8 Aug
2006
8 Aug
'06
2:42 p.m.
On Tue, 8 Aug 2006, Chuck Guzis wrote:
To get this back on track, the BBC narrator talked
about the "clicking 5150
and its single diskette drive and 16K of memory". Okay, I've seen 16K
5150s sold, but not with a floppy drive as a standard configuration. Were
any 16K one-floppy systems sold as a standard (not bootleg) configuration?
If so, what did people expect to do with them?
DOS 1.00 WILL work with 16K!
There were patches available for 1.00 to use the second side of the drives
as additional drive letters.
IBM, and its retailers (including Computerland and Sears Business Centers)
preferred to sell complete machines.
BUT, they would sell individual components.
My first 5150, I purchased a 16K machine, plus a CGA card (I had CCTV
composite monitors for TRS-80s and Apples), plus a Disk controller.
I took it home, opened it, put in the CGA, and fired it up to play
with it for a few minutes. Then I added RAM (from one of my TRS80s),
fired it up again. Then I put in the FDC, and a TM100 (also from TRS80).
It took me 15 minutes to figure out the drive select jumpers
(I hadn't expected B:!)
To get past 64K, I put in a "Boulder Creek" RAM card (with ECC!)
It had a black power supply, until I filled the expansion slots,
and put in 4 1/2 height drives.
For 8" drives, I used first a "Vista", then a "Maynard" FDC.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com