EPSON PX-8

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Mon Jun 2 11:10:37 1997

On Sun, 1 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:

> And the cool find of the day: get this, an Epson PX-8 laptop! This is
> similar to the Epson HX-20, but is sleeker and better. It has a flip-up
> display (looks like 10 lines by 80 columns), a full-size keyboard, and
> like the HX-20 has a micro-cassette tape drive for storage. That's
> all I know about it so far because I got no manuals and haven't been able
> to power it up yet (I need to find the right PS). Allegedly it runs
> CP/M. I'll fill you guys in on the details as I figure it out. I think
> this is a new find, and needs to be added to the classiccmp list o'
> systems. I don't remember it being in there. Am I wrong? At any rate,
> this is truly THE FIND OF THE DAY! - $15

OK, I found my HX-20 power supply and fired this sucker up. Talk about
neat-o. It indeed does have CP/M in ROM! It also has two 32K ROM drives
and a 24K RAM drive. The drives can be configured anyway you like. The
current setting is: A: = RAM, B: = ROM1, C: = ROM2. ROM1 has the standard
CP/M utilities on it, such as PIP, STAT, etc. ROM2 has WordStar! This
unit is capable of hi-res graphics it seems, as when you boot wordstar it
comes up with a big MicroPro graphics display. There is a configuration
program which allows you to set up the system. You can set the dimensions
of two seperate virtual screens. Currently virtual screen 1 is set to
80x24, and virtual screen 2 is set to 80x8, which is the actual dimensions
of the LCD flip-up display. You can also set the serial port baud rate
(up to 19200!).

This unit has several ports on the back, including a Serial port, an
RS-232C port (I gleaned from the configuration that one seems to be for a
modem while the other for a printer perhaps). It can also hook-up to up
to 4 external disk drives.

One program on the ROM drive called FILINK allows you to transfer files
over the RS232C port, I guess like a laplink (not sure though).

This unit seems to be circa 1983 as all the programs have copyrights of
that year.

This is an entirely cool little system...a CP/M laptop. What a concept.

Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Mon Jun 02 1997 - 11:10:37 BST