Sony CP/M machine?

From: Charles E. Fox <foxvideo_at_mail.wincom.net>
Date: Wed Jul 2 13:39:35 1997

At 12:06 PM 7/2/97 -0500, you wrote:
>On Wed, 2 Jul 1997, Ken Marshall wrote:
>
>> I was just given a Sony SMC-70 last weekend by a friend of my son's that is
>> moving. The machine has 3.5" single-sided floppy disks, both black & white
>> and RGB video outputs, an RS-232 interface, parallel interface, and a DB-25
>> connector labeled "external drives". It also has a "supercharger" unit
>
>I have an SMC-70 as well; unfortunately, I have neither an OS nor the
>floppy drives for mine. The few pieces of information that I have found
>about this machine are that it was (supposedly) the first mass-produced
>computer to use 3.5 inch floppy disks and that it was used as a part of a
>video editing controller that Sony produced in the early '80s. The
>floppy disk claim does make some sense, since the 3.5 inch format was
>developed by Sony.
>
>A few more interesting things about this machine:
>
>- The power supply is located in the rear portion of the case, which is
>mounted on tracks and movable. Moving the power supply away from the main
>portion of the case reveals a ribbon cable with several 50-pin socket
>connectors. This ribbon cable terminates at the 50-pin Centronics
>connector on the back of the unit. Does anyone have a description of this
>bus? I'm assuming that there were options available that fit into this
>area and extend the length of the unit, somewhat like the options that can
>be connected to the IBM PC Convertible.
>
>- There is a switch on the side of the unit that selects the startup
>device, which can be either ROM or disk. I'm assuming that the boot ROM
>was an optional product. In any case, mine doesn't have a boot ROM.
>
>Does anyone know if the SMC-70 floppy drives are the same as (or
>compatible with) any of the other drives that are made by Sony, such as
>the 400k SSDD drives used in the Macintosh 128k/512k?
>
>If anyone is interested, I can snap a few pictures of the SMC-70 tonight,
>put them on the Web, and post the URL.
>
>--
>Scott Ware s-ware_at_nwu.edu
>

        The Sony part numbers listed for the manuals are as follows:

SML7000Z Operating instruction binder.

SML7001Z Sony basic introductory manual& basic user guide.

SML7002Z Basic reference manual

SML7003Z System monitor manual SMC70.

SML7004Z Hardware manual, technical description, SMC70.

        I suggest not ordering them retail from Sony as they are listing at
about $ 50.00 ea.in 1986

                                                Cheers
                                                Charlie Fox
Received on Wed Jul 02 1997 - 13:39:35 BST