25 May
2007
25 May
'07
3:22 p.m.
From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at
sydex.com>
On 25 May 2007 at 5:11, Ensor wrote:
---snip---
IKWYM. I don't recall much about the Z8000 now, but I did read the data
sheets for it somewhere around 1984 (1983?).
Cipher used the Z8002 extensively in their tape drives and Onyx+IMI
had a Z8000 Unix box, as did a few other vendors. Olivetti used it
in their M20 desktop computer, but it made precious few inroads into
the PC market otherwise. AMD was a second-source for it and Siemens
partnered with them to form AMC, whose purpose was to promote the
Z8000 with software and systems. That one fizzled after a mercifully
short period of boondoggling. (Hey Al K., I've got some AMC Z8000
product manuals; are you interested in them for Bitsavers?)
From what I was told, if it wasn't for a lot of
lobbying
by the Federico and his team, Intel might never have actually been
in the uP business. By the time I worked for them, it was about
50% of the business. The Japanese took over the RAM business
with both cheaper prices and, obvious to the users, better quality
parts. This pushed Intel to be more solidly in the uP business.
Olivetti also made a M40 and M60 with the Z8000's but these
were bigger boxes, like small mini's
I still have 2 M20's that I play with every now and then. I like
the PCOS operating system and I've played some with the
CP/M-8000, that I got images from Al Kossow. These had to
be reconstructed to work on the 5-1/4 inch drives but are fun
to play with.
Dwight
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