Micom

I've been a lurker and sometimes participant in classiccom for some time but other than a couple of instances (one-my own query and the other from Charley Fox, who has/had a 2001 (IIRC) ,there has been no mention of a machine contemporary with the Altair and that precedes the Apple One. While it was peddled as a word processor it was indeed an 8080 box. It has a passive backplane with 30 pin sockets and looks similiar to a PET (including the fold- up monitor to expose the inner-workings) with a separate keyboard connected by ribbon cable and in my case a Shugart m.802 8'' FDD. Unfortunately I don't have a com program for it (they were available- one was called Miconet) but I keep hoping things will pop up. It also had a language program for it-"Micom 80"- a modified MS Basic80 . I picked it up in the late 80's It came with a Qume Daisy-wheel printer whose separate power- supply weighs about 50 lbs. itself (I even have a garbage-found spare). :^) Below are time-line references for some perspective : HISTORY................Poulsson March (75) Fred Moore and Gordon French hold the first meeting of a new microcomputer hobbyist's club in French's garage, in Menlo Park, California. 32 people meet, including Bob Albrect, Steve Dompier, Lee Felsenstein, Bob Marsh, Tom Pittman, Marty Spergel, Alan Baum, and Steven Wozniak. Bob Albrect shows off an Altair, and Steve Dompier reports on MITS, and how they had 4000 orders for the Altair. [185.110] [266.104] [301.55] [346.18] [353.200] [346.257] (April [208.67] 266.39) Stephen Dorsey, founder of Automatic Electronic Systems, sells his 25% of the company for $135,000. [615.98] Stephen Dorsey and Louis Miller found Micom Data Systems, in Canada. [615.90] July (75) Bill Gates and Paul Allen sign a licensing agreement with MITS, for their implementation of the BASIC language. [299.8] Bill Gates and Paul Allen ship 4K and 8K version of BASIC v2.0. [123] Dick Heiser opens Arrow Head Computer Company, subtitled "The Computer Store", in Los Angeles, selling assembled Altairs, boards, peripherals, and magazines. This is the first retail computer store in the USA. [266.185] [684.41] Micom Data Systems ships its first product, the Micom 2000 word processing computer. [615.99] September (75) IBM's Entry Level Systems unit unveils "Project Mercury", the IBM 5100 Portable Computer. It is a briefcase-size minicomputer with BASIC, 16KB RAM, tape storage, and built-in 5-inch screen. Price: US$9000. Weight: 55 pounds. [9] [197.xi] (Price over US$10,000 [203.10]) The first issue of Byte magazine is published. [9] [266.159] March (76) Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs finish work on a computer circuit board, that they call the Apple I computer. [46] By the end of its first year in business, Micom Data Systems ships 180 Micom 2000 computers, worth $2 million. [615.99] May (78) Stephen Dorsey signs an agreement with Philips to sell them 80% ownership of Micom Data Systems. [615.103] May (83) Philips buys out Stephen Dorsey's remaining 20% ownership of Micom Data Systems. [615.103] [615] Knights of the New Technology - The Inside Story of Canada's Computer Elite, by David Thomas, 1983. ** A whois search 3 years ago found Stephan Dorsey still active at: Voice & Data Systems is the world leader in real-time, packetized fax (TERRA FaxPAD) technology. The president of VDS is Stephen Dorsey, one of the first entrepreneurs to use integrated circuits in commercial applications. Stephen has led his two previous start-ups to $200 million in annual sales. His previous company, which was sold to Phillips NV of Holland, had 1100 employees. http://www.lisco.com/terra_globe/vdsdescrip.html The 2 companies they mention are Micom and AES (an early Canadian electronics company who also made computers) It makes me wonder whether he might have had anything to do with the Hyperion start-up since he was so integral to the Canadian electronic industry. One of their brochures(June,1981) brags about the 50 Micoms used by NASA which were their primary word/data processors, and were linked to the NASA's central mainframe. Has anyone any info on this machine ? I have a copied software manual and some brochures and Phillips Micom newsletters. ciao larry lgwalker(a)look.ca walkers(a)altavista.net bigwalk(a)xoommail.com