16 Feb
1998
16 Feb
'98
12:51 p.m.
Greets:
This weekend I had a great run of the swap meets, etc., in Wichita,
Kansas and came home with about 50 different machines, tons of software,
etc., etc. Anyway, there are two specific machines I would like to ask
about now, I will post further questions on several others in the
future.
First, I picked up an Epson HX-40 laptop-sized computer. On the front it
says MagicBox above the LCD screen. On the back there is a battery bay
as well as a rom chip bay, and it says Epson HX-40 Model # H401A. I
understand this machines runs off of program-specific rom chips. It has
a chip in the slot under the trap-door, and when I boot it, it comes up
to a pharmacetical company inventory, order, etc., menu. The machines
runs off of 4 AA batteries or a AC adapter. It really is a cute machine,
but I want to know more. In searching the web, I find 1 measly reference
to this machine... yes, 1 (or two), neither of which give any info. on
this machine. It is listed on a guys resume as having experience in
working with it. I do find a lot of information on the well-known Epson
HX-20 --- known as the 1st laptop computer. In finding pictures of that,
this one looks really similar. This one has ports labeled BCP and one
labeled SP on one side, and on the back is the cassette, seriel, and
RS-232C, printer, and power adaptor ports. There is also a 50-pin port
on the opposite side with no label. I guess what I am wondering is if
any of you have some more information on this little guy? No year can be
found on it, but I suspect early 1980s. Does anyone have any other
'chips' for it to insert other software into memory. Are these units
rare? Please let me know any information. If you're interested in it let
me know that to.
Next, I am curious about a Data General One laptop computer I picked up.
Specifically, I need to know what type of power supply it takes, as I
can't find that information anywhere. It says it is ms-dos based, but I
am wondering what dos would run on it. It has 2 3.5" disk drives (Epson
drives), and I am curious as to if it had a hard drive? It has a
full-screen, I would suppose monochrome? Could it display graphics,
etc.? Also, when was it made?
*any* information on the above two items most certainly are welcome, and
would be quite appreciated. Please let me know if you are interested in
getting either one of these as well.
I will post some more very unique items in the next couple of days that
I was lucky enough to get my grubby little hands on....
Thanks in advance,
CORD COSLOR
--
___________________________________________________
| Cord G. Coslor : archive(a)navix.net |\
| Deanna S. Wynn : deannasue(a)navix.net | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4395 | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| PO Box 308 - Peru, NE - 68421 - (402) 872- 3272 | |
|___________________________________________________| |
\____________________________________________________\|
16 Feb
16 Feb
noon
Cord:
Go to Caldera's home page:
http://www.caldera.com
and download their PC Dos 7.0. It's free for individual evaluation and
should run the DG 1 well.
-Mike Allison
Cord Coslor wrote:
Next, I am curious about a Data General One laptop computer I picked up.
Specifically, I need to know what type of power supply it takes, as I
can't find that information anywhere. It says it is ms-dos based, but I
am wondering what dos would run on it. It has 2 3.5" disk drives (Epson
drives), and I am curious as to if it had a hard drive? It has a
full-screen, I would suppose monochrome? Could it display graphics,
etc.? Also, when was it made?
CORD COSLOR
2:26 p.m.
Mike:
Thanks for the reply.... do you happen to know what type of power supply the
Data General takes? I can't find one to work with it. Also, does it have an
internal harddrive? What year is this thing from?
Thanks again,
CORD
Mike Allison wrote:
Cord:
Go to Caldera's home page:
http://www.caldera.com
and download their PC Dos 7.0. It's free for individual evaluation and
should run the DG 1 well.
-Mike Allison
Cord Coslor wrote:
>
> Next, I am curious about a Data General One laptop computer I picked up.
> Specifically, I need to know what type of power supply it takes, as I
> can't find that information anywhere. It says it is ms-dos based, but I
> am wondering what dos would run on it. It has 2 3.5" disk drives (Epson
> drives), and I am curious as to if it had a hard drive? It has a
> full-screen, I would suppose monochrome? Could it display graphics,
> etc.? Also, when was it made?
>
>
> CORD COSLOR
>
>
--
___________________________________________________
| Cord G. Coslor : archive(a)navix.net |\
| Deanna S. Wynn : deannasue(a)navix.net | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4395 | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| PO Box 308 - Peru, NE - 68421 - (402) 872- 3272 | |
|___________________________________________________| |
\____________________________________________________\|
2:33 p.m.
Cord:
I don't know much about those. I'm familiar, I guess with a later
model. If this is the 1984(?) model it makes things a bit tougher.
I assume you're looking for an external power supply?
I'm sure these folks here know how to get around that one.
If it's 1984, I doubt it has a HD. It probably has an expansion port of
some sort.
Look on that museum page.
If it's the newer DG, then things get a lot easier.
Monitor wise, it's probably an LCD display. It will probably do some
type of graphics.
I'll do some research...
-Mike
Cord Coslor wrote:
Mike:
Thanks for the reply.... do you happen to know what type of power supply the
Data General takes? I can't find one to work with it. Also, does it have an
internal harddrive? What year is this thing from?
>
12:15 p.m.
New subject: DG/One (was Re: Epson HX-40 ???)
On Mon, 16 Feb 1998, Cord Coslor wrote:
Next, I am curious about a Data General One laptop
computer I picked up.
