DECmate III - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

6 Jul 1998

...
  Well, today I got around to testing MS-DOS disk images
from the PDP-8 
 archive on the DECMAte III. It read the disk, said "Starting MS-DOS...", 
 but then said, "XPU Board Error". It then entered a configuration menu 
 for the DECMate (cursor, baud, etc.). What is an XPU board? 
The XPU board is an add-in board which contains an 8088. The 8088 is used
to run MS-DOS. Without the XPU board, you can't run MS-DOS.

The APU board is an add-in board which contains a Z80. It's used for
running CP/M. I'm a bit lucky in that I have an APU board for all of my
DECmates (although OS/8 is a fine operating system, CP/M is home sweet home).

Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu