13 Apr
2001
13 Apr
'01
1:40 p.m.
Jim -
Are you _sure_ you don't already have a PCS? Maybe it's tucked away behind
Woz and the shrinkwrapped Cray :-)
-- Tony
At 10:12 AM 4/13/2001 -0700, you wrote:
At 11:51 AM 4/13/01 -0400, Tony Eros wrote:
Here's my collection of vintage computing
equipment:
...
Wang Labs had an integrated desktop system that ran BASIC and had a
cassette tape for storage. I don't recall the model number and I haven't
seen even a reference to one on the web, but I remember it from high
school and I want one!
It was probably a Wang 2200 PCS. The PCS-II was similar, except that it
didn't have the integral cassette drive and instead had a pair of 5.25"
floppies on top that were really ugly. It might have been one of the WCS
models (WCS/10 or WCS/20) but I'm not very familiar with those to know how
they were different from the PCS.
I learned to program on a PCS with 8KB of RAM. It is my #1 wish list, and
I've actively been looking for a couple of years.
You can find some links on my nascent Wang web site at:
http://www.thebattles.net/wang/wang.html
In particular, there is a picture of a PCS-II here:
http://www.gaby.de/ewang.htm
Check out the two subordinate pages that I've written that compare Wang
BASIC to MS BASIC and that lists which CPU models had which BASIC
statements. I hope it brings back some memories for you -- it did for me!
I have a fantasy of writing an emulator for the 2200, but I don't know if
it will be practical without schematics, as the 2200 used a microcoded TTL CPU.
-----
Jim Battle == frustum(a)pacbell.net