18 Feb
2003
18 Feb
'03
5:22 p.m.
> We had several Victor 9000's. They ran CP/M
and a proprietary MS-DOS. They
> had built-in codec. They actually predated the IBM PC back in 1980. They
Strange machines, particularly the disk controller,
which uses GCR
encoding, and not suprisingly, is similar to the one in a Commodore 8050.
They also have a number of interesting undocumented features. The
'Centronics' port actually uses GPIB driver chips, and could be turned
into a full GPIB port with the right cable and software. There's also a
user port inside on a 50 pin header, with an almost completely unused
6522 VIA to drive it. And of course the sound input connector inside.
I'd say, they where machines build without any management
involved - at least without so called controllers.
> were the best available computers at the time,
when the TRS-80 was
Dubious claim. In 1980, there were graphics
workstations (PERQ 1a,
certainly), VAXen, supercomputers, etc...
Aren't you talking a different class now? For 1980, the Victor
was realy top notch at an afordable price.
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 4.0 am 03./04. Mai 2003 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/