24 Aug
2012
24 Aug
'12
6:18 p.m.
I'm a bit surprised that there hasn't been more discussion about S-100
machines. In particular I would point out the Morrow Decision 1. It's
DJ-DMA floppy controller could handle 8" SSSD thru DSDD, and both
soft-sectored and hard-sectored (NorthStar) 5.25" formats and a separate
hard drive controller was also available of course. Later variations even
had a switching power supply.
Not strictly a CP/M machine (though probably 90+% used CP/M or variation
thereof) and CP/M came standard with the machine. Morrow even provided a
UNIX-like OS, the name of which escapes me at the moment (Micronix maybe?).
With the addition of an 8086 S-100 board it would certainly run a plain
vanilla CP/M-86 system.
Other S-100 systems like CompuPro and Cromemco and even NorthStar were all
versatile and well-built CP/M machines which could aspire to be called 'the
best CP/M machine ever.' In general I would even proclaim the category of
S-100 micros as the holder of that title.
Bob Stek
Saver of Lost Sols
24 Aug
24 Aug
6:44 p.m.
On 8/24/12 6:18 PM, Robert Stek wrote:
Not strictly a CP/M machine (though probably 90+% used
CP/M or variation
thereof) and CP/M came standard with the machine. Morrow even provided a
UNIX-like OS, the name of which escapes me at the moment (Micronix maybe?).
Correct, Micronix
It wasn't Unix-like, it WAS Unix 6th Edition, built using Whitesmiths C.
I have all the bits to put a system togther. The tricky thing is finding the
right revisions of Morrow hard disk and CPU boards to make it work.
6:55 p.m.
New subject: Morrow Decision 1 (Re: The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II)
On 8/24/12 6:44 PM, Al Kossow wrote:
On 8/24/12 6:18 PM, Robert Stek wrote:
Eventually, they did ship a Unisoft 68000 Unix system (the Tricep)
by just replacing the Z80 board with a 68000/68451 board made by Dual Systems.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/morrow/tricep
Not strictly a CP/M machine (though probably 90+%
used CP/M or variation
thereof) and CP/M came standard with the machine. Morrow even provided a
UNIX-like OS, the name of which escapes me at the moment (Micronix maybe?).
Correct, Micronix
It wasn't Unix-like, it WAS Unix 6th Edition, built using Whitesmiths C.
I have all the bits to put a system togther. The tricky thing is finding the
right revisions of Morrow hard disk and CPU boards to make it work.
10:43 p.m.
New subject: Morrow Decision 1 (Re: The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II)
On Fri, 24 Aug 2012, Al Kossow wrote:
On 8/24/12 6:44 PM, Al Kossow wrote:
Have you been able to get anything interesting out of that Tricep machine
I sold you?
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
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On 8/24/12 6:18 PM, Robert Stek wrote:
Eventually, they did ship a Unisoft 68000 Unix system (the Tricep)
by just replacing the Z80 board with a 68000/68451 board made by Dual
Systems.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/morrow/tricep Not strictly a CP/M machine (though probably 90+%
used CP/M or variation
thereof) and CP/M came standard with the machine. Morrow even provided a
UNIX-like OS, the name of which escapes me at the moment (Micronix
maybe?).
Correct, Micronix
It wasn't Unix-like, it WAS Unix 6th Edition, built using Whitesmiths C.
I have all the bits to put a system togther. The tricky thing is finding
the
right revisions of Morrow hard disk and CPU boards to make it work.
25 Aug
25 Aug
8:26 a.m.
New subject: Morrow Decision 1 (Re: The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II)
On 8/24/12 10:43 PM, David Griffith wrote:
Not yet. That is the same project as trying to get Micronix running. The only thing
I've
done so far is to build a couple of Andrew's 4mb static RAM cards to use instead of
the
256K DRAM boards.
I did image a bunch of the floppies last year. I think I put those up on bitsavers. I
also
have another 5" hard disk that was said to have come out of a Tricep. That was the
same
person who had the Unisoft System V manual set that I scanned.
Getting the hard disks imaged was one of the first targets for my Diskferret, as soon
as it's possible to do so.
Eventually,
they did ship a Unisoft 68000 Unix system (the Tricep)
by just replacing the Z80 board with a 68000/68451 board made by Dual Systems.
http://bitsavers.org/pdf/morrow/tricep
Have you been able to get anything interesting out of that Tricep machine I sold you?
24 Aug
24 Aug
6:50 p.m.
New subject: Morrow Decision 1 (was Re: The best CP/M machine ever? was Re: Kaypro II)
On 8/24/12 6:18 PM, Robert Stek wrote:
In particular I would point out the Morrow Decision 1.
It's
DJ-DMA floppy controller could handle 8" SSSD thru DSDD, and both
soft-sectored and hard-sectored (NorthStar) 5.25" formats and a separate
hard drive controller was also available of course. Later variations even
had a switching power supply.
The Morrow Disk controllers are quite clever designs. I've tried to collect
as much information on them as I could find in the stuff that was donated to
CHM by his sons, and from the stuff Dave had and put it up on bitsavers. One
of the reasons the hard disk Microdecision was so inexpensive at the time was
because of the low cost of the combination hard and floppy disk controller.
7:08 p.m.
On 08/24/2012 09:18 PM, Robert Stek wrote:
I'm a bit surprised that there hasn't been
more discussion about S-100
machines. In particular I would point out the Morrow Decision 1. It's
DJ-DMA floppy controller could handle 8" SSSD thru DSDD, and both
soft-sectored and hard-sectored (NorthStar) 5.25" formats and a separate
hard drive controller was also available of course. Later variations even
had a switching power supply.
Not strictly a CP/M machine (though probably 90+% used CP/M or variation
thereof) and CP/M came standard with the machine. Morrow even provided a
UNIX-like OS, the name of which escapes me at the moment (Micronix maybe?).
With the addition of an 8086 S-100 board it would certainly run a plain
vanilla CP/M-86 system.
Other S-100 systems like CompuPro and Cromemco and even NorthStar were all
versatile and well-built CP/M machines which could aspire to be called 'the
best CP/M machine ever.' In general I would even proclaim the category of
S-100 micros as the holder of that title.
+1 for S-100 machines. I sat in front of an IMSAI-8080 (containing no
IMSAI boards other than the front panel, PS, and motherboard) for many
years, and I had a second system that ran a BBS for a while. Great
systems. I'm glad to still have most of that stuff. Now I have a
Dynabyte system but am still looking for the matching drives.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
4502
days inactive
4502
days old
6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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aek＠bitsavers.org -
dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
stekster＠gmail.com