25 Oct
2010
25 Oct
'10
9:36 p.m.
On 2010 Oct 25, at 8:45 PM, Jason T wrote:
The second is a Wang Word Processor, model 5506-A. Google has much on
earlier WPs from them, but nothing on this model:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Silent700/Wang5506AWordProcessor#
What I find especially strange about this one is that it's called a
"Word Processor," suggesting it is a complete system, yet it has ports
for neither storage nor a printer. Could it be a terminal to a
networked (WangNet) system? Still, the only ports on the back are
Video and Keyboard - both of which it has built-in. They could be aux
video in or out, or an attachment for an add-on keyboard?
I'll hazard a guess it is a very-dumb terminal: the connectors could be
video-in for the monitor and keyboard-out, the smarts all being
elsewhere. Could open it up and see how much (if any) logic is in
there.
The 5506 is practically mint. The guy I got it from
said he had the
original box but it was in such bad shape he tossed it :( There is
still shipping plastic on the space bar and the screen. Turning it
on shows a blank greenscreen - turning up the brightness shows
diagonal lines, so there may be a display problem.
Sounds like the retrace becoming visible, turning up the brightness on
a raster scan often shows this, notably the horizontal scan lines
during the vertical retrace interval show up as angled lines.