> What in the world is this?

It?s a word processor, pure and simple. I have the later version and have kind of been collecting tales of the Cassette Power Typing company of Michigan - http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/cpt

On Apr 24, 2020, at 7:00 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: ? Thank you for a delightful page. I hadn't previously noticed it. Trivial corrections: In Nov 2005 update, it says that the 9000 had an 8086 processor. In Jan 2007 update, it says that Win 3.1 was run on it. Windows 3.10 required A20 support, and would not run on the 8088/8086, so that would have had to have been Windows 3.00, OR the 9000 processor was 80X86, specifically 80286. OR, the 9000 got a processor update. (The pictures at the bottom of the page, of ISA boards, are clearly 16 bit ISA, which would be 80286, not 8086) In Sep 2008, Gary Simpson seems to have confused Double-SIDED with Double-DENSITY. Punching another hole is needed to convert 8" disks back and forth between single and double SIDED. and is unrelated to density. He also mentioned 1771 FDC, which was, indeed, FM not MFM. (He would not be the first person to conflate capacity with density, and think that using both sides doubled the DENSITY; it doubled the capacity, and therefore the density of the filing cabinet, but not the "density" of the recording format.) At one time, I received a 3.5" double density sample disk that was clearly labelled "CPT CP/M-80" It was obviously CP/M file system, and I easily implemented that format in XenoCopy. (It would not have been "easily" if it weren't CP/M, MS-DOS, Stand-Alone BASIC, P-system, nor TRS-DOS) Was that a different CPT? Similar three letter name COULD be something else entirely. Or had they done some different drives? Or was that a customer modification? Gary Simpson mentions 1771 FDC, which was single density only. Did any of the CP/M models (pre 80x86) have double density? (likely a 179x FDC, which was an easy upgrade from the 1771, or a whole different FDC, such as the NEC765). It didn't HAVE to be pre-80286; it was possible to run a Z80 emulator on PCs, but few had reason to do so. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

It really is a shame that little attention is paid to the early WaPro vendors. I remember that we had an Artec system, with a floor-standing dual 8" drive box and a Diablo KSR Hitype with an attached one-line display. Artec was acquired by Dictaphone, who was then swallowed by Pitney Bowes, who then got out of the rather crowded word processor market. I can't find a photo of the original blue Artec box on the web; only the later PB "Dual display" models. I mean, who remembers Qyx or Vydec? --Chuck

On 4/24/20 6:58 PM, Nigel Johnson via cctalk wrote: Some years ago, I received a Harris/AES hard-sector 8" floppy from a friend of a newspaper reporter. Took me forever to decode the format, after which I wasn't able to locate the customer. I do recall that those systems were quite popular in the newspaper trade, however. Here's a video documentary from CBC relating the sad story of that Canadian tech outfit. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1890827641 --Chuck