Milwaukee Computers MC-1200

[Ethan Dicks]

On Tue, Sep 4, 2018 at 10:00 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> We have two in the CHM collection. This is the first time I've ever seen one
> work. I was thinking it might be fun to try to get FORTH running on it.

That sounds cool.

> I may also mod mine so that it puts out proper RS-232 levels with a
> piggyback board on the 1988. They just power it with +5v, which doesn't
> work at all talking to my Mac. An old Wyse-75 wasn't so fussy.

Hmm... I hadn't noticed that.  Glad you pointed it out.  I've had
problems in the past with other machines and low-voltages on RS-232.

> If you look at the schematic, they did some pretty weird things, like
> using a 2758 for address decoding, and then there's the floppy disk
> interface.. No error checking?

I found that surprising - floppies are hardly reliable enough to
forego error checking.

> 1980 seems really late to be trying to build a system like this.

Agreed.

> It looks like a design OSI would have come up with.

That was my thought when I saw the 6852.  It was either because of OSI
or they saw an app note somewhere and decided not to use a WD 177x
chip.

-ethan