, it will take up less space than some
of the other CP/M machines of the time period.
My two cents.
Jim
"If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer,
a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and
explode once a year, killing everyone inside."
( Robert X. Cringely, "InfoWorld" )