NNC Computers, was Re Vector Graphic restoration progress update - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

30 Nov 2007

I've known about NNC for quite a while and have at least one of them around
here
along with documentaion. It is a box with two vertical 8" drives and about
the
width of a regular S-100 box. I just took a look in the 1983 DATAPRO Small
Computers notebook, and didn't see anything about them. That makes me think
they
had disappeard by then.

BTW, I've found the DATAPRO marketing information to be a *great* souce of
information on a lot of the companies. I think Sellam might have a more
complete
set of them.

...
  From: jim s <jwstephens at msm.umr.edu
<http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk> >

...
  > <snip> It has a VG 1 case repainted and
 > relabeled as a "No Name Computer" with all VG 5 components inside.
 > Seriously, it is called NNC and that is not a joke.  It is a very strange
...
   name.
     There was a company called NNC located in Huntington Beach Ca in the 
 late 70's or early 80's that made basic S-100 hardware.  I'll ask a 
 friend to get the names and history, but you may have an actual NNC box 
 and not a vector graphics system.

 I don't recall VG's history but I think that a flood of their hardware 
 appeared on the junk market and someone may have built up a box from 
 parts using an NNC mainframe.

 The NNC company built chassis with a backplane and power supply 
 initially and tried to do the entire system before collapsing.  The 
 manufacturer was actually a guy who built components from sheet metal, 
 and found that building computer boxes was more profitable.  I don't 
 know if there was a connection to VG but that would not be impossible.

 Jim

-----REPLY-----

Hi Marvin!

Wow! You have a NNC machine?  Would you mind popping the cover off on it and
taking a couple of photos?  I am very interested to see what is inside and
it may clear up some of the mystery surrounding this machine I am restoring.
If the documents mention anything about VG parts, surely that would be
interesting as well.

Looking at my NNC chassis, if you put two 8" floppy drives in there it would
use up nearly all the room inside.  I can't see how there would be any left
for an S-100 motherboard so maybe it is an external drive enclosure?  I am
using an old IBM PC chassis as a homebuilt drive enclosure for the floppy
drive on the NNC machine here.

I had assumed that since the NNC was full of exclusively VG parts and the
case is essentially a repainted VG 1 case that NNC was some sort of VG VAR
or shell company maybe from the post VG bankruptcy era.  If it were a
homebuilt machine, I would think there would be a more diverse selection of
parts, however, it is just a guess.

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

PS, is the DATAPRO Small Computers notebook available online anywhere?  I
can't seem to find it.