Specifically, I need to know what type of power supply it takes, as I
can't find that information anywhere. It says it is ms-dos based, but I
am wondering what dos would run on it. It has 2 3.5" disk drives (Epson
drives), and I am curious as to if it had a hard drive? It has a
full-screen, I would suppose monochrome? Could it display graphics,
etc.? Also, when was it made?
The DG/One can be viewed in Data General's virtual wax museum at
http://www.dg.com/about/html/dg-one.html
The machine was produced in 1984 and they refer to it as "the industry's
first truly portable IBM-compatible PC." Which is a bit of a stretch,
since it wasn't 100% PC-compatible, and it came out two years after other
similar MS-DOS clamshell designs such as the GRiD Compass.
-- Doug
2:51 p.m.
Cord:
You can always get CPM-86 for it....
here's the info from DG's page:
DG/One (1984)
The industry's first truly portable IBM-compatible PC, the DG/One
weighed 10 pounds and could fit in a standard 3-inch-thick briefcase.
The DG/One featured some innovative technologies:
a high-speed, low-power CMOS processor, built-in software for text
editing and terminal emulation,
capacity for two 3.5" floppy disk drives, and a 12-inch flat panel LCD
screen -- leading-edge technology in 1984.
Unfortunately, the screen was a bit too "leading edge." As Byte Magazine
said in its September, 1995 issue, "The nonbacklit screen was almost
readable if the light was just right and you had the vision of Superman.
Most people didn't."
Price
Units
Shipped
Technologies
Software
$3,000 ASP
43,000
Intel 16-bit 80C88,Flat-panel LCD
screen, built-in 3.5" diskette drives,
battery pack
MS-DOS, CP/M-86
Copyright ? 1998 Data General Corp.
All Rights Reserved.
Cord Coslor wrote:
Next, I am curious about a Data General One laptop
computer I picked up.
Specifically, I need to know what type of power supply it takes, as I
can't find that information anywhere. It says it is ms-dos based, but I
am wondering what dos would run on it. It has 2 3.5" disk drives (Epson
drives), and I am curious as to if it had a hard drive? It has a
full-screen, I would suppose monochrome? Could it display graphics,
etc.? Also, when was it made?
*any* information on the above two items most certainly are welcome, and
would be quite appreciated. Please let me know if you are interested in
getting either one of these as well.
I will post some more very unique items in the next couple of days that
I was lucky enough to get my grubby little hands on....
Thanks in advance,
CORD COSLOR
--
___________________________________________________
| Cord G. Coslor : archive(a)navix.net |\
| Deanna S. Wynn : deannasue(a)navix.net | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4395 | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| PO Box 308 - Peru, NE - 68421 - (402) 872- 3272 | |
|___________________________________________________| |
\____________________________________________________\|
17 Feb
17 Feb
5:50 p.m.
In article <34E88AB7.C4AF29DC(a)navix.net>et>, Cord Coslor
<archive(a)navix.net> writes
First, I picked up an Epson HX-40 laptop-sized
computer. On the front it
says MagicBox above the LCD screen. On the back there is a battery bay
as well as a rom chip bay, and it says Epson HX-40 Model # H401A. I
understand this machines runs off of program-specific rom chips. It has
a chip in the slot under the trap-door, and when I boot it, it comes up
to a pharmacetical company inventory, order, etc., menu. The machines
runs off of 4 AA batteries or a AC adapter. It really is a cute machine,
but I want to know more. In searching the web, I find 1 measly reference
to this machine... yes, 1 (or two), neither of which give any info. on
this machine. It is listed on a guys resume as having experience in
working with it. I do find a lot of information on the well-known Epson
HX-20 --- known as the 1st laptop computer. In finding pictures of that,
this one looks really similar. This one has ports labeled BCP and one
labeled SP on one side, and on the back is the cassette, seriel, and
RS-232C, printer, and power adaptor ports. There is also a 50-pin port
on the opposite side with no label. I guess what I am wondering is if
any of you have some more information on this little guy? No year can be
found on it, but I suspect early 1980s. Does anyone have any other
'chips' for it to insert other software into memory. Are these units
rare? Please let me know any information. If you're interested in it let
me know that to.
I am not familiar with the HX40, but I have used HX20s and PX8s a
lot,
and it sounds like some sort of hybrid, i.e. a Z80 machine in an HX20
style case, mainly because it is booting to (presumably) the CP/M
prompt. Try DIR and see what happens. TYPE should also work, but for
the life of me I can't remember what the other inbuilt CCP commands are
(USER maybe, but not much use to you.)
The PX8 ROMs were in plastic chip carriers. They are just ROMdisk, and
their contents are a CP/M disk image, so it is possible to burn your own
EPROMs. It may well work with the PX8 ROMs, but maybe the software they
contain wouldn't run anyway.
The PX8 had an expansion port at the back, maybe 50 pins, and the
expansion modules sat under the machine. The HX20 had a bay for a
cassette module to the right of the screen, and a printer to the left,
or was it the other way around?! Anyway, in your previous message you
mentioned a 'cartridge out' switch, this is probably just the lever
which physically ejects the cassette module. At a guess, the unit has
been modified to accept a barcode reader.
--
Lawrence Wilkinson ljw(a)formula1.demon.co.uk
The GirlFrendo homepage: http://www.formula1.demon.co.uk/girlfrendo/
"You've got the brains, or so you say, maybe you see things another
way"-bis
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