6 Mar
2000
6 Mar
'00
7:39 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of John B
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 11:08 AM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: HUGE additions this last week!
Congratulations! You made a great find. Never knew the PDP line, but here
is some info on the S-100:
S-100
---------
Altair 8800 , serial #80, all original MITS boards (15 boards), mostly rev
0, 6 4K RAM boards, 1 CPU, dual floppy controller (2 boards), PROM board,
display board? serial/rs232 board, and others I can't identify yet. It came
with 3 boxes of Manals, many early newsletters, engineering drawings,
etc...
and software from MITS.
Dual Floppy 8" disk system.
Amazingly, the 8800 is in mint condition, unmarked.
I never really got into the 8800 hardware back then so I have no idea what
some of the boards are...
Obviously any Altair is a find ... (drool, drool)
Cromemco? (sp) S-100 system with manuals and software -
4 floppy drives. I
know nothing about this unit other than it's heavy.
Cromemco (from Crother Memorial Hall - the founders' dormitory at Stanford)
started off making S-100 boards. Their 8k EPROM-burner Bytesaver was
popular with Altair and IMSAI owners, as was their TV-Dazzler (128x128 color
graphics). They then designed a 2/4 MHz switchable Z-80 CPU card which
upgraded a lot of IMSAI's. Now that the company was cooking, they started
manufacturing systems - notably the Z-2 which (as you note) is built like a
tank. Their version of CP/M was CDOS, but they were ahead of their time in
providing multi-tasking, multi-user Cromix - an 8-bit version of unix. They
went defunct around 1986 - another casualty of the PC. They were considered
the Cadillac of S-100 systems.
Victor/Vector? Graphics S-100 computer with dual
external 5 1/4" floppies,
books, etc..
Vector Graphics started off selling 8k static memory boards and then started
selling S-100 systems. It was notable at the time (1976) for being owned
and operated by a woman, Laurie Harp, in a very male-dominated industry
(apologies to, and for, Ampl' Annie - Trivia Question: Who did Ampl' Annie
hawk wares for?). I believe Laurie's husband designed the memory board.
I can't remember the manufacturer name but this
board was used with an
extender on an S100 system and has all the flip switches and lights to
control the micro like an Altair 8800. It came with manuals, etc...
I don't recall this one. If I have time to peruse some old Kilobauds, I
will research it.
Bob Stek
Saver of Lost SOLs
bobstek(a)ix.netcom.com