EPSON PX-8

From: Paul E Coad <pcoad_at_crl.com>
Date: Mon Jun 2 12:09:35 1997

On Mon, 2 Jun 1997, Sam Ismail wrote:

> 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.

The other port is for connecting a disk drive.

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

It is a pretty nice machine. You didn't mention the built in micro cassette
drive which looks to CP/M just like a floppy (more or less). The tape
drive transfers data at 300 baud so it can easily provide hours of
fun and enjoyment. On the other hand, the system does know where all of
the files are on the tape so it does not have to be manually searched.

A dejanews search on Epson and px-8 will provide a good deal of information,
make sure to select the "Old" database though.

--pec
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Received on Mon Jun 02 1997 - 12:09:35 BST